In Practice: Instructions

A9: Instructions

From the Rubric

Incomplete: Instructions for working with the course content are missing or incomplete (e.g., links to articles or videos are provided without guidance for how the student should work with the material.)
Aligned: Course design includes instructions for learners to work with content in meaningful ways (e.g., guiding students to take notes during a video; explaining what to look for in an article, etc.).
Exemplary: Instructions are directly embedded with the content.

How to Implement

Provide clear and concise instructions to students for working with course materials and completing course activities. If there are complicated steps that have confused students in previous semesters, consider how to smooth out that confusion upfront by providing a video explanation or simplified language. Since we frequently use the same activities semester after semester, our proximity to the activity can make it difficult for us to find the points of confusion. Consider asking a colleague or friend to offer suggestions for improving the clarity.

Below are examples of this section of the CVC Rubric in practice.

Art History

Prof. Cara Smulevitz builds her instructions into her Canvas content pages by providing instructions at the top of the pages that remind students to take notes. She reinforces this by also including a 'notes check' at the bottom of her Canvas pages. This gives students a chance to pause and reflect on the notes that they just took to determine whether they are ready to move onto the next page. Her video (right) demonstrates what this looks like in her course.

Statistics

In her Math 119 course, Prof. Kelly Spoon explains why she has curated the content that she provides to her students and includes tips for how students can use that specific resource successfully.

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