Structuring your instructional material using a format

A format allows you to develop the structure of your instructional material. This is a critical decision, and you must make it carefully. If at all possible, your format should be consistent across your curriculum so that all your courses have a similar look, feel, and organization:

Notice there are a number of options that automatically generate a preformatted set of fields, which makes it easy for you to enter data. The various formats available are as follows:

• Topics format
• Weekly format
• Social format
• Single activity format

Most schools, colleges, universities, and organizations will use either the Topics or the Weekly formats. For example, if your college follows a 16-week semester format, it is often useful to follow a weekly format.

However, many colleges and universities offer the same courses over varying spans of time and may offer a 4-week, 8-week, 12-week, or 16-week term. In such cases, it is often helpful to select the Topics format and then specify the timeline by means of a link to a calendar that includes the due dates for the course term.