I developed a fully online course of the first Unit for a teaching financial literacy to youth program based on the Money and Youth curriculum devised by the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education geared towards Grade 8 students.
Using Google Classroom as the main vehicle for interaction with the students. Students will be encouraged to interact with the professor via posts and emails, with other students via general and directed posts, and with the larger local community through activities and assignments.
An introductory activity will be used to better understand the cultural and specific backgrounds of each learner (Anderson, 2008). There are areas of the course that will permit a glossary to be developed so multiple students can add words and terms that may be unfamiliar and links of others areas that students can use to get more information.
Assignments will build on how students most effectively learn financial concepts including realistic investment programs and interactions with the larger community (Totenhagen, Casper, Faber, Bosch, Wiggs, Borden, 2015).
An online quiz will be used at the end of the Unit as a summative assessment of the key learning items. Multiple choice questions will be used for the more objective type knowledge questions and short answer questions will be used for more intellectually intricate questions (Bates, 2014).
In general, I would say the most difficult portion of creating a course (I am new to this creation bit) is understanding when to stop editing. I found Google Classroom limited in some ways but I learned to work around it. I still didn’t find the appropriate balance between what I would have liked to communicate (and how) and what the platform let me do. I am encouraged to learn more about all the other platforms!!
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. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf
Bates. T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/
Totenhagen, C. J., Casper, D. M., Faber, K. M., Bosch, L. A., Wiggs, C. B., & Borden, L. M. (2014). Youth Financial Literacy: A Review of Key Considerations and Promising Delivery Methods. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 36(2), 167-191.
doi:10.1007/s10834-014-9397-0