Does My Course Look Fat? 5 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Online Course
Do your students feel overwhelmed with content? Are you abusing the color red? Does your course suffer from oversized fonts and obese paragraphs? Are your links causing heartburn? If so, this presentation is for you. You’ll learn how to stop overfeeding your students information, how to cutback on color, serve content into appealing bite size chunks, workout common course errors, and how to makeover your content modules to improve consistency.
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Untitled Slide
All About Me
In case you are wondering, yes, I was a toddler when I first started teaching (ha!).
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You are safe
This is a safe environment, there will be no "fat-course shaming." As your friend, I will only speak the truth.
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"A course having a large amount of excess content that may overwhelm, confuse, frustrate, irritate, or annoy students."
--Tasha Hussey
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You abuse the color red.
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Your hyperlinks are causing heartburn.
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If your course has one or more of these symptoms, repeat after me...
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"My name is _____ and I have a fat course."
The first step toward a solution is to admit the problem.
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By the end of this presentation, we will learn how to ...
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Stop overfeeding your students information
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Workout common course errors
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and makeover your modules to improve consistency
Healthy Way #1:
Choose Wisely
"This is a business. Be smart. Choose wisely."
-John Aniston
-John Aniston
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Introduce new stuff slowly
Have a plan for introducing new thing into your course (i.e. new resource, equipment, software, or external website). Consider the time it will take them to learn this new thing in addition to their normal work and the time it takes you to support it.
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Use bold sparingly
Never bold an entire paragraph because it reduces its importance. Focus your efforts on just a few key terms you want them to tune into as illustrated in the first paragraph. How fast were you able to find the word 'bold' in the first paragraph compared to the second one?
Sans-serif vs Serif fonts
Unlike sans-serif fonts, serif fonts have tails as illustrated. Sans-serif fonts look great on the web, while serif fonts are popular for printed materials. Because we have so many more font choices you'll see it is very common to mix these types on the web and in print. To keep things simple I use Arial for my online courses because it is easy on the eyes.
Avoid fancy types and cursive fonts
Fancy and cursive fonts can be very hard to read online. The letter "L" in this picture looks more like an "E." Avoid these fancy types.
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and Choose relevant content
Remove anything that doesn't directly relate to your content. Things that are helpful but not required should be listed in a separate area for students to look at only if interested. I usually create an area titled 'Resources' for these sorts of things.
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Healthy Way #2:
Chunk It
"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time."
-Creighton Adams
-Creighton Adams
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Be clear, less wordy
Just provide a score. Customized feedback is great but it needs to be delivered straight to the point. For example, "Your score is below average, but here are somethings you can focus on to improve next time..."
Use smaller paragraphs and headings
In the example to the left, you may need to read it a few times before you find what you need to know whereas the right example provides clear heading for you to jump to the section you need to review.
Healthy Way #3:
Check It
"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
-John Wooden
-John Wooden
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Misspelled words
Use spell check to check for misspelled words. Beyond that you also need to check to make sure you are using the write word (see what I just did there? Spell check probably wouldn't pick it "write" vs "right". I used the wrong word because it is spelled correctly.)
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Broken links
You can avoid frustrating students by just clicking on all of the external links in your course to make sure they work before you release those links. Things get shifted and stuff changes so you should check and verify.
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Inaccesible tools
Make sure all the course tools are available. Check your release dates on things like exams or discussion topics.
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Consistency
Consider your online course your personal teaching brand. What is the image you want your students to see? They should have a consistent experience throughout the course. Take pride in what you produce. You can make or break a student's online experience.
and Naming conventions
Call a thing a thing. Use descriptive titles for everything in your course. Instead of "Quiz 1" call it "Fundamentals of XYZ Quiz." The same goes for discussions. Create interesting and descriptive titles so students can connect with the topic.
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Healthy Way #4:
Change It
"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."
-Winston Churchill
-Winston Churchill
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Update often
Updating is a pain, but it is necessary. Students should not have to filter through outdated information. At a minimum your course should be updated every term.
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and Use feedback to make improvements
Feedback can make or break your teaching career. Don't ignore it. Use that feedback to improve yourself and your course.
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Healthy Way #5:
Cheat
"You have to study your field and you have to find out how many other people do it, and you have to keep working and learning and practicing and ultimately, you would be able to do it."
-Theodore Sturgeon
-Theodore Sturgeon
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Do what others do
Model others who are doing things well. Use best practices in your field to improve. You can attend a webinar, go to a conference, or read a professional development book. Strive to be better than you were yesterday.
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and Know when to ask for help
There are a ton of resources out there to help you. Although you can find quite a bit doing some web searching, you should also connect with other faculty. You can also contact me at http://www.latashahussey.com/contact/
Here to help.
Here to help.
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Help Resources
- Books
- Instructional Designer or Tech
- Start your own fat course support group
Most organizations that offer online courses have professionals that are hired to help instructors design them. Ask around and see if you have anyone like that willing to help you. Otherwise, continue to make connections with other online teachers.
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Contact Information
- latasha.t.hussey@lonestar.edu
- Check out my book at https://latashahussey.com/book
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