Developing Instructional Materials

Once you have defined the learning objectives for your course, you can begin to develop assessments to ensure students achieve those objectives. Once you have created assessments, you can begin to develop materials to ensure students succeed on those assessments. This backward design process—which moves from objectives to assessments and finally to materials—is known as learning-centered instruction, and it directs every course task toward the mastery of certain skills and competencies. This blog focuses on the third stage of this process, the development of high-quality instructional materials, beginning with the idea that robust and engaging online courses contain a mix of created and curated content. Below you will find guidelines for creating and curating instructional materials to help you achieve the optimal balance for your course.

Content Creation

When to Create Versus Curate

Creating new content takes time and effort, but it can be deeply rewarding for faculty and students. In general, we recommend creating new course content in the following situations:

There are gaps in existing resources. Existing online materials will not adequately prepare students for the course’s assessments.
Existing resources are dated or not especially valuable. Maybe your academic field has evolved, or maybe there are resources on your topic, but the information is delivered in a haphazard, rambling, or inchoate form that is not easily broken down or chunked.
Existing resources are not readily available to students in your program. If articles on your topic are behind a paywall or require additional licenses not provided by the program, you might want to create materials that are more easily accessible to students.
Existing resources only or primarily exist in one form. To make your course accessible to learners with different preferences and abilities, you should aim to deliver or represent information in multiple ways.
You want to increase your instructor presence and authority. Original content, such as short videos, can reduce online students' feeling that their instructor is distant or anonymous, while simultaneously allowing you to showcase your subject matter expertise.

Content Creation Ideas

Once you’ve decided to create versus curate (usually in conversation with your instructional designer), consider the type of materials you want to produce. The original materials below are some of the staples of online learning:

Contextual and instructional text: Course authors are generally expected to provide original text within each section of a module, both to contextualize course materials and to provide instruction. Quotes from other sources work well to supplement your materials, but should not comprise the majority of content, as they can be difficult for students to read through. Your expert context, synthesis, and analysis can improve student learning.
Video and audio: Original video and audio content take more time than other materials, but have a potentially high value, especially when you share personal stories and professional experiences and walk students through difficult concepts. When planning for audio and video, always incorporate the accessibility requirements and online learning best practices that will ensure your students' success.
Case studies: You might also consider creating an original case study; when course concepts are connected to real-world events or trends, students can understand why they are relevant, which can increase their motivation. Case studies can be created by using fictionalized characters, companies, and events that provide a framework for applying course concepts.

Ultimately, what you choose to produce will depend partially on your delivery style and any time or budgetary constraints and partially on your course content and needs. If you are looking to diversify your course materials and most of your resources are text-based, you might want to create a short video. If the concept you are describing is widely available in short videos, consider a case study instead.

Content Creation Considerations

If you're thinking about course materials, you should already have written your learning objectives and outlined assessments that measure students' progress toward those goals. Once you have a sense of what you will need to produce to supplement existing materials, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Will the new materials meet a need that existing materials do or cannot?
Will they directly support student success on assessments?
Will they clarify main points, highlight common issues, or provide important background knowledge or context?
Will they remain relevant for the foreseeable future? (Approximately two years is a good benchmark, especially for audio and video content.)
Are the new materials feasible given any time and budgetary constraints you might have?
How much material can you create on your own, and how much assistance will you need from outside sources (your instructional designer, media team, department or university, etc.)?
Can you commit to the time required to make the new materials fully accessible (generating alt text/descriptions, captions, transcripts, etc.)?

Content Curation

When to Curate Versus Create

With the abundance of high-quality educational content that is available, it doesn't always make sense to create instructional materials. Content curation, which gives students an opportunity to learn from different people with different vantage points and experiences, is vital to the development of engaging and inclusive online courses. In general, we recommend curating course content in the following situations:

There are no gaps in existing resources. The materials you have identified provide full and balanced coverage of the course topics and will thereby adequately prepare students for the course’s assessments and objectives.
Existing resources are high quality. Strong materials highlight main points and/or points of difficulty in course content and provide background knowledge, helping students excel on assessments. The sources are credible, peer reviewed where appropriate, and free of errors and bias.
Existing resources have either been recently updated or require frequent updates. Even if you were able to reproduce the material, or put your own spin on it, you might not want to: some instructional materials (e.g., software tutorials) need to be updated constantly to remain relevant and helpful. In this case, the creators of the materials (e.g., the publisher) are better positioned to maintain them.
Existing resources are free or low cost, or else they are subsidized by your university. Your students likely have access to a number of high-quality resources through the university library. If the available materials are of adequate quality and scope, they can reduce the financial burden on students and promote equitable access.
You specialize in one form of content delivery. You might prefer to record explainer videos than share personal anecdotes or conduct interviews, and that's okay! You can curate materials to diversify the ways in which your content is represented to students.
An outside source possesses knowledge or expertise that is different from and complementary to your own. Outside resources can offer different perspectives (in terms of geography, race, gender, domain, socioeconomic status, etc.) that enrich the student experience.

Content Curation Ideas

Once you’ve decided to curate versus create (again, usually in conversation with your instructional designer), consider what type of materials you want to try to locate for your course. The content types below are some of the staples of online learning:

Quotations: Including an important or thought-provoking quote can add visual appeal, authority, and reflection opportunities to your course pages. You might even wish to pair the quote with a question that invites students to reflect on the passage at hand, breaking up the lecture material with an interactive component.
Short videos or lessons: With an abundance of massive open online courses (MOOCs), open educational resources (OERs), and video sharing services (YouTube, TED, Vimeo, etc.), it is easier than ever to supplement your original content with high-quality, short videos or lessons that are directly related to your course.
Case studies: Authentic activities like case studies are a great way for students to apply course concepts in an online environment.
Podcasts: Podcasts work well for people on the move, including but not limited to online students! Consider using a podcast episode to reinforce course concepts and bring another voice into your classroom. For more use cases for podcasts, see the Envision blog Incorporating Multimedia in Your Course.
Articles: You can increase the relevance of your course by incorporating recent articles from trustworthy sources. If you are concerned about increasing the student workload, consider making some of the articles optional or supplementary reading.
Infographics: Animated or still, infographics can help students visualize course concepts, data, and trends, while breaking up text and video content.
Comics, cartoons, and games: Use illustrations and interactive study tools to add levity and fun to your course, while simultaneously supporting student retention of core concepts. For more on gamified learning, see the Envision article Game-Based Learning Experiences.
Instructional videos or guides: If objectives involve learning technical skills, consider curating resources from programmers/developers. For example, instead of recreating Excel tutorial videos for a finance course, you might embed resources directly from Microsoft’s website.

Content Curation Considerations

If you're thinking about course materials, you should have already grappled with objectives and assessments. Once you also have a sense of the materials you will want to curate, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Will the materials meet a need that your original content does not?
Will they directly support student success on assessments?
Will they clarify main points, highlight common issues, or provide important background knowledge or context?
Will they remain relevant for the foreseeable future?
If the resources are linked, are they at risk of being taken down?
Do the materials come from a high-quality, reputable source?
Do they showcase a voice or expert perspective that is complementary to your own?
Are they available to students (i.e., not behind a paywall)?
Are they accessible (do PDFs contain searchable text, do videos and podcasts have captions and/or transcripts, etc.)?
If the materials include videos, are the videos under ten minutes in length?

You may notice that some considerations are the same whether you are curating or creating new content. Depending on whether you are curating or creating, however, you may prioritize some issues over others. Ideally all of the videos in your course will be evergreen, but it is more important that original videos remain relevant because of the time and cost associated with re-recording. Similarly, we recommend that all recorded videos are less than 10 minutes long, but this is especially important for curated videos which are intended to supplement course content. If you have additional questions about developing instructional materials, don't hesitate to loop in your instructional designer! They will be happy to consult on the optimal balance of created and curated content for your unique course.

Topics

Content and Multimedia