Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Reflection Blog on Finalization of Design Project

             Reflection Blog on Finalization of Design Project

                Instructional Design Worksheet

The design course for Online 7101 started off somewhat complex. I say this because at first I did not know what to expect. Although the syllabus was quite explicit, doubts of my skills, allowed me to question my ability to produce a design fit for online teaching.  This is new territory for me therefore I needed guidance and immediate feedback. The instructions worksheet to design a course for online teaching and learning helped me out tremendously. I followed the directions and realized the missing pieces started to come together. Having my peers review and critique my work inspired me to do better. This is a valuable learning experience, feedback, in which one can learn and grow from. The foundation begins with the objectives and content, which leads to resources.
Objectives/Content/Resources
In order to design a course the foundation should be established, which is the framework (core) that represents the content. The objectives will support the outline that gives a systematic review of what is required and how the course work is divided.  A variety of resources will allow the students to research the web and review scholarly articles to support the work in the outline. This will help support the student content and interactions that are required when designing a course.
 Student-Content Interactions

Student content involves the necessary material that is required to help a student succeed in an online course. Understanding how to navigate throughout the course requires literacy skills with modern technology.  Online content requires skills in writing essays, blogging, and discussion boards on blackboard, facilitations of learning modules and submitting an e-portfolio.
Student-Student Interactions
This process requires collaboration, autonomy, and understanding to provide information in a collective way, which is essential for students to interact. The designee has to organize a structural format that will direct students to interact with each other. For example, working in a group requires participation form all, therefore students will have to follow the guidelines and submit Powerpoint presentations or wiki data revealing the outcome of interacting as one.
Student-Instructor Interactions
Educators/instructors are the real moving force behind preparing students for the challenges they will endure with online learning. Therefore the interactions and synergy affect among the two is vital. A positive relationship will definitely influence students to work hard and persevere. History suggests that positive effects from the student-instructor relationship will inspire students to learn and achieve their educational goals.  In this section the instructors will interact with students and reinforce a positive relationship. The goal is to develop students to a level that will help them gain the necessary knowledge base to succeed.  Feedback will influence the student-instructor relationships. Often students are faced with challenges and therefore the instructors need to understand what type of ways students are equipped to learn. This moved the class to the category of learners.
Learner Issues and Design Considerations

In todays society advance education is required for one to succeed in the competitive world of technology especially with online studies. The central concern is the learners and how they interpret the data and what type of styles they present in order to learn. This class informed me of what and how students learn. Therefore I learned about educational assessment
tools for students and how essential it is to come up with a solution to help them to learn. Therefore as an instructor I must take in consideration when designing a curriculum what is needed for learners because often some are unprepared and have deficiencies.  It is imperative that instructors include students in the process and practices related to learning abilities, which will help shape, their personal lives.  One must not underestimate the linguistic and innovative minds of learners. Strategic lesson plans are required, which I must include when designing for learners and non-learners.  

Learners and Non-learners Issues
            When designing an online course for college students the instructor must consider the hidden barriers that exist when designing a course for learners and non-learners. For example, the length of the course, enrollment size, difficulty of the content and technical proficiency of the students all is viewed as potential barriers for success. Prerequisites are usually required to help support students learning abilities, therefore when designing a course one must understand barriers exist. Often as an instructor giving a basic quiz prior to the start of the class is often a great idea.  This will give the instructor a guideline concerning the knowledge base of the student for online learning and who are the learners from the non-learners

Resources and Web-based Tools
When designing a course, rich technology resources are essential. Therefore several pedagogical theories will help the instructor to venture out and utilize devices that will help students to grow such as virtual classrooms, Blackboard system, PowerPoint presentations, Wiki, YouTube, Blog sites and an e-portfolio.   The learners will understand the logic of the software from the tutorial tools because a basic design will allow them to manage and follow the directions of the course. They will increase their technical literacy proficiency with the basic designs of the system. These programs will strengthen the process of a learner and allow the instructor an opportunity to engage in expanding their skills. A strong assessment tool will help with the quality of content and the entire process.
                            Assessment Strategies

            Teaching an online course requires certain elements that assist in examining the effectiveness of the curriculum, which involves an assessment.  The assessment is a tool that is stipulated between two categories such as formative and summative and used to increase the learning process. Formative assessment begins with a non-threatening form of feedback for the students, which contributes to fostering their learning styles throughout the course and increasing their level of competence. Summative captures the entire process of what the students have learned and provide an avenue for accountability for the students and educational system with measuring tools to validate the outcomes.
Formative Assessment
            Formative assessment is a tool that will help to foster a conceptual understanding of the subject that is presented.  This tool will help to guide and inform students of the basic learning principles involved in a course outline.   Problem-solving, clinical decision making reviews and open-ended questions, will help to illustrate how formative assessment tools will work for a student and help a student increase and retain their knowledge base related to the subject matter.  The key is for instructors to integrate these tools to prepare students for a career-minded profession. Students can also blog about their learning experience in a formative way this will help them express themselves.
Summative Assessment
            Summative assessment is straightforward and is used to analyze the amount of knowledge a student has learned. This tool also points out the accountability factor in which, students and the educational system, as a whole is responsible for receiving and providing appropriate material for learning. This tool is described as an “ongoing two-way dialogue that takes place between a teacher and learner known as the assessment for learning” via summative in nature (Gavriel, 2013, p. 93). Writing is also a subjective form of expressing one’s knowledge base, therefore students can use scholarly articles to help them write and sum up their learning experience.
Conclusion
Overall a great deal of knowledge was learned from this class. Preparing and designing a class requires a thought process that will flow with the learning population. An effective form of communication and assessment methods will help me to meet the requirements for learning in a systematic way with online classes.  To establish an objective evaluation process requires reliable tools that will help interpret constructive feedback for learning. Performance is the key and often students behavior is different in a face-to-face classroom oppose to online learning.  Some student’s take for granted that they have more time and often fall behind, therefore competency test is vital for performance via written, multiple choice or pass-fail criteria. The overall aim is to provide a variety of assessment systems to challenge not only the students but also the system.  I truly enjoyed this class and learned a lot to be proud of. Thank you for the guidance and understanding.

                                                              

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