Over the last week, I’ve slowly taught myself how to use Moodle. I’ve watched numerous tutorials, explored the applications functionality and begun to design the appearance of my course. I’ve decided to use a “grid” appearance to make the main page look like a webpage. This way, the appearance is more familiar to learners, making it easier to navigate. It took me the better part of a week to figure out how to make the grid (our version doesn’t have the automatic grid function). My last hurdle was hiding all of the topics (so that there only appears to be a main page) which I JUST figured out this week. I was so happy, I might have yelled out “YES!”.

Now that I have Moodle figured out (at least how I want to use Moodle figured out). I’m going to begin tying all my courses elements together. Referring to the course assignment, I’ve decided to write out the plan for my course.

 

Theme:

As I’ve mentioned before, I am not an instructor. For my Moodle course, I’ve decided to base it off of a course that I took last year. I’ve reworked the communication, assessment and instructional approach to work in an online setting. I’ve used the content where applicable, as I’m not a subject matter expert in this field. Below is the Course Description which I re-wrote, but which keeps the original essence of the course.

Course Description:

This course is an historical introduction to the visual representations produced during a period of unprecedented political, economic, and cultural change in Europe. Although the syllabus unfolds chronologically, individual sessions have been grouped conceptually to allow for more intensive investigations of particularly important themes. The class is not a traditional “survey” in the sense that it does not claim to be comprehensive; rather, it will focus on constellations of ideas and objects that are most compelling.

Learning Objectives:

The learning objectives for this course we’re developed using Fink’s framework, the following objectives were developed for this course:

• 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.

They incorporate the personal, societal, university and professional expectations.

Assessment Methods/Tools:

I’ve gone back and forth on assessment in my course, particularly as I just started reading Gibbs and Simpson’s article on assessment. Right now, I’ve decided on the following assessment tools:

• Wiki Project – Using the course Wiki, students will write 2 formal analysis pieces on two separate works between 1750-1900. As a part of the assignment, they will also have to respond to a peers analysis. This will require that they apply there ability to look at a piece of art and analyze it. They will also have to research what a formal analysis is (there will be examples and resources).
  • Each piece will be worth 20% of there grade.

 

• Weekly Question Response – Each week, students will need to respond to weekly course content through an instructor lead question. This will help ensure that students are engaging with weekly content.
  • Total responses 10%

 

• 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. This way, students will be able to begin recognizing works of art and their associated artists and dates.
  • Total quiz score 10%

 

• Curatorial Project – As a final project, students will need to pull together works in an online gallery using any blogging application they choose. The goal of this assignment is to engage users with what could be selected in a gallery and write a persuasive piece arguing their perspective and their curatorial perspective. Students of Art History may want to become curators. This project will give them the opportunity to experience some aspects of a curators job. For those not interested in becoming curators, it will help them understand the thought and consideration that goes into developing a gallery/museum collection.

 

Communication Methods/Tools:

Using framework for interaction described by Fink, I’ve decided to use the following communication methods/tools:

• Weekly Chat – A designated time for students to pose questions to the instructor.
• Discussion forms – For weekly responses to topics. Also for students to engage with one another by responding to other students responses (not required for this course).
• Wiki – Students will respond to a students wiki entry using the “talk” tab. (If this can’t be done using the Moodle Wiki, I will have to use a MediaWiki instance for this course).
• Email – Students will be able to email the instructor directly. There will be guidelines for emailing the instructor.

Types of Content:

Each week, the instructor will provide an over all description of that weeks topics. Videos, and articles will be posted to provide information about the topic. Secondary and Primary resources will be used to help develop a historical context for the work that is discussed.

 

Elements of Design 

I will be better able to describe this once I’ve finalized my course. Right now, the main intent is to create a main landing page, with links to weekly topic content. Each page will be un-cluttered so that it is clear what students need to engage with.

 

Reference:

• Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. (PDF)
• Fink, L. D. (2005). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved June 15, 2015 from Dee Fink & Associates website:http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pd
• 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. (PDF)