Online Course Organization Jodi Freifeld, DVM, MBA

Importance of Organization Lead students through material Provide consistency throughout course Prevent missed deadlines Reduce student confusion Minimize student questions

Organize Using Folders Provide folders to introduce students to course Decide how to divide course into modules ▫By week? ▫By topic? ▫By test? Make folders for each module and label appropriately

Introduce Students to Course Folder for online student resources Folder for the syllabus and schedule

Course Schedule with due dates Must be updated each semester Clearly state when assignments are due Prevents need for dates in Assignment documents in each module

Make One Folder for Each Module Each module represents one week in this course Folders help organize material but beware of the following mistakes: Too many folders Poorly named folders Folders hidden within folders We only went two folders deep

Consistent Module Folder Content Every module includes objectives and assignments One folder for each lecture Instructor chose to have glossary terms for each module Each module includes one additional activity Discussion question Assignment Test

Objectives & Assignments Clearly stated what must be completed during the module Omitted dates from these documents so that they can be transferred to new semesters without updating A separate schedule with dates was provided

Lecture Folders Video of lecture Generally no longer than 10 minutes Transcript PowerPoint slides Instructor chose to have an open-book, untimed quiz for each lecture

Instructor View of Lecture Folder Includes unpublished Word documents and PowerPoints for easy updating in the future All course documents in one place

Dropboxes Make submitting assignments easy Be consistent in dropbox location We put dropboxes in the module folders Another possibility is a folder dedicated solely to dropboxes

Summary Many ways to successfully organize courses ▫By week, test, or topic Name folders based on content Clearly state assignments and due dates Be consistent!!! A well-organized course allows students to worry about learning the content, not finding the content