1.3.4 Create a Course Guide

1. Create a course guide

An online course (or any course for that matter) can be an intimidating place for learners. It can be full of challenging ideas and difficult tasks, so it is important to make the participants in courses feel welcomed and comfortable within it, but also made curious and motivated by the challenges. 

One very good way to reduce the intimidation of a course is to provide a clear Course Guide. This resource should communicate the essential information all participants need to know to succeed in their learning. A Course Guide functions much like a good course syllabus, but might be even broader in the information it provides.

Learners should be able to easily find and access the Course Guide at all times. Be strategic when deciding where to place the course guide. For example, if your course is face-to-face, then you may consider sending a copy of the guide together with the confirmation of enrollment or any hard-copy material that will be given to participants. This would increase the chances of learners being already familiar with the document before meeting for the first class. For online courses (and online environments of blended courses) make sure the guide is visible in the course website and also that it is provided in a format that can be easily read, printed and saved.

The following pages present information that you might consider to include in a Course Guide. They are provided to you as suggestions, because the information to include in the guide will depend on specific details of the course, like the delivery format for example. As a general rule, include all information that you feel will be of help to learners taking the course. If you are re-offering a course, remember to consider questions that were already asked by learners in previous presentations. 

1.1. Welcome and introduction

What to include:

• Welcome message;
• General description explaining what the course is about;
• Reasons the course is relevant, interesting or significant;
• Describe how the course relates to a training programme, field of work or a curricular context;
• Highlight what audience the course is most suitable for, indicating any prerequisite requirement (if applicable).

1.2. Course goals, learning outcomes, and competencies developed

What to include:

• Present the course goals;
• List the learning outcomes of the course.
• If appropriate, a list of the competencies and the competency framework(s) being developed by the course. 

NOTE: You may find it useful to include a short explanation about what learning outcomes are and describe any categorisation of learning outcomes (in case they have been grouped into different categories).

1.3. Set expectations

What to include:

• Expectations from learners should include a general description of required participation in activities and assessment (if applicable). A course schedule may be linked to information in this section;
• Highlight learner’s responsibility in the learning process. You may want to highlight that attaining competencies requires work on the learner's part and that developing an independent learner attitude is important for success. You may link this to a document containing guidance for online learning studies (if applicable);
• Guidance on how much time learners should expect to dedicate to attend the course;
• Expectations from the course (what learners can expect) should provide a clear explanation of course support and facilitation (who is responsible for what?), including availability of support (e.g. office hours, expected reply time for electronic communications, financial support (if applicable), IT helpdesk);
• Provide a “Support contact’s list” (if applicable);
• Provide Netiquette and Code of Conduct guidelines.

1.4. Structure of the course

What to include:

• Some orientation to the course interface. Providing a course map or a list of items on the course website containing descriptions of each item is very helpful in online courses. In the case of classroom and blended courses, a list of material to be received (like DVDs and hardcopies of written materials, for example) is also very helpful;
• Indication of how the resources should be studied. For example: should learners have a close reading of all resources or skimming of some? Are there resources offered as optional study material?
• An overview of key assignments or activities;
• If the course is primarily online, include guidelines for successful online learning;
• Consider providing some sort of graphic representation of the flow of the course, like a flowchart or diagram showing the sequencing of major course topics or activities. This can also be linked to the course map, showing where to find the resources to be used at each stage of the course.
• A review of minimum technical requirements, including tools and applications to be used in activities. Provide a general “technical guide” for tools and applications to be used (if applicable);
• The course schedule.

1.5. Assessment

What to include:

• A thorough description of the assessment process;
• Criteria for receiving a certificate (if applicable);
• Link information to course schedule for clear statement of deadlines of key assignments.

1.6. Where to start

What to include:

• Explain how learners should start studying the course. Are there pre-course activities to be performed?
• Highlight the importance of reading the guidelines for success in online learning (if applicable);
• Encourage the organising of study groups like community of learners or communities of practice;
• Some motivational words of encouragement.

2. Examples

Two examples of course guides are included in this section to illustrate how different course formats and arrangements influence the content of these documents. You will notice that they differ not only in length but also in the amount of detailed information included. Try to think of reasons for the different approaches taken by the course authors.

2.1. Example 1

Aeronautical Meteorology Continuing Professional Development - Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO)

This example shows a course guide produced by the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH). This course was offered online over a period of nine months. 

Please click the cover of the guide below to download the file.

Note: The use of this document is for illustrative purposes only. All live links and contact information were blured in the document as part of content and personal data protection.

2.2. Example 2

Basic Moodle Course - EUMETSAT 

This course guide was created as part of the course material for a short blended course offered over the period of one month. The course started with a week long face-to-face phase and then progressed online for a further three weeks. Netiquette information was discussed with learners during the face-to-face phase and offered as part of course resources instead of included in the course guide. 

Please click the cover of the guide below to download the file.

Note: The use of this document is for illustrative purposes only. All live links and contact information were blured in the document as part of content and personal data protection.