Project Documentation

 

As I have mentioned in pervious posts, this is the first course I have ever developed. As I am new to this experience, I decided to capture my decisions in this blog. This writing process has helped me think critically about the elements of my course and connect my design to the literature.

Developing the Course Concept

I began this project by reading Fink’s A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Course for Significant Learning. Finck’s article contains several worksheets to engage course designers in thinking about the various elements that should be included in their course. Unfortunately, I am not an instructor in any discipline. As I started thinking about the initial worksheets, I decided to base my Course Module on an Art History course I took last year. I started by completing the first two worksheets (worksheet 1, worksheet 2). By describing the expectations of the learners from a societal, institutional and personal perspective, I developed my Learning Objectives, which are:

• By the end of the course, students should be able to look carefully at a work of art and to translate your visual responses into descriptive and analytical language.
• It is expected the students in this course will understand the evolution of modernism from 1750-1900. Students will also learn to discuss and identify the formal elements of a painting.
• It is expected that students who take this course will understand the elements and context of modernism and be able to use the knowledge acquired from this course to continue to develop their knowledge of Art History.
• It is expected that students of Art History will be able to contribute to the dialogue around Art by being able to write a critical formal analysis Art.

Interaction Methods

Once I established the Learning Objectives, I began reading Anderson’s Towards a Theory of Online Learning. I started thinking about the different interactions that will take place during my module. I decided to use the interaction module of; Learner to Learner, Learner to Content, Content to Content, Teacher to Content, Teacher to Teacher, and Teacher to Learner. I then began looking at each interaction type and connecting them with Moodle tools. I then thought of how these interactions would take place:

Learner to Learner– Learners will be able to interact with on another through the use of discussion forms and a wiki where they will write about a work of art and their peers will be able to add feedback.

Learner to Content– Learners will interact with course content through, online resources (articles, videos) and assignments aimed at helping learners research information.

Content to Content– At this point, I won’t be adding this type of interaction. I’m not sure that there is any content that I can use which will automatically refresh itself.

Teacher to Content– As the teacher, I will be responsible for updating and review content in the course.

Teacher to Teacher– For the purposes of this assignment, I will not be focusing on this type of interaction.

Teacher to Learner– In this course, I will provide asynchronous interactions through discussion boards and email. I will also look at stating the acceptable communication methods and response times. I will also investigate developing a synchronous interaction method using the chat function.

Exploring the Functionality of Moodle

Once I established the interactions and the communication modules, I decided to investigate the actual functionality of Moodle. Having never used Moodle, I began by watching video tutorials like this one created by Teacher Training Videos on Youtube. Watching this video, I decided that I wanted my Moodle module to resemble a webpage. From the video and based on my perverse experience of design, I know that an application needs to look good and be easy to use in order to have students like it and engage with it. When I saw the Grid setting in Course Appearance, I was excited, until I discovered that the version of Moodle we have access this functionality. I spent time searching Youtube and the Moodle Documentation page trying to figure out how to make my Moodle site appear like a webpage. A classmate finally helped me out. I was able to develop a grid, but it still displayed all of the topics/lessons. I was then able to find a video explaining how to create a simple home page. I was ecstatic when I found it. I was able to create the site I envisioned.

Next, I created an introduction page containing the learning objectives and course information which I developed using Fink’s worksheets. I then began playing around with the communication methods based on my reading of Anderson’s article.

Assessment Methods

As I read I Bate’s Appendix on assessment and Gibbs and Simpson’s article Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Student Learning. I began thinking how I would assess students in my course.

Gibb’s and Simpson describe that “examinations are very poor predictors of any subsequent performance, such as success at work” (Gibbs and Simpson, 2004, PG7). Bate’s also describes how Project Work encourages “the development of authentic skills that require understanding of content, knowledge management, problem solving, collaborative learning, evaluation, creativity and practical outcomes” (Bates, 2014, Section 8.3.4.). Knowing this, I decided that I wanted to employ assignments that actually assessed student’s ability to apply the knowledge they learned during the class and to see if they met the course learning objectives. I also wanted to use peer feedback and provide students with an opportunity to apply feedback from an earlier assignment.

I decided to use the following assessment methods:

1) Course participation – Students are required to reflect and respond to a question about a different topic each week in the course discussion forums.  – 10%

2) Wiki Project Part 1 – (400 words maximum) Using the course wiki, students will respond to two works of art from between 1750-1900 – 20%

3) Wiki Project Part 2 – Within the course wiki, students will respond to the art descriptions of two other students – 20%

4)  Weekly Quiz – Each week students will need to complete a short quiz, which will contain works of art, artist name and date of the work. Students will have multiple tries to get the correct painting name, artist and date.    -10%

4) Curatorial  Project – Using a blog, students are required to select works from this course (maximum of 25 works). A minimum of 5 works not discussed in this course for your online gallery. Students will then have to complete an essay arguing why you included your selected works. -40%

The main project in my course is the Curatorial Project. This project asks students to use the knowledge that they’ve gathered through the course and through other assignments. Their first project asks them to write a Formal Analysis. Using the assignment instructions, students must look at a work and describe it critically, without using external resources. Students are then asked to look at their peer’s assignments and to offer feedback. By offering feedback, students will get to see how other students described a work of art, which may help them self assess as they write their art descriptions for their final assignment.

Students build on their Formal Analysis in their final project. They are asked to create a gallery of art works using a blog and to briefly describe each work. They will also have to defend why the included their selected works.

In order to become more familiar with art of the period, Students are given an image quiz once a week. This is a memorization activity, which is an important part of Art History. Students must be able to name and date works of art. Each quiz can be repeated multiple times and are used more as a tool to helping students learn the names and dates of important works. This will also aid student as they decide which works of art should be include in their gallery to represent modernism between 1750 and 1900.

Students are also required to respond each week using the discussion forum. This way, students will stay engaged with the course content, which will be important as they describe modernism through their gallery creation.

Course Design

Overall, I wanted my course to be clean, easy to use and visually appealing. As I mentioned before, this was my reasoning for using the “grid” design. On the “home page”, I used clean, simple icons, which show the assignments and contact information. I added the weekly topics in a list with hyperlinks. I considered using images, but I feel the hyperlinks are quite clear. For the actual course content, I currently have the written content on one page with images included. I posted my course on Connect and have had some feedback suggesting I place the images on separate pages. While I do understand the reasoning, faster load times and less scrolling, I am torn as I also like the idea of have weekly content easy to view. For now I’ve left it using my original design, but I may reconsider for my next assignment.

For each assignment I’ve tried to include clear instructions. I have a place for the rubrics, which I haven’t developed yet.

So far I’m happy with the way things have turned out, but I am quite eager to receive feedback so that I can improve my course development skills.

References:

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.),Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University.

Bates. T. (2014). Appendix 8. Assessment of Learning. Teaching in a Digital Age. (online book)

Cooch, M. (n.d.). Make your Moodle course page look like a webpage. Retrieved July 3, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=XtHPUh_BaxM

Fink, L. D. (2005). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved June 15, 2015 from Dee Fink & Associates

Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. (PDF)

How to use Moodle – Complete Video Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=XtHPUh_BaxM