Intro Module Reflection
Assignment 2 was a really engaging and challenging assignment for me. Having never developed an online course, it was interesting to plan how I would disseminate information to students and what an online course would look like under my instruction. I have taken only a few online courses in the MET program, so my perspective is fairly narrow and most likely skewed towards how MET courses are designed. As much as I used MET courses as a template, my course subject matter didn’t translate as easily as I had hoped. I also tried to take into account topics from Spiro’s (2014) article on trends in LMS that we should try and avoid. I quickly realized that there would be no reading assignments and instead opted for video tutorials. The visual nature of the software and the necessity for asynchronous delivery of the curriculum lead me to design the course content as Youtube hosted videos that I will create. Creating these videos will be time intensive but the benefit of having customized videos specifically for this course will benefit the students as opposed to using the numerous videos available on the Internet. Hopefully these curated videos will aid in student motivation as Ciampa (2013) addressed. Using a sychronous lecture method like a live screencast was not something that would be viable for the students. I also decided that for communication, that I would try and keep options fairly simple. Messages to and from myself would be okay using standard email and the internal Connect messaging tool. While I know that there are other mediums available, from the research we have done, it seems to be a good choice of balance. I do advocate to the students that if a question arises that deals with a topic in After Effects that they should search online first. There are many people out there who produce videos and provide training and part of the academic skillset that I am trying to impart on these students are research methodologies. When they are working as professionals with this software they will become used to finding solutions online. Lastly, for the assessment model, it was tricky figuring out the best way to assess their work. Since the course is designed as skill based versus knowledge based, I chose to do more projects than normal quiz/test assessments. However, the quiz component of the assignment fit perfectly as a supplement to a small skills project. I am able to use the quiz as a knowledge formative assessment along with the skilled project. Later on in the course does not seem appropriate for another quiz because they will have spent enough time in the software to be familiar with the tools. Overall, it was a good experience developing the introduction module and as I thought about the structure of the course I tried to refer back to aspects of Anderson’s (2008) article about the four types of learning. Learner-centred was especially crucial since I believe that online courses can be difficult for some students to use.
Assessment Reflection
I enjoyed working on the assessment for my online course. It gave me an opportunity to reflect upon what information I would need to know as a student at that point in time for the class. I decided to use the internal Connect test method due to its ease of use and accessibility. I didn’t think the other tools would provide that much more value to the student or myself. Having an assessment with instant feedback is a huge plus for this subject matter since it will replicate the experience working in the software. When working in video applications there is usually continuous feedback on if things work or not. Obviously for the essay questions I will need to go back and grade them but it will give me the opportunity to give the students some positive and meaningful critique about their design decisions. I chose a formative assessment since project assessments will be the primary assessment type through the course and having a formative quiz early on will be beneficial for the students to see if their knowledge foundation is solid enough. The Gibbs and Simpson (2005) article was helpful in giving me an idea of how to create questions that actually contribute to student learning versus a simple regurgitation of information over the course of the module. This course builds upon so many skills and tools that being very comfortable knowing them is essential to success in the course.
Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems.
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96.
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.
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31.