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Adaptive Course Design

This guide enables faculty to design quality courses on Schoology. These courses can be taught remotely or traditionally. The main guiding feature of this LibGuide is the Adaptive Course Design Rubric.

Accessibility

Accessibility

Placing course content on Schoology requires thoughtful examination of the student audience, the course structure, instructional goals, objectives, and learning outcomes. “Creating materials for your online course environment is more than just developing electronic files of existing hard copy materials” (“Teaching Online Assessment,” 2009. para. 1). When assessing existing course materials for online use, determine the documents and components you need to convert into electronic format. Then tailor each document and component to the online environment with an understanding of copyright laws and accessibility considerations.

Here are a few points to consider: 

  1. Consider multiple formats for content such as html, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, PDFs
  2. Create PDFs with Optical Character Recognition rather than as scanned images
  3. Avoid cutting and pasting text from Microsoft Word – use Notepad to avoid extra code
  4. Design for the Web
  5. Use clear consistent headings
  6. Limit navigation links and menu buttons
  7. Provide instructions for course tools
  8. Design with color contrast for text and background
  9. Use san serif fonts or fonts designed for the Web (e.g., Verdana)
  10. Insert alt tags for images
  11. Write for the Web
  12. Use short sentences
  13. Remember to check spelling
  14. Write out acronyms
  15. Use numbers rather than bullets
  16. Provide an overview, subheadings, and summary
  17. Keep tables simple with clear column and row headings and one piece of data per cell
  18. Provide transcripts and/or captioning for audio and video files.
  19. Use templates with built-in formatting with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint; use styles with Word.
  20. Provide instructor contact information in a prominent place.
  21. Use discussion board or email rather than chat as a primary form of communication.
  22. In conjunction with Carthage Accessibility services, students may need materials in a different format, or may require a change in how work is assessed.
  23. Remote learning is not possible without reliable access to computers or the Internet. Students experiencing issues should be referred to help@carthage.edu.

For detailed information on how to implement these points, click on this presentation Accessibility on Schoology. Also check out the presentation Acknowledging Diversity on Schoology.