What to Expect
Our Pedagogical Approach
What to Expect
Our Pedagogical Approach
What you can expect from our courses
Sage Campus courses are self-paced, instructor-led, and interactive. Online courses come in different forms, so on this page, you’ll find more detail on our pedagogical approach and course learning design, with examples from our courses. We’ve poured years of experience on course design into our current suite of courses, and are always working on honing our craft and trying new pedagogical approaches.
But first, how do we approach our course design?
When designing courses we always start with the learner in mind. Who might they be? What are they there to learn? From there, we craft learning outcomes and a curriculum map using tried and tested learning design approaches such as the ADDIE framework and the Open University Learning Design methodology. We’re passionate about modelling Universal Design for Learning Guidelines too, to ensure we develop meaningful learning opportunities for everyone.
What do we do to ensure we offer a great learning experience?
The pedagogical mix of content types included in each course is carefully devised based on well-known learning design principles. Our courses use an engaging mix of activity types including videos, text, flowcharts, quizzes, checklists, spreadsheets, narrative slides, and much more.
Our Instructional Designer, Amy King, leads the way with course design, and collaborates with our Editors, Hannah Batson, Katie Beck and Diana Alves, to ensure our courses offer the best in technology-enhanced learning. Rachel Crookes, Associate Director of Campus, leads the team to develop their craft and approach learning design in an evidence-based and innovative way.
How are the courses structured?
We start with our course descriptors and learning outcomes, which are shown at the start of the course so learners can decide if the course is right for them. Campus courses are then broken down into modules and each module is chunked into topics.
Click on one of the icons below to learn more about our course features.
Audio & Video
The course instructors and other academics explain topics in video and audio clips to guide learners.
Activities
The courses are packed with a mix of different activity types to keep learners sharp and focused.
Advice & Reflection
The courses display small sections with authors’ tips, advice, or personal experiences.
Games
No play, no gain! Learners can test their skills and knowledge with fun games and quizzes.
Downloadable datasets
Learners can download Excel spreadsheets of sample data for practical exercises.
Interactives
Different interactives are placed throughout the courses to avoid static texts and keep learners engaged.
Datasets
Datasets
downloadable workbooks, resources and datasets
We include datasets and extra resources for most of our courses, and our newer courses now contain downloadable workbooks. These workbooks offer learners extension activities that will be useful for their studies or real-life projects. Our datasets are up-to-date and reflect a broad range of topics, and are there for students to practice their maths, programming and analysis skills.
The examples were extracted from the course See Numbers in Data by John MacInnes, where all learners receive access to a pie and bar chart Excel spreadsheet that gives them practice data to help them craft their chart-making skills. The author provides examples and tips to get them started.
See Numbers in Data by John MacInnes
Try the course
Try the course
Try it out
Students, researchers and faculty can try all Sage Campus courses today by signing up for a 7-day free trial below. 30-day institutional trials are set up via your institution’s library, so recommend us to your library to request a campus-wide trial.
Games
Games
Games
We love using games to help learners practice skills and test their knowledge! Here is a game from our Know Your Numbers course by John MacInnes. The game includes a set of math questions and a timer. Learners start the game when they’re ready and are timed as they answer a short series of multiple-choice questions. Depending on the score they receive, the learner will be rewarded with a gold, silver or bronze medal - students love this, and we plan to introduce more games in our courses!
Audio & Video
Audio & Video
Audio & Video
Our courses contain a mix of videos and audio clips, presented by the course instructors or other experts, to guide learners through the more challenging areas of each course.
Our videos come in different formats, including short ‘lecture style’ presentations, screencasts, animations and interviews. Our more technical courses include extensive demo-casts so that learners can learn to code alongside their instructor. All of our videos have closed captions.
We also include audio clips of advice and tips from experts, who draw on their own examples to give learners deeper insights.
Activities
Activities
activities
We use activities to help learners to do several things:
Pause and check if they have absorbed and understood concepts or information
Work through real or fictional examples so that ideas can be better understood
Reflect on how they can apply learning to their own situations
We place activities after crucial or complex topics, so learners can assess their knowledge before moving on to the next topic or module. We include feedback on all activities so learners can understand how they’re doing. Below are some examples of the different types of activities in our courses.
Checkpoint: This type of activity appears at the end of every module and is usually a substantial activity that tests learners’ knowledge of the whole module. The checkpoint can include a variety of exercise types.
Here is an example of a drag and drop exercise that requires learners to drag information or examples into the correct categories.
Learners are given two attempts before the correct answer and feedback are revealed.
There will always be instructions before the activity to give the activity some context and explain how to complete the activity.
Activity from the See Numbers in Data course by John MacInnes
Example from the Research Proposal course by Dr Zina O’Leary
See How It’s Done: This type of activity provides learners with examples of real situations or research examples to really illustrate the application and challenges of what’s been covered. This gives the learner a chance to see how abstract ideas, strategies and skills can be applied within real-life situations. All of these activities include instructor feedback and pointers for learners who want to know more.
Advice
Advice
advice & Reflection points
Courses will often include personal advice from instructors or other experts. To do this we include ‘Pause to Consider’, ‘An Author Says’ and ‘Point to Remember’ boxes. We consider the hardest struggle points learners may be facing and focus on supporting them with those trickiest areas.
The following example was extracted from the Research Proposal course by Dr Zina O’Leary.
Research Proposal by Dr Zina O’Leary
Interactives
Interactives
Interactives
Interactives are a great tool for presenting learners with information but avoiding big blocks of text. Our courses include a variety of interactives, including narrative slides, flowcharts, tabs, image hotspots, accordions, and checklists. Check out some examples from our courses below.
Know Your Numbers by John MacInnes
Narrative slides: This interactive is often used to present steps or stages of information in a sequence or show different categories of content - usually paired with images. They’re particularly useful when learners need to spend longer on tricky steps or stages, or even move back and forth on a process to really digest how it works.
Learners click on the arrows to scroll through the slides in order to reveal more information.
This example is from our Know Your Numbers course by John MacInnes and helps learners understand different ways to work with fractions, including how to add them together or simplify them down.
Submission and Final Touches
Accordion: Accordions are handy for breaking down key terms, processes and techniques or organising topics into easy to digest categories.
Learners click through the accordions in turn to expand and reveal the information at a pace that works for them.
This example is from our Submission and Final Touches course and walks learners through a checklist for ensuring their journal article images meet the right standards.
Image Hotspot: In this more visual interactive, learners can click on key hot spots to reveal crucial information about that part of the visual or process. It’s a particularly useful way to explain graphs, charts, and data visualizations, as it segregates the information and allows learners to interpret the diagrams in a way that suits them.
Here is an example from our See Numbers in Data course by John MacInnes and illustrates how color-coded data can show relationships in data.
See Numbers in Data by John MacInnes
Try it out
Try it out
try 7 days of SaGe Campus for Free
You can try each of our online courses today by requesting a 7-day trial below.
As a digital library product, Sage Campus provides university-wide access to the full suite of 37 self-paced online courses worth over 280 hours of online learning for skills and research methods. Librarians can find out more about how Sage Campus works for institutions and get a 30-day free institutional trial. Faculty members and students who would like to use Sage Campus for their teaching or own learning can recommend Sage Campus to their library.