Best Practices

Owned by Skylar Grant
Last updated: Apr 29, 2023
2 min read

Here you will find a list of best practices to use for a successful online learning experience at KVCC.

Organization

It is recommended that you save your work in an organized manner. At the end of the day it’s up to you, but here is an example of a folder structure you could use:

Using a folder structure like this makes it easy to find assignments and other resources when you need them.

File Formats

It is important to submit your work in a format that the instructor can open. This is easier to do with text documents, but images and videos may require conversion to a more compatible format.

Text Documents

There are many programs that will allow you to create a text document. KVCC provides all students with a Microsoft 365 license which grants access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Vizio, and more. Other free alternatives include WordPad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), and LibreOffice (cross-platform). Each of these programs saves files under a different format, some more compatible than others.

At KVCC we recommend saving text documents as PDF files. PDFs aren’t easily modified, they preserve formatting, and are highly compatible. Some editors will allow you to save the file as a PDF, others may require you to “print” the document to a PDF.

Images

If you need to take a photo, create an image, or download an image for an assignment, it will be very important to ensure the image can be viewed by the instructor. There are dozens of image file formats, many of which have compatibility problems. Below is a list of file formats which your instructor will likely be able to open:

  • JPG/JPEG

  • PNG

  • GIF

If your image is in a different format, it is recommended to re-save the image in one of the above formats, or convert it to one of them.

Videos

Like image files, there are many different video file formats with varying levels of compatibility. Below is a list of video file formats that your instructor will likely be able to open:

  • MP4

  • MOV

  • AVI

  • WMV

If your video is in a different format, it is recommended to re-save the video in one of the above formats, or convert it to one of them.

Other File Types

If your program requires the use of more specialized files (such as CAD or programming files), you may want to speak with your instructors to determine the file format they want you to use.