Course Patterns

Your course will likely be made up of a number of patterns that will be replicated across the duration of your course. For example the majority of courses will likely break down their course materials by Week, creating folders within the Course Materials area in Learn for Week 1, Week 2, etc.

You can read the University’s detailed overview of Macro and Micro Patterns here.

Tip:
Provide more than just the Week number in your folder naming convention. Perhaps include a topic titles, and a summary of the points covered. This will help students who are looking back through the course for revision or consolidation purposes.

Macro Patterns

We have already touched on courses being broken down by Weeks. Each week might consistently have 2 lectures, 1 tutorial, and every other week have a group assignment. Your course should reflect this within the course materials and provide the outline to this from within the structure.

Week 1 (Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Tutorial 1), Week 2 (Lecture 3, Lecture 4, Tutorial 2, Group Activity 1), Week 3 (Lecture 5, Lecture 6, Tutorial 3)
Example of a potential Weekly Structure macro pattern

Micro Patterns

If using a flipped classroom approach, the way that you choose to deliver your lectures will likely also follow some “micro-pattern”. In your lectures you might consistently structure them as:

Week 1 | Lecture 1 (Watch pre-recorded video, answer some questions / exercise, watch pre-recorded video, read a case-study)
Example of a potential Lecture micro-pattern

If you can think about how your weekly content might be broken down in this way and represented in your course website, you can quickly repeat these structures for the materials giving your students a consistent and manageable experience.

If you are unsure how to identify these patterns and present your content and activities to students then please contact lt-support@inf.ed.ac.uk or attend one of the Consultancy drop-in sessions for further discussion.

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