Wikieducator tutorial/Developing a teaching resource/Deciding on the structure of the resource

Introduction
Most authors find this step the most difficult part of designing a teaching resource. It is not unusual to go through many cycles of review and trials of alternatives before finalising the optimal structure for your project.

However, this is an important phase in the process because it will ultimately determine the navigation and preferred sequence of learning for your project. Spending time early in this phase, testing ideas, can save you hours of work later, moving or cutting-and-pasting content because of poor structural decisions during the design phase.

That said, be bold and experiment! Leap in and get some work on the board to test your concept. If you make a mistake it can always be fixed!

To evaluate and refine the structure of your resource ask yourself:


 * Is the structure and plan suitable for the target audience?
 * Does it enable the learners to do the learning they need?

Thinking about structure


Consider the following questions before drafting your content outline:
 * Is the learning sequence important for this teaching resource? Should learners work through some sections before others and how will this be communicated to the learner?
 * Is there a logical or natural hierarchy for the content resource you are developing?
 * What is the notional learning time specified or required for this resource? This will give some indication of the size and scope of the subsections in your resource. For example if you specified that the learning resource will take 1.0 hour's learning time and you anticipate 5 subsections -- then each section would require approximately 12 minutes learning time (5 Sections X 12 Minutes = 60 Minutes). Keep the learning time in mind when thinking about structure.

Ideas for generating a draft outline
There are different approaches you can use to start drafting the structure of your resource:


 * Draw a concept map or mind map showing the relationships and hierarchy among concepts;
 * Draft a flow chart illustrating the relationship between sections and subsections;
 * Develop a conventional table of contents with sections and subsections.