Having designed one module within Moodle has underscored the significant amount of time I would need to fully launch one of my courses online. That said, I was glad that I had spent some significant time prior to designing my introductory module thinking about the overall design and feel that I was hoping to achieve with this course.
As I mentioned at that time, Anderson’s (2008) model of online learning was key. I want to facilitate a learning environment that is community-centered, knowledge-centered, learner-centered, and assessment-centered. Looking at my first complete content module, I believe that I have built a module on this model.
I also kept in mind my commitment to foster a sense of community and collaborative learning. As I noted earlier, in order to build community, some of the other affordances of online learning do need to be muted a bit. Thus, I have weekly chats, held on the same day each week, within each section of the module to ensure the group maintains some sense of a pace. As Anderson (2008) notes, “the community … binds learners in time, and thus forces regular sessions – or at least group-paced learning” (p.61). To further foster this group-paced learning, I included regular discussion forums (at least one per topic) and I placed time deadlines on the assignments. While this reduces some of the flexibility for the student, I do believe that it will help students keep up with the pace of the course, and be contributors to the overall learning community. One other activity I included to help foster a collaborative learning environment was to have the students work together to create the glossary for this module.
As I delved more and more into the design of the course, I referred back to Chickering and Ehrmann’s (1996) article regarding the use of technologically sound ideas to implement the seven principles for effective teaching.
1. Good practice encourages contacts between students and faculty
By facilitating a weekly chat and encouraging the use of discussion forums, I believe that I am maintaining a good amount of contact with the students.
2. Good practice develops reciprocity and cooperation among students
As has been mentioned, the glossary activity is a cooperative effort among the class. I believe that this will enhance the ability for students to work together. Moreover, in one of the sections, the class has been divided into two groups to discussion two separate issues pertaining to government and the roles various elements have in our system. The discussion forum will have the groups work together to come up with some ideas. Finally, one of our weekly chats will be around a case study which require some thought and input from all members.
3. Good practice uses active learning.
While there is some use of reading guides in order to provide the requisite knowledge, I have included other activities, such as a letter writing activity, to encourage broader connections.
4. Good practice gives prompt feedback
I have included a self-marking terminology quiz for students to assess their own knowledge of the key terms. There are other assignments for students to complete and I would hope that I would be able to give them prompt feedback.
5. Good practice emphasizes time on task
As I stated earlier, I have implemented deadlines on the activities and have built in regularly scheduled chats. This will ensure students are dedicated to focusing on the tasks that need to be accomplished.
6. Good practice communicates high expectations
I believe that this ties in well with the previous point. I believe that when students are held to getting their work in on a specific time, they will rise to the occasion. I also believe that my guidelines are clear and the assignments are fair.
7. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning
I think that I have a good range of activities and resources for the students. There are reading guides, video resources, and a range of tasks for them to accomplish.
Overall, I believe that these seven principles will help foster a learning environment that will lead to student success and increase the completion rate for an online course.
Furthermore, I have been deliberate in the design of the pages to ensure that students would need to use a minimal number of links. That is to say, students are able to access within the details of each section, everything they need to know for that section. I think this is an important design element.
Finally, the designing of the splash page to enhance the overall look and feel of the course was an important step for me. This took me a significant amount of time to figure out how to do. I eventually found the key within the broader MET community in the MET group site on Google Plus. My splash page is fairly simplistic, but it does keep in line with the rest of the look of the course. I decided to focus in on just a few key items that students would most likely need. I would, if I were to finish designing the course, include links for the other modules.
As an overall reflection on the process, it did feel a bit strange to design the dates of the module for the past. I wanted it to reflect the timing I would have used had I used this course this year. It was good to see how the dates aligned with how I teach the course in a F2F setting. Overall, I feel that I have utilized effective design principles and have upheld the model that Anderson (2008) has envisioned for online education. I understand that it would take me dozens of hours to complete the rest of the course, but I think the rest of the modules could be designed a lot faster now that I am more familiar with the process. Overall, implementing sound design principles and having as much of the content available within the course shell were important to me. A few of my assignments are more effective as downloaded documents, but I am sure that with more time and energy focused on designing a complete course, I would find a way to transfer those particular assignments into Moodle.
I also added a page which includes my references. I wanted to keep in line with accepted copyright standards and even though all images and videos are licensed under the Creative Commons, I feel that it is important to acknowledge the sources of those resources. I believe this is an important skill to model for our students.
This has been a valuable learning experience for me and has forced me to consider my own teaching practices in my F2F classroom. One thing that has been reiterated for me is the need to foster and develop community regardless of teaching situation. The skills I learned in using this LMS are invaluable and are sure to be usable regardless of which LMS I do use going forward.
References:
Anderson, T. (2008). Toward a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), Theory and practice of online learning (pp. 45-74). Retrieved from http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch2.html
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