Instructor Support for Educational Systems

What is the standard structure of a course?

Updated on

Before and during the Pilot of Brightspace research has been done on the structure of a course. After evaluation, students indicated that they strongly prefer a consistent lay-out across all courses. In that way a student knows where to look for the information they need. 

Leiden University provides a default content structures, the Leiden Course Model. This can be adjusted to fit a week or theme structure. Week 1 will then be displayed as Theme 1. 

The contents of the structure

Please note that the information below covers the default content structure. Depending on the faculty you are bound to, you may see less content units, since they are not always relevant for your course. 

Moreover, you are always able to hide or remove content units that are not relevant for your course, e.g. if your course does not contain Field Trip(s), you may want to remove that from your course. 

Under General Information you can add:

  1. A link to your Syllabus
  2. A link or information on the course Timetable
  3. Information on the Grading / Assessment Method 
  4. Your Contact Information
  5. Information on Field trip(s)


  1. Under the unit Assignment(s) you can place a link to the assignments and/or information on the assignment(s)
  2. Links to Web Lectures can be placed in the corresponding unit
  3. Information on or links to the (partial) exams can be placed under the unit Exam(s) 
  4. Offer a place where students can ask you or other students questions by placing a link to the general Q&A discussion forum in the corresponding unit.

Under a Week/Theme unit you can add:

  1. Lecture slides
  2. Links to Literature
  3. Video's from Kaltura and other Media
  4. Tutorial slides or information
  5. Information on Practical(s)
  6. A link to a Discussion Board for this week's / theme's topic.
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