TRACS Learning Modules Guidelines
Contents
Start With an Organized Course Structure
Add Variety and Change the Pace Every 20-40 Minutes......
Begin With a Reminder to Read the Syllabus......
Include Objectives in the First Section of Each Module......
Focus on Your Objectives......
Include a Community Building Exercise in the First Module......
Establish a Pattern in the Activities From Module To Module......
Make Life Easier for Your Students......
Use Meaningful Titles......
Use Consistent Terminology When Referencing Course Materials......
Include Sections for Quizzes and Forums......
Turn on Printing......
Include a Learning Module Section for Connect Sessions......
Provide Directions at the Point Where Students Need Them......
Establish a Naming Convention for the Documents you Post......
Provide a Context and/or a Purpose for Reading......
Present Interrelated Activities in the Same Section......
Check Learning Module End Dates......
Use Consistent Font Types and sizes......
Make Life Easier for Yourself......
Omit Numbers From Documents and Filenames......
Put All Due Dates in the Syllabus......
Other Tips......
Organize Your Site......
Convert PowerPoint Documents to a Different Format......
Student View of Course......
Start With an Organized Course Structure
Begin your design effort by creating a top-down course structure organized into modules, sections, and subsections, as depicted below.
Each module should correspond to a topic you cover in your course. Modules may vary in length or be consistent in length (i.e., each module can cover a week’s worth of content), depending on your content and your preference.
Sequence each activity within a module according to when it makes sense for students to accomplish those activities. You can sequence the sections and subsections in a module according to knowledge building (i.e., prior knowledge is needed before an assignment can be accomplished) or logistics (e.g., a video needs to be viewed before it can be discussed).
Prior to presenting your course content in Learning Modules, you may have referred to your highest-level chunks of content as “units” or some other term. Consider changing references to “units” in your syllabus and other materials to “modules” to be consistent with the language students will encounter in TRACS.
Add Variety and Change the Pace Every 20-40 Minutes
Add variety to increase your learner’s attention span. Research suggests that adults can listen with understanding for about 90 minutes but can listen with retention for only about 20 minutes. Other research suggests that variety is an important component in extending the attention span of your students.
One designer of training materials suggests the 90/20/8 rule. He says, "No module we teach ever runs more than 90 minutes, the pace is changed at least every 20 minutes, and we try to find a way to involve people in the content every 8 minutes.” (Pike, Robert W., 1994: Creative Training techniques Handbook, 2nd Edition. Lakewood Books, Minneapolis, p. 197)
Read this blog post that reports on how a variety of online training developers address attention span.
Give a Syllabus Quiz
Begin your first Learning Module with a reminder to carefully read your syllabus and any other material you have provided about course mechanics and best practices to ensure student success. Consider creating a 10-15 items syllabus quiz using the TRACS Assessments tool to help students attend to some of the more important things they need to know about your course. You will find a sample syllabus quiz in the following section.
Include Objectives in the First Section of Each Module
Include your objectives in the first section of each module and let students know that the objectives can help them prepare for assessments, (e.g., “Read the objectives below to find out what you should be able to do upon completion of this module.”) Display your objectives using the content editor rather than attaching a document to save students a download and increase the chances they will read the objectives. (Not all students read objectives or use them to prepare for assessments, but the ones who do will appreciate having them.) Consider rewording your objectives to make them easier for students to read and understand.
Focus on Your Objectives
Avoid the temptation to add a great deal of extraneous materials to your learning modules. Stay focused on your objectives and include activities and information that support those objectives. If you feel the need to provide additional material for students who may be interested, identify those materials as optional.
Include a Community Building Exercise in the First Module
Ask your students to introduce themselves in a face-to-face meeting, a discussion forum you create for this purpose, or in a Connect session to create a sense of community and help students feel more confident about reaching out to you and their peers online. Provide some guidelines as to what information to include in an introduction, and, if you use a forum, ask students to attach a picture if they wish.
If you meet in Connect, schedule 2 to 3 introductory sessions during the first week of your course and require your students to attend one of them. At these sessions ask students to use their microphone to increase their comfort level with speaking online, which may in turn increase their participation in future sessions.
Establish a Pattern in the Activities From Module To Module
Establishing a consistent pattern of activities from module to module can help students know what to expect and provide you with a planning tool. For example, you might structure each module to have a reading assignment, followed by one or more hands-on practice exercises, followed by a discussion forum prompt, and ending with a quiz.
Make Life Easier for Your Students
Use Meaningful Titles
Use meaningful titles for each component, particularly the module titles. For example the titles below convey meaning and help students begin to establish a high-level understanding of how the content area you cover in your course is structured.
- Scarcity and Choice
- Supply and Demand
- Global Economy
- Production and Costs
Use Consistent Terminology When Referencing Course Materials
It may be clear to you that what you call your chapter notes at one point are the same as what you call yourlecture notes at another point. Without your body language and other cues, students may not realize these are the same thing. You can avoid unnecessary frustration on the part of your students by using consistent terminology when referencing course materials.
Include Sections for Quizzes and Forums
If you include a quiz in Assessments or a discussion in Forums as part of your instructional sequence, include a Learning Module section at the point where students should take the quiz or respond to the discussion prompt. Use language such as, “Go to Assessments and complete the Study Skills quiz.”
Consider including the full discussion prompt both in a Learning Module section and in the forum that you set up for the discussion. This can create continuity for students and help them tie the content presented in the Learning Module with the ideas they present in the forum. Including the full prompt in the Forum as well ensures they have it available for easy reference while responding.
Include a Learning Module Section for Connect Sessions
If you include a live Connect Session as part of your instructional sequence, include a Learning Module section at the point where students should attend the live session. Use language such as, “Plan to attend the Connect session for this module on the date in the syllabus. About 30 minutes before the session, do the following…” After you hold the session, post an announcement to the course with a link to the recording. (Recording your Connect sessions in courses that are fully online is important because it accommodates students who cannot attend at a specific time.)
If you plan to include a prerecorded Connect session in your instructional materials, include a link to the recording in the content editor of a Learning Module section.
Provide Directions at the Point Where Students Need Them
It is most helpful to include directions at the point where students first need them. For example if you include streaming video in your course, include a message such as the following below the first link:
If you have any trouble viewing this lesson, make sure you have a high-speed Internet connection, and you've installed the latest (free) versions of the Firefox browser and QuickTime. Please refer to Computer and Technical Help in the syllabus for more information.
- To download QuickTime go to:
- To download Flash, go to:
If you prefer that new pages open in a new window rather than in a new tab, select Options from the Tools menu in Firefox on Windows (or select Preferences from the Firefox menu on a Macintosh). Then click Tabs and select the new window option.
Establish a Naming Convention for the Documents you Post
Establish a naming convention for the documents you post to the course. Some faculty make a point of putting the course code at the beginning of the filename of each document you post to the course to make the documents easier to identify after download by students.
Provide a Context and/or a Purpose for Reading
Add language to each Learning Module section to explain to students what they should do with a posted document or URL or with the content you displayed using the content editor. Including a purpose for reading can also be very helpful. Your intent may seem obvious to you but it may not be clear to students. Adding explanatory language can make your Learning Module friendlier and help you avoid assuming that your intent is clear when it isn’t.
Present Interrelated Activities in the Same Section (Where Appropriate and When Possible)
It can be helpful to students to present related activities within the same Learning Module section using the content editor. For example, if you ask students to read a textbook chapter and also provide a PowerPoint presentation for the chapter, post the PowerPoint to a folder in Resources and link to it from the same Learning Module section in which you provide the reading assignment. For example, here is a section that offers resources on the same topic:
View the 5-minute mini lecture for an overview of the module. The PowerPoint slides and transcript are for included your reference.
- Open Study Skills mini lecture
- Open Study Skills PPT slides
- Open Study Skills mini lecture transcript
Check Learning Module End Dates
If your module has start and end dates (displayed on the main Learning Modules page in Author mode), check the end date of each module to make sure the end date is at the end of the semester. If a module’s end date occurs before the semester is finished, students will not be able to see the module.Leave the Start and End Date fields empty if you want your modules to be available throughout a course (keeping your modules visiblehelps online students plan ahead).
Turn on Printing
Some students prefer to print Learning Modules content instead of reading on screen. To facilitate printing, click Preferences at the top of the main Learning Modules page while in Author view. In Preferences, click Yes under Allow student printing of Modules? This will activate the print icon on the main Learning Modules page, as shown here.
Use Consistent Font Types and sizes
Your materials will look more professional if you select one or two fonts and stick with them throughout your Learning Module sections. If you vary font sizes, do so consistently depending on whether you are adding a header or otherwise emphasizing text.
Make Life Easier for Yourself
Omit Numbers From Documents and Filenames (Let Learning Module Autonumber)
Consider omitting module numbers from your titles in documents and Learning Module and instead let Learning Module number them automatically by setting this in Preferences. This will save you the trouble of having to revise your module titles in the event you decide to reorder them.
You can include module numbers in the syllabus for easier reference if you like, since module numbers are relatively easy to revise in the syllabus. (On a related topic, some people prefer to omit week numbers from module titles in the syllabus and give a date range instead to provide flexibility for module length and for teaching a course over semesters of different lengths (e.g. summer versus fall or spring).)
Put All Due Dates in the Syllabus
Put all due dates in the syllabus instead of in Learning Module to make things easier on yourself when you teach the course a second time(i.e., you can change the dates in the syllabus rather than going into each Learning Module section. In your Learning Module sections remind students to complete tasks by the due date in the syllabus. For example: “Respond to the prompt below in the Study Skills forum by the date given in the syllabus.” You can rely on your Learning Modules to convey a complete list of learning activities and just repeat those with due dates in the syllabus.
Other Tips
Organize Your Site
Be thoughtful about how you organize your materials in Learning Modules versus Resources. Some faculty find it helpful to post certain documents in both places. For example, they might post the lesson notes for each module within their appropriate Learning Modules module and then post the lesson notes again grouped together in one folder in Resources called Lesson Notes. The bottom line is to be consistent and include clear instructions so students know where to look to find things when you aren’t there to direct them.
Convert PowerPoint Documents to a Different Format
Consider replacing your PowerPoint documents with Word documents or Connect or Captivate presentations. PowerPoint documents can be helpful if accompanied by audio, as in a lecture, but without audio PowerPoint documents typically do not convey enough meaning to fully explain your content. You can add notes to your PowerPoint slides to address this problem, but the notes window in PowerPoint only permits limited formatting. You can narrate your PowerPoint documents, but this often leaves you with a very large file that is problematic for students to download. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon you to provide a transcript of audio-only content to aid those who have hearing impairments. In the final analysis it is often easier and more beneficial to students to convert existing PowerPoint documents to a different format. A desirable length for a narrated presentation in Connect or Captivate without interactivity is 10 to 15 minutes, 20 minutes at most.
Student View of Course
You can view the course from a student point of view by logging on as a fake student. To add a fake student, go to Site Info and click Add Participant. Add an external email address you have (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo account) to the Guest Email field under the TX State NetID field. Indicate that this is a student role. You will be emailed a password. Your user ID will be the whole email address.
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