Introductory Module of Course Prototype:
Grade 7 Robotics and Coding for Applied Design Skills and Technologies
Justin Wu and Danielle Peters
University of British Columbia
ETEC 565A
July 13, 2017
Introduction:
Applied Design, Skills and Technologies (ADST) – Imagination Quest: The Journey from Space– is a blended one semester course for grade seven students in the Surrey School District that focuses on designing a rocket ship through hands-on learning. Since our course is modeled on Piaget’s constructivist theory, where people produce knowledge and form meaning based upon their experiences, students will be actively engaged in tasks by ‘doing’ and learning kinesthetically (Papert, 1999). This program will focus on design, coding, and robotics, where students will build a rocket ship that they can program in this engaging, hands-on unit that simulates a journey to space.
Moodle was chosen to create a blended experience for Grade 7’s enrolled in an introductory Applied Design, Skills and Technologies (ADST) course. The goal of our course is to deliver course content via Moodle and provide hands-on learning activities and construction during class time. Moodle was chosen as the learning platform primarily because Surrey School District is using this platform to deliver their correspondence courses.
Application of Moodle:
Moodle fits our course objectives because of its design to support both teaching and learning. This LMS is accessible both in and outside of the classroom on students’ devices. Learners are able to access course resources, see upcoming activities, and participate in a collaborative learning environment. Students can also share their learning journey by uploading multimedia and other files for reflection. Moodle is an all-in-one learning platform; therefore, students will not need to navigate through different platforms. Our organization intends to support students as they learn the principles of design thinking. Moodle can be customized to our learners needs, providing extra resources, examples, and tutorials to extend their thinking and understanding. “Integration of digital tools in education has a significant impact on the teaching-learning process. Cloud Computing based platforms and applications support the learning communities with extended benefits to instructors and administrators to sustain in the rapid changing-learning environment. Cloud-based Moodle LMS provides accessibility and flexibility in terms of place and time and facilitates usage of multiple devices at reduced cost” (Kumar and Sharma, 2016).
To enhance our course, Moodle offers plugins, such as: providing checklists for students to help them organize due dates and upcoming activities, provide anonymous feedback platforms, and support dialogue between students and teachers. We have chosen Moodle as our LMS because of the features, plugins, and user-friendly platform for teachers and students, in addition to the relatively low costs and capability to maintain it at the organizational level.
Support and Security:
Moodle is a secure Learning Management System (LMS) which requires teachers to create Moodle accounts for each of their students and enrol students individually into the course. Students will have a personalized username and password that is required upon sign-in, in order for the course to be accessed. Moodle negates the need for information to be stored in the ‘cloud;’ therefore reducing the risks of a breach in confidentiality regarding the student’s information and data. Since Moodle is being used across the district, teachers are guaranteed support when troubleshooting or when faced with a problem. The application of Bates’ SECTIONS framework (2014) determined that Moodle fully meets all of the criteria for selecting an appropriate LMS that delivers quality instruction and learning.
Development of Imagination Quest: The Journey from Space using Moodle:
When developing Imagination Quest: The Journey from Space, the steps outlined in the ADDIE model were followed by Bates SECTIONS (2014) model. In addition, the backward design template provided by Fink (2005) was applied: identifying the learning goals for each unit, making the decision around the assessment practices, then developing the learning activities that would best suit the two. In determining the learning goals for each unit, Fink’s taxonomy of significant learning was referenced, taking the learning-centered approach and writing the outcomes using Bloom’s taxonomy action words from the higher end of the spectrum.
The online portion, using Moodle, will provide materials (readings and videos), an anonymous discussion platform for peer feedback, and access to formative and summative assessments from the teacher. The online portion is intended to support their hands-on construction of a rocket ship, in class. The in-class portion will provide students with lessons on learning how to navigate Moodle, safety procedures when using tools, designing and printing a 3D replica of a rocket ship robot, and creating a story of how their rocket travelled through space and back.
This course focuses on the role of the imagination in learning as students develop critical and creative thinking skills, while building communication skills through collaboration and problem solving. A cross-curricular approach supports learning, providing meaningful ways to see the connection between language arts, science, mathematics, fine arts, and applied design, skills, and technologies (ADST). A focus on technology for documentation and creation secures the collaborative nature of children’s work as they create a final project. Students will follow the design thinking model and develop an ability to follow a “continual cycle of innovation” while demonstrating their learning through the making and sharing of their projects. This program will help develop the concept of Maker Culture (Rosenfield, Halverson & Sheridan 2014) and look at the development of new ideas and the redesign of existing ones.
In terms of structure and design, Conrad’s (2000) recommendations on the instructional design of online training were considered when developing the primary goals of creating this Moodle site. Below are the four goals for creating this Moodle:
Create a repository of content and activities that is engaging and relevant to the students
- Facilitate and encourage a collaborative space where discussion of the content and activities would encourage students to become constructivitsts
- Create a space that allows students of all levels to achieve their personal goals for the ADST curriculum, while providing them frequent opportunities to receive feedback on their performance (Nel et al., 2010)
- Create an environment that supports and encourages self-direction that supports student autonomy
The course consists of five thematic units with specific objectives, descriptive content, readings, activities and discussions. Within each unit, an outline is provided, comprising of an overview of the expectations, the learning objectives, readings, and activities.
Unit 1: Introduction- Learning Moodle, Flight Path & Safety Procedures (Week 1, 2)
Unit 2: What is a robot? (Week 3)
Unit 3: 3D Design- TinkerCAD (Week 4, 5)
Unit 4: 3D Design- 3D Printing (Week 6, 7)
Unit 5: Animation- Stop Motion Video (Week 8, 9, 10)
Below is the list of main topics that have been identified for ‘Imagination Quest- A Journey from Space,’ course with specific content that is to be covered.
Navigational Structure and Design Elements:
In order to maintain a constructivist learning theory for this course, it was essential that students will be provided hands-on activities and assignments, where students construct knowledge themselves. The goal of this site was to provide the scaffolding needed to address the variety of learners in addition to allowing student autonomy within the course. Moodle’s online learning community and in-class collaboration supports Vygotsky’s theory that “learning is a socio-culturally mediated and collaborative process that occurs through interactions and sharing with others, including teachers, parents and other learners” (Ciampa, 2013 pg. 93). Our course is constructed in a linear fashion (unit one to five), where all the units were displayed on the welcome page; this allows the students to access the course materials at any time. Each unit is comprised of: weekly outline, activities, readings & materials, and a discussion forum. Embedding the media elements permitted the students to stay within the site, and where an external link was necessary, a new page opened enabling students to return to the course site with ease. All course materials are uploaded in a doc/pdf file, which allows students to download and access information without having to connect to the internet. The learning activities were carefully chosen to involve learner control and challenge by setting an appropriate level of complexity (varied for the diverged learner levels), provoking their curiosity, and providing opportunities to engage in active learning conversations.
Role of Instructor:
The role of the instructor in a blended/online course is quite different than the traditional classroom setting. Since there is little face-to-face interactions, the online discussions become crucial, where the teacher is making sure that the students feel comfortable navigating through the course independently. The instructor’s role would include:
- Maintenance of the course shell, updating course content and activities
- Facilitate discussion forums to ensure that the course guidelines are being followed and to prompt deeper, more meaningful discussions
- Communicating with students by frequently participating in discussions and forums
- Providing feedback in a timely manner, while answering questions the students may have
- Assessing submissions in a timely manner; offering feedback that is meaningful and constructive
- Helping the students stay organized by sending out weekly emails regarding the weekly outline of readings/videos, assignments, and discussion questions.
Assessment:
Students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive feedback on their performance, bringing the focus back to learning for understanding, which is traditionally done through formative and summative assessment (Kaftan, Buck, and Haack, 2006). Moodle has many built-in components that allows the teacher to create rubrics, provide anecdotal feedback, checklists, peer assessment opportunities, and self-reflection. At the core of our assessment, we aim to provide clear learning intentions and criteria for success, facilitating classroom discussions and tasks that elicit evidence of student understanding, providing feedback that supports student learning, activating students as instructional resources for one another, and activating students as the owners of their own learning (Black and Wiliam, 2009). Student’s participation in discussion forums can be adapted and used as an assessment feature for self-reflection. Immediate feedback by the teacher can be communicated in the comment section or through a response on their discussion post. “The pedagogy involved in implementing formative assessment is meant to motivate students to mastery goals as opposed to performance” (Kaftan, Buck, and Haack, 2006). We want to encourage students to develop critical and creative thinking skills as they take ownership over their learning.
Conclusion:
When creating the Imagination Quest: A Journey from Space course using Moodle, the affordances and constraints of Moodle were quickly identified. Moodle allowed us to create a course that supports Piaget’s constructivist theory, while taking into account the social aspects of Vygotsky’s social development theory. Today’s learner is growing up in an age where digital literacy has been deeply ingrained in the culture of today’s youth. While students are expected to be digital natives (Prensky, 2001), educators should not assume that students are experts when it comes to communicating appropriately and ethically when interacting with digital tools. We’ve chosen Moodle as our LMS platform to deliver the course because it allows synchronous and asynchronous forms of communication between students and the instructors through: forums, blogs, wikis, and tools which extend learning beyond the classroom walls. Moodle is an excellent tool that supports Piaget’s constructivist theory, which allows “learners [not just teachers] to contribute to the educational experience” in a true collaborative environment (Moodle, 2015). Using the recommendations by Conrad (2000) for instructional design and navigation, this course provides students a motivating digital learning environment that meets the objectives outlined above. The next steps, as outlined in the ADDIE model, would be to: implement the design by making it available to Grade 7 students in the Surrey School District, and using their feedback to evaluate the course (identifying areas that need improvement) that would be developed further for implementation in the next iteration of the course (Bates, 2014).
References:
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age, Chapter 4: The ADDIE model. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/6-5-the-addie-model/
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing a theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5–31.
Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96.
Conrad, K. (2000) Instructional Design for Web-Based Training. Chapter 5: Defining Learning Paths (pp. 111-136).
Kaftan, J., Buck, G., & Haack, A. (2006). Using Formative Assessments to Individualize Instruction and Promote Learning. Middle School Journal, 37(4), 44-49. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/23024486
Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 35(4), 238-258.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On The Horizon, 9 (5), 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf