3. The Model Course Structure

The OpenLab Course Template is the underlying structure for any course on the OpenLab. You will be using it as a starting place to build your model course. The Template utilizes an organizational structure and basic instructional content to help faculty meet the recommended Best Practices.

OpenLab Course Template Tour

Organized with students in mind, the CourseTemplate is structured with a top-level navigation menu and related sub-sections. It uses pages for static course information and categories menu items for dynamic course activities and student posts.

The template structure also provides a suggested method to organize your footer and sidebar widget areas and comes with several useful plugins pre-activated.

View the video below to better understand how the Course Template is organized.

Understanding the Course Structure

While the Course Template Tour provides a visual overview of the course structure, the following outline shows the information architecture and the intended purpose of each element, for reference. Additional content, such as links to a web conferencing app, student portfolios, or library tools, may be added to the sidebar or footer as needed.

1. Course Profile
   This link takes the user to the Course Profile on OpenLab. Like a portal for the course, it displays the option to join the course, lists of members, access to additional tools, a link to the Course Site, and access to course settings for instructors.
2. Home
   Home displays all posts from students and instructor(s), such as class outlines, announcements, and student work. This dynamic content is published in reverse chronological order. For findability, all content displayed here should also be accessible from the Activities and Student Posts menu items, but you may choose to exclude student posts from the homepage using the Category Excluder Plugin.
3. Course Info
   This section houses official course information, documents, contact information, and other static content.
   1. Syllabus
   2. Schedule
   3. Grading Policy
   4. Course Resources
   5. Contact Info & Communications
4. Activities
   This section uses Categories to link to dynamic content, including weekly class meeting agendas, discussions, and learning activities.
   1. Class Agendas
   2. Announcements
   3. Assignments
   4. Discussions
   5. Surveys & Quizzes
5. Student Work
   This section uses Categories to link to dynamic content including all student-created posts and student-posts related to specific learning activities.
6. Help
   This section uses Categories to link to helpful college and course-related resources, including tutorials, demos, and student support services.
   1. Contact Your Professor
   2. College Resources
   3. OpenLab Help