Abstract:

Single-source documentation enables instructors to regularly update teaching and learning materials and to improve usability, thus encouraging learners to engage with materials more frequently and in their own time.

High quality teaching and learning materials become even more important in times of increasing student/staff ratios. In response, instructors have to use their institution's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to its fullest potential.

However, Don Norman's "Paradox of Technology" also applies to VLEs: "The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn and harder to use." (Norman 2002, p. 31).

Many VLEs offer functionality that makes it easier to engage learners. But as an additional channel, VLEs often require instructors to copy text from other sources into the VLE, thus creating additional versions of essentially identical content. This makes it more complicated–and less likely–that content is updated frequently. This is exacerbated when courses are developed in parallel that share content, or when substantial changes are made to course materials each year.

In the following, I illustrate a response to the challenge of maintaining consistent teaching and learning materials by outlining a case I have been involved with at a U.K. Higher Education institution.

On a large postgraduate programme, support for students for their final project has recently been changed from a supervisory model to a course-based model consisting of classes and personal meetings with an adviser.

The rationale for this change was twofold:
(a) to develop a coherent and consistent approach to giving advice; and
(b) to create a dynamic learning environment where class discussions are quickly codified into a single comprehensive course manual.

Some students choose a subject-specific pathway, which meant that two courses were developed in parallel. While both share most of the content, they differ in their subject-area and thus required different examples and illustrations. The result were a comprehensive manual for each course that are updated frequently, and accessible in different formats.

An open-source single-source documentation system called 'Sphinx' was used to create these manuals that are hosted on the institution's existing VLE infrastructure. Sphinx supports:
1. Different formats: Materials are automatically generated in HTML, epub and PDF
2. Different audiences: 'Compontentization' allows instructors to share content across courses
3. Added flexibility: 'Substitutions' allows automatic insertion of important information (such as submission deadlines) during output generation

The system benefits learners. First, the course manual is accessible and convenient. It constitutes a "one-stop-shop" of relevant information, including a booking form for appointments, has a responsive design that makes it accessible through a mobile phones, and includes a dedicated search function for quick navigation.

Second, the course manual is flexible. It allows instructors to update course materials much more easily–and thus much more frequently. Information relevant to students from both courses have to be updated only once, which ensures consistency.

References:
[1] Norman, D. (2002). The Design of Everyday Things. reprint ed., London: MIT Press.

Keywords:

Virtual Learning Environments, Single-source documentation, aesthetics of teaching materials.