SLS Audience

Alignment

Quality Matters

4.3 C The course content is appropriate to the reading level of the intended learners.

4.6 C The course content strives to reflect a culturally diverse perspective that is free from bias.

4.7 C The course is free of adult content and avoids unnecessary advertisements.

8.2 C The course design facilitates readability.

National Standards for Quality Online Teaching

H3 The online teacher incorporates diverse media into online learning modules.

Lesson Scripting Requirements

• Collaboration: The SME and ID must collaborate to ensure accessibility for all learners.
• Accessibility Focus: Lesson contents must be made physically, culturally, and cognitively accessible and barrier-free.

Writing Engaging and Effective Online Content Requirements

• Learner-Centric Approach: Lesson content must prioritize the learner’s characteristics.
• Reading Level: Content must be written at an appropriate reading level based on factors such as the intended grade level and student type.
  • Readability Standards:
    • High School through first-year College (<=14.0) for AP courses
    • High School (<=11.5) for grades 11-12
    • High School (<=10.0) for grades 10-11
    • K-8 (<= to X.5 for respective grade levels)– e.g., <= 7.5 for grade 7
• Readability Checker: A readability checker must be used to determine the suitable reading level.
  • Recommended readability score evaluation tools (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level):
    • Readability Formulas Automatic Readability Checker
    • WebFX Readability Test
    • Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Readability Calculator and Grade Conversion
    • Scholastic Reading Level by Book Title or ISBN Search Tool
• Collaborative Decision-Making: The ID and SME must collaboratively decide the appropriate reading level.

Additional Requirements for Online Content

• Comprehensive Consideration: Writers must consider factors beyond the reading level for an online student audience. Ex. Using an encouraging “teacher voice”
  • The goal is for students to feel that they are being “taught” not just reading a presentation.

Consider Purpose and Audience

• The most important part of scripting any lesson material is to remember the objective. Align all content in your lesson to this objective.
• When writing content, it is key to keep your audience in mind. Develop a persona or an imagined future user of your course.
• Ask yourself these questions as you develop your script:
  • What is the objective of this assignment, lesson, unit, etc.?
  • How does the content contribute to meeting that objective?
  • Who is your audience? What do you know about this audience?

Considering All Students

Biases in Lesson & Assignment

• Reading level
  • Are the lesson scripts, web contents, and other reading materials at the right level for the targeted audience?
  • Avoid jargon, idioms, slang, and cultural metaphors
  • Create a glossary of terms if applicable
• Gender-neutral
• Avoid stereotyping
• Keep your Implicit biases in mind
• Assumptions
  • Are any assumptions made regarding students’ “shared” perspectives? For example, consider a lesson paragraph that mentions, “Your father is the breadwinner in your family.” Would it be understood by all students?
  • Check for “common sense.” What seems “common sense” to you, may not be understood or a shared perspective by the learner. Ex. religious holidays and so-called “common sense.”

Culture and Diversity

• Cultural representations
  • Does the lesson use content that represents multi-culture? The lesson is limited to one culture if it references only the resources written by and for one cultural group. For example, many of the well-known traditional children’s stories are of European origin. Misrepresentation may lead to implicit biases and stereotypes.
  • Are all components of the lesson understandable by all students regardless of their culture and socioeconomic status? The lesson is limited to one culture when it talks about a cultural idea or concept as a lesson example that is exclusively accessible by affluent audiences. For example, a boat club and boat equipment.
• Avoid pop culture references (actors, movies, singers, etc.) unless absolutely necessary. These quickly become dated or may be unfamiliar to learners.
• Avoid idioms such as “it’s raining cats and dogs” or “they were feeling blue.” These are culturally specific and may be unclear to students from different cultural backgrounds. Instead of idioms, simply describe what the idioms are expressing. For example, instead of “they were feeling blue” you could write “they were sad/grieving/devastated…”
• Use names, examples, scenarios, and images that reflect diversity in your lessons. This includes showing diverse family structures, diverse cultural backgrounds, and people with disabilities. Ensure the content represents multiple viewpoints on the course topics and isn’t just from a singular geographic or cultural perspective.

Writing for the Student

Speak directly to students

Taking a course online might feel distant or impersonal to students, especially if it’s their first online course. Writing engaging and approachable content can help to bridge that gap and make learners feel more comfortable. Write directly to students using the first/second person (“you” and “we”).

Example:

For many of us, crime – and being punished for crime – can seem really unappealing. So what pulls actual criminals to their crimes? In this lesson, we’ll explore how social influence can make crime seem more appealing and doable, based on the people with whom we spend our time.

In this lesson, you’ll uncover what kind of threat cyberwarfare poses to governments and organizations around the world. We’ll investigate why people commit these acts, including why our own country participates. By the end, you’ll have a stronger sense of what future wars may look like.

Use a conversational tone

Use friendly, approachable language. We are not writing a textbook, but creating a supportive environment for learning. Students should feel supported and engaged with the online content, just like they would in the classroom if their teacher was right there with them.

• Use contractions (ex. “can’t”) where appropriate.
• Avoid formal language.

Example:

Sequences with a common difference, like this one, are called arithmetic sequences. Of course not every sequence has a constant difference — most don’t! But many commonly occurring sequences are arithmetic, and when we do encounter a constant difference sequence, it’s important to recognize them. Arithmetic sequences are probably the simplest type of sequences, and there are simple methods for finding an explicit formula for an arithmetic sequence.

Notice how this example makes use of conversational elements – sentence fragments, interjections, contractions, and exclamation points all play their part in making an otherwise dry topic feel relatable and unintimidating.

Be a guiding voice

The online learning environment is very different from an in-person environment. One very important thing to keep in mind is that we don’t just want to dump information on our learners. Instead, we want to create that teacher presence by providing a narrative voice that guides students through a lesson. This can be achieved through the following:

• Use connecting language and transitions from one page or lesson to the next.
  • “Earlier in this lesson/unit/course, we focused on… now we’re going to…”
  • “By the end of this unit, you will be able to…”
  • “In this lesson, you will…”
  • “We’ll focus on…”
• Remind learners why they’re learning the information, such as the assignments they will complete or the real-world skills the information gives them.
  • “At the end of this lesson, you will… to prepare for this, we will…”
• Help students draw the connections between what they’re currently learning, what they’ve previously learned, and why it’s important.

Notes on stylistic considerations:

• Avoid the use of ALL CAPS. Instead, use bold or italic text for emphasis.
• Use em dashes (—), not hyphens (-) or double hyphens (–) for emphatic pauses in sentences.
• Em dashes can be created on Windows computers by holding down alt while entering the number code “0151”.
• Em dashes can replace commas, parentheses, and colons.
• Examples from The Punctuation Guide:
  • “Upon discovering the errors (all 124 of them), the publisher immediately recalled the books.”
  • “Upon discovering the errors⁠—all 124 of them⁠—the publisher immediately recalled the books.”
• Use only one single space between sentences. All legitimately obtained fonts (those that come preloaded on your computer) are already programmed for appropriate spacing both between words and between sentences.

• Module 5: Accessibility Instructional Content
• Readability Formulas: Readability Checker
• QM K-12 Rubric, Fifth Edition.pdf
• Style Guide: Student Guide