MOC Best Practices

Best practices for creating and maintaining effective Maps of Content (MOCs) to optimize your knowledge management system.

Core Principles

Maintain clear, focused scope for each MOC
Use descriptive titles and concise summaries
Create logical groupings and hierarchies
Keep navigation intuitive and consistent

Structure Guidelines

Start with key topic areas like Health and Learning
Group related content thematically
Use clear headings and subheadings
Include relevant metadata (tags, icons, descriptions)

An illustrative Learning MOC states a focus question, groups links under starting and improving headings, explains what each link helps with and includes a review cue. Side annotations identify scope, grouping, link purpose and maintenance. — A useful MOC explains its scope and the purpose of its links. This illustrative specimen applies MOCs as evolving navigation and concept maps as responses to a focus question. Original diagram based on Nick Milo, Linking Your Thinking, MOCs Overview; Novak and Cañas, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them.

Link Management

Write descriptive link text that provides context
Regularly verify and update links
Remove or replace broken/outdated links
Cross-reference related content appropriately

Maintenance Tips

Review and update MOCs regularly
Archive outdated content
Expand coverage as knowledge base grows
Maintain consistent formatting