As fall courses are entered into the H2O system, we are discovering what we knew already: it’s unclear how to use H2O for syllabus construction. The projects/topics/resources nomenclature in its generality and inclusiveness is unfortunately obtuse in an academic setting — not only for instructors, but more importantly for students. I’ve heard concern expressed that when students visit the site they won’t know what they’re looking at, or where to find certain information. Course websites such as Jonathan Zittrain’s old Torts website have 4 simple links: home, syllabus, courseware, discussion. These links make it clear where to find information. Of course, it remains to be seen how confusing the current system will be to students — perhaps concern is premature.
We already have plans to add a tutorial page to the site explaining how to enter a syllabus, but this doesn’t address the problem students face in making sense of the syllabus once it is entered.
Here’s a crazy thought: we could offer an academic “skin” for projects — a feature that project leaders could turn on/off to substitute academic nomenclature such as course/syllabus/readings, for the current, more general projects/topics/resources nomenclature. Optionally, this academic skin could be made visible only to project participants, with guests seeing the more generic skin lessening the system wide impact of the different look.