Make sure to follow the University calendar when planning your course, paying special attention to start/end dates, holidays, drop dates, etc. Schedule adjustments may be needed to meet deadlines for graduating students and others with special circumstances.
Guiding questions for this stage of the design process include:
- Will this course be online or hybrid?
- If hybrid, how will time and course activities be split between in-class and online?
- How can topics be organized into 1-week modules?
- When will exams, papers, or other assessments be scheduled?
Confirm your primary instructional materials, including textbooks, readings, etc. Think about creating your own content, such as videos and study guides.
Once you’ve established the topics your course will cover, develop those topics into learning objectives.
To better understand this concept, enroll in ODL 200: Learning Objectives and Alignment.
III. Compose Modules with Active Learning
Request the Moodle Standard Layout for your course to keep it consistent and organized. When planning your Modules, be sure to include the following types of activities:
| Student-Content Interaction | Student-Student Interaction | Student-Instructor Interaction |
| Readings (textbook chapters, articles, PowerPoint slides) | Discussion Forums for asynchronous student interaction | Weekly communications through the Announcements Forum. |
| Multimedia (original or web-published videos or audio) | Zoom/Teams meetings for real-time student conversation. | Zoom/Teams meetings for appointments or office hours. |
| URLs (links to external websites or content) | Group Assignments to promote collaboration. | Plans for direct feedback on assessments. |
| Activities (H5P, assigned homework, repeatable quizzes) | | Direct communications via Outlook or Moodle Quickmail. |
For more information on activities that promote active learning, enroll in ODL 110: Strategies for Engaging Learners Online.
IV. Build Assessments
Moodle provides options and opportunities for both student practice and improvement (formative assessments) and student evaluation (summative assessments). Explore the following assessment tools and consider whether assessments should be automatically or manually graded:
- Quiz: a powerful activity that features many different question types, from multiple choice to essay questions, with detailed feedback.
- Assignment: an activitiy that allows students to upload documents or enter text.
- Turnitin: students can upload a document checked for plagiarism and common grammar errors.
- Forum: a tool that allows students and teachers to communicate and collaborate by posting comments in a thread.
V. Build an Introduction
Designate a module at the beginning of your course for “Getting Started” information. This orientation for your course helps students prepare to learn and understand what to expect in terms of course content, objectives, and delivery.
You should include:
- A welcome message as text or video to humanize your course.
- Your course syllabus.
- A course calendar to keep students aware of the course schedule.
- Your contact information to let students know the best way to reach you.
VI. Configure the Gradebook
Use the Moodle Gradebook effectively to ensure students can track their progress in the course. Having a clear statement of how grades will be calculated in the syllabus will help you to build a consistent gradebook.
Instructions on how to use the Gradebook are available.
VII. Ensure Accessibility
Accessibility in education removes barriers to student learning wherever and whenever possible. The goal of accessibility is to make the course material and learning experience available to the widest range of students, minimizing the need for special accommodation.
Provide closed captioning
Whether you create lecture or demonstration videos using YouTube, Panopto, VoiceThread, or another tool, you must provide closed captioning or a transcript.
EduTools supported by the Office of Distance Learning include auto-captioning to ensure accessibility. However, you’ll still need to proofread and edit for any errors in transcription.
Learn how to enable closed captioning using VoiceThread, Panopto, and Zoom.
Provide alt-tags for images and graphs.
The ALT tag defines the alternative text that will be displayed if the image is not available and will be read aloud to someone using a screen-reader device.
ALT tags should be specific and convey any meaning that may be missed by someone who cannot see the image, such as ALT= “man petting large alligator.”
Learn more about creating ALT tags for images in Moodle.
Use PDFs that are selectable and searchable.
PDF files can be a good way to deliver content that is usable on most computers and mobile devices, without any special software. Whenever possible, instructors should use PDF files over Word documents. However, PDF files must be correctly formatted to ensure compatibility with screen-reader devices.
Learn more about how to address potential accessibility issues in PDFs.
Don't rely on text colors alone to convey meaning.
It is important to use digital text (not an image of text) as labeling for important elements or icons. For example, instead of telling students to click on a green button to submit an assignment, you could still have a green button, but it would need to also have the word “Submit” associated with it.
Using color differences alone to convey meaning may cause problems for some people who cannot see the distinction between them, either because of limitations of vision or monitor display. Also, those coming from cultures different from your own may have other meanings associated with color and misinterpret your message.
Avoid underlined text except for hyperlinks.
Underlining text can create confusion rather than emphasis. Reserve underlined text for hyperlinks.
Keep in mind, hyperlinks should tell the user the result of clicking the link. “Click here” or “this link” does not convey that information, especially to someone using a screen-reading device to convert the screen test to audible speech. Instead, make sure the text of your hyperlink is descriptive, such as this one:
Learn more about creating accessible hyperlinks.
Provide time accommodations.
If a student requires time accommodations for exams, you can modify a Moodle Quiz to allow for extended time or an alternate date for specific students.
Learn more about accessible course design through professional development course ODL 120.
VIII. Make Your Course Visible to Students
The course will remain hidden from students in Moodle until you make it visible in the course settings.
It is recommended to make courses visible at least 1 week before the start of classes each semester.
