Search

Course developers (those who build individual courses) play a crucial role in the success of an online degree program by providing expertise and bringing unique perspectives. Accordingly, it is valuable for faculty to customize their course spaces by infusing them with their own knowledge and personality. At the same time, it is also crucial to prioritize structural consistency within and across courses in an online program, as course consistency is a key aspect of accessibility and a key contributing factor to student success. In particular, students must be able to perceive, operate, and understand the course and course materials using program-standard devices and certain assistive technologies, and this should be true across all of the courses in a program. This is where program chairs and administrators can help support faculty in standardizing key elements of courses to facilitate a seamless student experience. In this piece, we discuss how maintaining structural consistency within and across courses can positively impact accessibility.

Effective page design requires a balance between white space, or negative space, and positive space. Positive space encompasses all elements of content; on a course page, content elements might include an introductory paragraph, a lecture video, an infographic, an opinion poll, or a thought-provoking quotation, among other possibilities. Relative to these course components, white space might seem like a nice-to-have. However, white space plays a key role in instructional page design by reducing distortion and promoting clarity.