Tips for Online Course Organization Part 1

Tips for Online Course Organization

As an instructional designer with some privileges to enroll into and access my college's courses, I inadvertently receive course emails from frustrated students to their professors about what to do or where to find assignments. Even if an online course is complete with a highly organized syllabus, robust content, structured assignments, goals, and clear objectives, it can still be poorly received if the learner has difficulty navigating through it all. Outlined below are three basic organization tips for instructors to support students' access to content.

1. Limit the amount of content you present.

A regular college online course should ideally have all or most of the content ready before the first day of class. However, it can be a little overwhelming for an online student when all this is available to them at once. Chunk content into smaller units by creating sections, folders, and modules. If your learning management system or LMS allows, try setting visibility times so that students receive content items in intervals (weekly, bi-weekly). In the Blackboard LMS, you can even use adaptive release to set criteria that requires students to visit one item at a time in a specific order.

2. Make dates predictable.

When dates are patterned, students can better anticipate assignments to manage their time. You can do this by having all learning module starting dates and due dates ready in the syllabus. When selecting dates, be consistent by choosing just one or two days of the week and a specific time of day when a regular assignment begins and ends. Try communicating dates in multiple ways such as through the syllabus, email, announcements, and module introductions.

3. Have a starting place.

University courses tend to have inconsistent formats, so this can be disorienting for students taking online classes for the first time. Help orient student to the new environment by placing the syllabus in a visible and easily accessible area. Better yet, provide an introduction area with an obvious title such as "Start Here," "Module 1," or something similar. Take it a step further by providing orientation materials such as a video-recording of you discussing the syllabus or describing how one can navigate through the course.


These are just some basic tips for if you're thinking about how to organize your online course content. I presented on this topic at one of the University of Houston's Emerging Trends in Educational Technology seminars about online learning last spring. My partner, instructional designer Todd Juneau, had the tough task of speaking about the importance of learning objectives and I followed with the second part on content organization. To see examples of how these strategies are applied in actual courses, check out my slides below!