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Welcome to the 14th edition of Design Matters Digest, a monthly newsletter that explores various elements of online course design and the research that can help you improve your Canvas courses. This month, we’re exploring the impact of using course design to remove common course obstacles.
“…With unclear instruction, ambiguous organization, and inefficient applications, the focus of online learners will be on technology, not on learning which creates more obstacles for online learner”
(Chen, 2016).
Perhaps the thought of an obstacle course sounds exciting when it’s just for fun; but when there’s an important objective, as is the case for all Canvas courses, obstacles are frustrating, at best. In fact, obstacles in a Canvas course are often detrimental to everything from learner success to belonging and retention.
For some learners, an online environment is wholly unfamiliar, and for others, it may be difficult to access with assistive technologies. Even cluttered visual design acts as an obstacle for cognitive processing (Burgstahler, 2015). While the obstacles learners face in a Canvas course can be specific to their situation and experience, research has revealed that many common obstacles in online learning can be alleviated with strategic course design!
Let’s explore a few tips and tools to help remove common course obstacles–so learning doesn’t feel like an obstacle course! (See what we did there?)
Streamline organization and navigation. One of the most common obstacles in an online course is an inability to wayfind through learning tasks (McMullan et al., 2022). Applying patterned course organization and naming conventions can support learners in easily identifying activities, resources, and learning content. Remove the obstacle further by streamlining the navigation process. Consider adding dated module buttons on the home page so students can easily identify and jump to their current learning module. Also, disabling unused links from the Canvas course navigation allows the remaining links to draw learner attention.
Increase access to content. If students can locate their learning content and activities–great!–but are there obstacles standing in the way of their ability to engage with the content? Working to ensure content and files are accessible–such as using appropriate heading structure, descriptive link text, and sufficient color contrast–benefits all learners and removes barriers for those with disabilities (Burgstahler, 2002). Additionally, some students are learning in their non-native language or are less familiar with relevant domain vocabulary, so adding icons to headings and providing definitions for key terms can help alleviate potential language obstacles (Rao, 2021).
Remember that sometimes less is more. While it may seem reasonable to load a course with support to address various obstacles, when it comes to cognitive load and learner attention, research suggests you can have too much of a good thing in your course design (Castro-Alonso et al., 2021; Sweller et al., 2019). A few tips to avoid overly burdening learners’ cognitive capacity: utilize clear and consistent headings, separate and label supplemental content, and use accessible layout columns, tabs, or accordions to reduce endless scrolling and to match the structure to the content.
“The challenge truly is taking that raw content and turning it into something that’s accessible and that is easy for the learner to learn, right? And so, one of the things that I absolutely love about the Cidi Labs tools is that it lets the designer be a designer.”
– Chris Tims, Instructional Designer at Service Center Region 11, Texas Education Agency
Learn More:
To see this Digest come to life, join us for our Design Matters Live! webinar: Removing Obstacles to Optimize Learning. We’ll dive deeper into the research behind this digest edition and showcase amazing examples of how our tools can help you ensure your students are spending time learning rather than jumping over hurdles in your Canvas courses.
Have you heard that UDOIT Advantage–our course accessibility assistant–features customizable accessibility scoring at the course and admin level? Now it’s even easier to identify and remove accessibility obstacles in your Canvas courses to make a big impact!
Removing obstacles in one course is great, but working for consistently navigable courses across a program or institution helps remove obstacles at scale. Watch our recent webinar, Consistent Design, Big Impact, to learn more research and tips for employing consistent design. Or watch our session, Conjuring Quick Creativity with DesignPLUS Magic, to learn how the DesignPLUS QuickStart Wizard enables all users to easily access templates designed for a seamless learner experience.
Spread the Word: Do you know someone who would like to receive our Design Matters Digest? Tell them they can subscribe here. Interested in more Design Matters content? Check out our webinar series and read past editions of the Digest.
Citations:
Burgstahler, S. (2002). Universal design of distance learning. Information Technology and Disabilities, 8(1).
Burgstahler, S. (2015). Opening Doors or Slamming Them Shut? Online Learning Practices and Students with Disabilities. Social Inclusion, 3(6), 69-79. doi:https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v3i6.420
Castro-Alonso, J.C., de Koning, B.B., Fiorella, L. et al. Five Strategies for Optimizing Instructional Materials: Instructor- and Learner-Managed Cognitive Load. Educ Psychol Rev 33, 1379–1407 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09606-9
Chen, L. L. (2016). A model for effective online instructional design. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, 6(2), 2303-2308.
Martin, F., Bolliger, D. U., & Flowers, C. (2021). Design Matters: Development and Validation of the Online Course Design Elements (OCDE) Instrument. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 22(2), 46–71. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v22i2.5187
McMullan, T., Williams, D., Ortiz, Y. L., & Lollar, J. (2022). Is Consistency Possible? Course Design and Delivery to Meet Faculty and Student Needs. Current Issues in Education, 23(3).
Rao, K. (2021). Inclusive instructional design: Applying UDL to online learning. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 10(1), 1-10.
Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J.J.G. & Paas, F. Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later. Educ Psychol Rev 31, 261–292 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09465-5
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