The number of sections in the course

The number of sections in a course corresponds to the functional chunks of the instructional material and activities that the students will work through in the course. Each organization will have its own approach to delivering coursework, with terms that may vary.

If your organization offers 4-week, 8-week, and 16-week options, it is a good idea to divide your content and activities into sections that can be either expanded or compressed. For example, you may select eight topics, and if you are in a position where your school offers the course in 4-week, 8-week, and 16-week terms, you may easily double up and accelerate through the course's content at twice the regular pace, or simply spread the content out over 2 weeks instead of one.

On the other hand, if your organization wants to offer everything in a single week, or the course is very brief and intended to be completed in several hours, you may wish to break the content into sections that correspond to the amount of time that will be spent on the task.

Keep the following points in mind:

• Make sure your sections are consistent in terms of the amount of content that each section contains
• Try to keep the amount of time needed to complete each task consistent