Session 10: Responses to Prompts

1.      Identify five key concepts or themes related to eLearning Design and Development and explain what you know about each.

1. Underlying Goal is an essential piece of the design and development of an eLearning course.  It is not imperative to understand the needs and wants of your clients, but it is also crucial to gather as much information as possible to ensure that the goal(s) of your client(s) and project come to fruition.  It is also important to keep your goal simple and only teach what learner’s need to learn.

2. Learner/Instructor needs and abilities is another key concept of eLearning design and development.  Very much like understanding the needs and wants of your clients to define a goal, it is equally important to understand, anticipate and incorporate resources to accommodate the needs and abilities of both facilitator and learner.  Because the instructor(s) have to facilitate the learning activities and objectives and learner(s) have reached those objectives, both instructor and learner have a symbiotic relationship.

3. Test or exams can be used to gauge learners’ ability to recall facts discuss in the readings and lectures in the course or gauge learners’ understanding of material presented in the course.  The goal of the exam to measure students’ knowledge and how well students’ achieve the objectives of each lesson, but it is also equally important to create tests that can be reliable tools that reflect the expectation(s) of the course.

4. Learning Activities (Absorb, Do, Connect) are activities that produce different sets of learning experiences, which is driven by the goals and objectives of the course.  Again, the instructor has to go back to the underlying goal and objectives of the lesson to incorporate a variety of activities to accomplish those goals.  I believe in an eLearning environment a combination of these “Absorb, Do, and Connect” make learning a bit more interesting and engaging. 

5. Media selection is important in the design of eLearning because it keep students active and engaged in the content.  Because it is important to express clear and concise ideas to learners, selecting the correct media to achieve one of the designed objectives becomes extremely crucial.  More importantly, media selection can reduce the amount of ambiguity in a lesson to create a learning environment similar to face-to-face instruction.

 

2. Speculate on the future of eLearning and what your role in that future might be.

            I speculate the future of eLearning will expand from higher education into K-12 and continue to develop in higher education to include international students that do not have to physically be in close proximity to their school.  With the development of the Internet and the affordability of personal computers, I predict eLearning will one day take the place of traditional classroom instruction/training and my role in that future will be both as an online guidance counselor and instructor.  As eLearning begins to trickle down from higher education to elementary and secondary institutions of learning, the demand for online guidance counselors and instructions will increase.

3. Revise the eLearning development template/instructional design process you developed earlier for yourself. Be sure to:

a) List all of the roles of people who will be involved in the typical development.

1. Project Manager: liaison with client and subject experts; installation and maintenance of the package; management of piloting and evaluation

2. Instructional Designer: Content analysis, curriculum design, and screen design. 

            3. Graphics Designer: Development and production of graphics and animation

            4. Programmer: Coding; integration with learning management system

            5. Audio-visual (Media) Coordinator: Sound and video production; still photography

b) Identify your role.

My role would be either Project Manager or Instructional Designer, or a combination of both.

 

c) Explain the type of courses or other eLearning development the template is for (higher education course, corporate training etc.)

            This type of eLearning development template is for a higher education course

d) Provide a clear label for all included elements.

*11 step instructional design process as presented in the text with my provisions from the previous week:

1. Identify your underlying goal—What is the goal of the course? What is your goal for the course? Is it financial, intellectual capital, attract/ retain customers/ employees, operational, or public image? What is the purpose of this course?

2. *Analyze learners' needs and abilities/ Instructor’s needs and abilities-What are the needs and abilities of students and/or instructors?  What are the most important needs and abilities of the learner for this class?  What are the minimal skills set and traits must the learner have in order to successfully complete the class?

3. Identify what to teach—What will students learn?  Will these subjects bridge the gap between what the students already know and the goal(s) you set for this course?

4. Set learning objectives-- What is the learning objective of this course?  Is it to create/ design X that does Y? Decide X, given Y or Do procedure X to accomplish Y?

5. *Modify objectives when necessary—It is ok to revisit objectives and modify the areas that does not accomplish or hinders the underlying goal.

5. Pick the approach to meet each objective-- What types of activities do you do in your class? Lecture, demonstration, student work, reading, discussion? What activities do you feel are the most essential to the course?

6. Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives-- In other words, what order would you like to see your students learn the objectives of the class

7. Create objects to accomplish objectives—completes a learning objective and can verify it.

8. Create tests-- What types of test would like to see created for this course: learning games, practices, simulations, or work assignments? What would you like the test to gauge? Knowledge of the material or something else?

9. Select learning activities --What activities do you have in classroom based course? Which of these do you feel are the most important to your course?(Not all activities may have an online equivalent, or will need to be adapted for online use)

10. Choose Media—Select appropriate media to will maximize the learning experience and develop the skills and knowledge necessary to fulfill the expectation of the goal(s) of the course.  

11. *Course Evaluation—Test the course and evaluate areas of improvement, or modify sections that no longer fit the goals of the course.

e) Provide a clear description of each included element.

            See above

f) Provide a narrative explaining how the template would be used.

            This template is designed for the used in a higher learning environment or can be modified to fit the needs of K-12 instruction.  The design and development will first assign roles and responsibilities, then follow the 11 steps to meet the expectations of the instructor and requirements of the educational institution.  Most importantly, I want to express that this template is merely a guide and changes can be made to fit the needs and abilities of the designer and audience it is created for—very much like the edits I made to the original 11 Steps of Instructional Design.

 

Sources:

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Newberry, B. Media For eLearning (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Newberry, B. New Media. (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Newberry, B. New Media Second Life. (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Newberry, Brian. Content, Instructor and Student Characteristics Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Session 9: Responses to Prompt

1.      Define the terms "Game" and "Simulation" as they relate to eLearning.

The term “Game” in eLearning can be considered a simulation plus a personally challenging task or a test plus immediate feedback but without a recorded score, so a game allows learners to take educated risks and try multiple strategies without having to suffer permanent consequences. In contrast, the term “Simulation” in eLearning gives the learner control over the sequence of events, so the learner has the opportunity to decide, act and learn from real/ practical events and receive authentic feedback as if they were in a real life situation.  It is important to note that in simulations the learner is referred to as a “user” but referred to “player” in a game.

2.      What are the key characteristics of a Simulation?

According to Horton (2012), the essence of a simulation is a cycle of decision-making and seeing results and the key characteristics are:

1.      The learner has a goal

2.      The learner operates inside an environment

3.      The environment presents the learner with choices

4.      The learner’s actions have consequences or outcomes in the simulated environment

5.      These outcomes may have additional effects in the environment, which can be invisible to the learner

3.      What are some of the strengths or advantages of Games and Simulations in eLearning?

The strengths or advantages of games and simulation in eLearning are showing consequences that might not be normally visible, learners can make mistakes without suffering permanent damage, learners can pause/ reflect and revise, simplify complex situations, and give opportunities to practice and receive feedback.  More importantly, games and simulations entertain the learner as well as teach.

4.      What are some of the weaknesses or disadvantages of Games and Simulations in eLearning?

The weaknesses or disadvantages of games and simulations in eLearning are cost of production, learners need individual attention, a large group of learners to educate at one time, skills to be taught are too complex, and task are too complex and time consuming, consequences of failure are high (e.g harm to yourself or others), learning with real systems are not practical (e.g having new nursing students prescribe medication), etc.

5.      Pick a topic and describe a game or a simulation that would be an effective learning activity.

The topic is Career Exploration and an effective learning activity is a simulation of life outcomes based on their career choices that compliments their personal skills.  Since the majority of students are unclear about what their career choices are, what career(s) fits their wants, needs and skills, more importantly, how applicable their skills are when selecting a life career, this simulation will give students an opportunity to experience the ins and outs of a profession without having to suffer the consequences of picking a major and career that does not suit their skill sets.  In addition to being able to take risk, students will be able to identify their weaknesses and have an opportunity to develop those weaknesses to over their career obstacles.

 

6.      Describe the development process you would use to create the game or simulation described above.

Since the objective of this simulation is to explore a career that fits students’ skills, it is imperative students take a “True Colors” test before they enter the simulation.  A True Colors test is a personality survey designed to can help individuals understand their personality and behavioral type, as well as those of others. The True Colors Personality Assessment provides easy to understand insights into the your behavioral style and personality type and those of others, so you can have better communication and build rapid rapport, whether it is in your personal life or professional life. The developmental process for this simulation will be to first set with a career counselor and disseminate all the possible careers that fit strengths and weaknesses of students, and then generate a list of career opportunities that can be generalized to the vast majority of students. Ideally, I would like to create all career opportunities for students, but I know there will be limitations to this simulation due to cost and production time.  Therefore, my next step would be gathering data on the typical day or activities of the specific careers selected, so the simulation can mirror a real life career.  Since this simulation is a fairly complicated I would have to test and constantly retest the validity of the simulation and make sure the information stays current so simulation is a reliable source of determinant for students when choosing a career path.

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design (pp. 323-398). San Francisco, CA:

            Pfeiffer.

True Colors Personality Test.  Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http://www.true-colors-test.com/

Session 8: Response to Prompt

1. List the two levels of testing as outlined in the presentation and discuss each one in turn. Then describe the types of testing activities for each level of testing.

Level One Test:  To ensure the fidelity of the media used to present the material. Ensure that the media that has been produced is complete and of an up to standard in quality.  Testing activities include:  examines media under a reasonable set of circumstances that end users are expected to encounter and test media on multiple operating systems and in different web browsers (if appropriate).

Level Two Test:  To ensure that the material presented leads to the desired student outcomes.  This test is more complex and involves testing the media as close to the finish product.  Testing activities include: checking HTML codes, CSS coding, and ADA compliance.

2. What is ADA and how does it apply to the design and development of eLearning materials?

According to the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the most comprehensive civil rights legislation adopted to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Public and private businesses, state and local government agencies, private entities offering public accommodations and services, transportation and utilities are required to comply with the law.  This impacts the design and development of eLearning materials that can be applied to the class.  Keeping ADA students in mind, creators of the eLearning materials must add another level of complexity to the design of the course because they have to consider these obstacles for ADA students like color-blindness, low vision or no vision, seizures, auditory and motor limitations.

3. What is your institutions (You may use CSUSB's) policy towards ADA and eLearning? Explain what this means in practical terms and what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the policy.

CSUSB’s policy towards ADA and eLearning are:

1. Identification of the interest, problem or concern.
2. An analysis of the factors involved, including cost and funding sources.
3. A review of the alternatives possible, including cost.
4. A response to the originator of the item.
5. Implementation of the solution.
6. Closure of the process.

Strengths: The use of a team, available resources that are devoted to ADA students and their accommodations, and simple guidelines that can be utilized and implemented quickly.

Weaknesses: Limited resources due to funding and budget constraints, and the use of the word “reasonable” in the first paragraph.  What does the policy mean by reasonable? Who gets to determine what a “reasonable” accommodation is—the student, faculty member, the ADA management team? And under conditions are the responsibilities of the ADA management met?

4. Revisit the 11 instructional design steps presented in chapter 1 of the text (Design Quickly and Reliably).* Revise this 11 step system using what you now know about development and testing. Try to create your own instructional design process/template that you might actually use. Briefly explain your modifications.

*11 step instructional design process as presented in the text:

Identify your underlying goal

*Analyze learners' needs and abilities/ Instructor’s needs and abilities

Identify what to teach

Set learning objectives

*Modify objectives to fit the scope “reasonable” accommodations for both ADA and non-ADA students

Pick the approach to meet each objective

Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives

Create objects to accomplish objectives

Create tests

Select learning activities

Choose Media  

My changes are denoted by an (*) and I added Instructor’s needs and abilities to Step 2 and Modify objectives as Step 5.  I included Instructor’s needs and abilities to Step 2 because the instructor’s abilities to adapt the needs and abilities of the student to the course material is absolutely crucial.  It’s is not enough to identify students needs and neglect the abilities and needs of the instructor to adapt to those accommodations.  Instructor might need more support from in terms of funding or resources to accommodation to the needs and abilities of the student.  I also added Step 5 because I believe it is also important to make sure all students share a similar learning experience and the content of material stays the same.  It’s easy to say that we have students with special needs and try to redesign or refine an existing design of a course to meet the needs of ADA students, but what about the rest of the class? Will the class be more complicated or disengaging for the other students in the class? I would hate to adjust the class for one group of students and fail at attaining my goal for the rest of the students in class.

Sources:

ADA Procedure and Policies. (2012). California State University San Bernardino. Retrieved from

http://policies.csusb.edu/ada_procedures_and_guidelines.htm

The Americans with Disabilities Act (2012). Center For Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/cpr/reasaccom/whatlaws-adaact.html

Newberry, B. Testing Online Education Material (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Session 7: Responses to Prompts

1. Why is media selection important in eLearning?

Media selection is important in eLearning because it, keeps them active and engaged in the content.  Since one of your objectives is to express your ideas to the learners in a clear concise manner, media selection becomes extremely to eliminate ambiguity, and even more important to create a learning environment similar to face-to-face instruction.

2. Define "new media"?

New Media is the concept of sharing appropriate media sites to increase the ability for others to use, reuse, link to and comment on shared works. Key components of new media are: supporting current practices, locating appropriate media sites for sharing, and creating a media experience that stimulates learning.

3. Choose a "new media" and explain it's strengths and weaknesses for supporting eLearning.

New Media: Podcast. A podcast is a standalone file (often in the MP3 format) that requires that the file be downloaded before playing, and it can be used to deliver audio, video and/ or slideshow presentations. One of the strengths of podcast is portability.  Students can download the file and choose to either listen to the file now or later, bring it with them on a mobile device like Smartphone or DVD and listen to the file on the go.  The second strength of podcast is ease of production, especially if it is only an audio file.  You do not have to buy any special software or equipment to create a file that can deliver your content.  On the other hand, podcasts does not easily capture the visual content or discussions in the class. Plus, it does not have a variety of file sizes that are readily available.

4. Explain the term "Mobile Learning" and discuss the importance of "Mobile Learning in the current eLearning environment and in future eLearning environments.

According to Horton (2012) Mobile learning can be explained in two ways: firstly mobile learning is participating in learning events while mobile, where mobile techniques and technologies allow people to participate in the several forms of learning like classroom, virtual, standalone, social learning and performance support. Second, mobile learning is learning from our surroundings—real mobile learning (RML).  In RML students do not learn from a mobile device, but instead learn from the environment around them, such as: objects, environments, experts, and fellow learners. The importance of Mobile Learning in current and future eLearning environments are the ease and affordability of portable devices like Smartphones, PDAs, Tablets, etc.  The easier the devices are to use and the more the affordable it is for users to purchase these devices, the more it increases the probability for Mobile Learning to become a solution for classroom instruction.

5. Explain the term "Virtual Classroom". Describe how a "Virtual Classroom" can be used in eLearning.

Virtual Classroom is essential a traditional classroom instruction but facilitated online.  According to Horton (2012), Virtual Classrooms are syschrononous events are online meetings like online presentations, Q &A sessions, and both individual and group activities.  I believe Virtual Classroom is one great way use eLearning.  Since is it always easier to start with what you know and what has already worked for you (as well as your client) in the past, Virtual Classroom is the best transition from traditional face-to-face instruction to eLearning.  You can transfer information in terms of the syllabus, weekly goals and assignment, test, and activities with and ease and requires less development time.

Sources:

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design (pp. 501-582). San Francisco, CA:

            Pfeiffer.

Lane, C. (2006). UW Podcasting: Evaluation of Year One. Retrieved from http://www.washington.edu/lst/research/papers/2006/podcasting_year1.pdf

Newberry, B. Media For eLearning (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Newberry, B. New Media. (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Newberry, B. New Media Second Life. (Word Document). Retrieved from http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/fall2012/etec_541_fall_2012/

Session 6 Response to Prompts

1.      Describe an "Absorb" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

An “Absorb” activity for one of the objectives in the course plan is textbook reading.  Students are to read the textbook and create a blog using blogger (https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&ltmpl=start&hl=en&passive=86400&continue=http://www.blogger.com/home#s01 ) or word press (http://wordpress.com/ ). Blogs will be used to post weekly assignments related to the readings. Students will use the blogs to communicate and interact with other classmates. Students will also use the blog to comment, share ideas, give recommendations or encourage other peers. Minimum of 3 replies to classmate’s posts.

2.      Describe a "Do" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

A “Do” activity for one of the objectives in the course plan is Lectures in small groups- Students will be paired into groups. In Blackboard under the “Groups” tab, student will be able to view 8 groups. Each group will consist of 10 students. Each group will be able to develop their own discussion forum.

3.      Describe a "Connect" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

A “Connect” activity for one of the objectives in the course plan is a virtual museum via visiting mandated websites to act as a real museum and recording a voice narration of a museum tour like a tour guide.

4.      Choose one of the above activities and discuss the process you would use to create this presentation. For this task assume that you have no additional assistance other than the instructor who would be able to write content as you describe it and perform for a recording as needed.

The process I would use to create an “Absorb” activity listed in question 1 is ask the instructor to provide and outline all the chapters he/ she would like to cover in the online course.  This should be fairly easy since the instructor has taught the class before, and he/s her does not have to create this document from scratch.  From there I would have him/ her list out all the goals and objectives for each chapter, and make sure those goals and chapters are attained by either recording the instructor lecturing the material or uploading a supplemental text document.

5.      Discuss how would your approach for the above task would be different if you were directing the development efforts of a team that included a graphic designer, a video editor and a web programmer along with all of the tools that such a team would typically use.

With the help of a development team and necessary resources I would be able to delegate the work and add graphics and video of the instructor without having to consider his/ hers lack of experience with technology.  I would be able to create more sophisticated video presentations and add graphics to the chapters to incorporate visual aids to enhance student learning.  More importantly, I would be able to complete the task in a timely fashion and as well as develop an activity that is more aesthetic then one that was created without the help of a team.

6.      The text presents test types and presents a list of common types of test questions. In light of these, describe a test that would be appropriate for the class your team planned in the previous session.

A test that would be appropriate for the class is a combination of True/ False, Pick-One and Fill-in-the-blanks types of questions.  Since this course is a factual course and require objective or closed-responses, True/ False, Pick-One and Fill-in-the-blanks are ideal for exams to gauge learners’ ability to recall facts discuss in the readings and lectures in the course.  The goal of the exam to measure students’ knowledge after every chapter and I believe a combination of those 3 types of questions will be able to produce scores that are quick and easy.

Reference:

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design (pp. 399-500). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Just Wanted To Share: EdTech Classroom Conference 2012

 

HOT: "Hands-On Technology"

The 8th Annual EdTech Classroom Conference will be held at California State University, San Bernardino on Saturday, November 3, 2012. The theme of this year’s conference is "HOT: Hands-On Technology".

The conference is GREEN, therefore, conference program in hard copies will not be provided during the conference. Please review the program online prior to the conference.

EdTech Classroom Conference 2012 is the place for educators and those who are interested in education to learn how technology is impacting teaching and learning in the Inland Empire.

Attendees will have the opportunity to network with colleagues, and share and discuss ways to effectively integrate technology into the standards-based curriculum.

Attendees will:

• Learn about the best practices and case studies highlighting successful (and unsuccessful) strategies and techniques for technology integration.
• Meet and hear the opinions and experiences of innovative acknowledged leaders.
• Become updated on the latest trends, major issues, and developments in technology integration.

Who should attend:
All K-12 teachers, pre-service teachers, administrators, university educators and technology specialists, parents, and those interested in educational technology.

Attendees will encounter:

• Keynote speaker
• Presentations by local teachers exemplifying technology integration
• Presentations by university educators and technology specialists in higher education
• Inland area Student Technology Showcase
• Vendor exhibits and presentations
• Student Panel
• Door prizes

Cost to Attend:

• Free

Location of the Conference:
California State University, San Bernardino, College of Education Building

Date and Time:

• November 3 (Sat.), 2012, 8:00 A.M. – 3: 30 P.M.

Session 5 Response to Prompts

My role this week were the same as it was last week and my responsibilities for this assignment was gathering information from our primary contact, creating subgoals (or manageable tasks) for the outline, tracking our thoughts for the assignment,  setting deadlines for each member, adding/ editing pieces of the outline.  An important aspect of this week I wanted to note was the challenge we as a group faced when working with remote members, one is sick and everyone has conflicting schedules.  It was extremely difficult for our group to have a conference call like we did the week prior to gather our thoughts, so we could have a general idea of where we wanted to take this assignment.  It would have been nice for everyone to get on a call together, so we can share ideas and divide task simultaneously but life happens and despite the challenge I thought we did a great job accommodating everyone’s needs  to finish the assignment.  As a result, I had a call with our primary contact, relayed the message back to the team and we communicated via email for the rest of the assignment.  Great job Team.

 

Sources:

 

Harris, J. (n.d.). Virtual Architecture's Web Home. Virtual Architecture's Web Home. Retrieved October 20, 2012, from http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu//index.html

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design (pp. 399-500). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Session 4 Response to Prompts

5. Each individual member of the team will make a blog post this week discussing their role in the group project and their thoughts on the instructional design process.

My role for this project is to take lead in terms of organizing the thoughts and ideas of the group and turning those ideas into a final product.  In a way I equate my responsibilities to that of a project manager, where I manage the process of a product from start to finish, but without the authority of a manager because I trust my teammates are more than capable of doing the work without having someone micromanaging them.  More importantly, I think my major contributions to the group is simplifying the process to this assignment, and turning it into manageable tasks where everyone gets an opportunity to share their skills set.  Not only am I quite pleased with how we have communicated and delegated the work thus far, this group is a prime example of how seamless and effortless working in an effective group can be when creating projects of this scale.   I am super excited to see this project in its’ final form, and hope my teammates feel the same way.

After reading the text on the instructional design process, I was kind of overwhelmed by all the steps because I was not sure how it would unfold in real life.  But after putting it into practice with this week’s assignment I realized I was overwhelmed for nothing.  The steps to the design process is simple and follows a logical pattern of reasoning; plus, it has a scaffolding effect that can be a problem if you do not know or unclear about a particular step.  I personally ran into that problem today when I was trying to add more questions to one of the steps, but was coming up empty because those questions should have been based on the answers to a previous step.  Overall, the process is not as complicated as I thought it would be.

Session 3 Responses to Prompts

A. Download the interactionsmatrix.doc file. Note that this is a table listing the three types of interactions at the top, with some sample activities on the left. Place an X in the cells to indicate which activities correspond to which interactions. Add some additional activities of your own and mark the cells appropriate to the types of interactions each represents.

 

	Learner-Content	Learner-Instructor	Learner-Learner
Video Presentation	X
Lecture	X
Chat		X	X
Discussion		X	X
Email		X	X
Blog		X	X

 

B. Discuss of the types of interactions that are most often used in the content area for which you expect to design instruction. Be sure to explain the content area, the types of students and types of objectives with which you will be working.

Guidance Course

Content: This course is a guidance course at a community college.  It teaches students to understand the roadmap of community college: how to register for classes according to their Educational Plan, how to transfer into to a 4-year university, earn an Associate’s Degree, and how to utilize all the resources available to them.

Students: Students that have been attended college for over 5 years and have not transferred or earned a degree.

Objectives: Learn how to register to classes, learn what sequence of classes to take and when to take them, and learn resources available to them

 

Interactions: Learner-Learner and Learner-Content are the types of interactions often utilized by the students in this course (with minimum interaction with the instructor), because the goal course is for students to be successful and self-sufficient.  Learners will have lots of connect activities such as: research, job aids and evaluating their current situation and assessing what their next steps should look like.  Keeping in mind that these ideas are fluid they can always come back and reevaluate.

C. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Horton text discuss three categories of activities: Absorb, Do, and Connect. After reading these chapters you are to locate one or more online classes and identify one Absorb, one Do and one Connect activity. Present your findings using this format:

 

Activity: Absorb
URL: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/management-in-organizations-top-middle-low-level-managers.html#transcript

Course Content: Management in organizations: Top, Mid and Low-Level managers, their roles, functions and responsibilities.

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics: Business/ Management students

Instructor Characteristics: Knowledgeable in Business/ Management basics

Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity: The activity in course is presentation.  Students view and animated presentation to learn the different types of management levels and functionality within those roles.

 

Activity: Do
URL: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/word2010/14

Course Content: Students will learn how to insert a shape and format it by changing its fill color, outline color, shape style, and shadow effects; plus, apply 3-D effects to shapes.

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics: Students learning how to

Instructor Characteristics: Knowledgeable in Microsoft Suites

Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity: Students in this course experience hands-on activity by creating shapes, shadow effects and applying 3-D effects to their work.

 

Activity: Connect
URL: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=397625

Course Content: How active young people should actually be, and discuss how PE teachers can ensure they are making an effective contribution to this area of public health.

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics:  Students are beginner/ experienced Physical Education teachers or anyone interested in public health.

Instructor Characteristics: extensive knowledge and background in physical and public health
Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity: This course includes ponder, questioning, and original work activities.  After each section of reading there are discussions that require students to evaluate the material and their own opinion(s) of the material and at the end there is a part that incorporates the student’s original work.

 

Session 2 Response to Prompts

Course A

Content: This course will cover beginning college algebra.

Instructor(s): This course is taught by various adjunct and full time professors who are very familiar with the content who have differing degrees of tech skills and online teaching experience. The same class has to serve for all instructors.

Students: All students in this course are college freshman and sophomores with good technology skills and each has successfully taken an online orientation to online learning course.

One issue I would have to deal with is the difference in tech skills and online teaching experience of both adjunct and full-time professors.  Every professor has their own teaching style and ways they feel is best for their students, so to expect that all professors will be able to utilize the same online tool to teach a class they are familiar is unrealistic.  For example, a professor with previous online teaching experience might feel standalone e-learning is a more effective technique to teach students the coursework but a professor that rarely teaches an online class might feel a virtual classroom might work out better.  Luckily, Horton (2012) outlines an essentialist approach that could help find a common ground for lessons, topics, activities, and Medias so every faculty member can feel confident teaching the new course.

 

Another issue I see is the willingness and motivate of student to learn subject matter.  Math is a boring and difficult subject to learn even in a face-to-face setting, so my challenge would be to find a solution that will not only engage the student but create a learning environment that truly provokes thought and retains the knowledge.

Course B

Content: The course is a philosophy of leadership class.

Instructor(s): The instructor is an experienced face-to-face instructor with good tech skills and prior online teaching experience. This instructor prefers lecture and discussion classes.

Students: Graduate students who are well motivated and with a broad range of technology skills, from average to very advanced.

The two main issues that would impact my design are the content of the class and the preferences of the professor.  If the professor would rather teach in a face-to-face classroom where lecturing and having a discussion with his/ her students is convenient, then I would have to create an environment that is comfortable for him/ her.  But my ultimate goal is for the students to be able to learn and understand the philosophy of leadership, and by the end of the course feel changed because this course has taught them something.  So I am faced with the difficult task of creating an online experience that will teach the skills and principles of a leader.  Even though the learners are graduate students, I believe there are some subjects and true learning will begin when these students see these principles modeled in a leader so they can build associations and identify those characteristics in the future.

Course C

Content: This course is an introduction to college success. It teaches study skills, communication skills, and tries to help students learn how to fit into the college community.

Instructor(s): This course will be taught by various instructors all with good tech skills and prior online teaching experience but who have never taught this content before.

Students: Students are incoming freshman who have been identified by advisors as high risk for drop out.

Two main issues in this scenario are: 1) the instructors have never taught this content before and 2) students lack of motivation, their ability to learn the material, and what their needs might be.  These issues directly influence my design in terms of what material/ lessons are taught and what media(s) in order to accommodate the needs of both the instructors and the students.  Since the instructors are not familiar with the course and the students are high risk for dropping out, the design of course is extremely important.  Because these students have been identified as “high risk for dropping out” the design of this course must be able to cater to a diverse group of students as well as motivate the students to learn and develop the skills necessary to success at community college. Not only does the material have to be engaging but it also has to fit the learning needs of the students and meet the teaching criteria for the instructors. 

2. Now, think about an online learning experience that you might someday create. Describe in detail the content, instructor and student characteristics. What are the design issues or features that these suggest? Explain your answers.

Guidance Course:

Content: This course is a guidance course at a community college.  It teaches students to understand the roadmap of community college: how to register for classes according to their Educational Plan, how to transfer into to a 4-year university, earn an Associate’s Degree, and how to utilize all the resources available to them.

Instructor: This course will be taught by experience face-to-face counselors with little to no online teaching experience but have taught the content before.

Students: Students that have been attended college for over 5 years and have not transferred or earned a degree.

Some of the design issues in this course are the online teaching experience of the counselors, and motivation of the students to work towards graduation or transferring.  My design has to be fairly simple for both instructors and students, so that any counselor (with or without previous online teaching experience) can instruct the class and teach a diverse group of community college students.  More importantly, my design has to be adaptive because it is inevitable for students to change their minds about their major or career goals.

3. List the 11 instructional design steps presented in chapter 1 of the text (Design Quickly and Reliably).

1.      Identify your underlying goal

2.      Analyze learners’ needs and abilities

3.      Identify what to teach

4.      Set learning objectives

5.      Identify prerequisites

6.      Pick the approach to meet each objective

7.      Decide the teaching sequence of your objectives

8.      Create objects to accomplish objectives

9.      Create tests

10.  Select learning activities

11.  Choose media

Source:

Horton, W. (2011). E-Learning by Design, 2 edition.

Newberry, Brian.Webpage Lecture. 26 September 2012.