As you develop content pages for online courses, it is important to chunk the information appropriately. This can be accomplished using headings, subheadings, short paragraphs, bullets, images, videos, and white space. As you can imagine, without these elements, the example above would be a wall of text, which would be hard for anyone to digest or get excited about engaging with.
The concept of chunking is the act of breaking course content into small, meaningful units of information that can be digested and navigated easily. The information in each chunk should be related, logical, meaningful, and organized sequentially (Shank, 2018). Research tells us that there are several reasons to chunk content when writing instructional text, including:
Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction is a comprehensive instructional design model developed by Robert Gagné in the 1960s. It outlines a set of events, or steps, that instructors can follow to create effective learning experiences for students. The model is based on the idea that different types of learning objectives require different types of instruction. Remember, the key is to tailor the method of each event to the specific context and audience.
Creating high-quality, pedagogically sound content is challenging whether a course is taught in-person, online, or using a hybrid method. In course development, a framework refers to a structured and organized approach used to design, plan, and develop course content. Frameworks also provide learning designers and faculty with a blueprint for creating a coherent and effective learning experience for students (Reigeluth, C. M., & Carr-Chellman, A. A., 2009).
