Assginment 3 reflection and digital story

Reflections on assignment 3

Looking back on assignment 3, I experienced many challenges. Some were due to my unfamiliarity with Moodle, some due to technical difficulties and others due to my inexperience in developing a course/curriculum. Overall, I felt that assignment 3 was labor intensive but definitely worthwhile. I learned a lot about Moodle, but it also helped to develop my ideas of what is important in a course, layout, activities and my overall pedagogical approach.

I chose Moodle as my LMS because Univeristy of Alberta, where I work, uses Moodle as it’s LMS for online courses. I thought that perhaps my experience might become useful if parts of the medical curriculum move to this platform, though there is no plan for this in the near future. On reflection,I would have ideally liked to do more research into the two programs and chosen the best one based on Bate’s SECTIONS criteria (2014). This would have been a more logical approach as I would have chosen one that is easy to use, fits with my pedagogical approach and curriculum. However, at the time, I hadn’t considered all aspects of my course, such as assessment, learning activities, layout of my course, ease of use, accessibility, etc. Also I did not know enough about each LMS and did not have the time to make all of the above pedagogical considerations prior to making my choice thus made it based on practicality. Despite this, I found that I was able to work within the affordances of Moodle to create my module and the skeleton of my course.

The readings around assessment really struck me during this course and helped to shape my Moodle course. As stated by Gibbs & Simpson, the greatest influence on student learning is assessment (2005). Keeping this in mind, I designed my course to incorparate frequent assignments which would be graded. Additionally, I made many of these assignments team-based, ue to this reading, I structured many of the learning activities to be group based. This is based on the observation that students are more engaged in group projects and it generates discussion, reflection, and confrontation of ideas (Gibbs & Simpson, 2005) . These are all important aspects of the learning process.

I certainly ran into some technical difficulties which hindered my progress in creating my module in Moodle. I found a work around, but to this moment, I’m not sure why I was unable to save my book chapter. However, I found I was able to persevere and find a solution (after a good night’s sleep). This shows flexibility, adaptability and perseverance, which are all qualities I wanted to work on.

For my digital story, I used Adobe Slate. This program was mentioned by Natasha during the first half of our course. At that moment, not knowing much about the digital story assignment, I decided to play around with Adobe Slate. This was very valuable, as I was able to see sample projects and play around with it. I found it very easy to use and intuitive. I’ve always enjoyed reading and love graphic novels. My own preferences may have played a role in choosing Adobe slate for my project. I had previously used iMovie, PowToons, and PowerPoint so I am fairly familiar with their affordances. I have been interested in trying Videoscribe, but had not come across an opportunity to use it. Considering my digital story, which was a patient perspective story on a difficult diagnosis, I thought Adobe Slate was my best choice based on Bate’s ideas about selecting media.　He states that there are three elements that need to be considered; content, content structure and skills (2014).

Considering the content I wanted to deliver, which was the patient perspective of a difficult diagnosis, I felt tht text would be optimal. Video would also be a great digital medium, however given limitations in my time and skill, I did not feel that I could evoke the type of emotions I intended with video.

Considering the content structure of text, I felt that Adobe Slate was also the optimal choice. Text enables linear sequencing, and in the telling of this story, this structured format was important (Bates, 2004). The ability to display pictures with text also adds richness to the readers experience. These images represent the same emotions and situations in a differnt way from text, giving students further exploration into the story. I also think that it leaves the students with a deeper understanding and lasting impression of the story because the situation is represented in both text and images. Adobe Slate also gives students the ability to move at their own pace which is important for reflection.

Bates also mentions that text is useful for developing higher learning outcomes such as analysis, critical thinking and evaluation (2014). In terms of this digital story, I wanted to achieve reflection and critical thinking so Adobe Slate also succeeds in achieving this end.

In addtion, Adobe Slate was easy to use, can be embedded into webpages, shared, free, compatible with differnt operating systems, mobile friendly and secure (or at least as secure as most other available programs).

Once again, I feel that this was a valuable assignment from which I have learned a significant amount. I am positive that it will help with my academic goals during my career.

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