Activity 1: Different approaches to design: My reflections on designing a course for MOODLE
Six months ago I had the opportunity of designing a micro teaching course to be hosted on MOODLE. It was the most interesting but challenging experience. I had to think about the whole situation from students , tutors to the delivery mode.
a) Which parts of the design do your think about first?
The users of any resource are central to the design. I had to bring to bear skills and knowledge of learners on online learning. This was a departure from the traditional face to face delivery. Hence the tutors and ICT support had to be brought into the picture. Since the institution is introducing online courses, I had to revisit the preferred institutional strategy.
b) Where do your ideas originate?
Teaching and learning are informed by a number of factors which develop into ideas that may be part of a design process. In my case, learners’ experiences of the current distance programme had a major influence on thinking about the design. Courses I had attended conferences and institutional policy documents shaped my thoughts.
c) What difficulties you encountered when trying to describe ideas to colleagues or self?
Since a lot of what one dreams about is in the mind it is often difficult to translate that into words that will paint a clear picture for the one listening. As alluded to in question 1, thinking about online learning and teaching is new in my institution so trying to convince someone else was a big challenge. I had to battle with questions of viability, sustainability and quality assurance. For me the main questions was how to make this design attractive e to the learner.
Jane Nkosi
Whenever I start a new learning design, I always start with who the learners are, what challenges they are facing everyday, what issues they have in their everyday business practice Then I will look at what can be sovled by this learning design, what can be solved by other learning design, what is a performance issue, what can we do to connect learning with practice, what needs to be created as a follow up support for learners (things like job aids) and what needs to put in place to ensure transfer of learning will happen. .( ---This is why I really enjoyed the week 2 topic, personas, contextualise learning project. ) Then I can draw a concep map for the new leanring design.
When I worked for GlaxoSmithKline, my ideas of new learning design always originate from the discussion with colleagues, the managers/supervisors of the sales representatives and of couse sale people themselves. I aslo did a lot of co-visiting, and use that opportunity to observe potential learning needs. Then I will talk to the Marketing and sales directors to get an overall understanding of their strategy. With all of these information I would feel comfortable to start planning of the new learning design.
Now I work for open polytechnic, an educational setting, one thing glaring missing is the learners, My end user: learner becomes invisible, this really makes me nervous. I watched the video clips of week 2 showing how the tutor team working together to design MOOC, and the discussion you have about who are the audience for this course, this really helps me, I would try to use this method working with tutor and subject matter expert next time to get a better understand of our learners.
The biggest difficulity I had and have it to visualise the design concepts or design details to my colleauges, in my case, is the course tutors and key faculty memeber. (English is my second language which add one more difficult layer to it)
Cheers,
Xin(Alice)
I start by thinking about the tasks that I can design, given the constringents of the LMS. These need to be aligned to the intended outcomes and to what I assume students are able to do. I write as the course progresses so after a few weeks, I understand the students pretty well. Time is not a big deal since the LMS extends my teaching space beyond the classroom.
I get ideas from lots of places but most often from the academic press and bloggs. I usually focus on a task and try to think of ways to present it to student and help them organize their own respones. Sometimes I will leave things completely open ended.
Last semester I started a "self-directed" reading program. I told students I did not know how to assess their reading, and was not sure that I should even try. This confused them a little, but many recognized that I was trying to help them, not judge them. Several did a very good job of it. Others did nothing. Some lied, saying they had done something when they hadn't done anything. Oddly, they felt a need to misrepresent their "work" even when there was no assessment involved at all. They don't mind me knowing that they lie or cheat... and it isn't brazen defiance either... they know education is a game, and they play to win. In this country (Saudi Arabia) we all know this.
- Which part/s of the design do you usually start thinking about first when you begin to image, picture and represent a new learning design? – the students, the technology, the pedagogy, the previous course, the resource constraints, etc .
- Where do you get your ideas from? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student feedback, from personal experience, from case studies (e.g. early work by University of Wollongong), etc. I
- Do you encounter difficulties when trying to describe your ideas for the course to colleagues?
I'm no longer in a position of designing or delivering courses myself but am in a role to assist others to do so.I've just read all the previous replies in this thread and can concur with and understand why all the elements have been mentioned. However, one element not already mentioned is time. I'm not saying this is more or less important that other elements but needs to be taken into account from the outset.How long will we expect the students to be engaged in the course?How long will we expect the tutor to be engaged in the course?We need to design a course for the students with enough material/activities but not too much.And similarly for the tutor - involvement must be designed in but not more than he/she is contracted, so the budget for tutoring the online course will affect the design.At the moment it is these considerations which are often in the forefront of my mind with new projects, but describing and calculating the time to allow for various activities is something I am struggling with.It is also something that concerns me with our existing courses. I look at some courses that are crying out for more tutor involvement in forums, for example, yet it is not resourced. However, if it is not resourced then the design should not have required it.Best wishes,Bob Ridge-Stearn.
While I understand the nature of basic training, as an educator I want to make it enriched. I downloaded the design cards and have been playing with them for an online interactive tutorial that is about 5 modules and might take learners 1 hour to complete. I'll share any 'aha' moments when done playing with the design concepts.
Which part/s of the design do you usually start thinking about first when you begin to image, picture and represent a new learning design? – the students, the technology, the pedagogy, the previous course, the resource constraints, etc .
I usually begin with course objectives – what do we want the learner to know by completing this course. What do the learners currently know about this topic.
As not all the programs I design will be delivered using technology … I still deliver some programs face-to-face, how the program is delivered usually comes after an understanding of course objectives and learner’s perceived current knowledge
Where do you get your ideas from? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student feedback, from personal experience, from case studies (e.g. early work by University of Wollongong), etc.
All of these!! From this MOOC
Do you encounter difficulties when trying to describe your ideas for the course to colleagues?
Yes and No … depending on what I’m trying to achieve and which colleagues.
For my current project (which I’m using for this MOOC project) I spoke with my colleague about my thinking around the design ideas I have today, and she was very ‘in tune’ with my thinking and added some valuable ideas of her own. It was a great conversation bouncing ideas off each other.
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Just looking a the original question and I think my current work initial workflow would be content to what problem will this solve to persona's for students and then to the institutional constraints on the medium and locus of delivery. I think this sequence is organic and natural, but at the same time it only defines a starting point. A more structured exploration of the construction space would come later with a lot of deeper analysis of what is going on. ITs the difference between seing education as a conversation or as a lecture I think.
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