As I’m tweaking the courses for the new semester, I’m struck once again about the need to attend to details in online courses. Although I use the same course content that I copy from one semester to the next, I need to force myself to go through each page of the course to be certain that everything is correct. I choose not to put dates on the weeks of the course, instead referring to them as Week 1, Week 2, etc. Inevitably there are some dates posted on some assignment pages and I need to make sure they are correct for the new semester. There’s nothing more frustrating than thinking an assignment is due on a particular date and then finding out that the wrong date was posted because the page’s content was from a different semester. I also have to make sure that podcasts are up-to-date. The courses I teach utilize Desire 2 Learn and there was a recent update to the learning management software which required me to update my D2L tutorial. While it’s especially nice to have a teaching assistant who can preview the course before students log in, that’s not always possible, so I have to force myself to go through each page and make sure I’ve paid attention to the details. While I try to minimize errors, I know they will occur, so I always include a statement that says, “If you find any errors…broken links, etc…drop me a note and I’ll get them fixed.” Enjoy the new semester of online instruction and attend to the details.
The details image is from http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/details.png
