Online Course Template & Icons

Our online courses follow a consistent template to help orient students to their course materials. The template may be helpful for new instructors considering teaching one of our courses and for other instructors planning their own courses. We're proud of our work and proud to share these with the larger educational community. We hope you find the template and icons useful. If you have any suggestions for improving our templates, please let us know.

Course Template

The first page of the template is streamlined to present students with only a few selected links. Then, material is organized into the subsequent organizer pages for ease of use. The "Start Here" section helps to orient students and provides primary information on the course, such as the syllabus. The "Help Resources" section also aids students in using WebCT and any of the technical aspects of the course. After students are acquainted with the course, these sections will be used less often. However, they remain readily available in case a student ever has a question.

Students will mainly use the "Course Content" section of the course, where all course materials are organized into modules. The "Course Content" page is organized in a similar fashion to the main template page. This again ensures ease of use for students and clarity of navigation.

Each module page is then organized as what WebCT aptly terms a "Learning Module." The modules allow students to easily navigate through the course materials for that section, and it means that almost all aspects of the course are available through one simple method that requires three or fewer clicks by the student. Inside of the module does require scrolling; however, the rest of the sections only require students to scroll down for information and not for navigation.

Icons

All of our icons were made by our graphic designer and are available within this zipped folder. While many Learning Management Systems (LMS) and textbook epacks include their own icons, these icons are also available for non-profit educational use. We chose to use these icons to ensure a consistent appearance across the courses and the icons are simple and easy for students to follow. A sample of a few of the icons appears below.

Start Here	Discussions	Mail	Ask Questions
Assignments	Audio Files	Graded Assignments	Presentations