Non-verbal cues are missing in most online courses, so it can be helpful for readers if we incorporate clear design concepts. Headings should be descriptive and show the hierarchy of ideas. Visual aids help orient students to the course. Learning activities, like asking students to summarize or rephrase in a learning journal, work as verification techniques to reinforce the concepts.
Word files of the Course Guide template and the Open Learning Faculty Member template are available in O drive, 4 Editing Resources. Feel free to share the Word templates as a time-saver for developers. It may be quicker to fill-in or revise sections in a Word file compared to copying the information from this site…
A recent human service (HUMS) course has a lesson about using critical reflection to uncover and deconstruct assumptions. The lesson explores how language is changing to acknowledge nonbinary-gendered people through pronouns. For example, a writer might choose “they” as a singular pronoun instead of “he” or “she”. Using “they” as both singular and plural pronouns shouldn’t seem that…
Students have a wealth of knowledge and experiences from which to draw; however, at the start of a course they are not experts in the course concepts. One way to communicate concepts clearly to non-experts is to use plain language principles so the writer’s ideas can be easily understandable by anyone. This might include: Defining new…
TRUFA hosted a book launch for Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization on the Kamloops campus yesterday. If you missed it, like I did, the book is available online (epub, pdf): Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization (links to Federation of Post-Secondary Educators). Looks like a great book with writers…
Use bold, not asterisks, to indicate answers for a quiz or exam.