Organizing Content

Organizing Content for Online Learning

It may be tempting to just post all your content in Brightspace/D2L and assume that your students will be able to find it because your organizing scheme makes sense to you. However, this can lead to confusion and the inability to locate essential course materials, resulting in increased anxiety and frustration. Avoid putting course materials in separate locations or modules, e.g., one for lectures, readings, assignments, etc. Instead, try to organize the content and course materials around weeks in the course and follow these principles:

• Keep weeks consistent with the order of items or materials, due dates and naming.
• As much as possible, include everything that the student needs for learning in the weekly unit, including:
  • Readings (PDFs), links, videos, and books; 
  • Links to quizzes; l
  • Links to discussion forums; and 
  • Links to assignments rather than having students search for all these and try to connect to their learning tasks.

Your goal is to establish a learning pattern. Students can log into the course, know where to find everything they need for their learning, and what the workflow is from week to week, whether the course is in-person, virtual, online or blended.

Here is an example of how this may look in Brightspace/D2L using modules, sub-modules, create-a-file pages, and how to add existing activities links to assignments, discussions and quizzes.

Note the consistent order of course materials and naming from week to week. It can be effective to provide a short overview of the topic and what students need to do. Also, make sure to let students know if something is different for that week, e.g., there is no quiz or recorded lecture, as students may panic looking for it.

Here is another example:

How to Organize Content in Brightspace/D2L

Brightspace/D2L modules can serve as weekly units by creating a file through Upload/Create. You can use it for text-based information such as weekly overviews. You can also embed quiz, assignment and discussion forum links in the week's unit through Add Existing Activities.

Here are some relevant Brightspace/D2L video tutorials for creating and organizing content:

Tutorial for Creating Weeks as Modules in Brightspace/D2L

Tutorial for Adding Existing Activities (Linking to Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions)

Tutorial for Rearranging Modules and Sub-Modules in Brightspace/D2L

Tutorial for Create a File and Insert Stuff in Brightspace/D2L 

Organizing an Online Class (Video)

As you put together an online course, what fundamentals of organization do you need to think about as an instructor? Join experienced online educators Lisa Brown, Jessi Anderson, Jim Vanides, and John Graves as they highlight the top organizational elements. (28 min)