Define and design content

Content definition and design

The content derives directly from the objectives and is the basis for learning.
It maionly consists of videos made by experts in the field. However, we suggest to enrich them with other support material: pdfs, links or other materials. As complementary material on line in the spirit of the MOOC open format it is also recommended that you use open educational resources (*).

The course is made up of a certain number of modules depending on the duration. The recommendation is a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 modules, being 6 an optimal number, to be distributed in the same number of weeks.

As a best practice we recommend that each module has a presentation video and the lessons should include the following elements:

Video or videos that show the content of each of the lessons. The videos form the nucleus of the learning process and they are recorded by the teachers of the course.
Assessments to help the learners test their knowledge.
PDF with the course slides.
Complementary materials (articles, other videos, etc.).
Final evaluation assessment.

Based on the above learners’ workload can be between 3 and 8 hours a week, depending on the course. An attempt should be made to balance the lessons so that they are not too long since many student will want to take the course in small doses.

The course is open and online so all the materials created for it must be legal in terms content rights (images, texts, etc). We should take care about the copyright of the materials. For more information see the “Authors’ Rights” sectino on this web page.

A good way to decide on the content or topics is the following:

Make an list of the possible topics that could be derived from the general and specific objectives.
Choose the essentail topics that are directly related to the objectives. These will form the nucleus of the course topics.
Note the topics that appear at the top fo the list once the essential items have been removed. These will be complementary items.

Using the essential items and in accordance with the interests and objectives of the course modules are created to form the basic structure or skeleton for the course.

Structure of each module