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Incorporating Multimedia in Your Course
Multimedia, which helps create an engaging and interactive online learning environment, has been shown to contribute to improved student performance (Cheng, Basu, & Goebel, 2009, p. 1). Though many online courses incorporate videos, they neglect to feature other forms of multimedia. And, while videos are a staple of multimedia use, there are other exciting options to consider: podcast episodes, graphics, and animations can all enhance course content, enriching the student experience. To maximize the benefits multimedia can provide, consider including these underutilized forms of multimedia in your course.
Accessible PDFs
Developing and delivering accessible instructional content—meaning content that students with and without disabilities can readily engage with and use—is essential to the success of an online course. While many accessibility standards and guidelines are broadly applicable, there are also specific considerations unique to different content formats and delivery modes. In this piece, we present recommendations for enhancing the accessibility of PDFs for students.
Accessible Use of Text
Students with diverse cognitive, linguistic, and academic abilities benefit from accessible text. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) establish numerous requirements (known as success criteria) to ensure that text is perceivable, operable, and understandable to all users. This guide synthesizes the essential criteria related to text accessibility. Following these guidelines when creating course content, such as documents, slides, and pages in the LMS, will help you eliminate potential barriers for your learners.
Developing Instructional Materials
Once you have defined the learning objectives for your course, you can begin to develop assessments to ensure students achieve those objectives. Once you have created assessments, you can begin to develop materials to ensure students succeed on those assessments. This backward design process—which moves from objectives to assessments and finally to materials—is known as learning-centered instruction, and it directs every course task toward the mastery of certain skills and competencies. This blog focuses on the third stage of this process, the development of high-quality instructional materials, beginning with the idea that robust and engaging online courses contain a mix of created and curated content. Below you will find guidelines for creating and curating instructional materials to help you achieve the optimal balance for your course.
Backward Design
Backward design is, as the name suggests, a process for designing curricula, courses, and lectures by working backwards from big-picture learning goals. The concept, introduced by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005), suggests that instructors create assessments, activities, and course content that are explicitly aligned with the broader learning goals of the unit. This is different from the traditional content-driven approach to learning design, which focuses on course content first and only secondarily tries to align that content with learning goals.
Infographic Considerations
An infographic is a visual that combines text, graphics, diagrams, and graphs to present information. When used effectively, infographics can be a powerful tool to guide students through the learning process. “Infographics ask for an active response from the viewer, raising the questions, ‘What am I seeing?’ and ‘What does it mean?’” (Krauss, 2012, p. 10). Infographics also present information in an organized way, which can improve students’ critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis skills (Yildirim, 2016).
Two-Stage Extensions: When a Canvas Quiz Has Limited Attempts and an Availability Date
When a Canvas quiz has a limited number of attempts and an availability date, there are two sets of actions instructors usually need to take to provide a student with an additional attempt or extension on the quiz. First, the instructor will need to add a new quiz attempt for the student. Second, if the availability date has passed or is about to pass, they will need to extend the availability of the quiz. This short guide will walk you through both stages of the process.
Offering Extensions in Canvas
Due dates are a useful pedagogical tool. They help students keep pace to complete the course, populate the To-Do List and Calendar with reminders for both instructors and students, and allow Canvas to work more predictably and efficiently, among other benefits. However, there inevitably come times when a student needs a different time frame than the standard allotment to complete work. This guide will help walk through the considerations needed to extend the due date on an assignment. (Note: Extending the due date of an assignment, discussion, or quiz is different than adding additional attempts at the work. For more information on adding attempts, see the Envision piece Two-Stage Extensions: When a Canvas Quiz Has Limited Attempts and an Availability Date.)