Text Elements
There are pros and cons of building text elements into your courses:
- Pros
- Students accustomed to reading
- Easy to follow & understand
- No special technology needed
- Students can copy/note-take
- Cons
- Can be very boring
- Can cause eye strain
- Students may skim, not read
Apply the following suggestions to the text elements of your course content:
Chunk Content
Present small amounts of information at a time. Think about logical ways to present these chunks. People can generally handle 5-7 pieces of information at a time.
Examples from Shaping Outcomes
Headings and Subheadings
As you begin building pages, look for natural breaks in content. Use headings and subheadings within the text to separate these areas.
Charts, Tables, Matrix, Lists
Rather than paragraphs of information, look for ways to incorporate bullets or numeric lists. Another efficient way to present text information is in the form of charts, tables, and matrix. This approach works well with categories of information.
Examples from Shaping Outcomes
- Short-term, medium term, and long term outcomes
- Defining Outcomes
- Defining Inputs
- OBPE
- Stakeholder influence
- Outputs
- Measuring outputs
Readability
Although students may be able to read at the high school or college level, consider writing at a lower reading level. Complicated sentence structure, unfamiliar vocabulary, and dense text can be tiring and frustrating for students.
- Keep sentences short
- Whenever possible, use short paragraphs and bullet lists
- Use action words
- Include a course glossary to define key terms
- Use unusual or technical vocabulary only when necessary
- During revision, remove extra words and unnecessary phrases
Typography
Keep in mind that the end user controls how some fonts appear on the screen depending on their web browser.
- Use CSS to standardize the typography throughout the course.
- Add a standard color to headings and subheadings to make them stand out.
- Rather than using static font sizes, allow the end user control by using % such as 100% for the body and 120% for headings.
- Use italics or a color to indicate directions.
- Use a standard color for links and set a contrasting font color for "hover."
Online Readings
Consider the use of web links for course materials. However keep in mind that you don't control the quality of remote materials.
Explore some examples of online resources
- Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics at Yale University - explore Class sessions > Resources (toward bottom of page)
- Visualizing Cultures - digital image archives, websites
Word Processing
Keep in mind that not everyone uses the same word processor or the same version.
- Avoid specialty fonts that may not be available to end users.
- When possible, create PDF files from your Word documents.
- If you have all your materials prepared in Word, you can save them as web pages.
- Open the document.
- Pull down the File menu and select Save as Web Page.
- You may want to create a link that go to other websites, are within a page, or return users to your home page.
Forms
If you have documents such as forms, brochures, or other materials that contain lots of formatting, consider saving them as a PDF file. Users can then open these files with Adobe Reader. Many software packages allow using the open to “save as a PDF” file.
Web Pages or PDF
While some instructors prefer to develop materials as web pages, others prefer PDF. Both allow web links. Explore some examples of PDF.
- PDF
- Economics of Education - lecture notes, exams & solutions, assignments & solutions
- Physics I: Classical Mechanics - lecture notes, assignments & solutions, exams
- Unified Engineering - assignments & solutions, exams & solutions
- Web Pages
- Online Biology Book - online book
- Virtual Lab Book - guide
- Visualizing Cultures - multimedia guide
Learn more about Texts from High Tech Learning.
Explore content area links at Content-Rich Websites from Teacher Tap.