Author Archives: jwgourley

Assignment #4 Final Synthesis

Where I’ve come from

When this course began I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard that this was a great course to take for an overview education technology and working with an LMS. When the course began I established some learning goals for myself that included:

Learning Management Systems — I wanted to have a chance to explore how LMS systems are evolving and changing to become leaner. I also wanted a chance to expand my knowledge of Moodle.
Assessment of Technology — This course presented an opportunity to explore a less complex way to assess and present education technology decisions.
Social Software — I wanted to expand my view on using social media in a learning context. Specifically, I identified expanding my own use of Twitter.
Multimedia — I wanted to take the opportunity during this course to explore different ways of presenting information and the extent that hardware choices affect multimedia presentations.

I’ll be the first admit that my flight path deviated from some of the core experiences in the course, but even looking back at the course there were definite opportunities to explore all of these areas.

The Journey

The Aha Moments

I think with every course there is a minimal expectation of both the students and the instructor that the learning outcomes will be realized, but, if you’re lucky, you can run across an idea that can influence a fundamental shift in your thinking or your practice. I’ve found that most of time when this has happened within the MET program it has happened when I wasn’t really expecting it and in this course I was fortunate enough for it to happen twice for me.

Frameworks — The irony here is that this is not the first time that I have been introduced to Bates. I’ve run across this work in a couple of previous courses, and also in a post graduate certificate program form another University, so I’m not quite sure why it took my so long to appreciate the SECTIONS model (Bates 2014). I think that it was probably a reflection of where I am in my professional life. I’m currently in an organization where I am the education department so I need to clarify and present clear decisions to senior staff and volunteer decision makers. The SECTIONS model provides a valuable framework that I have been able to incorporate into my own professional practice. Although the model, as it was presented by Bates, does not quite my workplace I have been able to adapt it to help evaluate and communicate decisions.

Case Studies — There is something about getting outside of your own head and your own world view that really helps a person to appreciate the different realities that exist within the education field. For some reason in this course I found the group work case studies particularly enlightening. I think that it is common knowledge that sometimes you need to approach problems from a different angle in order to arrive at the solution, a think outside the box approach. Again, I’ve seen and experienced case studies before and I’ve always just considered them an exercise to work through. In this course however, something clicked. There have been a couple of projects at work where I’ve been so involved in that I found myself with a telescopic view of what the end product should look like and how we are going to get there. During the case studies in this course I realized that by approaching the problems from a different point of view the circumstances may in fact change and the entire approach may change. I stepped back from the project and using the same thought process I applied to the case studies I was able to appreciate the project through the view of other departments in my organization. As a result, a project that I was working on could expand across several departments of the organization.

My Learning Goals

Over the duration of this course I have had a chance to review my learning goals a few different times, and although I think they changed from what I had originally envisioned there were still valuable learning experiences in every area that helped me build toward the larger goals I set out at the beginning of this course.

Learning Management Systems — To be honest, this is the learning goal that I feel I made the least progress on. I did get a chance to explore Moodle with a little more focus on course development with out being distracted by other administrative areas. This could have been a very deep hole of infinite time. I still feel like I was only to scratch the surface of Moodle course development and this is mostly due to the amount to time that I could develop for this course. I did have an appreciation of how long course development can take, but now I have an even great appreciation. The amount of choices is almost overwhelming and without understanding how each option functions it was difficult to explore and expand without worrying about time to develop. As for being able to examine how Learning Management Systems are changing that is also still a work in progress. When I started into the NMC Horizon 2015 Report I had hoped that there would be some information on Lite LMS systems, or even the migration to WordPress that seems to be happening in many places, even this course. I would not say that I’m disappointed in my progress on this goal, but rather I’ve refocused on the concept of using the right tool for the right purpose. I think that if I apply a SECTIONS approach to the various LMS options it could help to create a greater understanding of the right fit for each option (Bates. 2014).
Assessment of Technology — This goal was a home run for me. As I mentioned above this was one of my eye opening moments of the course. Being able to once again run across Bates’ SECTIONS model was case of perfect timing for me (2014). I know that with the rate of technology development I will need to continue to explore new ways of assessing different instructional options, but now I have a better base to work from.
Social Software — During this course every time that I ran across a new type of social media I made a more conscious effort to examine it through an educational lens rather than just through the eyes of a typical social media user. Through this different perspective I found a new appreciation for twitter as a source of knowledge. Particularly when using the lists and saved search feature. I was never a big user of the platform, but over this semester I found myself gravitating toward it for news and industry events. I’ve also realized that Twitter, and LinkedIn for that matter, are great ways to connect with almost anyone. If I’m looking for an industry expert to contribute to course development, or participate as a guest speaker these platforms would now probably be one of the first places I would turn to. This different perspective also provided me with the opportunity to examine new networks from an education first perspective. I’m particularly excited to see what happens with Anchor.FM. I think the platform provides an amazing opportunity to create audio conversations that could be added into class material. I only wish the conversation could be made private as that could also be an extremely beneficial addition to course material.
Multimedia — This goal was interesting as I did have a chance to explore new multimedia choices, but for the most part I don’t consider them positive experiences. They were learning experiences from the point of view that I now appreciate the tools and I currently use more. Particularly, I just wasn’t satisfied with Videoscribe from a user experience or end product level. However, through the projects of my classmates I was exposed to some great tools that I can’t wait to try out. Adobe Slate is a perfect example of something that I don’t think I could have found on my own, but I can’t wait to incorporate into my own practice.

The Experience

I think that overall the experience of taking this course was a good one. I was able to grow my skills and expand my perspective which in my mind is really the ultimate goal of taking any learning program. I think that we would all admit that there was some confusion in going back and forth between platforms, and I’m still not sure that the badges are working properly. I’m fairly certain I didn’t get some of the badges that I should have. That being said, I very much appreciated the efforts that were made throughout the course to keep the class on track. I found the most instructors were not this involved, but without this involvement it would have been a lot more difficult to keep things together. Probably the most difficult part of this entire course was contributing meaningful discussion posts. Many course it’s pretty easy to rhyme off posts, but the posts in this course were at a much higher level than any of the courses that I have taken so far with MET. Most of the time I delayed posting mine to review and improve it. I actually found these discussions pretty intimidating a times.

Where I’m Going

Throughout this reflection I’ve outlined how my practice has changed and will continue to be influenced by this course. Now more than ever I appreciate the idea that technology is a tool that needs to be examined and selected carefully. I agree that “technology is not a panacea that suddenly transforms all learning” (Nel, Dreyer, and Carsten, 2010, p. 253).” That’s part of the problem though many time we look to technology for the quick fix to present the material and move on. That’s how we end up with “death by PowerPoint.,” the right technology in the right place, and online courses that over-promise and under-deliver. I know that I’ll be making better education technology choices from here on out.

References

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)

Nel, C., Dreyer, C., & Carstens, W. A. M. (2010). Educational technologies: A classification and evaluation. Journal for Language Teaching 35(4), 238-258. Retrieved from http://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/download/53794/42346

New Media Consortium. (2015). NMC Horizon Report 2015: Higher ed edition. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf

Assignment #3 Reflection

Back to Basics

After completing ETEC 565A Assignment #2 I was able to take some time to reflect on the overall direction and principles I had decided to build my course around.

#1 Industry Engagement

By engaging subject matter experts, I will be able to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, and create content for students to gain the relevant competencies needed for employment in the industry.

#2 Community and Learner Engagement

By applying Anderson’s Model of eLearning, I will try to offer an environment that encourages interactions with the instructor, peers and the content (2008).

#3 Engage in Real World Experience

Drawing from the ISTE Standards the activities in this course will strive to , “engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems” (2008).

Overall reflecting on the feedback that I received, I decided that I was for the most part I was headed in the right direction with the design of my course. I like the principles that I’m using to guide course development and I think that once completed the course will provide a great learning experience for students around the globe.

Picking up where I left off

From some basic oversights on my part to some genuine issues with my initial project my first step was to evaluate the feedback I had received and determine how I would incorporate it into the next iteration.

The following feedback was given after the submission of Assignment #2

Paraphrased Feedback	Design Response
Fix Phrasing of Learning Outcomes	I completely agree with the comments and have addressed the issues.
Editorial and Font Consistency	I’ve had slight issued with fonts in Moodle and pasting from Word. I’ve also discovered that I’m not a fan of the Moodle WYSIWYG editor. I’ve gone through create a uniform font and size.
Internal/External Links	Generally, it is my practice to have internal links open in the current window, and external linked in a new window. The exception for me is documents, such as a rubric, which I have chosen to open in a new window.
Overwhelming Navigation Structure	The navigation structure was overwhelming. I have changed it using the thought process outlined later in this document.
Video Volume Issue	I was unable to replicate the issue, but have created a new embed link that has the volume increased. Generally, this is not my practice as I prefer the volume be lower initially and provide control for the user.
Integrate Twitter Feed	This was an excellent suggestion, however, instead of following an existing hashtag I have chose to create a list to embed into the Moodle environment.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the feedback provided as I felt many of the issues were minor and provided support for many of the choices that I have made and the direction of my course development.

Navigational GUI Component

Originally I had chosen to incorporate links into the top of the general section, but as I mentioned in my reflection to Assignment #2 I wasn’t really happy how it looked and felt it cluttered the main page. The feedback that I received my thoughts on the matter. I ended up eliminating the links to the individual modules and instead provide a graphic to link to core course features, such as the schedule and assignments.

I have also selected to only display one module of the course at a time. I wanted to make sure that any student accessing the course did not have to scroll multiple times down a page to find the current module.

I have also made a conscious effort not to clutter modules with documents that could be linked, but did not necessarily need to be reviewed as part of the module by creating a “References and Resources” section. A perfect example is with the Career Explorations Assignment Rubric. This document needed to be referenced, but didn’t need to be included in the list resources and activities in the module. Rather than clutter the module, I simply linked to a resource listed in the “References and Resources” section. In addition, the documents in this section include a link that returns users to the main page of the site.

One Complete Learning Module

To be honest, I’m a little confused as to if I have completed one learning module, or two. For the purposes of this assignment I intended to submit a complete Week 7, but upon reviewing the feedback I’m wondering if my week one introduction also serves the purpose. Regardless, I have completed these two weeks of the course.

Most of the content is provided in HTML pages, I’ve incorporated audio links, infographics, videos, HTML links, embedded pictures or video, my digital story and checklists. I struggled with the definition of substantive, but did not want to add content that could impact student understanding.

In terms of the group discussions I have incorporated two discussions and have required students comment on the posts of their peers in order to complete the activity.

The Digital Story

For my digital story I chose to use the Videoscribe software. I had not used the software before and I was curious to try it out. My goal with my digital story was to provide students with a real world example of how a tourism even can impact a local economy. In the end, I think the result is fine, but not great. I find it simplistic in the presentation which can be good, but in my case I feel the output was not worth the effort that went into it. Granted some of this was a software learning curve on my part and some of it was just the way my development process works. I tend to start with a much larger project and whittle down to what I consider to be essentials. I ended up using two other pieces of software to create the final product as I found Videoscribe to be lacking for control and flexibility.

Although our instructions were not to use PowerPoint, I think that I could have created a much more engaging and visually pleasing presentation using it as a base software for video creation. It is generally the way that I create videos for my courses, and I was happy to expand my experience to another program. In the end, I think I’ll be going back to my usual methods.

Conclusion

This experience has provided me with a greater appreciation for full course development and the amount of work that has to be put into the process before and after the content is developed. There are definitely still areas in this course that I would like to flesh out more after the content is completed. For instance, I think that course badges can only be created with careful consideration after the full picture of the course is clear, otherwise how they fit into the course can be unclear and confusing for students. Through consistently adhering to the principles that I have identified are core to the course development I think that this course will be a valuable experience for tourism students around the world.

References

Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved fromhttp://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers

Simard, S., Bragg, J., Fogarty, L., & Thompson, B. (2006). Tourism 11 and 12 Program Guide(Rep.). Retrieved February 14, 2016, from Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia website:https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/applied_skills/2006pg_tourism1112.pdf

This Ride is Going Faster and Faster

I was debating between the title I ended up using and a lyric from the Dusty Springfield song, “Windmills in your Mind.” Education Technology does feel like a spinning wheel (another one I could have used) that is consistently expanding with more spokes and gaining momentum. I think it’s partially the general state of how technology is evolving, but I that a huge part of it has to do with educators themselves. I think as educators we generally want to create a learning experience that is engaging and connects with our learners. As educators themselves become more engaged with technology I think it’s only natural for us to start to think about how these technologies can impact the learning experience. I know that was my first thought when I viewed a video about the Microsoft Hololense (n.d.)

That enthusiasm without measure is part of the problem. It’s really, really easy to be distracted by the new shiny technology on the block. That’s why I think the most valuable thing that we’ve done this entire semester was the become familiar with the SECTIONS model (Bates, 2014). Ultimately as educators we need to consistently remind ourselves to refocus on the purpose of the experience. I’ve even had to struggle with that during the creation of our final assignment for this course. I’ve run across an app called Anchor.FM which allows you to have recorded conversations that can be shared. I really like the format and I think it has some real merit for collecting experiences to use in class materials. When I think about the audience for online learning, which is really world wide, the possibilities of providing authentic real life examples that I could never get on my own. The problem is, I’m not sure that I should use it in the unit that I’m creating. To be honest, if I were creating the full course the technology fits other parts of the course better. That being said, I may do it anyway just so I can play with the shiny new technology.

When I was reviewing the assigned readings this week, I zeroed in on the NMC Horizon Report as I think it has a lot do to about answering the questions regarding the role of technology is playing and will play moving forward (2015). The truth is as I was reading the report, especially when I was reading the final section on anticipated time to adoption I found myself not getting excited about new technologies, but wondering how long ago this report was written. Far from being cutting edge I found that a lot of the technologies were already becoming mainstream. I was actually a bit disappointed as I reviewed the material, at least initially. As I’ve already mentioned the pace at which technology in general is sometimes astounding, so reflecting on it I can understand why some of the future technologies seem like they’re already here.

As for my vision I think there are a few levels where technology is going to impact education, but one area that really worries me is access from a couple of different angles. One in terms of those can afford to access the technology will benefit from it. It is especially evident with the rise in the BYOD scenario. I fear that those that are not able to access the devices will not be able to access the variety of free courses available online and even some parts of paid courses. It’s not just access to devices that is the issue. It’s also still, in some places, just a basic question of accessing the internet in general. In Canada we have prime examples with remote communities and rural areas where internet access is either expensive or second rate. My own parents live 20 minutes outside of Charlottetown, PEI and had dial-up access up until three or four years ago.

In terms of instructional design, I think many educators are excited by the variety of possibilities that technologies affords us in terms of types of activities and information delivery. As I’ve already expressed the pace of the development of technology is happening at a rate that I find hard to keep track of, and I really doubt that I’m alone in that. I think that hard part is that as educators we not only need to keep track of changes in technology that are intended to be used to education, but we also need to keep track of changes in technology that could be used for education. The difficulty is not only in keeping up with technologies but in assimilating it into a classroom environment.

I think that the final major trend that will be a change driver moving forward has to do with assessment. I’ve had a few conversations with people that I used to work with around assessment, specifically competency based assessment for workplace environments. It’s definitely one of the visions that exists for digital badging. I know that in this course we’re all familiar with using badges within a course environment, but there is definitely also a movement to use digital badging as a form of credentialing. Don Presant writes a blog called, “Littoraly Learning Across the Margins” that outlines the impact that digital credentials could potentially have (2016). Reading Don’s blog it is easy to see that the are many more complex uses for digital badging. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how this will tie into assessment for workplace certifications. Ultimately there could be huge impacts that create change across the current education and training industry.

As for where I see myself helping shape the landscape. I honestly don’t know what kind of impact I’ll personally be making. I find it hard to focus on just one aspect of technology that could be used for education, and perhaps that’s part of my problem, I can’t focus on just on part, but I seem to need to know a little bit about everything.

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)

Microsoft HoloLens. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2016, from https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us

New Media Consortium. (2015). NMC Horizon Report 2015: Higher ed edition. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf

Presant, D. (2016). Littoraly. Retrieved March 27, 2016, from https://littoraly.wordpress.com/

My Digital Story

Alright, so I’m confused now.

I posted my digital story on the Connect form, but when I log in it looks like some people posted to the blog.

Just to cover all bases, I’ll post it here too.

Here’s my Digital Story.

Cheers,

Jason

Grateful for CC

A lot of my own work doesn’t necessarily allow for discussion with the students who take my courses. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts my interaction with the students is usually only through the course material. The materials that I create are self-directed student learning so my influence on student input is fairly minimal. In some of the courses students have an opportunity to post to forums and interact with each other. Although I don’t have a chance to create a direct discussion with the student I do have a chance to communicate expectations through the site policies and the descriptions of every activity. I’m also required to ensure that I have the rights to use any materials that I include. I do monitor the discussion boards, but I haven’t found any issues related to intellectual property violations yet.

The only way that I could completely ensure that there are no copyright violations would be to shut down the discussion forums and other activities where students create responses. That would result in what I would consider a lower quality program. I don’t think I’m willing to make that sacrifice at least now. In all likelihood I will need to re-evaluate my decision at some point. To be honest, I’m a little stuck on what will happen next. I need to keep these self-directed courses with minimal management.

I’m not sure how I feel about the question about cultures having the same view on intellectual property. I guess it depends on your definition of culture. If we’re just referring to legal jurisdictions then yes there are different approaches and attitudes, but I think that the question is probably broader than that. I’m willing to bet that even within our current class there are different opinions on how intellectual property is currently handled. To be honest on one hand I think that people should be given credit for their ideas and products, but I’m actually really grateful for people that decide to put pictures online for free, or contribute to creative commons projects.

As a bit of an aside, I’m curious if anyone has an opinion on how copyright laws may change in the internet age. Will a company’s approach copyright and trademarks become less restrictive, or more restrictive? How will the rise in open source and Creative Commons licences affect the perception of copyrighted material?

Assignment #2 Reflection

Project Selection

Approaching this assignment was a bit of a challenge for me. I wanted to do something a little bit different than I’ve been tackling in my day to day workplace, but still expand my skill set to help me grow the skillset needed for my job. I selected to use a Moodle environment as my workplace has developed a Moodle site as our LMS. For the content, I wanted to do something a little different just for a change of pace, but not something that I was completely unfamiliar that I was biting off more than I could chew. I decided that I wanted to create a course that I was able to export and provide to some of the organizations that I had worked with in the past. In particular the Global Travel & Tourism Partnership. When I first applied for the MET program the Executive Director had written me a very nice letter of recommendation. By selecting tourism as my topic I was able to use a topic I was familiar with, and also, provide an output that could be used by an organization that helped me to get here.

Course Development

I decided to model the main structure of the course off of the BC Tourism 11 & 12 Program Guide (Simard et al. 2006). I had a couple of reasons for doing this, but the main one is that it is modeled after the Canadian Academy of Travel & Tourism program. I was the national director of this project for approximately five years and so I’m very familiar with the content that should be included. With the backbone of the course determined by the curriculum guide I was able to focus on content creation.

I decided early on that I wanted to focus the content around three main principles. The first principle to ensure that the material is informed by industry subject matter experts. Although I have a background in the industry I wanted to include industry experts in the development of the course. Through my network of contacts I was able to find two individuals who have experience in national and international roles. These contacts will feed into the content creation for the modules, particularly around the skill modules and the economic impact module.

Industry engagement

Forming a small industry advisory committee has allowed me to tap into the expertise of individuals who have a broad range of knowledge and experience in the industry. By keeping the group small I am able to keep communication efficient and maintain a level of engagement with subject matter experts.

The second principle is built around Anderson’s model of eLearning (2008). Sometimes I have trouble connecting some assigned readings to practical application, but this certainly was not the case with the Anderson reading. While I was reading the material it became apparent that all the interactions that are created are about building a learning community. I look at Anderson’s model and I see carefully planned interactions designed to increase engagement with the instructor, peers, and the content. I wanted to keep these principles in mind when designing the material, and although this will come into play more as the course develops I am able incorporate the concepts into some of the material in the Course Introduction.

Community and Learner Engagement

I have selected introductory activities that are fairly low stakes for participants and provide them with a chance to interact with each other through an introduction and sharing their own experiences with the tourism industry. Although building a learning community can be difficult with a busy course schedule I have decided to require participants to comment on at least two peer posts in order to mark the discussion activity as complete. This will ensure that some interaction is taking place and provide an opportunity for some conversations around the material. In later modules I anticipate students to interact around occupations and destinations of common interest.

Throughout the course I am going to try to present material using a number of different media. It would be easy to simply provide links, or provide only written material. I wanted to ensure I was creating several different types of interactions for learners. Currently I only have forums, videos, and text, but as more develop I want to keep the lessons learned from Bates to ensure the interactions support the learning rather than just existing for the sake of interaction (2014a).

Finally, I wanted to incorporate digital badging into the material. I have been intrigued by digital badging. Although my interest has focused mainly on the use of digital badging for credentialing, my experience in ETEC 580 and in this course has led me to look at digital badging not only as credentialing, but also as a method to increase the interaction and build the learning community. I suspect that the best method to create digital badges designed at learning interaction is to review a fully designed course and determine where the badges can best support the learning interactions. If I already had a fully designed course this is the process that I would like to follow. As the purpose of this assignment was to create the course and an introductory module I have included some potential badges as placeholders and examples. For the fully developed course, I anticipate a complex badge structure that helps to drive student interactions with the content, their peers, and even the instructor. The course will culminate with an open badge through the Mozilla Open Badges project and could be used as a credential indicating some knowledge and skills in tourism and hospitality.

The third principle that needed to be accounted for in the course was to have them engage and experience the industry itself. In reviewing the article by Garrison et al, I realized that part of building this experience was to provide an opportunity to develop a community where students can share and collaborate on building their knowledge (1999). In developing this principle I also drew on an important part of all of the different curricular programs that this course compliments and this is an aspect of experiential education. Usually this is done through work or volunteer experience, but by building opportunities for students to interact with industry professionals and follow industry processes there can be some experiential education built into this course. The end course could easily be modified to also track workplace experience hours to integrate national and international certificate programs. This is direction and concept is reinforced by the ISTE standards by stating that it is important to, “engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems” (2008).

Engaging in Real World Experiences

Throughout the design of this course this has really been the central pillar. From forming an Industry Advisory Committee to crafting interactions the focus is on providing opportunities for students to participate in and follow standard industry practices. This is a concept that is modeled early in the course with the introductory activities. The students are asked to provide information on their experience, or desired experience participating in the tourism industry. The purpose of this exercise is to focus students on developing a holistic view of the industry beyond what their preconceived notions might be. This is also incorporated into the practical nature of the content modules, such as skills based content and the practical nature of the assignments. By developing an opportunity for students to learn about the skill sets that are needed in the industry, and providing assignments that have a practical nature.

Communication Strategy

The communication strategy for this course is based largely on the classwork from ETEC 565A, Week 6. The case study examined during that week quickly brought to the life the realistic scenario of managing multiple channels of communication that could create redundancies, inefficiencies and potentially an overwhelming number of inquiries. My thought process went back to the SECTIONS model as I think this framework also works well when selecting communications media (Bates, 2014a). Based on this, and my experience as a student in this course, I have elected to create a common question and answer forum that an instructor can field all general course questions through. I have elected not include additional communication methods such as a twitter block and it creates an additional dialog that needs to be monitored by both students and instructors. I have, however, included email communication for the selection of assignments. When I took a step back it became apparent that the selection of a topic was more appropriate as one on one communication. General inquiries regarding the topic would still be posted to the main discussion forum.

Assessment Strategy

While creating the assessment tools for this course I wanted to closely mirror the principles that I have decided to use in creating the course itself. I wanted to ensure that, as Bates outlines, the assessment choices have a clear purpose and support the learning outcomes of the course (2014b). Using this as criteria, I developed different methods of assessment based on the desired learning outcomes of each section of the course. I also wanted to place an emphasis on the practical nature of the industry and the experiences of the course leading to a higher weighted value placed on the assignments for the course.

Participation (15%)

The nature of an online course, and the experience that I want to create for my students requires a fairly significant degree of participation. By creating a participation category, I want to influence students to post to the discussion forums, and also comment on the posts of their peers.

Quizzes (20%)

The content for the quizzes has been selected based on the comments by Bates on multiple choice and short answer questions (2014b). When I examined the intended content for the initial eight weeks of the course I determined that much of the content was information that formed the basis for the comprehension needed to properly complete the assignments. By using these questions I can assess the comprehension of the basic facts and common knowledge of the industry. Through the short answer and essay questions I have provided an opportunity to evaluate how well students are able to apply that knowledge in context and provide an analysis of practical real world scenarios.

Assignments (65%)

The assignments make up the bulk of the evaluation for this course due to the practical nature of the learning outcomes and, as Bates states, “Project work encourages the development of authentic skills that require understanding of content, knowledge management, problem-solving, collaborative learning, evaluation, creativity and practical outcomes” (2014b). The assignments that I have chosen have students analyze the knowledge they have obtained through the course and apply it to the practical situations that would occur in a tourism workplace. This course will not only provide students with the knowledge of how the industry works, but with practical experiences that demonstrate how the industry works.

Basic Assignment Requirements

The Introductory Activity

For my introductory activity I elected to make use of the discussion forum options. There are two required activities and one options activity. For the required activities I wanted to provide students with an opportunity to introduce themselves and their experience with the tourism industry, but I wanted to also provide them with a space to describe the industry from their point of view. I decided to separate the two forums to avoid posts that are too long, and I wanted them to think of a travel experience they had and the industry itself separately. I provided the optional activity of discovering the significance of the pineapple to the industry to provide an opportunity for students to do a small about of research and appreciate how long his industry has impacted society.

Three substantive HTML pages

There are several html based pages that have already been developed with HTML links, embedded pictures or video, and checklists. I struggled with the definition of substantive, but did not want to add content that could impact student understanding. I hope to be able to add embedded audio files to the next stage of the product.

Logical and Organized structure

Much of the basic structure is based on the outline provided by the BC Tourism 11 & 12 Curriculum Guide, however I have made a number of choices to assist students with navigating the course material (Simard et al. 2006). The first is that I have provided html links in the general description that appears at the top of every page. Students are able to access basic information and every module of the course with one click no matter where they are in the course. I am not truly happy with how this currently is represented as it is not as visually appealing as I would like. However, I have specifically chosen to only use only text rather than inserting clip art or other items that may clutter up the main page even more. I have also selected to only display one module of the course at a time. I wanted to make sure that any student accessing the course did not have to scroll multiple times down a page to find the current module.

Having early information for students

This was a delicate balance where I had to provide students with some information, but also wanted to provide an opportunity for students to connect with each other and introduce themselves. By creating the short video I was able to introduce the topic and push the idea that they need to expand their definition of tourism. I tried to support this not only through the scripting of the presentation, but also through the visuals used.

Conclusion

In the end, this project seems to be coming together nicely, however, it is taking much more time than I anticipated to pull it together. There are some aspects that are there currently that I consider placeholders until an area can be developed fully, an example would be the badges that are currently listed. As I mentioned, I want to review these once the course is complete. I’m also surprised at how long this reflection has become, but this was a valuable exercise to articulate my decision making process. With input from my industry advisory committee, and potentially end user organizations I am looking forward to completing the development of this course.

References

Bates, T. (2014a). Chapter 8 SECTIONS Framework. In Teaching in a Digital Age. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Bates, T. (2014b). Appendix 1: Building an effective learning environment A.8 ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-8-assessment-of-learning/

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. Retrieved from http://www.anitacrawley.net/Articles/GarrisonAndersonArcher2000.pdf

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers

Simard, S., Bragg, J., Fogarty, L., & Thompson, B. (2006). Tourism 11 and 12 Program Guide (Rep.). Retrieved February 14, 2016, from Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia website:https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/applied_skills/2006pg_tourism1112.pdf

A Better Course for Trinh and her Students

If you look at how Trinh runs her course it is important to note a couple of things. Yes, one of her issues is that she is having trouble managing the communication channels for her students to connect with her. The second are the issues around the timing of communications and materials for both her and her students.

For the most part, the case study is presented as the problems Trinh is facing, but in order to solve Trinh’s problem, I think she has to take a step back and decide what values the entire learning community needs to live by. I think this may help to at least establish some boundaries for her students. The case study seems to suggest that Trinh sees setting office hours as a possible solution. This along with the fact that she is requiring students from various time zones to participate in synchronous activities creates a sense that Trinh might not be considering the needs of her students as much as she thinks she is. The fact that there is an expectation for students to accommodate live synchronous events creates a sense that the course operates in this manner. This raises the expectations not only for the students but for the instructor interaction as well. If Trinh isn’t willing to adjust her schedule I’m not sure it’s fair that she’s asking her students to do the same by instituting office hours. This may mean that she needs to adjust how the course is offered by recording guest lectures with questions submitted in advance, or as a follow-up. It also may mean presenting the material that would be covered in a guest lecture in a different way that is equally fair to all students. This would create an atmosphere where the expectation is the course is offered asynchronously, including communication. Granted, this does come with some drawbacks, but it allows Trinh some breathing room when it comes to expectations in responding to student inquiries.

Now with her other problem, she is losing control of the open channels of communication between her and the students. It is good to make yourself accessible to students, but as we can see with Trinh’s case if you make yourself too available you can quickly become overwhelmed, and perhaps paralyzed to the point of ineffectiveness. Trinh needs to take this back to managing students expectations, and creating a clear concept of how the questions in the course will be addressed. She could attempt to do this through office hours in a chat function but even recorded there could be issues around the repetition of questions or Trinh waiting for hours for people to show up. Another issue would be if she did not hold sessions at different times of the day or week she would only be making any sessions only available to some of her students. Likely, the best solution for Trinh is to create an expectation similar to what exists in our current course. Questions can be answered on a discussion board that can be subscribed to by all students.

There are several reasons why this makes sense. The first is that it allows Trinh to keep her students questions within one medium of communication, cutting down on her communication overload. She could even have canned responses indicating this to her students that contact her through other methods. This method will also allow students to see each other’s inquiries which will hopefully eliminate duplicate questions, and benefit those students who prefer not to ask but want to be kept in the loop. This also provides a record of Trinh’s answers so that she is sending the same message to all students.

Overall, if Trinh takes a step back to examine the environment she is creating she will be able to create a dialogue for her course that will benefit her students, and herself.

Depending on Your Goals

Alright, in case you didn’t get to read my introduction I’ll just to bring everyone to the same page. I am not a classroom teacher anymore and the majority of my work deals with the development of self-directed learning for the produce industry. The work is led by industry groups that inform and guide the development of any projects or programs that I undertake. In addition, the work of the organization itself is guided by volunteer leadership.

The reason why the SECTIONS model works so well in my instance is that I have to take in account a lot of difference circumstance and points of view (Bates, 21014). Yes, the students are important, but for the most part, they aren’t the only client needs that I have to take into account. I need to ensure that member organizations that may purchase learning for employees also are comfortable with how the product is offered. So in a sense, like a classroom teacher, I have several hoops to jump through when it comes to implementing mobile learning. However, in another sense, I also need to take into account any circumstances that may exist in a workplace environment. This includes, among other things: creating accessible content, device access issues, and the possible employer/employee dynamic.

Another instance of particular note is that I have to take into account the wide variety of digital literacy skills that exist within the possible group of learners. There could be new university graduates who are very adept at anything technical, and I could have a learner who has taken no formal learning in years and may or may not know how to use a computer. I have to design for both and try to engage them with the material and with each other.

In terms of mobile, that adds and entirely new dimension. For the most part, the learning material has been developed to be delivered on a desktop, as it’s the most likely form of delivery for our current offering if purchased by an employer. Really, I need to design for the type of device that an employer would offer. However, because of the rise of tablets, and the fact that individuals can also purchase courses there still need to be responsive elements built into the courses as they could still be accessed from a mobile device. Fortunately, Moodle and quick authoring programs seem to make this easy. So, although they can be accessed, I wouldn’t really call them mobile learning friendly courses. They can be long, and there are interactions built in that are just easier to accomplish on a desktop.

However, I’ve been thinking more and more of developing smaller “snack sized” pieces aimed as a just in time learning as a way for our members to encourage their staff. I feel like these pieces would be suitable to a mobile learning environment and a library could be developed to act as small easily accessible bits of learning on product knowledge, handling of fresh fruit and vegetables, and even food safety. I would say there is even potential for industry to develop consumer education pieces on these topics including different methods of growing produce, how it’s harvested, and even how some products make it to the retail and food service operations.

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework). Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage

Lenora Could Use Some Help

After reviewing the scenario, before even evaluating Lenora’s options I think the first step here is to clearly articulate her goals and evaluate her assets and of course her liabilities.

Goal: To create an online anti-bullying resource that is accessible to a specific audience of indigenous educators and an indigenous audience.

Assets:

Experience a Pro-D day that could be used as a model for her program.
Network of peers established through cradleboard.org, including stories for content
Use of cradleboard.org resources
Broadband access at school

Liabilities:

Dial-up web access at home.
Limited time to commit to project
Lack of technical skills to create website to host content.

Any project needs to take these to be able to operate within these parameters in order to be successful for Leonora, but in order to properly assess any solution we also need to determine the same for any of her end users. For the purposes of this project, let us assume that her network is working under the same, or similar, restrictions. I have also made the assumption that Lenora has little to no budget for this project.

Using the SECTIONS framework we can construct the following ideal criteria (Bates, 2014).

Students — Accessible to students with limited internet speeds.
Ease of Use — Accessible to users with limited technical knowledge.
Cost — No cost option.
Teaching and Media Selection — Due to limited internet speeds, limited use of multimedia technology. Some pictures may be possible, but mostly limited to text.
Interaction — Interaction of instructor and students through text.
Organizational Issues — Limited time and resources to deliver training.
Networking — Natural transition to and from existing Cradleboard network.
Security and Privacy — Access is limited to participating individuals.

In terms of a solution for Lenora, I’m not sure I have it. I think that there are a few solutions that I would explore if I was working with her.

Text based website: With minimal tutoring Lenora could establish a wordpress site and create text only content. Privacy settings could have Lenora choose who has access to the site. Initially, she may need to access the site through her school connection, but should then be able to access the site from home.

Email list: This is the least technical option and may be the best both in terms of management and access. It may be difficult to manage the learning experience, however it would not be impossible.

Bulletin Board System (BBS): The original social networks could be a solution for Lenora, but she would have to find a way to create one specific for her, and security could be an issue with such a simple technology.

Ultimately, if she is able to secure some help to get started I would suggest the text based WordPress option. I think that it would provide the best experience for her and her users during her course. I think that even with limited experience either with some help, or through trial and error Lenora could be successful.

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework). Retrieved January 29, 2016 from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage

Assignment 1 – Group 5 – Personal Reflection

The Experience

This assignment was a bit of a challenge both personally and I believe for my group. This is the first time as part of the MET program and I have faced challenges connecting and bringing a group together to create a plan to complete a project. Due to time zone difference and busy schedule our group was simply not able to meet and have a synchronous discussion and so, our project was completed solely through asynchronous communication. This disconnection and delayed communication created a challenge to a focused efficient effort, mainly due to the short timeline from forming the group to project completion. Overall, once our group started an online document, roles were quickly established and work was spread fairly evenly, as far as I could tell being an asynchronous activity. This was far from the smoothest group process I have participated in with the MET program, but the project is completed and will be submitted on time. Given the timeline and limited information provided, I feel as though our group has submitted a well-developed product.

Impact on my Current Practice

This was an interesting exercise for me in terms of impact on my current practice. I am not currently evaluating LMS options, however, our group elected to create a rubric using the SECTIONS model (Bates, 2014). For me, this was a practice exercise in creating my own rubric for educational technology, and perhaps programs at my organization. This exercise helped me to realize the importance of articulating why certain criteria are important to a selection process. Trying to think from a stakeholder perspective it was an interesting exercise in that there are different focuses that a stakeholder could have from a technical to andragogical, to a business perspective. By clearly articulating why criteria have been established it helps all stakeholders come to the same page. I plan on taking this lesson to use in the development of a rubric for use within my own organization.

References

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework). Retrieved January 29, 2016 from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage