The target audience for this course is students at the grade six level who are BC residents as my course deals with BC’s curriculum. Ideally these students would also be part of District 34 as that is where I currently teach, and this is also where my WordPress site will be hosed in order to ensure FOIPPA standards for student security are met (Guide to FOIPPA, 2015). This course is designed for a blended learning experience, but could be altered to be taught in a fully online setting if necessary for individual students. Students who are at the grade six level are not generally mature enough to handle the independent learning environments of online learning. This puts too much onus on the learner, and based on my current teaching experience, students at the age of 11 or 12 are not ready for that type of responsibility. However, with the number of courses that are available online and the increased number of students registering in online classes in recent years, it can be assumed that the students who are currently enrolled in grade six will take a fully online course or training at some time in their education career. Barbour (2013) states that students need to have a good sense of digital literacy and personal digital identity before engaging in online learning. This course accomplishes this in a few different ways. To begin with the unit that will be fully developed is a course on digital citizenship also dealing with digital identity. Additionally since the learning in this course is blended it allows students to experience aspects of online learning and collaboration such as working on projects together and completing assignments online all the while still providing that physical connection with a teacher who is able to monitor very closely how students are doing in the course and how they are engaging with other students. Hosting the course on WordPress and using the plugin Buddy Press will allow the instructor to oversee individual students activity as well as how groups are working together.
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