Developing Content

When designing your content in DC Connect, it is valuable to know that student cognitive load can become overloaded because human working memory capacity is limited. This overload can be exacerbated in courses that have a virtual component. Much like multitasking, overwhelming cognitive load can prevent learning.

Below are four ways to prevent cognitive overload in your students:

1. Keep it simple – taking out all content from the course that isn’t immediately relevant to the topic at hand.
2. Chunk the information – break complex topics into ‘bite-size’ pieces, this enables a student to fully understand and process one part before moving on, thus improving the transfer to long-term memory.
3. Avoid posting large blocks of text – break text into small pieces, use bullet points, and use the format of the page to show relationships (indentation, tabs, etc.).
4. Use different techniques to present the information – allowing the students to process the information in different ways.

Design First for Online

Design your course with the online students first in mind. Research has shown that it is often the students who are participating synchronously online that are often forgotten and fail to be meaningfully integrated into the classroom community. By starting with your online students, you will ensure that your course is “digital by design” and that students who choose an online participation mode are included from the beginning.

Digital by Design

Designing a flexible or HyFlex lesson in a digital by design method forces us to think about structure or, as mentioned previously, the architecture of the learning opportunity. When we design an activity, we need to conceptualize it from the perspective of all participation modes – what will be the asynchronous online experience? What will be the synchronous online experience? What will be the in-person experience? What steps and structures do I need to put into place to ensure a seamless experience for all participation modes?

One way to ensure that you consider their learning experience is to plan for your online students first and then to consider how that plan might apply for in-person students (and decided on any alternations that might need to be made for in-person students). You may find the following templates helpful for you to plan your flexible or HyFlex lessons:

• JumpStart Model for Lesson Planning - Flexible Delivery Version
• JumpStart Model for Lesson Planning - HyFlex Delivery Version

If you are unsure how to use these templates, this video explains how to complete the flexible delivery template.

Ensuring that your learning experiences are digital by design is a concept that is central to flexible delivery. “In learning that is truly digital by design students […] can move seamlessly between physical and virtual environments” (Ferrell, Knight, & Smith, 2018). Not only does digital by design pertain to the content we deliver or resources we use, it also pertains to our thought process about teaching and learning. We need to think about:

• the various learning experiences of our students – “the user experience”
• the technical architecture required to achieve our outcomes
• how the medium of the technology can be an intricate aspect of the message conveyed in the content

Therefore, when choosing your resources ensure that they are:

1. Pared down – review your curriculum and pare down the amount of material to be read so that what is covered is covered deeply. Remember to “keep it simple”.
2. Available for online students – in a flexible course, resources must be digital. Supporting your online students, also supports your in-person students.
3. Copyright compliant – when in doubt link out (if you are uncertain about the legalities for embedding a resource within the LMS, it is best practice to link out to the original resource).
4. Accessible for different learning needs - ensure that visuals have alt text, videos have captions and/or transcripts, etc.

Ensuring that each step of the learning experience is planned is one way to build a seamless experience. Visualize the lesson, note the steps that learners will need to engage in, be prepared to support them in each step, build in additional time for activities, and practice.

The following content provides some suggestions to consider when preparing digital by design, this content is not all encompassing. For a full list of considerations for developing a flexible or HyFlex course, please see our High-Quality Flexible/HyFlex Development Checklist (coming soon!)

Create a “Start Here” Module

Create a “Start Here” Module – within this module set out:

• 
Syllabus
• Course Learning Outcomes (CLO)
• Required textbook or materials
• Course schedule
• Course evaluations and their connection to CLO
• Grading policy
• Technology requirements
• Expectations for participation for F2F and Online students
• In-class and online etiquette for discussions and interactions
• Instructor introduction and biography
• Instructor contact information and availability
• How to Navigate the course
• What to do First
• College supports and resources available for students
  • Technical
  • Academic
  • Accessibility
  • Mental health
  • Social

Support Executive Functions

Students often struggle with executive functions, or self-management skills, such as time management, organization, goal setting, focus, task initiation, emotional control, and stress tolerance. To support students’ executive functioning, build structure and cues into your course.

To learn more about executive functions, watch this video: Executive Function: Your Brain's Control Center

Chunk Course Content

Organize your course into chunks – dividing your course into weekly DC Connect modules is an excellent practice as it can support time management, focus, task initiation, and organization.

Use the DC Connect Calendar

Use the calendar in DC Connect to help students organize their tasks. Post all due dates in the calendar – assignments and quizzes within DC Connect can be automatically added to the calendar, but other due dates will need to be entered manually. For larger tasks such as reports or essays, assist students by chunking the task into manageable steps and scheduling those pieces into their calendars.

Post Announcements & Reminders

Use announcements and email reminders to support student task initiation. Post announcements on the same days every week to build consistency and routine for your students. Do not send too many announcements or emails, because they might overwhelm students or become ignored.

Set Date Restrictions

Set Date Restrictions on your DC Connect Activities. This auto populates the “Work To Do” widget (visible to students only), which supports time management.

Support Content Mastery

Provide Practice and Feedback

Build self-reflection tasks, retrieval practice, interleaved practice, and other activities that are low or, better yet, no-stakes to support learning. Provide feedback – either personalized or automatically-generated – so students can assess their level of learning.

Create a Digital Sharing Space

Create a digital space (e.g. a channel within your MS Team, a Q&A discussion topic, etc.) to all allow students to pose questions about the course such as course content, processes, learning strategies, etc. Students can learn how to manage their executive functions from each other's inquires, examples, and strategies.