Why is it Important to Publish Courses On Time?
To scaffold student performance and improve their experience in courses, course coordinators are asked to take an intentional, thoughtful approach to instructional design, development, and on time publishing in MyUni. This will provide the students with the early opportunity to learn about course syllabus, course materials, learning outcomes, learning activities, and more importantly, engage more effectively with their instructors and peers.
Publishing courses on time - before the start of the semester - will enable students to:
- Have the opportunity to read, analyse, and reflect on assessment requirements. This will help them to make informed and consistent plans to manage their time and their understanding of required skills to meet the criteria. This, of course, requires the assessments to meet clarity of purpose and be aligned with the intended learning outcomes of a course.
- Cultivate effective engagement with the course coordinators via forums, emails, or in person. This will help improve students’ feelings of belonging and community in the online learning context, and in turn, contribute to their engagement and achievement.
- Achieve social presence by engaging meaningfully and actively with other engaged peers through social forums. This will help students’ social engagement which will build rapport, develop a sense of belonging and community, and therefore, effective studying relationships for academic purposes such as discussion, study groups, and group assessments.
- Access to learning materials and navigate the content of recorded lectures, e-reading books and articles, blogs, PowerPoint presentations, and videos. This will help develop critical thinking, activate metacognition, and encourage deep discipline understanding, and in turn, positive learning outcomes.
- Generate ownership of learning, and preparation for tutorials. This will help foster self-regulation which is linked to higher-order thinking skills and performance. This may also encourage students to form their own inquiries about the course and contribute to their increased motivation to attend initial lectures.
Story by Hasti Abbasi, Learning Designer, and Simona Padvelskyte, Admin Officer - LEI