Course Sequencing and Organization
You've identified the outcomes of your course through the development of course learning objectives. The next step will be how to sequence and structure your course to guide the students toward achieving those objectives. The best way to do this is to distribute your course objectives and create units of learning. There are a variety of ways to structure an online course. As you begin to think about your course structure give careful consideration as to how you will balance the amount of instruction, time, and the level of student interaction that is needed to fully address the intended course learning objectives.
In Canvas units of learning/instruction are often referred to as Modules. Other terms often used to describe units of learning are lessons and units.
An Effective Course Sequence and Organization Should...
...support the achievement of the stated course objectives. Remember, course objectives serve as the foundation upon which your course is built. Therefore the way you distribute them throughout your course structure can directly impact your students' success. As you think about how you will do this, take a holistic approach viewing all the course objectives both individually and together, in doing so you may find that your course structure may organically emerge.
...promote clarity and consistency. One of the benefits students appreciate about online learning is the ability to play an ownership role in their learning. Consequently, it is of great importance that a course's structure is done in such a way that it can be clearly communicated to and understood by the learner. This will allow learners the ability to focus their attention on achieving the intended course outcomes rather than trying to determine what to do and when.
...encourage scaffolding. According to the Course Map Guide Links to an external site., your course structure should encourage scaffolding. It is encouraged that you distribute your course objectives throughout your course in a way that allows you to move from objectives with lower complexity to higher complexity. For example, foundational learning objectives that are lower on the cognitive scale such as "to define" or "to explain" are typically addressed early on in the course while higher-level cognitive skills such as distinction or design may not be included until later on in the course.
Options to Organize an Online Course
It is important to note that your course sequence and organization may be influenced by the specific learning activities and instructional materials that you decide to use in your course. As a result, you may find yourself coming back and tweaking the proposed course sequence and organization as you continue through the course design and development process. Some of the most common methods by which instructors typically structure their digital learning courses into units of learning include:
By topic/group of topics
By textbook chapter(s)
By project/assignment
Chronologically
Steps in a process
Regardless of the structure you choose, your course sequence and organization should allow you to best support students in meeting the intended course objectives. Note that some instructors find that identifying a list of topics that accompany each learning objective may help them better create their modules. Also, though you may not know the specific assessments or instructional materials that you will use to address each course objective, you may want to brainstorm (including speaking with a colleague) some initial ideas at this stage as they may impact your general course structure and sequencing.
Guiding Questions
As you begin to think about how you will sequence and organize your course objectives into units of learning to help students meet the stated course learning objectives, consider the guiding questions below:
- How much time do you have for the entire course?
- Is there an outside element that can provide a form of structure/organization (e.g., topics, textbooks, projects)?
- Is there an order to your course objectives that makes logical sense (e.g., least complex to most complex)?
- Can any course objectives be addressed together?
- If a single outcome needs to be addressed over multiple units, how would you logically distribute this to best support student learning?
- How much time will you need to address each course objective? A group of course objectives?
Samples available.
Review the Samples: Sequencing & Course Organization page to see how other instructors have sequenced their online courses.