Course Site Quality Principles

The course site is likely to be your students’ first interaction with the course and the site should create a positive first impression.

Course Introduction

Contributing a well thought out, welcoming, clear and structured introduction to the course will minimise the time needed to address administrative questions during the first few weeks of term. Have a brief bio of yourself in the contacts page and set expectations for preferred methods students should use to communicate (discussion boards or email) along with expected response timeframes and an FAQ section.

While your home page introduction message is focused on introducing yourself and the course, you also need to include opportunities for your students to introduce themselves. This may be done through an informal discussion board where you prompt students with some simple questions (tell us where you are from, why you chose to do this course, what is your number 1 study tip, what you are hoping to achieve in the course). Particularly in online courses, simple icebreaker activities can help to create a sense of belonging and community within your course. Including communication etiquette guidelines  and expected frequency of learner interactions within the discussion space can set the expectations for students.

Week 0 (Course Orientation)

A Week 0 module provides a structured entry point into the course. It helps students understand how the course site is organised, what they need for the term ahead and where to find key information without the pressure of Week 1 workload. This early orientation to the course helps set expectations and reduces the volume of recurring questions about navigation, resources or basic processes. By directing students through essential information, you can spend less time addressing individual troubleshooting emails and more time supporting learning.

We recommend no learning content within this course orientation. Students can get started on the course content from Week 1. Keep Week 0 content to the essentials of how to navigate the course.

Workload (volume of work)

Consider the amount of content within your course site. Help students focus on what they need by ensuring supplementary materials are signposted so students can see what the material is related to and whether it’s essential. Too much complementary materials can make the course feel overwhelming and reduce student attention to the essential items by increasing the cognitive load on students. Keeping content concise and organised makes maintenance easier across terms to ensure materials are up to date.

Additional Resources for Teaching Staff

• Canvas Course Site Introductory Message
• Communicating with Students
• Accessibility in Canvas
• Desktop Video Production Tips
• Update your Canvas Contacts and check your weekly schedule
• Creating calendar appointments

Course Learning Outcomes

Quality course learning outcomes clearly describe what learners will learn and be able to do if they successfully complete the course. Learning outcomes should be expressed using terms that are specific and observable so that your student’s mastery levels can be effectively measured using your course assessments.

Changing course learning outcomes must be done with appropriate approval (your School or College Education and Innovation team can assist with this process.)

While your outcomes cannot be changed simply by updating your course site, you should ensure that the critical components of your course work together to ensure that learners achieve the approved course learning outcomes.

Weekly Learning Outcomes

Weekly learning outcomes can be seen as the roadmap for students to get to the destination of the course learning outcomes.

When writing weekly learning outcomes use simple connecting statements to explain to your students the relationship between the weekly learning outcomes, concepts/content being presented in a particular week/module, the learning activities associated with that content, the assessment attached, and connections to the course learning outcome/s.

Additional Resources for Teaching Staff

• Canvas Course Site Introductory Message
• Creating Learning Outcomes
• Writing Weekly Course Outcomes

Ensuring assessment information is up to date and available to students from the start of term allows them to plan and schedule their time.

In the 2025 SFUN survey, students give priority to “clear explanations of coursework and assessment” as the academic priority most likely to improve their experience.

The assessment types (eg “quiz”, “exam”, “project”, etc), and their weighting, included in your course site must match those approved in your course outline.

In Canvas, having assessment information up to date and available to students from the start of term allows them to plan and schedule their time. Within Canvas, the Assignments menu item contains assignment submission portals for students’ quick access. The Assessment Information Module contains supporting and contextual information for your assessments in Canvas. Link your Assessments to this module in Canvas so students can see the submission portal alongside the supporting and contextual information.

Creating an assessment overview video enables you to convey the various aspects of your assessment in a more personable format. This approach supports the written description and provides another mode for students to engage with assessment instructions. You can either record your own video or take advantage of the professional media production services offered by LDTI who will streamline the entire process. More information about LDTI's learning media production services can be found here.

Providing students with examples (exemplars submitted by previous learners) can help guide them in creating their assessment submission.

Allow students a practise opportunity so they can feel confident using the technology for submission. This is particularly important for quizzes or alternative assessment platforms such as Cadmus.

Setting weightings to your assignment groups in the assignment portal is crucial for the final grade export at the end of term. Ensure you have set availability date ranges for when you want the assignment or quiz submissions to be available to students, along with a due date. Setting a due date ensures the assignment is added to the student’s calendar. The below resources can assist with assignment and quiz set up.

When designing assessments for your course you need to align your assessments to the principles from the University’s Assessment Framework.

Feedback

Effective feedback is a two-way process — it supports student learning and growth, while also informing and improving your teaching practice.

Giving students feedback on assessments

Providing timely, constructive feedback on assessments helps students understand their progress and develop their skills. Feedback in Canvas can be delivered in a variety of formats, including written comments, audio, and video, allowing you to choose the approach that best suits the task and your students' needs.

Setting clear expectations around feedback — such as outlining marking timeframes in assignment instructions or via Canvas announcements — helps manage student expectations and reduces unnecessary enquiries.

Canvas also includes options for the automated provision of feedback, which can be particularly useful for large cohorts or formative tasks. For guidance on setting up automated assessment feedback, contact Learning Technology Support at lts@newcastle.edu.au.

Student feedback and reflective teaching practice

Student feedback is a valuable source of insight into the learning experience and should be treated as an integral part of your teaching practice. When students can see that their feedback has been heard and acted upon, they are more likely to engage meaningfully with future feedback opportunities.

Communicate openly with your students about the feedback received in your course and the changes or responses it has prompted. This transparency builds trust and increases student motivation to participate.

Mid-Semester Student Feedback offers a structured opportunity to gather and act on student input within the current teaching period, allowing you to make adjustments while they are still most relevant. Reflecting on this feedback — and where appropriate, sharing how it has shaped your approach — demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement and a student-centred learning environment. Contact the Education Development team to run MSSF in your course ed-ldti@newcastle.edu.au.

Additional Resources for Teaching Staff

• Full list of assessment resources
• How to manage your Gradebook
• Final grades import – Canvas check
• Quiz and Assignment set up in Canvas
• Rubrics - An Introduction
• Turnitin in Canvas
• Assessment Task Activities
• Giving Feedback to Students and How to give feedback in Canvas
• The Assignment menu and Assessment module
• GenAI and Assessment: Examples

Content for your course should be presented using a wide range of course materials.

Content for your course site should be presented using a wide range of Course Materials (textbooks, Open Educational Resources, publisher- or instructor-created materials, slide presentations and interactive content (such as simulations), expert lectures, videos, images, diagrams, and websites, etc).

When creating and refining materials to include in your course site, the main considerations are:

• The materials must align with your course learning outcomes and provide the information that students will need to be able to achieve these outcomes.
• This relationship between materials, activities, and outcomes should be clearly explained to students through simple introductory and connecting statements.
• Your materials model the academic integrity expected of your students. Materials include source references, and permission has been obtained to utilise the materials in the course.
• Your materials should be up to date and reflect current theory and practice.
• When creating materials, avoid references to dates and terms (eg Semester 1 202X), which may limit the utility of materials for use in future offerings. Ensure that materials copied from previous offerings are suitable and updated as required.
• Consider what mode of delivery your course will be delivered in, and how you want your students to interact with the materials. Make these expectations clear to students. For example - If students are expected to engage with certain materials prior to a lecture, clearly explain this.

Consistency and Signposting

Consistency in Course Design

Consistency in course design helps students navigate their learning environment with confidence and ease.

When course pages follow a predictable structure and use consistent terminology, students don’t need to relearn how to engage with each new module or week. This reduces cognitive load and allows them to focus on learning rather than figuring out where to find materials or what is expected of them.

A consistent layout also supports better organisation and time management, which is especially important for our students balancing study with other commitments.

Signposting

Clear signposting guides students through the course and makes expectations explicit at each stage.

Elements such as weekly overviews, clear instructions, and logical sequencing of activities help students understand what to do, when to do it, and how each task connects to their learning. Good signposting reduces confusion and uncertainty, supports independent learning, and keeps students on track.

In online and blended environments in particular, strong signposting plays a key role in helping students stay engaged and progress smoothly through the course.

Learner Activities

Interactive learning activities promote active learning and engagement through three types of interaction: learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner. That is, your students should be given opportunities to explore a concept from different angles.

Your course site should aim to include activities that encourage all three types using a variety of tools. The activities need to be created with a purposeful alignment with the course learning outcomes and assessment. Students need to be aware of the reason for completing an activity.

Activities can help learners actively engage in the learning process rather than passively engage.

Staff from Learning Design and Teaching Innovation can assist you in selecting and setting up your course with active learning tools and developing learner activities that are appropriate for your course.

Additional Resources for Teaching Staff

• All Active Learning Resources
• Simultaneous Teaching
• Creating H5P Activities
• H5P live engagement
• Discussion Boards
• Cogniti: AI Agents by Educators, for Education.
• Using Padlet in Canvas
• Effective use of PowerPoint
• Choosing the right Educational Technology
• Canvas guide to Modules
• Canvas and Copyright
• Using YouTube - What you need to know
• Course readings user guides
• Contact the Copyright Advisor

The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence is governed by the principles of Policy on the use of Generative AI in Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

To support pedagogically appropriate use of GenAI, the University provides access to the education-focused Cogniti platform.  Cogniti has been designed to let teachers build custom chatbot agents that can be given specific instructions, and specific resources, to assist student learning in context-sensitive ways. These agents can be embedded into Canvas course sites and can also refence Canvas site contents.

See more information, including how to request access, at Cogniti: AI Agents by Educators, for Education.

Tips for using GenAI in your course site:

• Focus on the teaching and learning need: always retain focus on how GenAI can be used to support the educational experiences of your students.
• Be honest with your students: be open with your students about when, and why, you are using GenAI in your teaching.
• Consider privacy and data security: Treat all “open” GenAI platforms as high risk. Do not upload identifiable student data, student work, meeting recordings, or confidential university material. Wherever possible, use University provided/supported platforms.
• Be conscious of the variety of opinion: as with any general-purpose technology, GenAI can be used beneficially but it can also result in negative consequences when used inappropriately. You are likely to encounter a variety of opinions regarding the use of GenAI in your teaching. Be prepared to defend your use of GenAI and explain your choices and how they can support your students’ educational experience.
• Consider fair and equitable student access: in the design and delivery of all learning activities that involve the use of GenAI. Never recommend or mandate use of paid/subscription model services.

Educator presence in a Learning Management System (LMS) plays a crucial role in fostering student engagement and creating a sense of community in online and blended learning environments.

Simple actions, such as adding a profile photo, recording a short welcome message, or regularly posting announcements, help humanise the online space and build connections with students. These actions signal to students that their educator is approachable, invested in their learning, and actively engaged in the course.

Research consistently shows that a visible and interactive educator presence improves student motivation, participation, and overall satisfaction with their learning experience.

Your course site has been created using a style guide developed to ensure that students enjoy a consistent experience across all courses.

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) 2023-2025 Strategy outlines the University’s approach to EDI, including integrating EDI principles across all practices. This includes a commitment to ensuring that all digital learning experiences will be governed by evidence-based EDI practices.

Aligned with this commitment, your site has been created using a style guide developed to ensure that students enjoy a consistent experience across all the courses in which they are enrolled. Student feedback has been resoundingly positive about this aspect of Canvas, with more than 90% of commencing (2022 Canvas Learning Experience Student Survey) students indicating that their sites were easy to navigate.

The style guide used to create your course site has been developed to reflect Web Accessibility Initiative W3C Accessibility Principles. Key features of your site (such as line length, text size and colour schemes) have been selected to ensure they support accessibility for as many students as possible.

When using your course site to support your teaching, you should also consider the principles of Universal Design for Learning. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. In particular:

• Provide multiple means of Engagement.
• Provide multiple means of Representation
• Provide multiple means of Action & Expression

The standard Canvas blueprint applied to all sites ensures that students have ready access to instructions for accessing personal, academic, and technical support services.

Before making any changes to the styling of your course site, please contact the LDTI Learning Technology team (or call +61 2 492 5899) to ensure that changes do not negatively impact accessibility.

Additional Resources for Teaching Staff

• Teaching Online and Blended at UON
• Student Accessibility Services
• Supporting Students with Disability - Staff Guides
• Accessibility in Canvas
• About Universal Design for Learning (UDL) 
  • Introduction to Universal Design (UDL)
    A free online course provided by the Centre for Universal Design Australia.
  • UDL in Tertiary Education
    A free online course provided by Disability Awareness.

Please consider the checklist below prior to making your course site available to students.

Prior to making your course site live (no later than the first day of term), please check that:

• Your contact details are correct in the Course Contact area.
• The Course Outline is available in the course site and is correct.
• The Course Schedule area has been updated.
• The relevant information is available in the Placements section (if applicable).
• Your assignments are set up with the correct posting policy applied.
• You have checked your assignment settings, and assessment due dates and weightings.
• You have checked the content for relevance and consistency, publishing and unpublishing what you want available to students.
• You have used the Canvas accessibility checker
• You, and any staff involved in teaching your course, should review and update any learning technologies embedded in your site. Examples include Padlet, H5P, third-party publisher content (example: McGraw-Hill, Wiley-Plus). Contact LTS@newcastle.edu.au if you have questions about access to educational technologies.
• Consider Copyright for Canvas, and contact the Copyright Advisor if you need assistance.

Finally, are you confident that the site reflects the principles outlined on the previous pages of this resource?
If not, LDTI can assist with making improvements.

When ready, you can view this resource for instructions on how to make your site available for students.

LDTI offer a range of professional development resources and sessions for facilitating course once live, some options include:

• Teaching Online and Blended at UON
• Facilitating discussions
• H5P Live Engagement Tools
• Building Belonging in the Classroom
• And our Upcoming Workshops

Additional Resources for Teaching Staff

• Making a course site available to students
• Enrolling staff in to a course site
• LDTI Upcoming Workshops
• Important Dates
• Learning Management System - Teaching Courses Minimum Presence
• Grade Posting Policy

All teaching and learning activities should be designed and conducted with due consideration of relevant policy and our obligations under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards).

In particular:

Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards)

• 2.2.1: Institutional policies, practices and approaches to teaching and learning are designed to accommodate student diversity, including the under-representation and/or disadvantage experienced by identified groups, and create equivalent opportunities for academic success regardless of students’ backgrounds
• 3.1.3: Teaching and learning activities are arranged to foster progressive and coherent achievement of expected learning outcomes throughout each course of study.
• 3.1.4: Each course of study is designed to enable achievement of expected learning outcomes regardless of a student’s place of study or the mode of delivery.
• 3.3.2: Where learning resources are part of an electronic learning management system, all users have timely access to the system and training is available in use of the system.

Course Design and Management Manual

• 11: Within each course, the learning outcomes, assessment items, course content, learning activities and teaching methods must be aligned.
• 15: Courses should be designed with appropriate consideration of the mode(s) in which they will be delivered.
• 33: Where an undergraduate course has been co-badged with a postgraduate course, the postgraduate course will:
  • include unique course learning outcomes appropriate to the higher AQF level of the course.
  • include unique assessment item(s) aligned with the higher-level learning outcomes; and provide opportunities for students to engage with course content, targeted learning activities and assessment items that are appropriately aligned to the postgraduate level learning outcomes. This may require additional learning activities to be offered on top of those required for the undergraduate course.
• 45: Course content must be:
  • be equivalent across modes and locations in terms of the academic content and the number, weighting, and types of assessment items within a course
  • be aligned with, and support student attainment of, course learning outcome comply with copyright legislation (refer to the Copyright Compliance Policy
• 88: The Course Co-ordinator must make the approved Course Outline available to students at least two weeks before the commencement of each term in which the course is offered, via the Course Handbook.
• 94: Each course site must comply with the Learning Management System - Teaching Courses Minimum Presence requirements and reflect the University Course Site Quality Principles.
• 95: Learning activities and teaching methods must be appropriate to the content, field of study, level offered, and mode of delivery. Assistance and advice are available from Learning Design and Teaching Innovation
• 97: Course materials should:
  • use a considered mix of media, appropriate to the mode of delivery
• 98: The purpose of course materials, their use in learning activities, and the distinction between required and optional material should be explained to students.
• 99: All course materials are to be provided via the Learning Management System course site. The course site inclusions must comply with the standard LMS course site blueprint (See the Learning Management System - Teaching Courses Minimum Presence).