Thanks Mona for bringing this up: Some older courses include a link to TRU-OL Social Sciences Style Guide in the course guide. This guide was created to help students write academic papers. It tells how to write citations and gives instructions on the formatting and structure of papers. Unfortunately, the document is out-of-date for MLA and APA citations. For example, it refers to the fifth edition…
Our editing goal is to make learner-centred courses that meet the needs of our students. But how can we know if we have achieved this, since we seldom have the chance to meet Open Learning students face-to-face? One valuable resource is to check student feedback from post-course surveys in Tableau. This can indicate which specific…
Good tips from the “OLA Fairness to All” guide: Treat people as individuals. Call groups what they call themselves. We can ask ourselves questions like these: Would I like to be treated in this way? Would these persons approve of the way I am naming or depicting them? Am I respecting individuality? Or am I reinforcing assumptions…
Click an image to see it full-screen.
Some of the course developers we work with are new to using MS Word’s track changes. When the editor sends a query or document for review, the number of changes shown could be overwhelming. This tutorial on MS Word 2010 could help: Lynda.com. (2013, April 7). Word tutorial: How to track changes in documents (4:34) [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5_knruAysnA.
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…
Where possible, we try to include examples of people from other cultures or depictions of the diversity of Canadian society in the course. Showing people from diverse backgrounds prepares students for life in a culturally diverse society and helps dispel preconceived ideas about others, which we hope increases the students’ competence for living in an…
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…
Welcome to our newest team member, Cory, and welcome back to Carolyn. Goodbye for now to D-L, who will be sharing her expertise and passion with the Marketing team for a term period.