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The Transform your Teaching podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Join Dr. Rob McDole and Dr. Jared Pyles as they seek to inspire higher education faculty to adopt innovative teaching and learning practices.
This is the Transform Your Teaching Podcast. The Transform Your Teaching Podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.
Ryan:Hello, and welcome to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. In today's episode, Doctor. Rob McDowell and Doctor. Jared Piles continue our series in online teaching practices by talking about the importance of organization in an online course. Thanks for listening.
Jared:Thank you, Ryan. Yes, Ryan. Thank you. Before we get to that, here's the thing. Right?
Jared:I'm past a certain age now where anything I do has potential of hurting me.
Rob:I know. I know what you're saying.
Jared:I'm at that point where anything I do, there's always in the back of my mind, like, there's a risk that you could go out and you could be done for.
Rob:You could end it right there.
Jared:I could end it right here. And case in point, yesterday I'm emptying the dishwasher and I step slightly, not totally out of the realm of my normal movements, maybe slightly different. And I felt my back slightly tweak. Now I've had, I have scoliosis, so I have lower back problems. So I'm always making sure that I don't like, I can't bend at a middle distance.
Jared:I have to either go completely, like, it's just, it's insane. But, so it's not out. Like, yeah, I can tell when my spine goes like, like, oh, you know, this is just muscle pain, but it hurts like you, it's like radiating down to my hip. Now you're starting sound like my grandfather. We
Ryan:came in with really organized talking points.
Jared:Yes. We did.
Rob:So, again, about organization.
Jared:Now let's get to the organized part of our organized part. Yeah.
Rob:So last time we reflected on reflection We did. And the importance of it. Today, we're talking about how organization helps an online course. And, specifically, how it helps us move students through and how it helps us as well in teaching the course. So, Jared, why why should we be organized?
Jared:Well, I mean, there are several reasons, and we have some notes here to talk through of why be organized and then what is a, what are some good indications of good organization? And then we'll end with some takeaways. But the, the why, I mean, of it from your student perspective. It helps create an effective learning environment for your students because it outlines to them the path they're going down. Like, you don't want to go on a tour with a guide that doesn't look like they know where they're going.
Jared:Right? Like, going on a tour of and all of a sudden your tour guide decides he just stops and kinda looks to his left and to his right. And he's like, wait a minute. We should turn back. And you're like, excuse me?
Jared:You know, especially of a place you've never been to before. Or they're like, I think we should turn left here. No. Wait. We guess we and it's starting to get dark.
Jared:Not that I've ever experienced this before, but you lose confidence and you kind of lose focus on what it is you're exactly there to do. And instead you're worried more about just all the things that are going wrong. And I think an organized course can help eliminate that confusion and frustration that you could experience as a learner. And it's also something to consider as well, that there's already a disconnect in an online course between the student and everything else around them. One of the ways of fixing that is helping students feeling connected by, you know, through communication strategies and all that stuff.
Jared:But another really good indicator is creating an organized path for them to go through to eliminate any kind of distraction or sense of anxiety or confusion along the way. It helps them when they approach the online course, when they go into the LMS, wherever the course is situated, it helps a lot to feel connected when you know what you're doing and how to get there
Rob:Yeah.
Jared:And how to get through.
Rob:But Jared.
Jared:But Rob. But Jared. Yeah.
Rob:You know, I understand organization. Okay. That's good. Right?
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:Everybody says organization is good.
Jared:Everybody says it.
Rob:But but that's not reality. These kids don't live in that. They don't I mean, life is not organized, and I don't feel as an instructor that I'm doing them a service by organizing my course.
Jared:Well, are you teaching the course to teach them about bad organization? Because that is one of those, like, case studies ironically of that. It it is your course an ironic case study on disorganization? If that's it It could be. If if that's it, then great.
Jared:You're you've met your learning objectives because you've put them in a disorganized area.
Rob:That would be a good course on organization
Jared:You would.
Rob:To purposefully disorganize it. You know, another one that I've heard is it reduces my ability as an instructor to actually respond to whatever's going on. Yeah. You know? And and I've said, well, actually, no, that's not the case.
Rob:If you organize it well, that gives you a lot of opportunity to bring in things that are happening in the moment in the world, depending on the topic, you know, in your announcements or in your discussions because we've been talking about online learning. Or you maybe you change an assignment. You give a little addition to the assignment, give it a little tweak that has some sort of current event connection
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:Based on something that's happened. Mhmm. But you wouldn't be able to do that if you're not completely organized
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:From the get go. Yeah. One of the biggest reasons a teacher should do this or a course designer should do organization, and we have a way we do it here. We call it a facilitator's guide. And, essentially, any course we design, it should be able to be taught by someone in that profession or that area of expertise who's credentialed.
Rob:Right? Because we're higher ed. Well, I mean, k through 12, they have credentialing for theirs as well. Yeah. But it basically gives them everything they need to teach the course as it was intended, as it was designed.
Rob:So one way for understanding this for our k through 12 listeners is sub plans.
Jared:Yes. Good old sub plans.
Rob:So sub plans and I'll let Jared fill in the blanks here because I've never had to make one. Oh, they're good. So Jared
Jared:I found my some of my old ones the other day while I was going through Google Drive.
Rob:So how specific do you need to be with a sub plan, Jared?
Jared:It depends on your students. Like, if they're really bad, you gotta almost go down to the minute for that. My honors kids, I didn't have to have nearly as many bulleted points. Although that's not entirely true because there are some times where they needed that as well. But you would almost have to go down to the, minutes or at least explain in great detail everything that's happening and any kind of potential issues that could show up.
Jared:Hey, students may have questions about this. If they have questions about it, they can refer to chapter 12 of the book. Or, hey, students may claim that they don't have a copy of the book. Well, there are extra copies of the book on my shelf and stuff. You have to be very detailed with it because you don't know what to expect, and you want to equip the person who, you know, may have taught English before.
Jared:I'm talking specifically about mine. Or they may be a math teacher that has to be like, Hey, we've got to fill in this period because we don't have a sub for So it's gotta be as detailed as possible, assuming that the person teaching the course has no idea what they're getting themselves into.
Rob:Yeah. And I will say that's probably where higher ed differs from K through 12. Like, when you have adjuncts step up to teach a course, because of our, you know, accreditation standards and those things that we have to to fulfill, they have to be trained in the area. So unlike k through 12 where you might just have a generalized sub, they can sub, but they don't they're not necessarily mathematicians.
Jared:Right?
Rob:But they could sub for a math class because the teacher's given them certain work. Here it is. Do your worksheet. Be done. Watch out for Johnny.
Rob:He might try to get a hall pass, and he won't come back. Yeah. You know, something like that. Those kinds of notes. We're probably not gonna have those same kind of notes inside of our facilitator's guide, but I guess my point is still the same.
Rob:You should have just like you would have in a k through 12, you have, you know, a plan, a teaching plan. Yep. And then you need to think a little bit further than that when we start talking about facilitator's guide. It's more like a sub plan. You've got to give as you've heard me say, we've got to make the implicit explicit.
Rob:So how do you expect this course to be taught? And it's a good it's a good way for you, if you're designing the course, to to really deal with the details of it. When you get into writing that, you're like, oh, okay. Wait a minute. This maybe is not gonna go Yeah.
Rob:The way I think it is because I'm writing it out right now, and it's like, you know, questions come to mind. Mhmm. So doing honestly, us, doing a facilitator's guide is probably one of the better pieces for for SMEs and designers to do once they have their objectives. Right? Then doing that facilitator's guide and just forcing it to go down through just on paper.
Rob:You don't have to build anything at that point. You just need to say, this is how it flows week to week. And then you can see it kinda there on paper.
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:And you can see the holes.
Jared:It'll again, it's a great example going back to our previous episodes on reflective practice as And I think it it lets you really think through all the potential options or assumptions that could happen as a result of this. You know, you can pull from your own experience or you can go and you can say, Oh, wow. This student said this and I never thought of it before. And it's a living, breathing document as well. It's not something you just set in stone, you go back and revise it.
Jared:That's why we like it so much is because it's especially if a SME then teaches the course, they can revisit that facilitator's guide and go, Oh, I didn't expect that. Or someone else teaches it, they can add to it as well.
Rob:And they can change it and and make it better.
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:So it just helps with that that process of continuous improvement. Yeah. And and or if it's not organized, it's a lot harder to continuously improve a course. Right. Right.
Rob:Because, you know, if you're teaching it face to face and you're used to just you know, not that anybody would shoot from the hip, but let's just say they do. It's gonna be a lot harder down the road to organize that. So, you know, one of the questions that I hopefully we can answer today or at least give some ideas about is how do you know when your course is organized? You know, how do you know when you've done enough to at least on the organizational side?
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:But being aimed at the objectives and making sure that those are clear and concise, and then the way you're organizing it is clear and concise, and that you repeat the structures that you're using for your modules, let's say. You know? So students get this sense of rhythm. We talk about class rhythm. Right?
Jared:Right.
Rob:Whether that be in the in the day or maybe it's online, it's usually you try to find some function of time, whether it's a week or maybe every three days. I've seen different perspectives. It just depends on the length of your course. Like, if it's an eight week course, you're gonna you're gonna definitely do things probably at least every week. You might do every two weeks.
Rob:Just depends on how much you're packing into a module. Right?
Jared:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Rob:And then, you know, obviously, following accessibility standards within that, within your organization, that lends to good interaction Well, I think it a consistent flow.
Jared:Yeah. Yeah. It also like you said, it it naturally consistent flow. It it naturally organizes itself when you're organizing things by accessibility standards, by following the headings, the hierarchy of headings and and bulleted lists and all that It is going to organically by going through that method and following it, it's going to organize itself pretty nicely.
Rob:Yeah. Let's let's stop right here and and say standards are are a good example of this. For instance, you know, when I did my dissertation, it was APA. I think yours was APA as well.
Jared:Yes. It was.
Rob:So they define what those headings are. And my suggestion to my fellow colleagues out there, make sure that you're consistent in your use of headings. Define them for yourself and then make sure that whatever the content you're putting under a heading actually fits with that heading in an outline style.
Jared:You know what's great about this? It makes you be organized. Right. It makes you organize your content.
Rob:It's a quick way of doing it if you define your headings properly. Yeah.
Jared:It makes you put things in the right spots.
Rob:Not only is it a textual clue, right, for most learners, but that will also come across if you use the right headings.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:Most screen readers will grab that, and they'll be able to tell, you know, the person that they're reading to, this is an emphasized text or this is a heading number one or this is a heading number two. And it gives them that, you know, auditorily.
Jared:And, again, don't just make your paragraph text bigger. I'm thinking specifically of, like, HTML and Canvas. Don't just blow up your paragraph text and bold it and call that a heading because that doesn't fit accessibility standards.
Rob:No. It needs to be tagged.
Jared:It needs to be tagged as
Rob:a heading. Know we're kinda getting down into the examples a little bit. But No. It's fine.
Jared:I mean, we have to define that, I think, a bit a bit to do that.
Rob:Yeah. It's helpful to just say to folks, this is one that we've seen that can really help organization overall, something simple. Just use the proper headings and define them Along
Jared:with that, there's other visual cues that you can use, like icons or, some repeated symbols or buttons. We have a specific way of, that we present, our material in Canvas, through our LMS. We go and we create what's like overview pages that have different icons that are related to, I think we have one for a clipboard with a magnifying glass that has objectives, but it's also used elsewhere as assignment overview. So it has the same theme going on. Our content is a book, I think.
Jared:I'm trying to remember
Rob:off the
Jared:top of my head. Yep. And the assessments are a puzzle piece, we kind of see how it all fits together. And then we have, guidelines. We use a certain icon for that.
Jared:And, we also have one for help. We have like a little cogwheel that we use for that, but they stay consistent throughout.
Rob:Yep.
Jared:And I think that's really important. Even if you're doing videos and you have, yourself on screen, keep yourself consistently on the same spot unless you're blocking the content. And if you're going to move yourself, make a note of that in your video to mention that. Hey, I'm usually over here in the left corner, I'm putting myself on the right because some of the text is gonna show up. It's better if I do that.
Jared:Use the same icons. It's okay to use the same theme in your if you're using slides or whatever. It's not an issue with that. Or, like, organize the theme by unit. Different unit, different theme, but keep everything consistent in that way.
Jared:But, you know, that's one way that you can keep it visually organized as well. All right. So some major takeaways, Rob, about being organized. And this is one that I'm going to say that may, ruffle some feathers. I want you to plan for the whole year and publish everything at once in your online course.
Jared:I understand there's the appeal of keeping your I'm speaking specifically about Canvas. I don't know how other LMSs handle future content, but in Canvas you can publish or unpublish things. And the difference is students can see published content, but they can't see unpublished content. Only instructor can see unpublished stuff. This may be a slight pet peeve of mine, but to me, unpublished content equals disorganization.
Jared:Because to me, as a student, I look at that as saying, oh, you're not ready. I want to look ahead and see what's coming up next, but you're not letting me because you don't have it ready yet. That's just me, and it could just be a pet peeve of mine. But if you have everything published, and you can in Canvas, you can lock it so that you can't the students can't access it, but they can see it in Canvas. Mhmm.
Jared:And to me, that's an important part of it. It shows that I'm organized as an instructor. I have a plan for us to go through. That plan may change, and if it does change, I'm going to let you know about it in advance and not the week of or the day of or the day after. Mhmm.
Jared:But it shows my students that I'm organized and I've thought this through and I have a clear path ahead of us. That's
Rob:me. Yeah. And if you're doing that and you're locking things down like in Canvas, I know you can do that in Canvas. And they probably can do things similarly in other LMSs if you're using that.
Jared:Sure.
Rob:That might be a little bit more difficult with something like I don't know if you're just doing online learning with a website you've created or or maybe even a word doc for that matter. Mhmm. You know, that's all feasible. It's not preferable by any stretch because it really puts a lot of work on you because you don't have all those built in systems. But regardless, it also shows that you know how to use the technology that you're offering this course through.
Rob:Yeah. Because you've programmed it in such a way that it just hits and it goes through the course the way you want it to. And the students can see that. They they can see what's coming. Yeah.
Rob:I know for our students here at Cedarville, probably the biggest thing that gets used is the what's coming up part or what to do. They have that little to do list, and they have it for faculty as well, you know, things that you need to grade and
Jared:blah blah blah.
Rob:Well, they have the same thing for students. And so if you don't use that or you don't publish it, that won't show up for students.
Jared:That's
Rob:correct. And then they can't plan appropriately. So we need to organize well so our students can organize well. Yeah. Because they're not just taking one course most of the time.
Rob:They're taking multiple courses, and they're also living life. They might be especially if you're doing online courses, you probably are also doing at least a part time job. Yeah. You know, as we think about ways that we can actually put this into place, one key piece, we talked about it earlier in terms of getting into the use of headings. Right?
Rob:In addition to that, one thing that I think is helpful to students is you tell them for that module how much reading you're gonna have to do. In other words, how much time should you plan? Mhmm. You know, reading should take so many hours based on the number of pages and the word count that you have for them to read, so they should kinda have an understanding. Yep.
Rob:Also, video, like, just some sort of overarching number that kinda speaks to them and says, in terms of the content, here's what you're going to have to invest in terms of time. Yeah. That way they can set that time aside. Now, I get with videos you can pause them, right, come back to them later. That's great.
Rob:But if you know, then you at least provide the student with additional information. They can then plan accordingly.
Jared:Yep. Yeah. Other things to keep in mind practically, learn how to use your tech tools. Rob mentioned the LMS, if you're using any other technological enhancements to your course, make sure you know how to use it. That also plays a role in the facilitator's guide that you create for your course.
Jared:Give directions on how to use it. Right. Because of the person who's coming in, they may know the content, but they may not be familiar with the tools that you're using. Take out any unnecessary information. That it goes with the other point, which is chunking, which I think we could spend a whole episode talking about chunking.
Jared:I think we should put that in the hopper for later on because chunking is such a vital part of online teaching.
Rob:How to chunk.
Jared:How to chunk. And I feel like we should, we should explore that a bit more. The other one is to be visible as an instructor. It could be something as simple as putting a photo of yourself, putting yourself in the videos. Yes, I know awkward to record yourself, but it does great benefits to your students to see you in the content that you're creating.
Rob:Especially if you're not the designer of the course. Yes. Like, you're teaching the course, somebody else designed it, your students still need a connection to you. Yeah. And so video announcements, like, a weekly basis help provide that connection.
Jared:Yeah. Absolutely. And you can also be visible, quote unquote, by, you know, being communicative, answering emails, providing feedback.
Rob:Prompt feedback.
Jared:You know, prove that you're not just a robot grading stuff. You are a person that exists. Yeah. So I think, you know, we've hit on a lot of good points here about organization. I hope we have some takeaways here that our listeners can use to maybe take a look at their online courses this summer.
Jared:And, you know, is there are there some gaps you can fill as far as organization goes? Can you publish everything at once?
Rob:In deference to our last episode, we would also love to hear from folks. Oh, yeah. You know, and we want to reflect. What are we what are we getting right? What are we missing?
Rob:Because we're not gonna sit here and assume that we have the answers to all things. We every time we bring someone in and we talk to them or we talk to others of our colleagues here on campus, we learn something new. Yeah. And I guess that's really the the emphasis for me in this whole process is it's not a one and done. It's just a process of continual improvement and organization and reflection help you tremendously.
Rob:I mean, reflection is probably the biggest key. Right? But reflecting through an organized course just helps you improve. I mean, you've got touchstones that you can go back to. You can say, is this actually working?
Rob:You know, is the format of our podcast actually working? Yeah. We have those kinds of questions, and we keep trying to think through how can we do it differently, how can we change things up, and that hopefully is helpful to our listeners.
Jared:Yeah. So let us know what you think. Send us a message on LinkedIn. Send us an email, ctopodcast@cedarville.edu. We wanna hear from you.
Jared:Please. Please. 444. Reach out.
Ryan:Thanks for joining this episode of Transform Your Teaching. And if you do have any questions or comments about these ideas about organization, please do reach out to us. You can connect with us on LinkedIn, or you can shoot us an email at CTLpodcast@cedarville.edu. And don't forget to like and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Once again, make sure to check out our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog.
Ryan:Thanks for listening.