Course Schedule
Your course has a printable schedule template in place. The goal is to create a consistent course rhythm. Identify the weekly activities first, then high-stakes projects, assessments and assignments. You want a consistent and appropriate schedule of activities. This ensures students have a reliable plan for work, while instructors have a way to pace and manage feedback and evaluation.
Editing the schedule table means using specific tools in the content editor. View these brief tutorials for help with editing tables.
Best practices for your course schedule
- Include all graded activities in your schedule.
- Be consistent with due days. With the exception of papers or exams, maintain a consistent submission or posting schedule from week to week.
- Mark big events in bold-exams, tests, papers.
- Mark F2F meetings such as conferences or proctored events in bold.
- Keep it simple; too much information clutters and doesn't help students.
- Include assignment specifics such as criteria and submission details in lesson modules not in schedule.
- Include disclaimer of potential updates. Along with weighted grading, this is your ticket to flexibility.
Course Schedule Design
The third item of your syllabus module is the course schedule. This document is designed to present your weekly topics, readings, resources and student deliverables. Instructors have different strategies for the amount of information to include, as well as how that information should be organized.
Two Basic Formats
There are two customizable formats for the course schedule-list schedule and calendar schedule.
List Schedule
Typically, the list schedule works well for instructors who have a consistent structure and want a comprehensive record of all course materials and activities.
Calendar Schedule
The calendar schedule works well when the course structure and activities are variable.
Let Your Course Structure Inform your Schedule Design
The best way to determine the content and layout of your course schedule is to begin by answering some questions about your course structure:
- What's the duration of the course? 11-12 weeks, 8 weeks, 5 weeks?
- What format is your course? Enhanced face-to-face, hybrid, fully online?
- How will due dates be organized? Same day every week, multiple consistent days, shifting days?
- How will students turn in work? All online, all in class, both online and in-class?
The format considerations are suggestions, not hard and fast rules. Some instructors find that linking both formats helps them address different students' needs.
Examples of Course Schedules
Take a look at these examples for ideas.
Online Course - six Weeks
Calendar Format: Because of the accelerated format of this course, due dates came quickly and a calendar schedule seemed best. What to Notice: Consistent language and naming conventions help clarify a full timetable.
Online Course - Full Term
List Format: This online course with its simple, consistent structure was a good candidate for a list schedule. What to Notice: Text changes for high-stakes assignments and the use of days in due dates column. Specific dates and times are included in the Blackboard Calendar tool which notifies students through email and the mobile app.
Enhanced Course - Full Term
Calendar Format: This 11-week face-to-face course included activities that students handed in during class and some that were submitted online. What to Notice: The instructor chose a calendar schedule that included only meeting days and online due days.
Enhanced Course - Full Term
List Format: This face to face course included a variety of in-class and online activities. The instructor used the Blackboard Calendar tool to notify students through email and the mobile app. What to Notice: The due dates column days specify "before class" or "in class"
Final Thoughts
For many, drafting a schedule can help them think through the course design and development process. Others reverse-engineer the schedule once they have a good portion of the course developed. Still others adapt an existing course & schedule to an enhanced or online format, so it's just a matter of formatting current information. Whichever way you approach your schedule, know that it is a living document and can be easily updated. For many instructors, schedule tweaks are a part of teaching. (If this is you, remember not to delete the update disclaimer on page two of the syllabus module.)
Syllabus Best Practices
The most common problems in online courses stem from confusion, and often that can be traced back to students not knowing what to do. We assume our students are digital natives, but they are easily lost, especially first-time online students and students new to our learning management system. Strive for clarity in every aspect of syllabus development-page layout, language, guidelines, and procedures. Help can be as simple as directing students to turn a page and read on. Simplicity and clarity are the hallmarks of a good syllabus.
General Syllabus Best Practices
Online Learning has developed an HTML syllabus for use in online courses. If you prefer to start from scratch, be sure to address these points.
- Include your textbook and any required online publisher content. Link to e-text if possible.
- Keep written information "chunked" and brief. Maintain header styles and hierarchical formatting for visual clarity.
- Include three required links to legal and institutional language. Legacy courses (developed before 2010) may not have these links in place.
- Keep it brief. A ten page syllabus doesn't help students.
- Ensure Orientation activities vs first week coursework activities are clearly defined.
- Consider your "voice" and language. It sets the tone for the learning community you're creating.
- Beware of allowing past student issues to hijack your course policies. There are many creative, flexible ways to support learning.
Course Activity Information
- Prepare students with an overview of the type and scope of assignments they'll be doing over the term - quizzes, exams, discussions, essays or reports.
- Avoid minutiae. Details like where to post specific assignments, how exactly to post, and exact numbers of pages and sources only clutter the syllabus and confuse students at this early stage. Include this kind of critical information- assignment criteria and submission instructions-in the appropriate lesson.
Student Expectations / Communication Guidelines
Striking the proper tone is vital. You're establishing sensible and effective rules for interaction in your course. They help students succeed. It's important to model how you'd like students to interact. At the same time, it is important to strike a tone that is welcoming to students. Issuing warnings and using stern language creates a chasm between instructors and students from the start. For a good starting place, Online Learning has included language in the Syllabus template page that should help set a positive tone for your term.
OL hosts virtual drop-in sessions. Check availability here.
Search
Related Pages
- Attach Files in Blackboard
- Blackboard Content Editor - Upload Images, Videos, and Files
- Course Schedule
- Course Outcomes - Where to find them and where to put them
- Customize Background Images
- Editing Pages in Blackboard
- Embedding Videos in Blackboard
- How to Properly Add Nested Lists
- Make Links Accessible and Usable
- MHCC Accessible Course Template
- Link to OneDrive Files in your Blackboard Course
- Syllabus Section
- Blackboard Content Editor
- Using Images in Online Pages
- Using Hyperlinks in Blackboard
Improve this Site
If you have a suggestion or would like to report a problem, send us your feedback.
All responses anonymous. Login required to prevent spam.