Email sent on behalf of the Colorado Online @ Learning Design Subcommittee

Hello, 

As part of the transition to the consortial model for Colorado Online @, the Learning Design Subcommittee has been asked to identify a common D2L framework to provide a more consistent user experience for students and instructors. For all courses, this framework includes a common course navigation bar and course homepage layout. For fully online courses, this framework also includes a common D2L content tool organization structure. Additional details about the framework can be found below.

The Learning Technology Subcommittee has also requested your input on D2L Internal Messaging/Email. Additional information regarding these options has been built into the feedback survey.

Your opinion matters to us and we want your feedback!
Elements of the framework will be used by all institutions within CCCS, so we want to make sure that we have heard from all of you.

• Watch the Common D2L Framework Video Walkthrough to learn more about what has been developed. 
• Login and click around to explore the framework.
  • Login URL: https://cccotest.desire2learn.com/d2l/login?noRedirect=1
  • Username: fac.review
  • Password: fac.review
  • You have access to both the base framework with placeholders and an example with content populated from the CCCS Essentials of Online Teaching Workshop that was offered in Spring and Summer 2020, in response to the shift in instruction due to the pandemic.
• Share your thoughts by completing the Feedback Survey by the end of the Fall 2021 term. 

Additional Details about the Common D2L Framework
Our team of faculty, instructors, learning designers and administrators began researching and creating a streamlined, consistent, and mobile-friendly course framework for you and your students during the late spring 2021 semester.

• This work has focused around providing a consistently structured D2L experience for both students and instructors across colleges and course types.
• The common D2L framework includes a common course homepage layout and course navigation bar for all courses, as well as a content tool organization structure for fully online courses.
• This framework will serve as the base structure for all Colorado Online @ courses; whether you are populating the framework with your own content/activities, using a ready-to-teach course that has been developed though a collaborative Colorado Online @ process or something in between.
• If you teach courses in other formats, such as face-to-face, hybrid or something other than fully online, your courses will have the common course navigation bar and course homepage layout applied. 
• The course homepage layout of the framework includes 4-new widgets:
  • Welcome Window
    • Pop-up window that introduces students to the course, by allowing you to spotlight important information that is pulled from the course content tool.
  • Profile Card
    • Allows for the course instructor to introduce themselves to students with an inline, editable template.
  • Slim Announcements
    • Reduces the overall size of announcements with the addition of “Read More” to help students identify new and relevant information quickly, without scrolling.
  • Content Navigator
    • Allows users to quickly and efficiently access course content and view progress and completion at a glance across multiple content modules.
• From the instructional perspective, if you teach at more than one institution, you will have a more uniform experience from college to college.
• From the student perspective, regardless of which college they are taking online courses from, or what types of courses they are taking, students will have a more consistently structured experience, reducing the cognitive load that it takes to start learning in a new course.

Thank you,
The Colorado Online @ Learning Design Sub Committee