How to Make Course Information Easy to Find and Use

Instructions, handouts, syllabi, and other short documents that give students information about what they need to be doing for a class should be very easy to find and use. Text information on a web page (such as a page in Canvas) can be opened and read very quickly using a variety of modes. Short texts and logistical information should only be stored away in a .DOC, .PDF or other format if it requires visual organization, relies on features of the software, or is intended to be printed and used on paper.

Quick tips for making course information accessible

• Post urgent, essential, and timely information on the front page of Canvas (or other web site). 
• Write link text that describes the destination, action, or file the link opens. Avoid vague link text like "Click Here". 
• Collect all details about assignments (instructions, due dates) in one place; ideally on the same page where students submit their work. 
• Give names to downloadable files that are clear and easy to recognize when downloaded to someone else's computer. 
• Edit the navigation menu in Canvas so that only the tools students will use are visible. 
• Organize pages using both visual and logical cues (e.g. use H1, H2, H3 for headers, provide alt text with images).
• Post information and short texts on web pages. Reserve PDFs and other file types for long or formatted documents. 

More details about making instructional materials accessible can also be found on UMass Accessibility - Faculty Resources. 

Post urgent, essential, and timely information up front

When students open a syllabus or course web site, the question on their minds is very likely “What am I supposed to do for class?”. At the start of the semester, the answer is often right on the first page, but over time, the answer can get buried behind more clicks and scrolls, which requires more searching, and sometimes panicky emails to the instructor. 

Suggestions for making sure current course information is easy to find: 

• Post weekly updates on the front page of the site. If students see a summary of the activities and readings for the week when they enter a Canvas site, they can get right to work without spewnding any time searching. You can manually update the Home page, or, if you prepare a page for each week, you can swap a new page to the front by visiting the current Home page and selecting “Choose Home Page” on the right. 
• Move current modules to the top of the Modules page. If you are using Modules as the Home page, or as the primary way to organize course, students may end up needing to scroll further and further as the semester progresses to find what they need. You can reduce scrolling by moving the module for the current week to the top of the Modules page. To move a module to the top, select the three dots at the top of the module, then select “Move Module…” and choose “At the Top”.
• Send announcements with weekly updates. Sending emails to students with weekly updates can help get information to students even when they aren't checking Canvas. The Announcements tool in Canvas enhances this practice by not only sending emails to students, but also notifying students when they enter Canvas, and collecting all the announcements on one page that can be used for later reference. 

Give recognizable names to links, files, and other elements

When skimming and searching for information, students are looking for terms that are familiar. Using names and labels that will stand out and make sense to students will help make these elements easier to find. 

• Write link text that describes the destination, action, or file that the link opens. This makes the information stand out as a link. Vague link text like "Click Here" is easy to miss. Students using screen readers can skip from link to link when searching, and this works better then the link text is descriptive, otherwise they only hear “click here, click here, click here”.  
• Use the same term for links that go to the same place. For example, make sure all links to a page about the final assignment are labeled with what it is called in the syllabus, on the assignment page, and other locations. If the link doesn’t match what the user expects something to be called, they are likely to skip over it while looking for the familiar term.
• Use terms that are familiar to a wide audience. Acronyms, shorthand, and jargon can easily be missed by students who are first gen, from another culture, or who have other access needs. Whenever possible, it is better to over-explain. 
• Give names to downloadable files that make sense when downloaded to someone else's computer. Files with cryptic names, acronyms, and personal versioning (e.g. fphandoutFINAL2b.doc) are easily lost. As an example, if the document is an academic article, name the file based on the citation (e.g. Merriam (2014) - Adult Learning - Chapter 01.pdf)

Post instructions and short texts on web pages

Web pages are the easiest way for students to access quick reference information such as instructions. Canvas and most browsers provide features that help students adapt the content of web pages to meet most access needs. Avoid posting quick reference texts as PDF, DOC, other formats that require dowloading or apps unless these files offer a required function that is not otherwise available (see below for more on when and how to use these formats). 

Short list of suggestions for making web pages useful 

• Create pages that cover a single topic. Short, focused pages are easier to find and remember. Information that requires visiting multiple pages, or scrolling through long pages, is more easily missed or lost.  

• Give pages clear, specific titles that describe the content. Make links to these pages use the same words as their titles. 

• Provide information on pages where students will expect to find it f(e.g. post all the information needed for an assignment on the page where it is submitted.) 

• Break up long pages of text with headers (using header styles), horizontal lines, and other visual formatting.

• Use images to illustrate visual information, set context, or call attention. Provide useful ALT text for these images.  

• Provide shortcuts to essential pages by sharing links, memorable short URLs, or QR codes on slides, handouts or in emails. Answers to questions that come up regularly in class are good candidates for this approach. 

• Organize related pages into a sequence. Longer logistical texts with logical sections can be broken up into multiple linked pages on a site. Give these pages a linking title (e.g. "Final Paper - First Draft" and "Final Paper - Bibliography") and group them together in a Canvas Module. This will help students keep follow the order, and let them easily jump to specific sections as needed.  

For more tips on making web pages useable see: 

• Digital Accessibility Tips (UMass Accessibility)

• Five Minute Accessibility Fixes Series (IDEAS) 

Share files if necessary     

If a document is long (such as a reading), contains essential visual organization, needs to be printed, or otherwise would be hard to replicate on a web page, sharing it as a file may be necessary. Make sure that the format you choose is accessible to students.

Consider saving the file as a PDF if the document needs to be printed exactly right, or students need a more universal format (not everyone has access to, or can easily work with, Microsoft Word files). With proper attention to making them accessible, PDFs can be opened on nearly any device, read by screen readers, and adapted for most access needs. 

Share the file in its original format if you created the document in a common software platform such as Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, or Google Docs—especially if students will be adding comments or using other features to interact with the document. 

To learn more about making files accessible see: 

• How to Make Readings Accessible (College of Education)

• Documents Best Practices (University of Michigan) 

• PDF Decision Tree (University of Michigan) 

Image If you have questions, or need any assistance reviewing or making your course content accessible, we are here to help! Contact us at DigitalLearning [at] umass [dot] edu (DigitalLearning[at]umass[dot]edu).