Delivery Presentation across the Electronic University Consortium

Academic Honesty and Delivery Readiness

Online Course Protocol (Faculty Tips)
Online Course Assignments
Online Course Syllabus
Links
Navigation
Page Design
Specific Course Pages Needed

Color and Graphics
Web Accessibility Guidelines

Delivery Presentation Across the Electronic University Consortium
To present a consistent image, enable students to learn a common online system, and maintain quality and appearance across courses, the following issues involving layout and presentation have been established.

• For general education courses, universities will use common web course authorized software. For program specific courses, universities will have the flexibility of using web course authorized software more suited to individual program areas.
• Courses will be developed using a team approach between the faculty and instructional designer to maximize technology with course content and maximize student learning.
• Online courses will be designed to be BOBBY disabilities compliant.
• All Electronic University Consortium courses will have a common portal page.
• There will be a common student tutorial and instructional processes will be in compliance with the tutorial materials.
• There will be recommended web page format and guidelines available as a link.
  

Academic Honesty and Delivery Readiness
When proctors are required, distant students are responsible for recommending their proctor, subject to the approval of the instructor or distance education office of the institution. Possible proctors are: college/university testing centers, military base education offices, public librarians, hospital education offices, and high school teachers and/or counselors, educational officers and/or supervisors in the workplace. Verification of the proctor should be on official letterhead.

• Course examinations conducted online shall be supervised by a proctor when required by the instructor. This proctor verifies student identities prior to providing a password for the examination web page to the student.
• Proctors are responsible for controlling the environment where an examination is taken to ensure that the student taking an examination does not have access, either physically or electronically, to prohibited sources of information, including other students.
• Following a student online examination, the cache of the computer where the student worked the examination should be cleared in order to clear the record of the student's responses.
• It is the instructor’s responsibility to post an announcement when assignments are added to the syllabus. It is the student’s responsibility to periodically check the online syllabus for additional assignments, quizzes and exams.
  

Online Course Protocol (Faculty Tips)
Because of the nature of online education, the following protocol is recommended:

• Each online course should include elements that allow student to student interaction as well as student to faculty interaction.
• All classes should include orientation and get-acquainted activities.
• Activities should be scheduled so that students are allowed and encouraged to practice new techniques.
• The level and frequency of student contributions should be specified.
• Reasonable guidelines for every activity should be provided.
• An additional resource list should be included for those who want to explore further.
• At the beginning of each class, faculty may wish to coordinate the class roster and distribution lists and require a student response to test messages and verify participation.
• Faculty will want to notify students of academic policies relative to class.
• In roll-call area of the course screen, request students to post a notice if they will not be participating for a specific period of time.
• Create a plan "B" backup process for communicating all assignments.
• Verify hotlinks and view all documents regularly.
• When communicating with students, use private e-mail for private issues; use public chats or discussion boards for all public issues or common concerns such as technical problems, errors by several students.
• Develop and communicate methods for electronic posting and verifying grades. Encourage students to check periodically.
• Create a discussion group for distance education faculty.
• Inform students of contact person(s) and how to reach contact for various concerns and issues.
• Keep the information in your pages relevant and up to date.
• If people are invited to send in comments about your site, be sure to respond to them in a timely manner.
  

Online Course Assignments
Consistency in making assignments across courses will assist student understanding.

• Students should be given criteria (rubrics) related to the course outcomes desired.
• Students should be assessed as appropriate to the course content. It is suggested that several different methods of assessment be incorporated throughout the course.
• Instructors should have a frequent presence online, including scheduled online office hours.
• An instructor should use appropriate communication and feedback strategies and will have published time frames for feedback to students.
• Instructors should work with students to learn how to use appropriate online voices, and "Netiquette" for both instructors and students.
• Lessons should be presented in Menu form. A menu includes a list of lesson titles with links. Each individual lesson should include information on goals and objectives, tips on how to succeed in individual lessons, listing of all readings and materials required to complete lesson, the content of the lessons, a review of lesson material content through study questions or self-test, references, and exam information where appropriate in course. The professor(s) e-mail link(s) should also be included on each lesson page.
• Assignments, assessment, relative importance of and weights of various assignments are clear to students.

Online Course Syllabus
Certain characteristics should be included in an online course syllabus. These include:

• A course description that is understandable.
• A clear listing of assignments.
• A clear identification of both online and offline activities.
• A statement of expectations if students will be involved in online discussion groups.
• Course expectations or outcome objectives that are linked to the course description for the course.
• Internet and WWW information, with links to various sites with general Internet and WWW information.
• Information on course materials and textbooks including where to find them and how much they will cost.
• The use of meaningful words or phrases.
• Include Online Course Requirements of information regarding computer hardware and software needed to complete course.
• Information on hardware which should include requirements for:
  • RAM
  • Hard disk (minimum amount of available memory necessary)
  • Modem (minimum speed)
  • Internet Service Provider (type of services and access that must be made available as part of package)
  • Operating system requirements
  • Browser-type required
  • Level of technical competency expected
  • Information on specific software or helper applications which should include:
    • Level of technical competency expected
    • Specific software name(s) and versions for both Mac and Windows platforms
    • Specific helper application(s) required
    • Specific browser plug-in required and how to download them.
• Course materials: Information on text books required, other print materials, journals, computer software, laboratory materials or special tools, any other items needed for the course.
• Course schedule: Listing of lessons titles, dates, readings/activities, assignments, deadlines for assignments and projects due, and exam dates.
• Late policies including handling of situations where technical difficulties prevent submission of assignments.
• Grading: Description of elements (i.e., interaction, assignments, exams) contributing toward students’ grades. Listing of how many points or percentages each component is worth; how, when and where each will occur and how they will be administered or sent to instructor; listing of grading scale, using points or percentages. Password-protected online gradebook link if appropriate. Tips on how to succeed in the course.
• The faculty member should indicate on the syllabus if contact information (i.e. e-mail, phone numbers) of class members will be shared with other class members. If so intended, a voluntary consent form needs to be provided and completed for student release of information.

Links
Links in online courses help student understanding and save student time.

• Include Internet and WWW information through links to various sites with general Internet and WWW information.
• Use one basic link color, with links changing color only after they are accessed. Don’t change text link colors.
• Provide "Next Page" and "Previous Page" buttons on each page where appropriate.
• Link each page back to the course’s main page.
• Make link text descriptive and concise.
• Test each link in your site frequently. A link that worked correctly last month will not necessarily work this month.

Navigation
Clear navigational direction is essential in online education.

• Keep navigation buttons consistent in both location and design.
• Use navigation links to all course components regularly.
• Include text labels if graphic navigation buttons are used.
• Include a title header on all pages.
• Include document and chapter headings on lengthy documents.
• Clearly delineate the clickable areas in an image map. Clickable regions should have clearly distinguishable outlines.
• Provide alternate text links for locations in an image map.
  Insert navigation buttons in various places, as well as the top and bottom of the page in lengthy documents.
• Keep all links or buttons "open to the general public" together when designing pages that have password protected areas. Enrolled students will learn where to go to find their most frequently used links.
• Take advantage of the hyper-linking capabilities of the web for instructional purposes by using links to layer information, to link to previous material and to link to outside WWW sites.
• Include text-based navigational links at the bottom of each page.
  

Page Design
Consistent page design assists student understanding and response capabilities.

• Design web pages so that they can be viewed properly on 14-15 inch display screens.
  Maintain consistent titling design on each page.
• Organize content using limited heading styles and sub titles; then use chosen styles consistently.
• Use simple designs to make pages easily modifiable.
• Use consistent heading on all pages, keeping minimal in size to eliminate long download times.
• Do not mix graphics and text haphazardly.
• Keep backgrounds simple. Tiled and textured backgrounds can significantly increase download time.
• Use white or non-distracting background colors. If you must use an image for your background, keep it small to minimize the time it will take for the page to download. Type must always contrast sharply with any background color.
• Set text blocks for standard screen reading distance at a minimum of 9 points.
• Place creation and revision dates on all pages.
• Use a spellchecker in addition to carefully reviewing each page for any mistakes that the spell-checker may not have caught.
  

Specific Course Pages Needed
The following specific pages are needed for each course. If information is accurate, a link to an existing page is possible.

• Course home link: It is the page that would include links to all the components of the course.
• Course information: Information on course, prerequisites, and listing of goals and objectives.
• Instructor information: Name(s) of instructor(s), 1–2 paragraph detailing professional interests, links to personal home pages.
• Enrollment Information: Information on registration, enrollment deadlines, dates to add/drop plus costs, procedures & requirements (also GRE, TOEFL, links to testing services if applicable, etc.), necessary phone numbers, addresses, etc. Also information on requesting transcripts, schedule of tuition and fees, how to pay, etc.
• An online tutorial: This provides a realistic simulation of what occurs in the course. Include a "Navigating the Web" lesson(s) that cover how to make net searches, how to download helper applications, send email, fill out forms, FTP files, use hypertext links, use frames, look up newsgroups and sign on and off of discussion lists. These exercises should be content specific to course. If a course requires the use of any specialized software, an orientation and exercise should be included for it as well. (The tutorial might be a separate site or linked to a specific lesson.)
  

Color and Graphics
Consistency in use of color and graphics aid student understanding and response time.

• Test all of your graphics and colors early and often on a computer other than the one you created your site on.
• Be aware that the same images and colors can look lighter, darker or appear to be a totally different hue on different platforms and monitors, and with different browsers. Images designed on a Mac may look much darker and contrast on Windows displays. Images designed on a Windows machine may look flat and washed out on Mac displays.
• Don’t use a "blink" feature; it distracts from the message of the content.
• Use dark text on a light background for easy readability.
• Include descriptive comments with all multimedia components.