Laying out Your Pages

When laying out your course pages it is important not only to guide learners through the content but also to engage them visually. Therefore, when deciding on the layout for your course's pages:

• Use titles and subtitles: Take advantage of the use of titles and subtitles to organise your content.
• Keep the lines of text short: it will make the blocks of text on the page easier to read. You can limit the length of the lines by using tables, or by creating a Cascading Style Sheer (CSS) that will apply the setting to all the pages you create. You may need a web programmer to assist with this.
• Use web friendly fonts that are widely available: this will ensure that the intended look and feel of your pages is maintained.
• Use "white space": as in print formats, "white space" is important when laying out a page. Make sure that there is enough space between blocks of text, between the titles and the subtitles and between the text and the images. "White space" on a page makes it more appealing and easier to read and locate information.
• Use colour: use colour to format text, titles and subtitles, but be careful not to abuse the use of colour. Pages with lots of different colours are distracting and can be hard on the eyes. If you have access to a graphics designer, ask for their assistance in designing the page layout for your course.
• Avoid long scrolling pages: it is difficult to find information in long scrolling pages. "Break" the content into smaller chunks so that you can create shorter pages that do not require endless scrolling.

Examples

The following are examples of two pages to give you an idea of what a good page layout may look like:

• Course website design
• Course redesign sample