Minimum Requirements for Every Course?

hellis
Community Explorer

I recently joined Endicott College in Beverly, MA as an instructional designer. After looking at the existing courses that had been built in Canvas I noticed there was a great range in how courses were designed. Some were great... some not so much. It made me think about what should be the minimum expectations for the design of an online course. I looked at the questions from two perspectives:

  • promoting good online instruction
  • developing some common navigation for students

I want instructors to still have room for creativity in designing their courses. But it seems that there are basic elements, or minimum requirements, that each course should have. Here is my list as well as a link to a Playlist of video tutorials for each of the items.

  1. Course Home Page
  2. Welcome Video
  3. Syllabus connected to Syllabus link
  4. "Introduce Yourself" Discussion
  5. Modules
  6. Simplified Course Navigation

Video Tutorials for Basic Elements of a Canvas LMS Course - YouTube 

Has anyone else developed a list like this? Any thoughts on my list? Thanks