UCOL E-LEARNING ONLINE/BLENDED COURSE STYLE GUIDE

UCOL Online Style Guide Blended or Online Papers

This document covers paper structure, text, image styles and file formatting standards for blended and online papers. The standards and recommendations in this document are consistent with the UCOL Online paper Moodle Passport Good Practice Checklist. This document may be used as a customised standard with additions and adjustments agreed by the eLearning development team, especially if more than one person will be working on the paper or the paper is representative of a suite of papers being developed.

The structure of your paper should closely follow your approved paper learning design plan. Some screen shots of common paper layouts are shown at the end of this document.

Paper/Programme
Overall comments Keep an eye on your page size and the amount of written instructions you provide. While we often feel it will be clearer to students if we describe as much as possible within topic areas, the amount of text and information can make the paper home page difficult for students with limited Internet access to download and also feel over whelming in its detail. 1. Use a consistent structure for presenting information and materials. 2. Put text more than one paragraph long into a separate web page. 3. Group materials together. For example. a. Multiple files can be presented to students in a single folder using the Directory resource. b. Multiple links to web sites can be listed on a separate web page. 4. Break up text into short sentences and bullet lists. 5. All text and images must be obtained from copyright cleared sources or be appropriately acknowledged. The APA referencing format is a good standard. The Library Learning Hub can provide advice on copyright issues. 6. If text is going to be put into Moodle web pages, keep formatting in MS Word to a minimum - paste text into the web page, use the Clean Word HTML button and then apply formatting within the web page. 7. Use a casual tone of voice in your writing and consider if you are writing in the first or third person. I and You statements can add personality, impact and a sense of active engagement. 8. Use images to convey meaning or add interest, but watch file size to ensure they are kept reasonably small.

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Paper Layout
Introductory section/Welcome block Paper Structure section Paper name, image and short welcoming statement. Can be a separate section or merged with the paper structure section. 1. Getting started web page containing introductory information on how the online environment will work, any protocols and instructions for first few actions students need to complete. 2. Paper outline PDF of complete outline or you may choose to break it into sections and provide as separate web pages. 3. Summary of assessment, including schedule and marking criteria and marking turn-around. 4. Tutor contact information, including response times (this can be combined with help/support page). 5. Generic help/support resources. 6. Consider the need for a study guide. 7. Course-wide forum/s or other activities. 8. If any of this content is generic across multiple papers, consider having it in a programme meta-course and just linking to it from the paper (clearly indicate they will be leaving this paper when they follow these links). 1. Topic blocks added to match the structure & sequence in the approved paper design. Can use topic or weekly course format. 2. Each topic to include a topic name and introduction perhaps including an image right-aligned at top of topic area. 3. Other text and materials as suggested below. 1. Learning activities or tasks (label). a. Summary of learning activities for this topic (choose to format as label or web page depending on the amount of information presented). This summary must clearly state which learning outcomes are being addressed by the activities within this topic/section. b. Links to non-assessment activities and support modules (forums etc). 2. Assessment (label). a. Assessment task details (web page or label). Instructions must include details of which learning outcomes are being addressed within the assessment tasks. b. Links to summative assessment activities. c. We recommend templates are provided in RTF format for any written assessment tasks like reports, worksheets essays etc. 3. Resources (label). a. Web pages of text/images, links to websites or documents etc.

Topic blocks

Structure within each topic area

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Grading

1. Define grading scales appropriate for the paper competency, numerical marking or some other judgement criteria for formative and summative assessments. 2. Consider how the grade book will be used within the paper will students be receiving notification of marks via the online assessment modules and the grade-book? 3. Consider scales and grade weighting categories for assessment tasks that may apply for other papers within the programme. 4. These options can be set in the first course and included in a paper template for other courses. 5. If grade book is not used, ensure it is hidden from student view as this just leads to confusion when there is no content in it. The following blocks are recommended for display on all papers. The location, order and addition of other blocks can be varied from paper to paper. Partcipants, Administration, Latest News, Recent Additions, Calendar/Upcoming Events, Library Links, Online users, My courses.

Side blocks check list

Facilitator (Lecturer) guide Have a hidden topic area (usually at the bottom) dedicated to information for potential future paper teachers. Include a Wiki with narrative notes on aspects of how you see the paper running, any potential issues to consider, workshop or field trip arrangements that need to be made and any design decisions you feel require explanation. Consider using an extra closed topic block at the end of the paper. Also add copies of design documents (e.g. paper design plan, style guide etc.) and assessment details normally hidden from students like pre-prepared tests etc.

Styles and formatting

General text Where at all possible use standard text and heading styles available in the text editor. That is, dont apply font sizes and styles unless there is a specific purpose to highlight a section of text. Wherever possible, stick to the standard Trebuchet font. Topic box headings 1. Topic names: Use Heading 2 consider using different text or background colour for the heading (see samples below). 2. Section heading within a topic box (e.g. Learning activities) Heading 3. Specific formats/content for this paper/programme: Web page text Use Heading styles such as page heading Heading 2

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Hyperlinks

1. Links to external websites or non-html documents (e.g. PDF, RTF etc) should open in a new window (target = new window or _blank) 2. Links within the body of any text must have alternative text assigned (title) that clearly states where the link goes (so its purpose is clear to those who use a screen reader). 1. Upload all your images into the course images folder. 2. We suggest maximum dimensions for an image inserted in topic boxes to be 150 pixels wide. Also recommend they are aligned to the right of the box. 3. Images should be no larger than 40KB, smaller if there are more than 2 images on the same page. 4. All images must have alternative text assigned that clearly states what the image is (so image purpose is clear to those who choose not to display images or use a screen reader). 5. Consider finding a consistent set of images to use. 6. Acknowledge where you have obtained images with significant meaning or from copyrighted sources. 1. Use consistent wording throughout the site e.g. try not to mix up the use of assignment and assessment when referring to the same task. 1. Put topic specific files in a dedicated folder, perhaps using sub-folders to provide structure if there are lots of files. 2. Keep images in a dedicated folder. 3. Plan your folder structure in advance its always tricky to move things around once you have created links to files from your course page. The basic structure can be included in the paper template.

Images

Naming and consistent use of terms File management

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Documents and file formats

1. Use the standard Moodle web page format where possible. Consider using the Book module to present multi-page documents it also has a good print format option. 2. Web pages created in Moodle should not open in a new window 3. If you need to use another format follow these conventions to ensure students do not need special software on their home computers: a. Printed reading material PDF b. Word processing document RTF c. Spread sheet data CSV d. Audio MP3, WMA (Windows Media), WAV. e. Video MOV (QuickTime), FLV (Flash), WMV (Windows media). Other formats are only suitable for downloading and playing on a local PC (MPEG, AVI) f. If you must use proprietary software file formats where the software is not freely available (like Excel, Word, PPT etc) please ensure students either have ready access to the required software or have been notified of the requirements before enrolment. 4. Documents to open as new window RTF, PDF, CSV and links to a new website 5. Consider the end user when it comes to file sizes. 6. PowerPoint files: consider your purpose for providing PowerPoint files. Not all students have PowerPoint installed at home so we recommend selecting one of the following listed from preferred to least preferred. In all cases ensure image files have been reduced to as low a resolution as possible. a. PDF version of hand out format. b. Convert to Flash Video using Adobe Captivate, Camtasia or similar conversion tools. c. Convert to HTML version, upload to UCOL paper and provide students with a link to the index.html page. d. Provide as a PPT or PPS file, making sure students know how to obtain the free PPT viewer from Microsoft. Please contact the eLearning team for support with any of these formats.

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Sample paper layouts

Example of a blended paper:

Example 2

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Example 3

Example 4

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Example 5

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