In most traditional courses, students progress linearly through most of their online coursework. However, there are some instances where a student needs to jump to activities that are not linear in the course structure. Course authors and curriculum designers often know about these learning paths and when they occur. To help with these instances, Buzz has two primary features to help the course author build their course in a streamlined manner for their learners.
Course Links
Think of Course Links as a bookmark. Course authors can create course links to a website or course activity that is available to the student whenever they are viewing any activity in the course.
For example, if the APA style of formatting was an integral and important part of the course, a course author could create a course link to an APA website or activity. When the student is viewing an essay activity, they can click on the APA course link to quickly review the APA content without losing their place while viewing the essay activity. In this case, the student does not need to browse or attempt to find the APA content but just click on a link provided by the course author.
Course Activity Link
A Course Activity Link is a link that can be placed in an activity’s content and instructions, as well as in a folder’s landing content.
If there was an assignment in which the student had to review the literature several activities away from their current location, you could link to the literature in the instructions, making it one-click away for the student. Then, once they are done reviewing the literature, it is just one more click to return to the assignment. Without taking advantage of a Course Activity Link, your students would have to remember the name of the activity, search for it, and click to either expand the activity’s folder or to select the activity. In the new model, it is one click, no scrolling, and no trying to remember the name of the activity to get to it.
----------------------
In the cases where the student needs to jump several activities and the course author is not aware of this learning path, the student can jump to the course home in one click (instead of using the previous/next buttons) and browse in a folder-style navigation or use the new search option to find their activity.
Comments