Course-Design Standards

Course Appearance

The overall look of CCCOnline courses and of the Course Menu (left-hand Navigation bar) are preset in the WebCT course template. CCCOnline also uses a style sheet (.CSS) within courses to manage page appearance and ADA/section 508 compliance. As a result, changes to the Course Menu and in page appearance may be made only upon request and with the approval of program chairs and/or instructional designers. Assistance with any of the course-design standards may be obtained from any designer. (See CCCOnline Principles of Design: Usability Standards and Accessibility Standards for further information on appearance.)

Top of Page

Course Menu

In order to provide students with consistent, structured, and easily used navigation methods within courses, the content and sequence of items in the Course Menu pictured at right will ordinarily be used within each course. The use of this Menu structure also assures CCCOnline’s conformity with ADA/Section 508 recommendations to provide consistent and easily-understood navigation methods.

Main Content areas:

• Homepage
• Course Info (course information)
• Communications
• Student Tools
• Table of Contents (optional)
• Units of study
• Tests
• Support Center link
• Web for Faculty link (hidden)

Items under each of the main content areas may be omitted if not
applicable to a particular course, and additional items may be added (according to Course Menu Guidelines) when appropriate for an individual course. Designers will help make such decisions in concert with faculty who are developing courses.

Top of Page

Course Content

The following items are to be included in all courses:

1. Course Title page (Homepage):
   • Contains course number & name at top, plus faculty name (& perhaps a banner).
   • Contains a welcome, and information about the course, procedures, and how to proceed (next steps).
2. Getting Started page, as link (Start Here) from the Homepage. (A designer can provide the template for this page, which delineates suggested contents.)
3. Unit/Module pages
   • The Unit homepage will contain at least the following:
     • links to course content such as lectures, assignments, discussions, and quizzes or exams,
     • a unit Introduction/Overview,
     • a listing of unit Outcomes/Objectives keyed to CCCNS competencies for the course.
   • Content/Lecture pages should generally be no longer than 2-3 screens - if
     longer, use a Content Module page (table of contents/TOC) to link to
     content items.
4. Syllabus – required link on Course Menu; must use the required CCCOnline syllabus template and may include a sentence explaining the Compile feature near top
5. Schedule - required link on Course Menu; must use the required CCCOnline schedule template and may also appear on the course homepage and somewhere within each unit
6. Resources page - required link on Course Menu; may also appear somewhere within units.

Top of Page

Unit Content

Course units MUST include the following items:

1. Lectures -- in each unit (may be called Instructor Remarks, or Notes, or whatever is deemed an appropriate title)
   • Length is not an issue (use TOC feature though if longer than 2-3 screens).
   • Animation features/Flash are an option to consider using here.
2. Assignments -- reading, homework, projects, etc.
3. Readings (included in Assignments page)
4. Discussions – links to and/or topics
5. Assessments -- tests, quizzes, projects, group work, labs, discussions, etc.

Course units MAY include these items:

1. Chat
2. Whiteboard
3. PowerPoint slides (usually change to web pages, not slides)
4. Flash or other animated/interactive devices
5. Links to web/publisher content
6. Learning objects
7. Audio and/or video components
8. Other items as appropriate

NOTE: Additional information on course and unit guidelines may be found in the Template Design Lounge, under Adopted Guidelines on the Course Menu.

Top of Page

Files and Graphics

Allowable formats:

• Graphics - .jpg or.gif (preferred)
• Written documents -.doc, .rtf, or .txt (for Word, Wordperfect, WordPad and Notepad)
• HTML documents - .htm, .html

Recommendations:

1. Graphics – best to have a reduced file size for the web (25k or less); should include ALT tag for identification for screen readers. (Talk with a designer for assistance with graphics files.)
2. Animations – used appropriately and have a maximum of 3 loops in their presentation.
3. Filenames and extensions - best as 8-character names in the filename.ext format, typed in lowercase letters without spaces. This convention meets the standard formats allowable in WebCT.

Top of Page