New Course Tips

Tips for Developing an Online Class Website 

• Plan ahead to allow plenty of time to create the class website.  It is very time consuming the first time because it is important that it is complete with all the assignments when the class starts.

• Talk to experienced teachers to see what they put on their class website.

• Look at other online class websites to see how they are organized.

• Websites should be easy to use and intuitive. Test the website on a few students before the class starts to make sure that students can easily navigate the website.

• Customize the icons rather than using the generic ones that come with a course management program.

• Create a class announcements section to post important messages, clarification of assignments, reminders of due dates, if instructor will be out of town, etc. Instructor can have a regular day that a new announcement is posted – such as every Mond Monday so that students will always check that day.

• A list of the names of all the students in the class with their email addresses is helpful so students can contact each other individually. Pictures can help students get to know each other, but should be optional.  Students could submit a photo on a voluntary basis.

• Pages of text should be easy to read.  Use bullets, highlighting, blocks of text with spaces between, or other formats to make it more readable.  

• A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the website helps reduce the instructors’ time spent individually answering student questions.   When students ask you a question in an email, type an individual response, and then add that question and answer to the FAQ page. 

• Backup your website and everything on it fairly regularly onto some removable medium such as a CD or USB drive.

source: Tips from Handbook for Online Faculty - by J. Frese, Fresno City College