Content Module Reflection for Assignment #3

For our last assignment, we were tasked with building introductory materials and a general overview for an online course in Eliademy. This time around, we developed actual course content and had the chance to really delve into the affordances (and limitations) of Eliademy as an LMS.

As our introductory module had been built previously, we decided as a group that in order to fully embrace the backwards design model, we should begin to envision what the entirety of the course *could* look like in order to know where we are headed. A Backwards Design document was forged in a table format, where we mapped out all 3 units over the course of 7 weeks, alongside our learning objectives, success criteria, and all activities, multimedia and discussion questions for our Discussion Forums. This helped us to determine what information the students would know at certain points of the course, and allowed us to properly and thoughtfully build our content module. We chose to develop our last unit (Unit 3), because we felt that it was the “grand finale” of the course. It reflects the outcome of most (if not all) of our learning objectives, as well as Fink’s model of course design and the six domains of significant learning.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to invite Vancouver-based poet and actor Omari Newton perform an original poem for our “Slam Poem: Using Your Own Voice to make an Impact” unit. Omari is a professional actor, writer, Slam poet and MC whose work can be found on television, film, stage or radio. He is currently a City of Vancouver funded Artist in Residence (Playwright) with urban ink productions, and frequently works with youth to provide skills training in the elements of hip hop and theatre. He recorded an interactive video for the students, whereby he engages them to participate in two challenges to spark the starting point for their final project: the online poetry slam. Omari speaks to the students in the video and offers information about how he was introduced to the world of poetry, and provides tips on how to effectively perform slam poetry. The video is engaging and personal, and from my experiences teaching Grades 7 and 8, the content (and the delivery of the content) would go a long way in helping these kids identify with the course material.

Revisions / Re-thinks

As noted within the commentary of Fink’s six types of significant learning, several resources, technologies and ideas that were proposed in the Introductory Module were reconsidered and eliminated. In some cases, the ideas we initially had for learning activities or assessments proved either too burdensome and complicated for students, or not appropriately correlated to the learning objectives we wished to achieve.  Additionally, we made several revisions to our initial Readings & Resources to reflect our process of selecting appropriate and relevant slam poetry artists for our content modules. Technologically, both calendar functions and discussion forum functions proved complicated and difficult to manage on first pass. In our Introductory module, we had embedded Google Calendar in an effort to maintain organization within a student’s workspace within and outside of Eliademy. We ended up using Eliademy’s calendar in our Content module to showcase all of the affordances of this tool, and the fact that it is native to Eliademy means that consistency is ensured.

In terms of an internal messaging system in Eliademy, a “Messages” option to send email messages to students directly is available through the “Participants” page. However, it should be noted here that your course needs to be set to “Public” to be able to use the internal messaging system. Unfortunately, this option is not available in closed group courses. This is where we ran into some difficulty with testing this feature, as our course was set to Private (since it was unfinished and we did not want it to be searchable within Eliademy), and it took some research to figure this out – it was not explicitly stated anywhere. Eliademy’s Discussion forums proved very useful to find information, and we frequented these throughout this project to familiarize ourselves with the LMS – particularly if we ran into any design difficulties and/or setbacks.

Since Eliademy offers the ability to embed Google Forms, I thought I would try to embed a Google Slides deck into the course. I had created a technical How-To for students about how to create an Unlisted Google Hangouts on Air (HOA), as this was the tool chosen to provide a recording forum for students to recite their poetry and share to a limited audience. Since the number of screenshots/steps were mounting, I decided that it would be best (from both a design and cognitive behavioural standpoint) to create a presentation, where the information would be “chunked”, thereby decreasing any potential frustrations scrolling through many steps may cause. Plus, since HOA could be a tool that students use for future assignments and even personal projects, they could even upload a copy of the tutorial into their personal Drives so that they have their own copy for reference. It was quickly noted that Slides cannot be embedded into Eliademy. However, edu-tools such as Prezi and Slideshare can. So, I uploaded the Slides into Slideshare and embedded the tutorial that way. The result? I like to call it “format collision” (trademark pending ;). Since I used a third-party website called Slides Carnival to create the presentation (it provides free templates to use specifically in Google Slides, as the templates included are few), the font’s equivalent was not available in Slideshare. Therefore, formatting issues surfaced. Some positioning was compromised, and the font no longer made sense with the blackboard background (it was a “chalk-like” font), however, it did not alter the information, so there it stayed.

Overall, working on this project really opened my eyes to the amount of work it actually takes to build a course from start to finish, from humble beginnings to quite literally tens of thousands of revisions in order to make it pedagogically sound and engaging for kids! Also, I learned much about poetry, and I can honestly say that I have come to appreciate it more, and will consciously make an effort to read more of it – starting with the poetry found in this course!

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Introductory Module Reflection for Assignment #2

The assignment to create an Introductory Module in a learning management system (LMS) we have never used before presented some challenges, but none that my group weren’t able to overcome with some grit and determination. In our final submission, I took note of how many revisions went into a group project like this – 27, 052 to be exact (we worked in Google Docs, and I have an extension called Draftback that will keep a running tally of all revisions made, which is a handy tool for writers). This does not take into consideration the many, many woman hours we put into meetings in Google Hangouts, brainstorming sessions (verbal and written), and numerous changes in the direction we wanted our Introductory Module to go. Through this process, our group dealt with some variables in terms of different timetables, scheduling conflicts and life commitments in general, but the common denominator was always that each group member had each other’s best interests at heart. We trusted in each other to get the job done, no matter the obstacles.

Eliademy

As soon as I was introduced to Eliademy (which was in this course), I knew that I would like it. I have an affinity for minimalist design and LMS’ that are not over-engineered with tools and plug-ins that the average teacher would never use, or worse yet, scare off potential users. I had the opportunity to troubleshoot when analyzing the affordances and limitations of the LMS, which I love to do, and began to explore it in the context of an actual course, and in our case it was a Grade 8 Poetry course. It was here that I began to notice just how young Eliademy is and the limitations it will need to grow out of in the coming months. Eliademy’s philosophy is noble and beautiful, in that the founders want to democratize education for all, and simply make free education available to everyone regardless of station or location. This is evident in their plans to adopt the largest Open Educational Resources Bank online so that educators may share their courses if they so choose, so that their courses are developed by other educators to make it even better. Imagine the possibilities here. But, it still has a long way to go in order to compete with the functionality with its more mature peers.

I am a big believer in the fact that design and how you present material on a page makes a difference in how students will be engaged with the material as well as retain it. I found that with Eliademy, the interface is crisp and clean, and that initially (and still does) appeal to me. It worked with our age group in that the course is easy to navigate because it simply does not have all of the “bells and whistles” other LMS’ have, and that is okay. We chose Eliademy because it fit well with the course content, grade level, and is compatible with all mobile browsers, and the fact that it will seem “familiar” to these students. It looks like Internet sites they would typically visit. The social media icons on the Welcome page will be enticing to them, and will draw them in, as opposed to other LMS’ that are not aesthetically pleasing and remind them that, oh yes, this is school. Eliademy, I believe, will take them away from that mindset, and into a more “open-feel” platform, where they are free to be creative and think outside of the walled garden. I really enjoyed building courses in an LMS, and this assignment certainly forced us to think about the hard-hitting questions about what our chosen LMS could do for the students as well as the instructor to ensure learning outcomes were achieved.

The Ladies

My group consisted of Pam, Jenny and Kirsten. We each have different strengths and backgrounds to bring to the table, and we managed to navigate through the assignment well together. I learned a lot from each group member, and it’s nice to benefit from people who are at the “tail end” of their Masters, when I am just beginning my journey. I know that I need to work on my formatting skills when it comes to writing papers, as well as my citations, and I will pay special attention to this for our next assignment.

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3 Timezones, 2 Continents, 1 Paper: A Reflection for Assignment #1

Our group was representative of 3 different time zones and 2 continents, which meant that as I was meeting in the evening, it was morning for two of my group members. This diversity afforded us the opportunity to be organized and thoughtful in our meeting preparations, thereby being one of the contributing factors in accomplishing our set meeting goals as we moved steadily forward in our project’s timeline.

We communicated with each other (both synchronously and asynchronously) effectively and respectfully, and all opinions, thoughts and ideas were heard and acted upon. This is so important to cultivate when working in groups, as it is often one of the top complaints students have during group work – the fact that they believe they have no voice in the group. We used the Google platform of tools to help us communicate effectively, such as Google Hangouts, a shared folder in Google Drive, and Google Docs where we all collaborated with each other by using suggested edits, chat and comments.

The climate of our group was one of respect for each member’s contribution, security in the fact that we knew each member would accomplish their set tasks, and a willingness to participate in dialogues via Hangouts, chat, email and comments regularly and often. Each person brought with them an expertise, perspective and experiences that contributed to the assignment in a significant way. As this is *merely* my second course in the MET program, I still have much to learn in terms of properly formatting academic papers. This group was very astute in ensuring all proper formatting was used, as well, they readily shared resources that will be useful for me in future courses.

The process our group adhered to was not very different from my first course, apart from the time zone differences we had in this course. I created a shared folder in Google Drive so that we would have a platform in which we would work and collaborate. Each of us preferred to work in Google, so that made communication much easier. Some members added articles for research, and we all built our rough draft(s) within this folder. We added each other as contacts in Gmail so that we could connect on chat and Hangouts (which we did for our two “major” meetings). Prior to our first meeting, in one example of ensuring that each person’s schedule was accommodated, one member created a survey of preferred meeting times. Using the collected responses, we all decided upon meeting times that worked with our schedules. Our first meeting was to begin organizing each person’s role, take minutes in case we came to forget any pertinent information, and determine the parameters and position of our paper.

Our group fulfilled the obligations of this first assignment with diligence, and as we worked on this project, things unfolded rather organically. I believe that is the mark of seasoned students of group work, and I am privileged to have been a part of such a well-oiled machine!

Shared Folder

Meetings: From Morning to Night