Sue M’s UBC MET E-Portfolio

Over the years, my colleagues and I  have developed some short-cuts, productivity tools, templates and models, which we use for rapid development of a Moodle course.

Each of us has our own preferred off-line design tools and instructional design approach.

Instructional Design 1st

I have to think through the entire course from start to finish before I can start writing the content and designing learning activities and assessments.

The structure of the course is huge for me – as I really have to grasp the big picture, and know the overall purpose and goals of the course – Why are we developing this course? Why are we putting it online? What do we hope to achieve and why? What is our target audience and the characteristics of our learners, their backgrounds, literacy, expectations, etc.?  How will this course be deemed to be successful – what is the evaluation criteria?  Who are all the stakeholders who will have a say in the design, development, delivery and evaluation of this course – what is their bottom-line?

Once I have the big picture, I draft a Course Outline & Mod-Topic Plan – a statement of the course purpose and goals and desired learning outcomes, logistical information, and a list of Modules/Units I believe need to be in the course, expanded with a list of Topics (key concepts / skills) for each module/unit.

Then I set about looking for a textbook for background reading that covers all or most of the content identified.  I prefer a Canadian edition and a text supported with a Publisher Companion Site for online student resources, instructor resources, and/or DVD’s/CD’s that accompany the text, and preferably access to an interactive mylab site for demonstrations and hands-on practice and assessments.

Once I’ve evaluated several potential texts, I refine the Mod-Topic Plan to align with my preferred text and online resources available.  I also refine my Instructional Strategy and develop a Module Organization Plan – this helps me think through the structure of a typical module – the elements in the Module Intro, components of each Topic, and elements in the Module Wrap.  I build a chart – a visual representation of a Module-Topic Structure and another of the overall Course Map.  This helps provide a sense of scope – the structure and sequence of the course, itemizes types of course components included, and indicates the complexity of the overall course and individual modules-topics.

Once I’ve tweaked these off-line design documents, I develop a Schedule of Course Events, which is essential to ensure there is sufficient time for online students who are learning from a distance, to complete all of the required components, deal with the time delays and overhead of asynchronous communications and technical issues, as well as providing sufficient time for learners to reflect, discuss, connect and develop an online learning community – without cognitive overload and unrealistic time pressures.  At this point, some serious decisions are often made – to remove some content, to make some modules/topics optional, to reduce the number of components (focus on quality not quantity in discussions, and collaborative work, etc.)

Building the Moodle Course Structure

I first build a “Mod X” in Dreamweaver (DW) – the folder and file structure of a typical online course module, with a Mod Intro folder, a Topic folder, and a Mod Wrap folder.  Within each of these folders, I create example screens, i.e., 6-9 different screens in the Mod Intro, 10-12 different types of screens in the Topic, and 5-6 example screens in the Mod Wrap.  Each of these examples screens will have placeholder text and will have an assigned DW template (for colour, fonts, location of images and icons); each screen will be saved with a file name that follows a naming convention.  (A strong, consistent folder/file structure is essential for building modules.)

Once a complete Mod X is developed that aligns with the types of screens and module-topic structure defined in our Instructional Strategy, I’ll generate a SCORM module and upload the SCORM, and test it within the context of Moodle.  For “proof of concept”, I then use this Mod X to develop one complete module in the course, and make adjustments to the Mod X, as necessary.

Once satisfied that the Mod X  is solid, I use it within Moodle to build the entire online course structure,  based on the off-line design documents list above (Mod-Topic Plan, Schedule of Course Events, etc.)  Labels, resources and activities are all added to the course shell, and linked to placeholder files or Mod X  SCORMs.

This way, I can quickly generate a model of the online course that will include the number of modules, the components that will make up each module, with specific link names to placeholders for each type of Moodle activity and resource that will comprise individual modules and weeks.

Developing the Content, Activities & Assessments & Synching the Course

Once the online course model is in place, it’s time to finalize the content for each of the modules, design instructions for activities and assessments, select media and interactivities – one module at a time.  During this process, I often rearrange things within the model course.  As I complete the design and writing of an element, i.e., screens, a discussion, learning activity, quiz questions, an assignment, etc., I upload the completed element to replace the placeholder content in the model course, update links, refresh the course, test the links in student mode, and backup the course.

This process continues until all components are designed, developed/authored, uploaded, linked, and tested in the Moodle course, and the course is then ready for a quality review, and prepped for a pilot delivery.

BTW:  I am trying to follow this same process for my ETEC565A Moodle Course (without the benefit of some of the tools, scripts and productivity tools available through my team, that vastly increase my productivity :>)