Section outline

  • What would you do if you walked into a classroom and there was no teacher present to welcome you? Would you grab any available seat, start conversation with a classmate next to you, or scan the room for some hint as to where to begin? That’s exactly what happens in many online courses today as students struggle to figure out the first steps they should take to begin coursework.

    When teaching a traditional face-to-face course, what do you cover in the very first class? For most instructors, the first class is spent reviewing course content, expectations, and the course syllabus. For students studying online, this kind of overview is equally important, but even more important is that students need to know where to begin and how to navigate the course.

    Students studying online courses often report that a major challenge is simply figuring out where to start. Not all online courses have the same navigation. Students can become easily confused about where to start when they encounter different types of menus and course structure.

    Research shows that students who are provided important course information in the Introduction section of a course (when they first click on the course to enter) are more successful. To this end, SCC requires that instructors include specific information about their class, navigational instructions, and support links in the Introduction section. Please read below to find out more about these requirements.

    • Student Instructions


      Checklist Annotations

      Course contains:

      ☐ 1.1 - Clear instructions on how to get started and navigate the course.


      This information should be in the first section students will enter when they access the class. 
    • Example of Course Instructions Page

    • Census Activity


      Checklist Annotations

      Course contains:

      ☐ 1.2 - An activity which shows the instructor students have participated by the 10% date of the course

      Students in all courses must show participation within the first 10% or what is commonly known as the Census Period of the course. For the purpose of census reports, viewing is not considered participation but rather students have to actively participate in the class. To meet this expectation, you must include an activity which shows active student participation, which is required to be completed by the census date. There is no requirement on which type of activity you choose, but it must occur in Moodle (cannot be an email that is sent to you outside of the learning management system).
    • Example of Census Activity Information Page

    • Course Schedule


      Checklist Annotations

      Course contains:

      ☐ 1.3 – A course schedule (list of weeks/units/sections and activities)

      		 This can be included as a file or page in your course, a web link to an external document, or a calendar (for example, in a 3rd party tool). It could also be included in the Concourse syllabus tool, if you are using it. The schedule must be able to be located within 10 minutes by a student / reviewer.
    • Course Schedule Example 1 Page
    • Course Schedule Example 2 Page
    • Concourse: Editing your syllabus URL

      If you'd like to add your course schedule into your syllabus created in Concourse, use this tutorial to get started with your syllabus/schedule.

    • Tech Support Information


      Checklist Annotations

      Course contains:

      ☐ 1.4 – Links to Student Tech Support and Tutoring.

      These links are present and available by default in all courses in the Introduction section.


      If you have questions about any of this expectation or need more assistance, please contact E-Learning at e-learning@southwesterncc.edu.

    • Contact Information and Response Times:


      Checklist Annotations

      Course contains:

      ☐ 1.5 - Instructor contact information (in the course itself)

      To meet this expectation, please include your contact information within the course itself (not just the syllabus) to ensure that students are able to locate it quickly and easily.

      ☐ 1.6 - An expected response time for communication.

      ☐ 1.7 - An expected response time for grading.

      There is no specific time requirement for instructors to use for response time for either communication or grading; the important thing is that students know what that time frame is. (For example, many instructors will say that they will respond to emails and phone calls within 48 hours and have work graded within a week.)

      If you have questions about any of these expectations or need more assistance, please contact E-Learning at e-learning@southwesterncc.edu.
    • Sample Moodle Course - Online

      Click above to view a sample course if you'd like to see how these expectations play out in a course.