WCLN resource development relies on teachers to work together to design resources that best serve the majority of students. Quality explanations and a variety of activity types is the core goal.
Guidelines(click question to jump to answer):
General Layout
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- in general, a course will hold 4-8 units (try to be consistent with others of the same grade/topic)
- in general, each lesson should hold 4-8 readings
- in general, readings should be about a screen size (not overly small or big). Avoid lessons that require excessive scrolling (overwhelming).
- please don't specify font size or family unless absolutely needed (improves general accessibility)
- if you choose to bold "key words," that's fine, don't use various colors and/or underlines and/or highlight colors (too distracting)
- if you choose a different color for examples (eg. Example 1:), keep consistent throughout course
- sometimes <hr> tags (line) are nice to separate sections or items.
- don't over-format, as different browsers and/or screen sizes will mess with this anyway
- if you copy from WORD, please be aware of messy HTML and discuss ideas for not leaving a mess.
- Use our Canadian way of spelling (eg. colour vs. color) - reference
Embedding Videos
When you embed a video into a lesson, here's how to do it.
<p align="center"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JAIHikod-Q0?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640" longdesc="examples of volcanism"></iframe></p>
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- align="center" ensures the video is centered on the lesson
- ?rel=0 ensures that a bunch of "recommended videos" don't show-up at end
- width = 640 is a nice size for a typical screen, generally good not to go wider
- height = 360 complements the 640 height for typical videos, but just set it to keep proportions
- longdesc = a description in case the video becomes unavailable.
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Links in Lessons
Within LTI / LMS, ALL links within lessons NEED to open in a new tab or they won't work.
Two ways to make sure they "open in a new tab"
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- Using the editor, use link button and select "New Window"
- In HTML mode.
<a href="https://reference.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here.</a></p>
- Using the editor, use link button and select "New Window"
Assessment
There's no perfect assessment for any given group or individual. Thus, the goal is to have some variety, so teachers can decide what best suits their purpose. It's up to the teacher to choose which assessment tools to use. You can hide/delete/skip the ones you don't wish to use with your students. The goal of designers is to provide the variety for teachers to make this happen.
Review in Courses
Why do WCLN courses have extensive review at the beginning of each major section in Math and Science?
Every classroom teacher is going to do some review at the beginning of a new topic or unit, to ensure that all students are roughly "on the same page."
For a classroom teacher, this is a challenge in that you:
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- want lots of review for the weaker students, so you don't leave them even further behind.
- don't want too much review, as you'll bore the stronger students who remember much of it.
One advantage that we have in the online-course world, is that we can provide lots of review, without boring the stronger students nearly as much. They can do the review and if they remember it well, they can have it done really quickly and move on. Weaker students can take their time, making sure the successfully scaffold for upcoming lessons.
Thus, feel free to provide a little extra review, if you think it'll help many students.
Why Print?
Why do we have so many Learning Guides, Assignments, and Projects presented in .pdf form? Why don't we use .docx or self-fill pdf files?
No solution is perfect for every student and situation, but we lean towards students having to write notes/solutions in many cases.
Here's a video that students see in a number of courses: