Good practice example in providing online resources

A strong structure to help students find what they need

Kimberley James - School of Life and Environmental Sciences

This exemplar describes the way in which the content list was managed in a Desire2Learn unit site to make it easy for students to find what they needed throughout the trimester, as quickly as possible. The unit was one of the four pilot units using Desire2Learn at Deakin University in Trimester 1, 2011.

About the unit

SLE303 Managing Environmental Projects is a third-year unit in which students work closely with an industry partner to develop their project management skills. Students study on campus with lectures and tutorials but there is a large field work component.

Modules

At the top of the list I placed a module containing the unit guide and other general unit information. Then I had a module containing links to discussion topics where students could ask for help from the D2L technical support team and give feedback. Then I had a Resources module containing links to library resources they would need for the unit, and links to key environment industry sites. These were all things that students might need to refer to regularly throughout the trimester.

Next, I had a big module for the Course Content. The first sub-module in this was for assignments, where I placed a module for each assignment. Each of these contained the assignment outline, other information relevant to the assignment, and a link to the dropbox. I moved these assignment modules as time went on so that the current assignment was always at the top, where they would see it first. Once the due date had passed I moved the next assignment to the top, and the old one slipped down the list so it would be less confusing for the students.

Then, I had modules for each of the weeks. These contained lecture notes, exercises, study questions and readings. Again, I arranged these so that the current week's materials were at the top of the module, with the previous weeks' modules underneath it in order. I maintained the content list early every week and students quickly got used to the structure.

Minimising clutter

Students commented that the list became rather daunting as the trimester went on and more content was added. I advised students to close up all of the modules they weren't using, to try to keep the number of items on the screen at any time to a minimum. This also made it easier to see the overall structure of the unit and find material they were looking for.

I also made sure I hid away any of the items that were no longer being used, such as dropboxes for old assignments.

I designed this site with help and advice from Jen Ford and Debra Petty, the Faculty online teaching and learning staff.

Top of the content list (click link to enlarge picture)	Assignment and weekly materials modules (click link to enlarge picture)

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Can you suggest another exemplar of online teaching at Deakin? Comments will be forwarded to the Institute of Teaching and Learning.