Do you want your students to spend less time trying to locate the course material and more time on learning and applying the material? If so, QM Standard 8.1 is for you!
QM Standard 8.1 is “Course navigation facilitates ease of use.” According to the standard’s annotation, the navigation should be consistent, logical, and efficient. Here are some tips for building your course in a way that is easy to navigate.
- Work with an instructional designer in the Division of eLearning and Professional Studies to design your course.
- Simplify the Course Menu. If you/your students will not use an item in the course menu, hide it.
- Use the Modules page to organize your content into weeks or topics. Include in the module everything the students need for that week/module (overview, objectives, readings, videos, practice activities, assessments, etc.).
- Be consistent with naming conventions.
- The name of assignments in the syllabus should be the same as the name of the actual assignment (where students submit the assignment). Instructors often refer to a project or assignment in multiple places. Use the same name every time.
- Some instructors use the term module while others use week or unit. Pick one and use it consistently.
- Page names should be consistent throughout the modules. For example, if the first page of Module 1 is called Module 1 Overview, the first page in Module 2 should be titled Module 2 Overview.
- Use headers and bullets in the rich text editor to organize content on a page.
- When providing a link to a website, hyperlink descriptive text rather than providing the entire URL to improve the accessibility of the course. For example, instead of “Visit the eLearning website at uab.edu/elearning/,” we would have “Visit the eLearning website.”
- Double check links to make sure they work. Use the Canvas link validator tool to check the links in your course.
If you would like to work with an instructional designer in eLearning to develop or update your course, please submit an Instructional Design Request form.