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General Course Development Tips

The "Rules" Page

It’s not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them. -- T.S. Eliot

Rule of Three	Rule of Seven
Rule of Six	Rule of Twenty

There are a multitude of "rules" out there when it comes to designing and developing a distance learning course -- and there will always be exceptions to each one. This page represents of collection of some of the more popular rules to use as guidelines when planning your course.

The Three Rules of Three:

1. The Rule of 3 X 3

Try to have no more than three sentences per paragraph. After three paragraphs of text, incorporate some form of action -- a link, image, test, video clip, etc.

2. The Rule of Thirds

rule of thirds
(Image from Kodak's Web Site)

Based on the theory that a slightly off-center picture is more visually interesting than a centered one, the Rule of Thirds suggests that when creating slides for a presentation, you should imagine your picture area divided into thirds horizontally and vertically. The intersections of these lines suggest four options for the optimal placement of your subject. The upper left intersection is the best location, followed by the upper right intersection.

3. The Three-Click Rules

The 3-Click Rule: A

The 3-Click Rule maintains that it should take a student no more than three clicks to get to any of your website pages.
One of the fastest ways to lose your students is to make them click ... and click ... and click... and click .. and click to find the information they need.

The 3-Click Rule: B

In designing content for an online class, it's best not to make the student scroll vertically more than three screens.
There should be a complete message on each screen; screens should also be printer friendly -- students appreciate printable and portable lessons.

The Six Rules of Six

1. The Rule of 6

When creating PowerPoint presentations, use no more than 6 lines per slide and no more than 6 words per line.

2. Another Rule of 6

This Rule of 6 suggests that clarity of structure is the key to clarity of content. When designing your lessons, you should plan to announce the structure of your presentation at the beginning of the lesson and refer to that structure during the class. You can clarify ideas by highlighting their interrelatedness. Six structures or patterns that can assist in this are:

Chronological ("in the beginning. . . ." )
Spatial (left-to-right, outside-to-inside, bottom-to-top)
Problem-solution
Cause-effect
Question and answer
Topical (anything other than the first five).

3. Yet Another Rule of 6

According to this Rule of 6, each subject should be approached in the following ways:

treat key ideas symbolically, numerically, and visually/graphically
use technology as appropriate
use writing to foster critical thinking skills
incorporate appropriate applications and interdisciplinary projects
encourage cooperative/collaborative learning
use appropriate assessment tools to improve teaching and learning.

4. Still Another Rule of Six

The most straightforward of our Rules of 6, this one suggests that for most adults to internalize something, they must hear it at least six times.

5. Yes, here's another Rule of 6

According to this Rule of Six , for each apparent phenomenon you should devise at least six plausible explanations, every one of which can explain the phenomenon. There are probably far more than that, but if you can come up with six it will sensitize you to how many there may yet be. Ideally, this will prevent you from glomming on to the first thing that sounds right and calling it "The Truth."

6. Finally (just so we have six "Rules of 6")

The Rule of Six Degrees of Separation a.k.a.The Kevin Bacon Game a.k.a." The Small-World Phenomenon."

The small-world phenomenon formalizes the anecdotal notion that "you are only ever six ‘degrees of separation' away from anybody else on the planet." It has been argued that the Internet and associated technologies have indeed contributed to making this a "smaller" world.

The Rule of 7

The experimental psychologist George Miller found that "The Magic Number 7, Plus or Minus 2" described the maximum quantity of ideas, facts, or issues that people are able to actively attend to at any one time. *

The Rule of 7 suggests that you limit the number of main points in a presentation to seven or fewer. This suggestion also applies to lists of ideas used in visual aids, PowerPoint presentations and handouts. Optimists shoot for the upper end of the range and operate according to the Rule of 9; others find that the Rule of 6 (#1 in the list above) works well for them.

*Remember, to emphasize an idea you should de-emphasize other ideas. Progressive disclosure of elements in a list, using the 'appear' animation in PowerPoint, for example, as well as dimming (by using PowerPoint's 'appear and dim' animation) topics already discussed can help focus attention on a particular point.

The Rule of 20

Studies suggest that the attention span of an adult is about 20 minutes. In reality, attention span is likely much shorter, so make adjustments to your course plan according to audience age and your own experience. Change what you are doing (or how you are doing it) at least every 20 minutes. Twenty minutes is a long time to stare at text on a screen, or at an equation on a document camera, or at an instructor.

Other research suggests that variety is a key component in extending the attention span of your students. For ITV classes, you can use variety in your voice (tone, volume, rate), movement, or switch between media sources -- from lecture to Document Camera to computer to VCR to remote class -- to maintain attention. Online components can include short reading assignments followed by interactive quizzes and self-tests, video clips, web quests, virtual field trips or online discussions to capture and keep attention.

The mind demands rules; the facts demand exceptions. -- Mason Cooley