Looking at your course goals and the big picture

Let's start by keeping the big picture in mind, not just in terms of learning outcomes and course content, but also in terms of your students and teachers. After all, while you build your course, you may also be developing a demo course or a template that could be used across an entire curriculum and with a broad array of users.

Since both teachers and students have a very diverse range of skills, abilities, and attitudes, it is important to keep their needs in mind as we begin to organize the course and follow the principles of UDL.

Then, as you start creating the structure, consider what your course's home page will look like when students and teachers log in. Keep in mind that many students will use more than one device to access your course and the screens will vary in terms of size and what they can display.

The following are a few tips for making sure your course structure works well in today's environment—laptops, tablets, smartphones, and desktops, all with varying display sizes:

• Make sure the most important links and information are on the course's home page and that they are visible on the screen of any device
• Test the appearance of your course website on the devices your students and instructors will be using

• Make sure the navigation throughout your course is simple and consistent and that you use concise, descriptive text for links, and not just Click here or Click on this link

Having a clear, clean course home page will help your students develop confidence as they navigate the course. They will know where to find the materials they need and when and how to access them. In addition, make sure that the links on the course's home page take them directly to the materials they need. This way, your students don't have to click multiple times on multiple drill-downs, and they will not feel lost and confused.

As you consider how the organization of your course will help your students perform and do what they need to do, you can also begin to envision how they will interact with the learning materials and assessments.