Reflecting on the digital story:
Two videos were created for my digital story: one demonstrating the burning and dissolving of magnesium ignoring safety, followed by another demonstrating proper safety. A colleague helped with the filming using a school iPad: The field of view was quite large meaning the iPad needed to be farther away with deficits to capture volume. After watching through clips, I needed to speak louder for latter takes. One segment was accidentally filmed upside down based on the iPad orientation, which fortunately was easy to flip using Camtasia. Recording live videos was the right tool for use because it provides visual demonstrations in common laboratory scenarios to complement textual instructions. Beyond describing safety, videos also incorporated proper lab techniques (eg. diluting acid into water). Previously most video editing was done using Windows Movie Maker, providing very basic options (eg. trimming, transitions, captions). Not having a version compatible in Windows 10, Camtasia became a useful alternative. Annotations could be superimposed onto clips, adding features (eg. blurring) to make use of the many layers provided. Exporting directly to HTML was convenient, and Youtube was easily embedded into course module. This story works either as preview before class discussion, or as review upon teaching rules on the first day of class. Videos can be paused for spontaneous interaction, though for Moodle platform is setup as asynchronous assignment for learners to submit before the due date. For courses delivered completely online, watching videos of actual school labs provide advantages of relevance as settings users can relate.
Reflecting on the course module:
Based on Assignment 3 feedback, one primary area of growth is conceptualizing the course module as completely online. At first, because activities would normally be conducted face-to-face, instructions (eg. introductions, course outline) were rather brief, merely transferring information to Moodle. For Assignment 4, I focused on elaborating necessary details so that learners would have sufficient guidance on how to navigate through modules, along with accessing support through forums as required. Much unspoken cues were added explicitly, though inevitably will evolve going through iterations. Creating the splash page, introduced the functionality built into Moodle to link to other URLs, that was later applied to hyperlink text in the Course Outline as well. The chat tool was removed since it involved synchronous interaction, though because office hours are posted can later be reintroduced. Having said that, most interactions will be asynchronous: Announcements from teacher to student, Queries from student to teacher, General Forum from student to class, and Group Forum from student to student. Creating layers of particular interactions enhances frequent communication to build up learning communities (Chickering, 1996).
The Course Outline introduces the modular structure, which might eventually benefit with a ‘calendar’ tool. Traditional model limitations of time and content are overcome transitioning to online platforms (Diaz et al., 2009). Being able to change editor preferences made adding borders to tables much easier. The Introductory Activity questionnaire remains as a tool for me to collect preliminary demographics, with questions that help me get to know students (eg. experimenting with all question types). Another splash page was designed to provide a running list of assignments, so that users could easily navigate and find particular submission details. Group assignments also enable team interaction, though without necessary add-ons, the inflexibility of LMS may concede to more open access learning (Porto, 2015).
The module content goes through Safety, Measurement, Graphing and Reactions, which normally takes about three weeks in person. Options to show ‘Progress Bar’ and ‘Display Menu’ were experimented, though the former became confused navigating around, while the latter never appeared. Instead, jumps to previous and next pages runs through course design. Additionally, while students could attempt questions more than once, default prompts to ‘go on to the next question’ for incorrect answers did not work. Also the ‘numerical’ question type was limited to single number responses, which was not as forgiving as ‘short answer’. As a result, some problems needed their own page, depending on the selected question type with limited formatting acceptable (eg. subscripts, punctuation).
More descriptive feedback was given for grade boundaries, including occasional links back to respective information pages for review. As mentioned, the digital story was added as Assignment that was too big to upload directly, but worked around by linking externally to Youtube. More questions were added to the Safety Quiz, allowing infinite attempts until scoring at least 80% to demonstrate proficiency. Adding questions to test banks continued to be natural, though once a quiz had been submitted, not being able to edit questions thereafter was restrictive. Usually if a minor correction is brought up by one student, I would be able to make the change to preface that answer for others as well. Within Moodle, I would need to create a whole new quiz, selecting questions from the bank, probably more suited to changes the next time around. Content was spread out more onto different pages to avoid having to view overwhelming information while scrolling endlessly. Most content was converted to HTML with items from Equation Editor added as images. Typing directly into HTML enables more natural correction, though updating pictures still requires additional effort. Playing around with completion options required some tinkering, ultimately asking students to reach the ‘End of Lesson’ while being able to reopen old modules.
Concluding with some general remarks for designing courses on Moodle overall: As mentioned, the biggest change in design was to switch from conceptualizing face-to-face towards online learning, which Moodle does very well. A variety of activities (eg. lessons, assignments, quizzes, pages) can be added, reordered, edited, fairly seamlessly within the LMS. Overcoming the initial learning curve (eg. navigating between previews, edit tabs, page settings), much of the module could be housed directly in HTML, with the odd link out to Youtube. Being able to add questions to a bank will be useful over the long term, though an organizational system will be necessary to easily preview questions, especially since a new quiz is required after one student has submitted. Spiro (2014) described various add-ons, which though unavailable for this assignment, would certainly make tools more useful for particular contexts. For example, having a ‘calendar’ function like with Connect, would help students in planning out work. Modularisation helps reduce timescales, which does not have to replace but complement face-to-face interaction. Having built in assessments of coursework (eg. specific timely feedback) is often a better predictor of learning than exam grades alone, with more emphasis on thinking (Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Merely transferring information does not constitute redesign, but is a first step that can evolve through future prototypes. While upfront production costs of money, time and copyright are unavoidable, Moodle can easily be scaled for delivery with minimal maintenance needs (Bates, 2014).
References
Bates, T. (2014). Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/
Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
Diaz, V., Garrett, P.B., Moore, J., & Schwartz, C. M. (2009). Faculty development for the 21st century. Educause Review (44)3, 46-55. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/5/faculty-development-for-the-21st-century
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
Porto, S. (2015). The uncertain future of Learning Management Systems. The Evolllution: Illuminating the Lifelong Learning Movement. Retrieved from http://www.evolllution.com/opinions/uncertain-future-learning-management-systems/
Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/5-elearning-trends-leading-to-the-end-of-the-learning-management-system
My first reaction after creating this online course is to give high praise and accolades to all of the teachers in the MET program that have created their online courses.
Initially, I didn’t believe developing the content for my module would be very difficult as I chose a topic that I already have some content for and it is a unit I feel is engaging for my students. However, when developing an online course, there are other considerations that need to be acknowledged and as a result, I found it more challenging than expected. In Ciampa (2014), it states that “motivation is a necessary precondition for student involvement in any type of learning activity” (p. 82) and I imagine this to be even more true for elementary students participating in an online classroom. Below are some of the challenges and solutions that I experienced.