Teaching.IU

Context

Students in online classes or doing online work in hybrid classes need especially clear instructions regarding locations of resources and assignment details and expectations, as well as practical directions regarding how and when to submit an assignment for grading. Learning management systems (LMS) increasingly offer more tools and options, which can overwhelm students.  Consequently, the tools that could be used to aid learning become an impediment to learning.  As a result, instructors are tasked with not just facilitating learning of the course material, but also building a course so students spend time and energy learning instead of battling with the online tools. 

Additionally, faculty are being asked to teach courses in different timeframes – a full semester vs. varying accelerated timeframes – within an academic year or even the same semester.  In the past, course content was presented in the syllabus by associating course material coverage and assignment deadlines with specific calendar dates in most cases.  Using this traditional format for conveying course schedules and requirements causes this task to be more challenging for an instructor to make adjustments and update course content, instructions, and the syllabus from one semester to the next if the timeframe varies each time the class is taught. 

Instead, organizing class resources and assignments by modules solves the challenges of teaching classes in different timeframes as well as modalities.  It also simplifies student use of increasingly complicated and technology-focused learning management systems. 

All of my courses are either online or hybrid utilizing online resources and assignments extensively. After the university changed to a different and more technology-focused learning management system, students struggled to navigate the various tools in the new system.  Even with very detailed and comprehensive instructions in the syllabus and in the LMS, students were overwhelmed and struggled with the number of tools and the system presentation within those tools.  For example, one single course segment might require students to access information from the list of documents included in the Files tool, work in a discussion forum in the Discussions tool, and submit work in the Assignments tool.  Each step requires students to find the appropriate item within all of the tools used for that course segment, creating opportunities for errors, confusion, frustration, and wasted time.  

After a few semesters of trying different ways to help students understand how to use Canvas and the flow of the course, it occurred to me that I could use the Modules tool exclusively, hiding the now unused Canvas tools (Files, Discussions, Assignments, etc.), thereby simplifying the user interface for the students and eliminating the frequent hopping back-and-forth among Canvas tools for each course segment.  They also no longer have to search through each of those Canvas tools for the appropriate file, discussion forum, or assignment within that tool. 

Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Create a module for each segment of the course. This can be an assignment, groupwork, test, etc. Each segment can involve more than one LMS tool.
2. Title each module and list them in chronological order so students proceed through the modules in order.
3. Within each module, add Canvas ‘items’ for instructions and each tool to be used.
4. Develop clear, step-by-step instructions for each stage of the course. Each module should include instructions for that stage, including due dates, using the Pages tool. Post the appropriate Pages document as the first item in each module. Then, depending on that particular assignment or course requirement, include an item for each appropriate tool –discussion, assignment, files, etc. in that module.
5. If you have groupwork within a course segment, add an item for each group (a discussion forum, an assignment, etc.). For example, if each group has a separate discussion forum, add an item for each group with the appropriate Discussion posted in that item.
6. Post the instructions and due dates for each course segment. This can be included in the course syllabus and/or the Canvas Syllabus page so students can also view all of the information in one place. This reinforces the structure and organization presented within the Modules tool.

Effectiveness

The first semester I implemented this approach, student confusion regarding course assignments disappeared. 

Soon after, a new benefit of this idea became apparent.  One of my graduate courses is offered in three different timeframes – 5-week, 6-week, and 15-week.  Planning the spacing of the course segments for various timeframes can be challenging because each is offered only once a year.  Because I often make adjustments and updates to the course to incorporate new resources and ideas and to address any issues that may arise, it is challenging to constantly alter the spacing and presentation for each of the formats.  Simply put, I could not merely copy the course and the same scheduling from the previous semester.  Each change had to be considered for the new timeframe.  However, after using the Modules tool to organize the content for each class, I can copy each updated module from the previous semester and simply adjust the due dates for that module based on the timeframe for that class.  In other words, instead of presenting the coursework by dates on the syllabus (what is required for each class period or for a particular week), I build each course segment as a module and assign dates to each module. 

Student response to this strategy has been unanimously positive.  Before implementation of this online course structure, many students were confused regarding use of the Canvas tools to locate resources, as well as the order of the coursework-even with detailed instructions.  They were overwhelmed navigating through a number of tools to find the correct file, discussion forum, and assignment for the particular course segment. With this simplified organization of the learning management system, students are no longer confused about course steps and how and where to access resources.