This guide provides a systematic approach to assist instructors in preparing their courses for remote or online instruction and is designed to support the use of the Brightspace Course Site Set-up Kit. It takes into consideration that some instructors may be starting from scratch, while others may have existing content to build upon. For those starting from scratch, we recommend that you use the set-up kit, as it provides a simple editable structure to get you started.
The guide is divided in two parts:
- Part I: Planning your Course
- Part II: Implementing your Course Plan in Brightspace, Memorial’s Learning Management System
The guide is informed by Memorial’s Quality Guidelines for Course Design,Quality MattersEmergency Remote Instruction Checklist: Higher Education,Universal Design for Learning(UDL) and the works of John Biggs,L. D. Fink and Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe.
Part I: Planning Your Course
Careful planning will help you make decisions about the course elements that are crucial for maximizing students’ learning in a remote or online environment. Part I provides tips and resources to guide your decision making for each of these elements based on evidence-based practices.
For those wanting to learn more, a list of additional resources are provided so you can take a deeper dive into the ideas presented. Also, at the end of each section, you find a link to the relevant Quality Matters standard recognized internationally for delivering quality online learning experiences.
1. Examine your course and your teaching and learning context
The Goal: Examine your course requirements and specific teaching and learning context to identify situational factors or constraints that will help you make decisions about three major elements of your course: 1) goals/learning outcomes; 2) assessment and feedback; and 3) teaching and learning activities
Tips:
Course Requirements
- Review your syllabus, requirements of programs this course is included, and University policies and guidelines (e.g. accessibility,privacy considerations).
- Review UniversalDesignforLearning(UDL)guidelines for improving the learning environment for all students.
Teaching and Learning Context
- Review ‘Get Started with Teaching Remotely’.
- Think about who your students are and what challenges they may face while participating in your course.
- Consider technology your students may have access to at home – contact CITL to discuss.
- Consider your instructional approach (how you like to teach).
- Reflect on your past teaching and identify the concepts that your students may have had trouble Think about how you motivated student participation and engaged them in the learning experience.
- Become familiar with or refresh your knowledge of Brightspace by attending webinars offered by CITL and review Frequently Asked Questions and StudentResources.
Resources:
- Designing a Course – The Analysis Phase
- Memorial’s TLF Toolkit
- Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education
- Bates, A. W. (2019). Chapter 2: The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching.In A.W. Bates, Teaching in a Digital Age, Second Edition
- Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: The key to quality in educational
- programs. In L. D. Fink, Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach todesigning college courses (pp. 1-30). Jossey-Bass.
- Quality Matters 6th Edition Standards
2. Edit or write overall course goals/learning outcomes
The Goal: Articulate the essential knowledge (concepts, ideas, principles, relationships), skills, and attitudes/values you want students to remember and be able to apply at the end of the course and after.
Tips:
Competencies/Attributes
- In addition to four to six core content discipline-specific learning outcomes, consider including outcomes related to the digital and higher-order thinking skills you want students to acquire (e.g., analyze, synthesize, problem solve, collaborate). Also, students should be able to reflect and make connections among information learned in your course to other courses or disciplines, and the world in which they live).
- Don’t try to do too much
Communicating Learning Outcomes
- Consider how goals/outcomes are communicated from a universaldesign perspective.
- Use verbs from learning taxonomies or Bloom’s Taxonomy – Revised for 21st-CenturyLearners to help write observable and measurable learning outcomes that you later use to guide your selection of assessments and activities to help students achieve these intended outcomes.
- Prioritize the learning outcomes according to This will help you later decide on the course organization and help your students prioritize their learning.
Resources:
- Set Goals and Outcomes
- Learning Outcomes: Definition, Characteristics, and BenefitsLearning Outcomes: Construction
- Developing Learning OutcomesLearning Taxonomies
- What Level of Learning Applies?What is ‘Significant Learning”
- Moving a Taxonomy of Inclusive Design from Theory to Practice
- QM General Standards 2.1 to 2.5
3. Review and construct assessment components and methods of feedback
The Goal: Choose assessments that enable students to continuously monitor and evaluate their own learning progress and ultimately achieve the course learning outcomes.
Tips:
Assessment
- Review existing assessments and determine if they help students achieve the overall course learning outcomes.
- Reflect on your past assessment strategies and think about how they can be modified for remote or online instruction.
- Review ‘Moving Assessment to Remote Learning within Brightspace’.
- Examine types of assessments that support different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, see this Taxonomy Wheel.
- Provide opportunities for students to self-reflect and get feedback from you and their classmates, see Examples of Peer Assessment Assignments.
- Apply UDL principles in assessments.
- Review Memorial’s Guidelines for Accommodations to assist
Feedback
- Use rubrics to make expectations (criteria and standards) clear to students and to help you grade assessments.
- For examples of rubrics for critical thinking, written and oral communication, etc. view VALUE rubrics created by the Association of American Colleges & Universities(AAC&U).
- Build in ways to make sure students are accountable for the work they do in discussions and in groups.
- Consider different types of feedback and frequency required for students to track their progress and stay motivated to complete the course.
Technology
- Use the Assignments(Dropbox)toolinBrighspace for students to submit essays/research papers and for you to easily track submissions, annotate papers, and/or provide audio
- For privacy and security of student data, use technology supported by Memorial:
- Brightspacecommunication,collaborationandassessmenttools.
- Other educational technologies supported by CITL (i.e. Peer Scholar).
Resources:
4. Review and prepare teaching and learning activities and resources
The Goal: Select activities, content, and resources that will help students to successfully complete the assessment you have chosen and interact with each other.
Tips:
Activities
- Identify the successful activities you use in-class and think about how they can be delivered online.
- When appropriate, limit activities that simply focus on rote learning or
- Scaffold learning activities to move students from mastering content to learning how to apply the content, reflect, and make connections. Watch this video of a five stagemodel.
- Have students find and evaluate information themselves by providing criteria and
- Include activities to help students summarize key points.
- Embed formative classroom assessment techniques throughout course for students to monitor their progress.
- Incorporate group projects and online collaborative learning
- Engage students with online discussions to apply content and reflect on what they are
- Give some consideration to activities that can be done synchronously (real-time) versus
- Use synchronous activities when there is opportunity for students to interact and collaborate (e.g. presenting troublesome topics or hosting review sessions that may require Q&A and bringing in a guest speaker). Contact CITL for consultation.
- Design activities to meet all students’
- Get students’ feedback on course content and facilitation.
Supporting Content/Resources
- Consider the best way to make content available to students (e.g. provide course notes in text format, audio, and video).
- Review any existing resources (e.g. instructor notes, PowerPoints slides, and readings) for currency and make plans for revisions and additions to facilitate and support each of the learning activities. Contact CITL for a consultation with an instructional designer.
- Where possible, link to relevant web content or Open Access resources (e.g. OERCommons Collections or CC Search and Linney – MUN’s Learning Object Repository) rather than create all the content yourself.
- If required, create a video narration of your own slides, record yourself demonstrating a task, or work with CITL to create a See media examples on CITL website.
- Link to an audio clip, record your own (e.g. using Microsoft voice recorder or audacity) or create a podcast.
- Consider using resources currently available through Memorial Libraries by incorporating the Course Resources (Reserve) tool in your course site.
- While many resources you find online are available for use under current Fair Dealing guidelines, it is important to verify copyright restrictions and apply proper attribution when using the work of Copyright support is available at the library if you are unsure about licensing or have questions about fair dealing.
Technology
- Incorporate technology, such as twitter, video assignment tool withinBrightspace,peerScholar and other technologies supported by CITL to foster communication and collaboration, see Which Tool Should I Use?.
- Use the appropriate technology for your teaching situation (e.g. class size, type of activity, course goals/learning outcomes). Contact CITL should you need help in making these
Resources:
- Finding Free Copyright Materials for your Course
- Types of Lectures – Planning for Interactive Teaching and LearningImproving Online Communications
- More learning in ‘active learning’ classrooms, but students don’t know itActivities for Building Cultural Competencies in Our Students and Ourselves
- Bates, A. W. (2019). Chapter 10: Trends in open education. In A. W. Bates, Teachingina
- Digital Age, Second Edition
- Bates, A. W. (2019). Chapter 8: Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONSmodel. In A.W. Bates, Teaching in a Digital Age, Second Edition
- QM General Standards 3.5, 4.1 to 4.5, 5.1 to 5.4, 6.1 to 6.4 and 8.3 to 8.5
5. Check that learning outcomes, assessment/feedback and activities/resources support each other
The Goal: Verify the goals/outcomes, assessment and feedback, teaching/learning activities, and resources you have chosen support each other and are reflective of the course requirements and your teaching and learning context – situational factors (see Figure 1).
Tips:
Effective Course Design
- List each of your learning
- For each outcome, Identify the content (assessment, activity, and resource) students will complete and how feedback will be provided for you and the students to determine if they achieved the intended learning outcomes.
- Check how well the activity or assessment supports the learning For example:
- If the learning outcome is for students to be able to analyze information and an exam with questions requiring students to remember content-related facts is the assessment, then the outcomes and assessment are not aligned. There is no opportunity for students to practice analyzing information.
Resources:
6. Decide course structure and organize a schedule for entire semester
The Goal: Establish a consistent course structure and revise or create a schedule for the entire semester that can be used to guide student learning and your instruction.
Tips:
Course Structure
- Scaffold major topics/themes, so build on one another in a way that allow students to integrate what they learned in a previous week with new topics/information in the upcoming week (e.g. from simple to complex or known to unknown).
- Decide how many weeks or class sessions are required to cover each major topic/theme that comprise your course content for the semester.
- For each weekly topic or module, introduce the concepts/information to be covered, define learning outcomes, explain purpose of readings, and include the activities and assignments students are expected to This will help students plan and manage their time.
Course Schedule
- Sequence the activities and assessments you selected around the weekly topics/themes into a course schedule.
- Ensure ample time is allocated between each activity and/or assessment for students to apply concepts, for you to provide feedback, and for students to analyze feedback to improve learning.
- Suggest completing the activities and assignments yourself to ensure they can be completed in time frame allocated and using the instructions and resources provided.
Resources:
7. Prepare or revise syllabus and communication strategies
The Goal: Communicate your course design and expectations in the syllabus, along with your communication strategies to establish a supportive learning environment.
Tips:
Course Expectations
- Review syllabus requirements under University Regulations stated under General Academic Regulations (Undergraduate) in Memorial’s Calendar.
- Review Guidelines for Course Syllabi at
- Check with your academic unit to see if a syllabus template is
- Ensure overview of course includes the course structure and describes how content will be delivered (instructor printable notes, slide presentations, links to websites, audio clips, instructor-created video,videos on YouTube, real-time scheduled web conferencing sessions).
- Explain why the course content is relevant and show the connection between the learning outcomes and assignments/activities. Use a concept map, for example.
- Place information about supports and accommodations at the top of the syllabus so students can easily see what is available to help them succeed.
- Include a schedule for the entire semester and note any due
- Coordinate grading allocations (e.g. weight) so appropriate to each component based on the determined level of importance.
- Clearly describe instructions and resources required for each assessment component. Include any rubrics to help students see your expectations for This too may also decrease the number of inquiries from students.
- Provide clear participation and/or evaluation guidelines for any asynchronous discussions and synchronous activities/interactions in your course.
Communication Strategies
- Similar to how you would speak in a typical lecture, write in a more conversational style to engage students.
- Include netiquette rules to promote respectful communication, interaction and
- Clearly articulate how students can contact you and when they can expect a For example, how often will you be checking and responding to email.
- List your office hours and the tools students can use to reach
- Outline when students can expect grades and feedback.
- Provide resources for students to become familiar with the tools
- Encourage the use of audio and video to help students connect with you and each
Resources:
- The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate EducationCourse Syllabus Design
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences – Develop a Course SyllabusFaculty of Science – Guidelines for Course Syllabi, Faculty of ScienceInclusion by Design: Tool Helps Faculty Examine Their Teaching Practices
- QM General Standards 1.1-1.7, 2.1, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2, 4.3, 5.3, 5.4, 6.4, 7.1 to 7.4, and 8.6
8. Evaluate how your course is going
The Goal: Select appropriate times throughout the course to solicit feedback and determine additional supports to help students succeed.
Tips:
Student Feedback
- Include opportunities for feedback from students part way through the course or even after each major section to assess how they are doing and how the course is
- Ask students to evaluate the learning activities and resources (including technology)
- UseBrightspace Survey Tool to solicit
- Encourage students to complete CEQs.
Resources:
Part II: Implementing Your Plan in Brightspace
Now that you have a sound plan for your course, you can begin setting up your Brightspace learning environment. Part II of this guide provides other tips and resources to help you build and facilitate your course in Brightspace. Again, a list of additional resources and QM standards are provided if you want to dive in and learn more.
Note:
About six weeks prior to the start of the semester, a Brightspace course site is automatically generated for each credit course offering and access provided to instructor. This is the ‘live’ site that registered students will access. If you wish to prepare in advance prior to the generation of the ‘live’ site, you can submit a request to CITL’s SupportCentre for a ‘sandbox’ or ‘development site with no student registrants added. You can copy content from a previous offering into the ‘live’ or ‘sandbox’ site. If you are starting from scratch, consider uploading the course set-up kit into your Brightspace course site.
The set-up kit was designed to meet accessibility standards and can easily be edited using the HTML editor within Brightspace.
1. Getting started: write welcome and overview
The Goal: Introduce learners to purpose and structure of the course, learning environment, and what is expected.
Tips:
Welcome Message
- Welcome students to the course and introduce
- Describe your teaching philosophy and how course is
- Consider sharing some information about you and your experience teaching the course to help students establish a connection with you, see examples of course/moduleintroductions.
Course Overview
- Write a general description and describe the overall format of the course. Draft in Microsoft Word or similar application first and then copy and paste into Brightspace using HTML Editor (page provided in CITL Course Setup Kit Template).
- Make clear how to get started, how to navigate the site, and find various components (e.g. syllabus, descriptions of assessments, due dates).
- List overall course goals/learning outcomes, if not included in syllabus
- Communicate the course workload to help students plan and manage their time (e.g. include formal study time and self-study time).
- Explain what is expected for asynchronous discussions and synchronous activities/interactions (e.g. participate in discussion forums regularly and how you will hold students accountable for group work).
Resources:
2. Set communication expectations
The Goal: Create a sense of community by informing students how communication and interaction occurs in the course.
Tips:
Communication Strategies
- Describe how students will communicate with you and their classmates and outline the technology tools used (e.g. students can use Brightspace classlist to email you, individual classmates or group members).
- Provide more than one way to contact you (e.g. an Institutional email or telephone number for emergency situations).
- Include contact information for any assistants helping deliver the course (e.g. teaching assistant or librarian/research assistant).
- Set response time expectations. Being online does not imply you need to be available 24/7.
- Communicate when students can expect grades and feedback.
- Use the Announcements tool in Brightspace to update students of any changes in course schedule or resources.
- Provide schedule of online synchronous sessions if you are including these in your delivery. This will help students prepare to actively participate in the course (sample already included in CITL Setup Kit Template).
- Hold online office hours using Online Rooms.
- Review ‘Best Practices for Video Conferencing’ created by
- Include netiquette rules (already included in CITL Course Setup Kit Template).
- Discuss with students the built-in video and audio recorder and whether want to use it for participating in discussion forums.
Opportunities for Social Interaction
- Foster social interaction so students can learn from each other by:
- Inviting students to introduce themselves and share a personal comment or video.
- Creating a course discussion and encourage students to ask and respond to questions related to the course and post relevant resources.
- Encouraging study groups.
- Creating a ‘student cafe’ discussion forum for students to talk about things not related to the course.
Resources:
- Using Announcements to Give Narrative Shape to your Online CourseImproving Online Communications
- Community of Inquiry Framework
- 7 Strategies to Promote Community in Online CoursesSocial Learning
- Building Community and Creating Relevance in the Online ClassroomEmoticon Basics
- Which Tool Should I use?
- Other Educational Technologies
- QM General Standards: 1.3, 1.8, 1.9. 5.3 and 5.4
3. Provide resources on how to be successful and getting help
The Goal: Set the tone for success by informing students where to go for help, including academic and student support services.
Tips:
Academic and Student Support Services
- Add supports and services (e.g. library service and writing center) available at Memorial and your specific campus (list provided in CITL Setup Kit Template).Note: Items identified in Setup Kit as a WEB PAGE can be edited by you using the HTML Editor and LINKS (e.g. Library Service, Technical Help) are managed by CITL, so updates will automatically be applied to your site.
- Check with your academic unit and colleagues for other discipline-specific resources or institutional policies to add.
Tutorials and Guides
- Provide guidance on study skills and time management as students are required to work more independently in an online/remote environment (already included in CITL Course Setup Kit Template).
- Include tutorials on using Brightspace and how to get help (already included in CITL Setup Kit Template).
- Share tutorials to help students become familiar with other technology tools being used, (e.g. Google Sheets).
Resources:
4. Make syllabus accessible
The Goal: Present the syllabus in various formats to meet the needs of your learners.
Tips:
Formatting Syllabus
- Format using a template from your academic unit, if available.
- Consider placing each component in your syllabus on an individual page as per CITL Setup Kit and/or uploading an accessible printable version that can be easily read by assistive technology, such as a screen reader.
- If you using CITL Setup Kit Template, delete any pages you will not be
- Summarize all assessments, including sub-components, and value of overall grade (page already included in CITL Course Setup Kit Template).
- Suggest including a detail description of each assessment that clearly states its purpose, what students are to do, when, how.
Resources:
5. Create course schedule
The Goal: Create a schedule that provides a snapshot for each week of the semester, including topics, activities, assessments, and due dates to help guide student learning.
Tips:
Schedule at a Glance
- Review your syllabus and compile into a schedule at a glance the weekly content/topics and activities and assessments (sample provided in CITL Course Setup Kit Template).
- Add due dates for graded assessments, including sub-components.
- Ensure ample time between assignments for students to receive feedback before the next assignment is due.
- Consider the time required for your students to complete assignments and for you and your teaching assistants to mark and return graded work.
Policies and Regulations
- Review general academic regulations related to ‘Scheduling of Parts of Evaluation’ and ‘Correct and Return of Student Work’ in University calendar to ensure your dates meet the requirements of these regulations and your academic unit-wide policies.
Resources:
6. Setup content modules
The Goal: Add the content that students need for a successful learning experience following the weekly schedule developed for the semester.
Tips:
Organize and Add Content
- Create a module for each week (sample provided in CITL Course Setup Kit Template) or organize content modules according to the topic/theme noted in course schedule,
- Establish a routine structure for each week or module so students can plan and organize, for example: introduce the content (concepts/ information) to be covered (e.g. write an introduction and include a activity to appraise students’ knowledge of and experience with the topic).
- Add learning outcomes for the module so students know what is expected and can prioritize their learning.
- Link to or upload your course resources (e.g. readings in text, resources on eReserve through the library, instructor notes, PowerPoint slides, audio and video (see How to Upload a Topic Page and Using HTML Editor to add resources).
- Explain purpose of reading(s), resources, and highlight things students should pay particular attention to.
- Provide descriptions and detail instructions of any activities. (e.g. group activities and expectations of group members). Use this template as a guide for explaining activities and assignments.
- Provide relevant examples of previous students’ work when useful/possible.
- Include clear information about assessment due or place a Consider using Intelligent Agents in Brightspace to send reminders.
- Use ‘Manage Files Area‘ in Brightspace if want to create/copy the file structure currently on your computer or to upload a number of files at one time.
- Determine how you will release content – entire content on first day of classes or set weekly release conditions.
- Refer to Copyright Help for assistance with determining appropriate credit lines when attributing other’s work.
UDL Considerations
- Use headings to organize content and signal important information – see Basics of HTML.
- Avoid adding elements (e.g. images) that are distracting and don’t crowd too much text one page.
- Include transcripts for video and audio added, see Transcribing Recorded Video andAudio Files.
- Check how the content you have added will look to students to ensure it is as you intended, see Check your Content as a Student.
Resources:
7. Setup communication and assessment technology tools
The Goal: Set up all technology tools used in the course as outlined in your syllabus.
Tips:
Communication Tools
- Set up discussions forums and topics, restrictions, and link to
- If group work is required, create groups in Brightspace. Each group can have its own discussion forum and submission Assignment (Dropbox) folder.
- Add important dates.
Assessment Tools
- If using the Brightspace Assignments (Dropbox) tool, create folders, add student instructions, link to gradebook, and set any restrictions.
- Create any Brightspace rubrics or upload/link to
- Review your Gradebook and add any additional assessments. Having all assessments referenced in the gradebook allows students the ability to track their own progress in the course.
- Hide an assessment so final grade is not visible to students before released by the Registrar’s Office.
Library Reserve and Textbook
- Make Course Resources (Reserves) link available in your site if you created a reading/resource list at the library.
- Order any textbook(s) with your academic department.
Contact Support Centre for help on setting up technology tools or to book a consultation.
Resources:
8. Finalize and activate your course site
The Goal: Do a final review to ensure everything is ready and activate for student viewing.
Tips:
Final Edits
- Ensure all links to resources are still
- Check credit lines and make sure citations are
- Check Course Resources (Reserves) is
- Complete final check for Accessibility and Quality.
- Prepare for the unexpected – test technologies used to anticipate and solve problems ahead of time.
Course Admin Tasks
- If working from a ‘development’ or ‘sandbox’ site, copy your content into ‘live’ semester course site.
- Activate your course site so visible to
- If you want to combine course offerings (sections), contact Support Center.
- To provide a TA or others with access to your course, submit a request to the SupportCenter, include name and email address.
Resources:
References
- Bates, W. (2019). Teaching in a digital age (2nd ed.). Tony Bates Associates. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/
- Biggs, (2014). Constructive alignment in university teaching. HERDSA Review of Education, 1, 5-22. www.herdsa.org.au/herdsa-review-higher-education-vol-1/5-22
- Bowen, Ryan , (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/
- CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
- (n.d.) UDL On Campus: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. http://udloncampus.cast.org/home
- Fink, D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey-Bass.
- https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/lib/mun/detail.action?docID=1394307 (Note: e-book available at Memorial Library)
- Quality Matters (n.d.). Specific Review Standards from the QM Higher Education Rubric, (6th ). www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/StandardsfromtheQMHigherEducationRubric.pdf
(Standards used by the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL), Memorial.)
- Quality Matters (n.d.). QM Emergency Remote Instruction Checklist: Higher Education. https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRzSgvQZDAbu9iG3Cxnq3D2hlxiUZrzwVRj94MGPVDvY9exqxiSgOkuhKxkexPSxb12cb3QNqDTWSIc/pub
- Wiggins G., & McTighe, J. (2001). What is backward design? In Understanding by design. www.sabes.org/sites/sabes.org/files/resources/Backward_design.pdf
Originally Published: April 5, 2024
