Organizing by Modules vs. Organizing by pages.

Modules

In the previous two examples the modules act like a box with slots. Each item occupies its own unique slot. Student navigate this by going to the correct box and going through each of the items one by one (hopefully the items are presented in the correct order). They can use the use the Next and Previous buttons located at the bottom of the item to move forward and backward through the items in the modules.

Pros: It is easy to build a class this way. Everything is grouped, easy to see, and easy to keep organized. From the students' perspective, links to everything they need can be found on the Modules page and they can see the class in its entirety. There is much less design work involved. Checkmarks appear when students complete graded assignments.

Cons: The students experience each item more independently from each other. There is limited ability to provide context and explain how each item is related to each other and the class. If there are many pieces of content, the list of items can become very long.

Pages

Pages are just that, a single webpage in the course. Organizing by pages is more like treating Canvas as a website. Each page can represent a time period in the course (like a page for the week or page for each course). The events, activities, readings, multimedia, links to quizzes and discussions, etc. are embedded within the page. Kind of like a page or chapter in an interactive online text.

Pros: Instructors can add their own voice (through video, audio, or text) to contextualize all the content for that time period. The instructor can describe relationships, provide ways or interpreting the material, or coach students to pay attention to certain things in the content. In addition, design elements can be added to add more context, interest, and flow.

Cons: It can take more time to explicitly provide context to students. It can also take more effort to organize, keep track of create links between pages if necessary, and design within the constraints of HTML. No checklist will appear, so students returning to a module need to remember where they left off.

Our Scenario as a Course Page:

Recall, we are using this scenario to demonstrate different methods for structuring your course. This course page will focus on preparing students for the first lecture of the week.

To prepare for the first lecture you like your students to:
- 1) Read two journal articles
- 2) Watch an online video
- 3) take a short quiz about the video.

See how this looks as a Course Page

Back: Course Design Ideas