1. Decision Making
 

How much of this course will be delivered online?
How to deliver what will be taught?
Who will be taking the course?
Where will students take the course?

2.  Design Delivery
 

a. Freshman - Linear

- student is new to the material

- present the material in a linear fashion, with few links

- allow the student to learn important basic information

- student is not confused by opinion or misinformation
 

b. Sophomore - Simple Flow

-simple flow of material like that found in a hierarchical  presentation

- to use: think of each of your lessons as  being the parent and then each link being a child to that parent

- begin to expand the choices the student needs to make
 

c.  Junior - Exploration

- increase interactivity as the course progresses

- choose material with complex choices to give your students more opportunity to be involved in their learning experience

- provide opportunities for students to create their own learning paths

- teach your students how to evaluate the pages they visit and always take time to lead them back to the topic at hand
 

d. Senior - Interrelating

- students have demonstrated an understanding of the Web environment

- students actively participate in their own education

- help the student understand how different topics in the course interact

- give guidance in choosing opportunities to explore different presentations of similar material

- allow the students time for discovery and integrate their findings into the course

3. Page Layout
 

The Basic Format

- All the important links are located in a left hand column that is accentuated by a color.

- There is a title at the top that clearly states the contents of the Web page

- At the bottom of the page there is a link to contact the person responsible for the Web page, when it what created and where Web site it is located

- You may want to type out the email address and also the url of the page because many students do not have mail privledges on computers in labs and some people will find your page via a search engine that will trap the page in a frame

Additional Tricks

- Use headings to signal levels of importance and allow the student to scan for the information they want

- Use consistent grouping, ordering and labeling

- Use bolding, bullets and graphics to add draw attention to important information

- Group information into logical units, even separating chunks of information into separate Web pages if content and/or length (excess of 2 screens) warrants

- Take time to see what information each screen shows becasue you may need to enhance the flow of information

- If you want the student to read off of the monitor, put information in columns 3-4 inches to reduce eye strain

4.  Navigational Tips
 

Navigation Outside the Web page:
- Link menus are easily found if they have at least 4 choices
- Link colors should compliment the text
- Use links to other sites to enhance your course's credibility
- Have a mail link to you on each Web page

Make your links mean something:
Instead of linking "click on this" try to choose words that will describe what the link will lead to.
For example:

Poor:  If you want to use Compton's Encyclopedia click here

Better: Compton's Encyclopedia is an excellent resource for this course

Navigation Within the Web page:
- Maintain a consistent layout for all Web pages
- Use headings, bolding, bullets and graphics to draw the student down through the Web page.
- Students of western origin will read from left to right and top to bottom. Organize your information to take advantage of this pattern

Do:
- NOT Over use bolding because it causes confusion
- NOT Color any text you want to emphasize blue (blue is associated  with hypertext)
- NOT Use morethan 3 different fonts because it can distract the student

5.  Adding Extras

There are several design elements you can add to your online courses that will improve the overall look as well as assist in the learning process:

- Title page - the sense of a beginning
- Table of Contents - a reference for the students
- Add color - must coordinate with web colors
- Inserting graphics - how many is too many
- Logos - students know the document is teacher generated
- Page Backgrounds - not too busy but eye catching
- Final Check - spelling, font size, web colors, etc.

6.  Concise Content

Digital communications are processed differently than previous forms of communication. A study by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen (1997) from Sun Microsystems determined that people don't read information from their computer screens, they scan it. The same study showed that reading slows 25% when reading from the screen.  Delivery of online courses using concise writing, whether it is intended to be read entirely from the screen or not, can benefit from concise writing that improves readability.

- Use half the content
- Inverse pyramid - start with a summary of the material and then explain the details
- Emphasize important concepts
- Limit choices - minimize the number of links

7.  Add Yourself

The most important part of any course is the instructor who teaches it. The skills you bring to traditional face-to-face classes are the same skills you should bring to your online course.