Reusing and Remixing Course Content

Time to read: 5 minutes

Issue

Don’t let the thought of course refinement deter your progress! You can incorporate the best from both worlds by synthesizing course content from multiple modalities. 

In assessing the usefulness and remixability of your materials, you can also examine the goals of your course, reconsider the resources you plan to use, and create new approaches to help your students learn.

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4 tips for remixing course content

1. Assess your e-Learning resources

   Before repurposing eLearning content, take stock of what you have and what tools or resources you actually use. Then consider what can be repurposed. My video playlist is a must-have for my face-to-face courses and online learners, but what about those handouts, discussions, and slides? Are they sustainable for any audience? *ahem* I should take a closer look! This type of materials review requires me to consider what the learner will use from different perspectives - not how the materials have been used in the past, but how they could be remixed and incorporated in multiple modalities.

2. Align the list

   Are you a list person? I am. I love a good outline, but you may prefer a mind map on a whiteboard, spreadsheet, or chart. Whatever format you choose for mapping course outcomes and goals, be intentional in aligning them with unit objectives and assessments. Each item in your course materials (including images, texts, and online or face-to-face interactions) should support those goals.

3. Think engagement

   Creating interactive course materials such as case studies,  scenarios, quizzes, simulations, and games may revitalize existing textbook information. A few semesters back, I turned a simple text-based story into an immersive eLearning environment by adding visuals, music, and sound effects in the form of a digital storybook. I’ve also used a low-tech technique that repurposes online articles or stories by asking students to contribute to a discussion board where they make connections to real-world applications or asks them to change the outcome or conclusion of the story.

   Whether teaching face-to-face or online, never underestimate the power of images or video that can help turn basic facts, figures, and important figures into visual interactivity, allowing students to see, hear and read course content in various ways. This process not only makes course materials more accessible, but it also adheres to Universal Design for Learning principles.

4. Create Consistent Naming Conventions

   Having taught in multiple modalities, I tend to rely on the functionality of the Learning Management System more and more. It serves as a repository for my course materials, such as slides, handouts, links, audio clips, and files, and it also helps create online spaces for in and out-of-classroom collaboration.

   Remember that list or outline you created with course goals and objectives?

   Make that list even more tangible by using the same naming conventions for your units of instruction in the LMS and the related materials. As tempting as saving something based on your computer’s save-as default can be (such as “Document 4”), taking the time to label your materials properly makes it more likely you’ll find them when you need them, readily available to reuse, semester after semester. 

It’s taken me a while to find what works best for the way I search my digital archives for information, but I tend to use this naming convention most often:

coursedocumenttitle.fileextension

For example: edtech101-alignment-worksheet.pdf 

I’ve also found it helpful to create a folder on my computer for each term using the following format:

YYYYterm

For example: 2022f

Then I create a subfolder for each course I’m teaching in that term. The advantage of using that term format is your computer will automatically sort the folders numerically by year but then alphabetically. This should sort the folders with Fall (f), followed by Spring (s), and lastly Summer (su).

Boom! 🤯

Here’s what it looks like on my computer, showing the term folder, with a nested course folder, and then the name of a file inside it…

These naming conventions also spill over to the way I organize my unit of instruction inside the LMS:

Remixing online and face-to-face materials to be used in any format can help you create sustainable pedagogical practices, facilitate easier access to online tools that complement your lecture or text, and re-organize and update teaching materials in one fell swoop. Share this article with your teaching friend who could benefit from a simplified approach to naming and remixing digital files!

Wait, There’s More!

Align your course to promote purposeful instruction, appropriate assessments, and meaningful student engagement techniques.

Download this FREE step-by-step course alignment worksheet.