This week, during our coursework, a series of design questions were posed. I'm designing a Canvas course to help users learn to use Canvas. The goal is to provide an online course that staff new to the district can use to help them learn the ropes as they prepare to use Canvas with their own learners. In an effort to share my thoughts and ideas with the world, here are the questions and my **incredibly** thoughtful answers:
What resources will learners need for your course? - Learners will need lots of click sheets, how-to resources and video options. They will need these resources in references to how to navigate, use, and submit items in Canvas as well as resources on how to build in Canvas. Using specially created videos specific to our instance are useful, but the LMS company does a phenomenal job of providing (and updating/maintaining) resources. I am finding that when possible, it may be best to use some of the company created how-to tutorial videos.
Where will the resources be housed? - The resources are linked in content pages, assignments and in a comprehensive resource module at the end of the course. How will learners access these resources? - Learners will move through the modules in a sequential order. Requirements and prerequisites are set to ensure that the movement is fairly systematic and builds on itself.
Will learners be involved in individual or collaborative projects? - Both. Learners will be building/completing their assignment tasks in the course they are designing for their own learners. They can work in a course alone, or with a collaborator(s). There are also discussion boards, surveys and Flipgrid assignments to build community, share ideas and learn from each other.
How and where will they submit assignments? - Some assignments are submitted through an embedded Google form, Flipgrid video submissions, Canvas discussion boards, interactive quizzes, and URLs to the items created in their courses will be submitted through Canvas assignments.
What aspects of the OSCQR standards reviewed this week resonated with you and your thoughts on the course you are designing? - Picking a single standard from this week's selection is a daunting task. I feel they all were incredibly important. I did appreciated that not only is feedback and assessment based on the learner's growth and understanding addressed, but also feedback on the course itself. Was the course useful to the learner? Were there items that need to be reworked to be clearer? Was anything out of place? It really came across as feedback and reflection are reciprocal for both the learner and the course instructor/designer.
So now that I have addressed my course, I've been thinking about other courses I am aware of in my district. This summer, there was a push to develop some new professional learning courses for teachers because we are offering trade days for the first time. This was a huge move on our district's part to allow for teacher choice in their learning.
One of the courses that immediately comes to my attention is one of the Gifted and Talented teacher courses that was inherited by our new GT coordinator. The "course" is a multi-section powerpoint. There might be a few slides that say "think about" or "write," but there is little interaction. This is the first course that I would LOVE to help rework! The slides are overwhelmed with text and very few images. Section 8.5 of Tony Bate's (2015) book, Teaching in a Digital Age, points out that "People learn better from graphics + narration, than from graphics, narration and on-screen text." So, it looks like the coordinator (and me!! I want to help!) have our work cut out for us. Let's use more images, less text, record some videos, and add some discussions and other other interactive features all within our online LMS! The 2 Minute Teacher Multimedia Video also encourages the use of words (but not too many) plus graphics to build connections.
Any other courses I'm interested in? Hmmmm....there were a lot of book studies put together for this past summer. A good book study is and amazing way to get people together (often times socially) to discuss what they are reading, either for leisure, for learning or a little of both. I'd love to see some of the book studies developed into online or blended courses. I envision some synchronous activity from time to time either by meeting in person in conjunction with the online discussion board (a blended plan) or through the use of the online conference feature. The synchronous web meeting has actually been one of my favorite parts of several of my courses. Don't tell my current professors though...they might say, "she never shows up." Oh life...sometimes you get in the way. I'm appreciative of the videos of the web chats for the times I am not able to make it to the live session. Even though I am not a big talker during the web chats, I enjoy the time to actually see and hear people instead of depending completely on typed out responses. I like seeing someone's cat or kiddo walk by. It helps me feel comfortable that I am learning along side other real people and builds a sense of community. I'd love to help some of the book study courses become a more community based and interactive with some audio and video responses.
Want to check out more? Here are my planning thoughts and a link to where a copy of my e-course will live.
Bates, A. (2015). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
OSCQR. (2014). OSCQR - open suny course quality review rubric. Retrieved from https://oscqr.org/evidence-examples/
UNMC E-Learning. (2015, Aug. 10). 2 minute teacher multimedia principle [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/sP98_CTjXNo