Six Red Marbles is proud to partner with Tulane University's
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
This site contains resources to support faculty members seeking to learn more about engaging with the SRM team.
Our Partnership
Six Red Marbles currently partners with Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine to develop new courses, refresh existing courses, and prepare courses for upcoming terms.
Six Red Marbles (SRM) offers a broad range of services to support our partners in higher education. We partner with clients from as early as the program research phase, supporting them with program design and development, and can work with them through the release and maintenance of those programs.
Since Spring 2022, SRM has partnered with Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (SPHTM) to support faculty with course term preparation (also known to Tulane faculty as “course term prep”) and course development.
Course term prep is a valuable service in which SRM does the heavy lifting to update the details of existing courses before each semester starts. Course term prep is often when faculty are first introduced to working with SRM. The experience provides the perfect exposure to SRM’s Learning Experience Design team and its talented instructional designers. You can build rapport with our team and experience firsthand SRM’s expertise in online learning.
With course development, you can partner with SRM instructional designers to refresh and make content updates to existing courses, or SRM can partner with you, leveraging your subject matter expertise, to build a new course from the ground up. SRM’s instructional designers partner with you at every step to ensure the course matches your vision and meets your expectations. They will also partner with you to explore the use of media, such as video, images, animations, simulations, virtual labs, and interactive learning objects like drag and drop, matching activities, and case studies to help reinforce the concepts you teach. SRM’s role is to provide support with content development. In every instance, you retain complete control over the content of your course.
We invite you to learn more about our work together by exploring the resources and information below.
Interactive Learning Objects
Interactive learning objects (ILOs) can diversify methods for engaging with course content, reinforce student knowledge of course content by facilitating interactive opportunities to visually organize information, explain complex course content in a way that is tailored to a faculty’s teaching style, and stimulate cognitive and affective responses that can drive class conversations, provoke a reassessment of core values, and spark new ideas.
To understand how your colleagues are using ILOs to improve learner engagement, watch the videos below to see ILO exemplars created by Six Red Marbles to support SPHTM faculty.
Learning Budget-Related Terminology
Course (Faculty): SPHL 6080 (Kendra LeSar)
Challenge:
Students enrolled in this public health program design course must understand budget-related terminology to be prepared to develop budgets effectively.
Solution:
SRM introduced an interactive learning object featuring a concise introduction and a hands-on drag-and-drop activity. This exercise allows students multiple attempts to match budget terms, fostering a deeper understanding and confidence in their budgeting skills before revealing the correct answers.
Video Reflection
Course (Faculty): SPBS 8770 (Megan Weemer)
Challenge:
Students exploring the social determinants of health required more opportunities to interactively engage with and respond to educational videos in a supportive, low-stakes environment.
Solution:
SRM developed an interactive learning object to meet this need. The module starts with a brief introduction, followed by a targeted video. After viewing, students use a text box to respond to instructor-posed questions. Students can then download their responses to submit for course credit, allowing for thoughtful reflection and practical application of their learning.
Demand for Insurance Mini-Lesson
Course (Faculty): HPAM 6450 (Charles Stoecker)
Challenge:
Students in this health economics course must master complex technical terms and associated figures. Given their varied backgrounds in economic principles, an inclusive, low-stakes learning solution was needed to equalize understanding across the class.
Solution:
SRM created an interactive mini-lesson tailored to address this challenge. It starts with a succinct introduction that sets the stage for presenting the concepts and figures. This approach ensures that all students, regardless of prior experience, can engage effectively and build their understanding comfortably.
APA Citation Activity
Course (Faculty): SPHL 6080 (Kendra LeSar)
Challenge:
Students in this public health program design course required additional practice correctly sequencing items in academic citations, a crucial skill for their academic and professional development.
Solution:
To enhance their proficiency, SRM introduced an interactive drag-and-drop citation activity. This object allows learners to arrange citation elements in the correct order with multiple attempts, promoting mastery through practice. The correct sequence is revealed only after learners have solidified their understanding, ensuring they gain confidence and competence in APA citation formatting.
Note: The ILOs shown in the videos above are the property of the respective SPHTM faculty noted. The ILOs have been integrated into courses owned by the faculty and licensed for use by Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
SPHTM Canvas Templates
SPHTM
MHA
DrPH
Six Red Marbles has a dedicated team supporting our work with your school because we know how important consistency is to the success of a long-term relationship. It is important to build and maintain institutional knowledge of our key partners so that both our teams can create efficiencies and help your school obtain its objectives.
FAQ
Course Term Prep: What content can I expect my SRM instructional designer to update as part of the process?
Your SRM instructional designer will hold an initial meeting with you to discuss your course and your expectations. During the meeting, you will provide any new content you’d like to add to the course, and you will review your completed course syllabus to ensure it is updated with contact information, due dates for assignments, and times for live session dates. Your SRM instructional designer will then spend the next few days implementing the changes discussed.
Your SRM instructional designer will take responsibility for the following in Canvas:
- Importing existing Canvas course content into the new Canvas shell for the current term
- Importing a new mid-semester evaluation (which will be left unpublished)
- Adding any new content discussed and provided by faculty
- Updating the course information per the syllabus
- Removing all outdated announcements (will confirm with faculty before removal)
- Updating dates on all assignments, discussions, knowledge checks, quizzes, midterms, and final
- Confirming that all assignment submission settings align with written expectations
- Updating the date ranges on titles for all weekly modules, based on the syllabus
- Updating links to assignments in the module starting and ending pages
- Reviewing the syllabus to confirm up-to-date attendance language is included
- Uploading a PDF of the approved syllabus to the Canvas Syllabus tab
- Reviewing any faculty-added links in the left-side navigation to ensure the links are updated for the current course and do not point to the previous semester
- Reviewing the course content for any major errors and implementing any necessary updates as approved by faculty
- Confirming all items (e.g., pages, assignments, discussions) have unique names on the modules page
- Ensuring all graded components appear in the gradebook
- Confirming the grading scale is aligned to the course grading scale
- Confirming the grading policy aligns with the grading policy as implemented in Canvas
- Confirming point values assigned to each assignment are the same as points provided in the associated rubric
- Adding Live Session pages to the correct modules with basic instructions on where to join sessions and find recordings
- Confirming that the calendar confirms that all Zoom sessions from the previous semester are no longer visible and that all new Zoom sessions for the current semester are listed
- Performing a final QA (quality assurance) check in Student View to ensure every page, assignment, and discussion appear as expected and that all links work as expected
Course Development: What can I expect during the typical 16-week course development timeline?
This sample 16-week development timeline is provided to help you understand what to expect when partnering with an SRM instructional designer on a course build. It highlights the typical topics SRM’s instructional designers will want to cover during each weekly meeting as well as what deliverables you may be responsible for providing. You can expect to commit anywhere between 5 and 10 hours per week to a course build project. While SRM attempts to standardize its processes across its instructional design team, SRM will work to tailor the course build experience to meet the needs of specific faculty members when possible.
Sample-16-Week-Development-Timeline
What is "media"?
Your SRM instructional designer may use the term media as an umbrella term to describe the types of supplemental items that can be used to enhance your course content. “Media” is a term that can refer to items such as lecture videos, PowerPoints, slide presentations, images, animations, simulations, virtual labs, and interactive learning objects like drag and drop, matching activities, and case studies.
Why should I leverage the new Canvas template?
Using a Canvas template has many benefits:
- It will save you time. Instead of building each item or module within your course, you can focus on the course content.
- It provides consistency and uniformity. Students, teaching assistants, and instructors can more easily navigate and use the course.
- It applies best learning practices. Information is organized more naturally, which helps learners avoid content overload.
- It incorporates accessible formatting that helps students, especially those with disabilities, navigate your Canvas site.
- It provides brand identity. It helps build a sense of community and continuity and positively influences student perception and experiences.
Remember: you are still in control of your course and its content. You can still edit the template. If there is an item that you don’t need, you can remove it. When you use the template, it is still your course but with a head start!
How do I contact SRM if I need additional support?
To receive support related to current work already underway with SRM, contact SRM’s project manager at TulaneSupport@sixredmarbles.com.
To learn how to get started with a new project, contact your department head or your school’s administrative representative, Dr. Christine Arcari.
Engage with SRM
Six Red Marbles works closely with your school’s administration to coordinate and schedule ongoing work with faculty. To engage with SRM, contact your school’s administrative representative.
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