Designing for online modalities
Online, scheduled online, and hybrid courses each create a different learning environment. While the course outcomes remain the same, each modality requires different design decisions about how instruction is delivered, how students interact, how activities are structured, and how D2L Brightspace supports the course.
The goal is not to recreate the same course in a different setting. It is to design intentionally for the way students will experience the course.
Same outcomes, different design
Regardless of modality, students should encounter clear instruction, meaningful activities, opportunities for interaction and feedback, accessible course materials, and an appropriate workload.
What changes is where and how those experiences happen.
Online with no scheduled meetings
In an online course with no scheduled meetings, Brightspace is the primary instructional environment.
Students do not have a regular class meeting where the instructor can introduce a topic, explain an assignment, clarify expectations, or tell students what comes next. Those elements need to be intentionally designed into the online course.
Consider how students will:
- encounter instruction and examples
- move through materials and activities in a clear sequence
- practice before completing graded work;
- interact with the instructor and other students
- receive guidance and feedback
- understand what to do next.
Design question:
Does the course provide students with enough instruction, guidance, interaction, and feedback to learn successfully without a scheduled class meeting?
PCC’s Online Course Design Framework emphasizes clear organization, intentional instructor presence, accessible content, aligned activities and assessments, and predictable course structure for online students.
Online with scheduled meetings
Scheduled online courses combine real-time instruction with learning in Brightspace.
The design challenge is making those two environments work together. Students should not experience the Zoom meeting and Brightspace course as separate parts of the class.
Make it clear:
- what students should do before a meeting
- what will happen during the meeting
- how meeting activities connect to course materials and assessments
- what students should do afterward
Use scheduled meeting time for learning that benefits from real-time interaction, such as discussion, demonstration, collaboration, problem-solving, coaching, or practice.
Design question:
How does meeting together support and extend the learning students are doing in Brightspace?
PCC’s Online Course Design Framework specifically calls for the synchronous and asynchronous portions of scheduled online courses to be connected and mutually reinforcing.
Online + in-person
Online + in-person courses combine in-person learning with online learning. Depending on the course, the online portion may happen asynchronously in Brightspace, through scheduled online meetings, or through a combination of both.
The design challenge is making those environments feel like parts of one course rather than separate experiences. Students should be able to understand where each part of the learning happens, how the different environments connect, and what they need to do before, during, and after each type of activity.
Consider how students will:
- prepare online before an in-person or scheduled online meeting
- participate in activities that benefit from real-time interaction
- continue or apply learning afterward in Brightspace
- understand which activities happen in person, online asynchronously, or online at a scheduled time
- see how all parts of the course connect to assignments and assessments.
For students, the connection between the two should be easy to see:
Prepare online → Participate in person or online → Continue or apply in Brightspace
Design question:
Does each learning environment have a clear purpose, and can students see how the pieces fit together?
Use Brightspace to create continuity
The role of Brightspace may vary by modality, but it can provide students with a consistent place to understand and navigate the course.
Use Brightspace to help students find:
- course information and expectations
- weekly or module-based learning materials
- meeting information
- activities and assessments
- due dates and schedules
- instructor communication
- grades and feedback
- information about what comes next
In a course with no scheduled meetings, Brightspace carries most of the instructional experience. In scheduled online and hybrid courses, it also helps connect learning that happens in different environments.
Consider the whole student experience
When designing for a modality, consider the course as a complete experience rather than a collection of individual activities.
Questions to ask yourself include:
- chalkboard user Where does instruction happen?
- Where will students encounter explanation, modeling, examples, and guidance?
- comments Where does interaction happen?
- Which interactions need to occur in real time, and which work well asynchronously?
- link How does the learning connect?
- Can students see the relationship between materials, meetings, activities, practice, and assessments?
- laptop What role does Brightspace play?
- What does the LMS need to provide so students can understand and navigate the course?
- scale balanced Is the workload appropriate?
- When learning shifts between environments, make sure activities are being redistributed rather than simply added. PCC considers synchronous meetings, readings, media, activities, assignments, assessments, and other required learning when evaluating total student academic engagement.