Creating the Master Document

Return to tutorial list

The Master document is a word processed document that has all of the pages that will be included in your module/lesson. The instructor chunks or breaks apart the information and gives each page a title and a file name. These titles and naming conventions become very important as the document is used to make .html pages for use in Blackboard. This is your planning document which becomes an exact replica of what it is that you will eventually turn into .html pages and then upload to the Blackboard course builder

Using a word processor such as MS Word you can speed up the development of your course. You can then use the cut, copy, and paste functions of the program, and have the flexibility and confidence to rearrange when needed. It is extremely rare when you can start working on a lesson and not have to add, delete or rearrange elements within a lesson. By using a word processor these actions should be more automatic.

Easy Review Flow of Lesson

By creating the lesson first using a word processor you create one long document. You can then scroll up and down the document to review your sequencing. Imagine if each individual page or screen existed as a single word document. To review the flow of a lesson you would have to have every document open and read them in the appropriate order. By having one long document, each individual page or screen of information is presented as the next block of text, making it easier to see what is preceding or following any particular page. This also enhances your ability to check for continuity from page to page. As you are writing the text for a new page of content you should be able to see the previous page. As lessons increase in complexity you will discover the need to constantly review what has been presented.

Sharing Content with Others

One mistake that designers can make is thinking that everyone learns the same way the designer learns. It is very important that you have other content experts look at your lesson. In a regular classroom you can judge how students are reacting or processing your lesson by their facial expressions or body language. Because you don’t have that visual clue in the online environment it is very advantageous to have other people look at your lesson and provide you with feedback and questions about your presentation and content. As a matter of fact you could have a non-content expert look at your lesson to do a quick pilot test. Both of these methods will serve to improve the quality of any lesson and should be considered part of the development process.

What are we developing?

You may notice as you proceed through a lesson, each lesson/module is comprised of a series of short content pages. Rather than presenting one long document that forces the learner to scroll through to read, content is broken into smaller more discrete “chunks” of content. This allows the instructor to focus the learner on one concept, fact, or item for added clarity. Later this “chunking” will also allow the learner to revisit or review content at their own pace, and allow them to view content in any order.

So what we are developing here is one long document, with the content in the order we want it to appear in and how we want the learner to proceed through the content using the next button.

As you work in Word, your final product will be the complete module or lesson. This document will the framework for your lesson and should be comprised of several short paragraphs. However, once you have completed this document you still need to do some editing to make the transition from a Word document to content delivered on the web.

File Naming Convention

The potential of the number of files for a single course can easily reach into the hundreds. Keeping the files organized and identifiable is crucial, not only just for the sake of organization but for the sanity of the designer. As the course matures and enrollments grow you may need to edit and revise files. Trying to find one file in a list of hundreds of files is right up there with finding a needle in a haystack. Establishing a naming convention early in the design process can help save you from this frustration.

Here is one naming convention that can be used: Module name (or number), page number, graphic number (if graphic is used)

For example the file name for this page of content is: ccdm08. Just by looking at this file name it can be determined that this page belongs to the CCDM module and it is the eighth page of content.

(Hint - When numbering always use a zero in front of single digits.  This will order files in numeric order in a file.)

You don’t need to adopt this model, but it is strongly encouraged that you do use some sort of naming convention that enables you or another designer to find and edit files.

Assigning File Names

Because you are developing the content for a module in one long document, there isn’t any hurry in assigning file names. As a matter of fact you shouldn’t assign file names until you are finished creating the content. The reason for this is that you can save your self the trouble of having to retype the file name, if you are editing, adding, and moving chunks of content around. Wait until all of your content is finished then start assigning file names in numeric order. For example, the file name for the first page of content in this module (Familiarity with Program) would be ccdm01:

The second file is ccdm02:

And so on through the entire document.

For upload purposes in Blackboard so that your content will be displayed correctly you want to name the files correctly and present them in the proper order. With a naming convention that identifies the order of content the job will be made easier. But before we can really think about uploading to Blackboard we need to create a file structure that we can navigate easily.

After you complete all of your content in a single document you will need to break the long document into individual chunks of content for presentation.  These "chunks" are actually individual web pages which you will need to create.  Each chunk represents a single page of content within a module/lesson.  Because computers respond to specific commands you need to create a file structure that supports this command structure.

The best thing to do is to create a new folder (either on your desktop or hard drive) and name the folder (without illegal characters or spaces) for the module you are creating. This can be the topic of the module, the number of the module, or just about anything. The important feature of the folder name is that it makes sense to you.

To create a New Folder on the (PC) desktop: Right click on the desktop, move the cursor to New, highlight Folder and left click.

A “New Folder” will appear on your desktop. Right click on the New Folder and select Rename.

Once you have selected Rename, type the name for the folder. In this example the folder was named Ccdm.

Saving Files to Folder

The main reason for creating this new folder is so you can consolidate all of your individual files needed for your lesson in one place. Having all of your files for a single module in one location will be beneficial when you go to move these files to Blackboard.

Keep working in your word processor until you are satisfied with your lesson content, flow, and presentation. Once you feel that you have divided the content into manageable ‘chunks’, and that the order they follow builds in a logical progression, go ahead and assign the file names to each chunk. The next step will be dividing your long word document into individual HTML pages.

As you break your long document into individual files always make sure you are saving them to your new folder. It is easy to misplace files while saving and although you may have saved the file to your computer it can be lost or extremely hard to find. The good news is that if you have a naming convention, it should be fairly easy to find even those misplaced files.

As you break your long document into individual files always make sure you are saving them to your new folder. It is easy to misplace files while saving and although you may have saved the file to your computer it can be lost or extremely hard to find. The good news is that if you have a naming convention, it should be fairly easy to find even those misplaced files.

To see an example of a master document, click here (this is an Adobe PDF document, and will open up in a new window)

Return to tutorial list