Structuring Your Course

How are you going to organise the piles of lecture notes and other resources you want to present to your students online?

Consider carefully whether a forced linear approach is best for your students and your course. If you require a rigid path through materials and activities you may be denying students opportunities to learn in the best ways for them.

On the other hand, too much choice/user control can mediate against effective engagement with course content: students may skip important material or just not find it; or they may find the amount of choice or the number of links overwhelming.

It is usually best to put up as much of the course material as you can before students begin the course. Even if you want to encourage a linear sequence of study, you can also encourage students to explore content in their own sequence initially; even giving them a choice of sequence of activities.

There are many ways to structure your material within the online environment, the following examples present three different approaches to course structure.

Linear

Linear course screenshot (opens in a new window)
This screen shot is taken from a first year Bachelor of Dental Science course. There is a folder for each week of the course and at the folder level is a description of the contents of the folder for that week. This way students can easily see how their course is progressing and can also find at a glance a particular resource. MyUni also allows for items to be time released by setting the items 'Choose date restrictions' option.

Topic

Topic course screenshot (opens in a new window)
This screen shot is taken from the 'Writing and Speaking at University' course. This course is a collection of resources available for all students and staff. The course has been structured by grouping the resources into topics and giving each topic a link in the main menu on the left hand side.

Social

Social course screenshot (opens in a new window)
This screen shot is taken from 'The Mekong Esim' a second year Engineering course. This course is a roleplay simulation where students participate in a simulated public inquiry focussed on the Mekong delta area in South East Asia. The interactions between students in their assigned roles occurs through the use of online discussion boards and shared group pages within MyUni. The focus for this course is on interaction within and between groups.