AV俱乐部

 
 

Online Teaching

Course Site Design Template and Guide



A team of educational developers created a model course site design and structure, specifically for new online courses or courses being built in Brightspace for the first time. Framed around the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), this 鈥�Course Site Design Template & Guide鈥� is prepopulated with a set of homepage widgets; a course orientation; sample welcome messages, discussion prompts, and student feedback surveys; built-in supports for both you and students; and more. These features can be customized to represent your course and teaching context.

Advantages to using the Course Site Design Template & Guide

  • Promotes accessibility and inclusion through UDL
  • Jumpstarts your design and setup of your online course spaces
  • Provides students with a consistent, organized learning environment

Best for brand-new course sites

The Course Site Design Template & Guide is itself a Brightspace course site. As such, it鈥檚 most useful when building an online course space for the first time. You can use the template with an existing course site鈥攕uch as one where you鈥檝e copied the material over from a previous instructor or previous term鈥攂ut the template's content will be appended to the end of your existing content. For example, if your existing course site has 12 modules, copying the template will add another 12 blank template modules after them, for a total of 24. It will take some work to move the content of the existing course into the layout of the template.

How it works

When you self-register for this course, you will be added to the course in the role of a 鈥淭emplate User.鈥� This means you can view course structure from a student鈥檚 perspective before deciding to copy and implement it in your own course. Once it鈥檚 copied into your course site, you can edit it and add announcements, content, assessments, etc. as you would normally.

Self-Registration Instructions

The steps to self-register to access the the Course Site Design Template & Guide are:

  1. Log into Brightspace with your NetID at . 
  2. Go to menu item Academic Support > . 
  3. Click on the link for the Brightspace site, 鈥�Course Site Design Template & Guide鈥�
  4. Press the Register button. 
  5. Your registration information will be prefilled for you. Press Submit. 
  6. To complete the process, press Finish. 
  7. You can enter the course now by using the 鈥�Go to course offering...鈥� link or press Done to return to the Brightspace homepage. You will receive an email confirmation of your enrolment.

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Implementing the Course Site Design Template & Guide

  1. From your own course site, navigate to the听Course Admin听menu.
  2. Click the听Import / Export / Copy Components听link.
  3. Press the听Search for offering听button.
  4. In the pop-up window, do a search for the template named:听Course Site Design Template & Guide (you can just search for the words听template guide)
  5. Select the template from the list and press听Add Selected.
  6. On the next screen, press听Copy All Components听or select components individually.
  7. You will get a message once the copy process is complete. The template has now been added to your course site. You can now upload content or customize as desired.

Other forms of support around Brightspace include:

  • Educational Developers听with the Centre for Learning and Teaching, who can assist with writing learning outcomes, developing student assessments, and other aspects of course design. Contact听clt@dal.ca听to schedule a consultation.
  • Instructional Technologists听with Academic Technology Services, who can assist with technical support and training of AV俱乐部鈥檚 instructional technologies, such as Brightspace, Panopto, and more. Contact听intech@dal.ca听for support or visit the听.

Note: Agriculture has its own set of customized Brightspace templates. Please contact the Educational Technology and Design (ETD) office by email (etd@dal.ca) for more information.