Introduction to Building Your Course Activities

<<Note: This content is provided as an example. The content should be updated for your LMS.>>

icon_info.jpgThis week, you will build a draft of your Syllabus, Course Expectations, and Course/Instructor Introduction within your development course and apply the concepts presented earlier in this module (copyright, accessibility, FERPA and Library Services). The following pages and activities guide you through the steps of properly formatting your course materials for accessibility and provide options for building your course content. You will be able to update and make changes to these document drafts as you build your course throughout <Replace - Course Title>.

Pages Links to an external site. are the preferred format to present content in your online course. Pages allow you to create content using the Rich Content Editor Links to an external site.. You can add text, images, videos, links to files or websites, and format the content of your Pages for accessibility using the Rich Content Editor. Pages can be opened quickly using any Internet browser, do not require additional software, and can be easily navigated by screen readers Links to an external site., making the content accessible to all students. Remember, it is required to make all of your documents accessible regardless of which file types (e.g., PDF, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint) you use in your course. 

3 blue circles used as content divider

Formatting Guidelines

Follow the Formatting Guidelines as you create content for your course. Applying these formatting styles (headings, lists, tables, etc.) adds an invisible “tag” that identifies the different parts making this document accessible to screen readers. Simply changing the font size and color of the text does not apply the same “tag” as applying the formatting styles provided in these guidelines.

Embedding Images

You can embed images Links to an external site. from your personal files or Canvas course files into the Rich Content Editor. You can also add alt tags to your images for better accessibility.  

Templates

For the following activities, several templates are provided to help you create content. These templates contain some basic information for you to use as you start building your course content (e.g., <Replace - Institution Name> required Syllabus information and standard statements related to FERPA and accessibility).

These templates are formatted for accessibility (e.g., headings, bulleted lists) and are chunked and divided into smaller sections or pages. This creates more manageable "bite size pieces" for your students to absorb and requires less page scrolling. As you create materials for your course, think about how you can chunk the information into smaller sections by using headings to separate sections of content or place the information on separate content pages if it is a lot of information.

Creative Commons License

TOPKit Sample Course was prepared by the University of Central Florida (UCF). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Links to an external site..