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1 Course duration Author name Course overview Course 3: DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING YOUR ONLINE COURSE 3 hours Professor Jennifer C. Richardson, Ph.D., Purdue University The purpose of this course is to help participants understand the planning process and begin/continue to design and develop their own online courses. A systematic approach to the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of instruction for learners at a distance is emphasized. Participants will come to understand the need for advance planning and how to select appropriate learning activities, assessment and evaluation activities, and appropriate media for their online courses. After completing this course you will be able to: Identify appropriate instructional design methods Discuss common instructional design processes related to planning for online learning Apply appropriate instructional design methods to online learning scenarios Identify appropriate assessment methods and apply them to distance education scenarios Identify appropriate evaluation methods and apply them to distance education scenarios Be aware of and able to discuss policies that related to online learning in the design and development process Unit 1 title Introduction 1a. Why we need a plan Participants will be able to generalize the need for planning and designing an online course. Simonson & Schlosser Why we need to plan Instructional Design models and/or Biggs work, Community of Inquiry and planning. Activity: How to Ruin a Course. Participants will be asked to enter their thoughts in a text field, and then click to reveal our thoughts text and images that describe the most common ways to ruin a course. 1b. Instructional design for instructors: Key concepts (or Learning Design ) Participants will be able to relate and describe key concepts related to Instructional design. learning design instructional design CMS, LMS Open educational resources (OERs) Instructional Design Activities (IDAs) Page C15

2 1c. Instructional Design Activities (IDAs) Participants will gain an understanding of IDAs and their application in designing and developing online courses. What are IDAs? And why do we need to do them? IDAs will give you hands-on practice with the instructional design process and help you plan the instruction, resources, and media needed for your final project. IDAs are a way to answer the three major questions instructional designers should ask (Mager, 1984): 1. Where are we going? (What are the goals of the instruction?) 2. How will we get there? (What is the instructional strategy and the instructional medium?) 3. How will we know when we have arrived? (What should our tests look like? How will we evaluate and revise the instructional materials?) On a practical level, the IDAs will help you think ahead as to the learning objectives for your modules, learners needs, and teaching materials needed. This should make the final stages of actually building your courses or modules go more smoothly. Real-World Application It is important to note IDAs are a way to thoughtfully and thoroughly learn the instructional design process. Real-life instructional designers intuitively go through these steps to find instructional solutions in a variety of educational and training settings. Video interview: Practitioners explain their IDA methodologies success stories and advice. 1d. This screen will review and check understanding of key concepts covered in the preceding screens. Unit review Unit 2 title Getting ready to design your course 2a. General principles for ID Participants will become familiar with the basics principles of instructional design. Brainstorm Activity: Consider how you currently design your courses. What steps do you take? What is instructional design? Instructional design is the process of thoughtfully considering learners needs, the context, learning objectives, and other factors to plan and develop instruction and materials that will reach specific learning goals. Famous scholars in this field, Smith and Ragan (2004), define instructional design as the systematic and reflective process of translating principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials, activities, information resources, and evaluation (p. 2). General Principles: use ADDIE or PIE to describe processes accomplished in this process Page C16

3 2b. Guidelines for practitioners or things to consider before you start 2c. The importance of constructive alignment 2d. Unit review Participants will understand concepts they need to consider prior to designing their online course. Participants will understand the importance of constructive alignment to good course design. Planning with the Community of Inquiry (CoI) as a focus (use research findings presented by Ice, Richardson and Swan at the 25 th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, 2009). [Further information on the role of the Instructional Designer in Course 2: Mastering Pedagogy in the Online Environment ] Sorensen & Baylen discuss the seven principles of good practice for web-based content (based on the original widely-accepted seven principles of undergraduate education); Simonson (2009) and the perfect online course. Portfolio Activity: Review a course (or a module within a course) Choose a course to review (several are provided), preferably not one where someone you know has designed or taught the course. Reflect on what you see in the course based on the guidelines and your own experiences as a learner and teacher. (1) What do you see that is what you would expect or aspects that were not as you would expect; (2) what aspects would you consider engaging for students (or unengaging); (3) and what are your thoughts overall based on the guidelines and your experiences? It is ok to be critical, but only if it is constructive (e.g. I didn't like navigation vs. I didn't like the navigation because I found it was not intuitive to me. Instead I would have set the navigation up in the following way ). (Perhaps provide the criteria from course evaluation rubric for criteria to consider but not entire rubric). Scenario Activity: Select one of the three scenarios and consider the guidelines and our own experiences as a learner and a teacher. There is no one correct solution, although there may be optimal solutions. Constructive alignment is a principle used for devising teaching and learning activities, and assessment tasks, that directly address the learning outcomes intended in a way not typically achieved in traditional lectures, tutorial classes and examinations (Biggs and Tang, 2007). Constructive alignment was devised by Professor John B. Biggs, and represents a marriage between a constructivist understanding of the nature of learning, and an aligned design for outcomes-based teaching education. This screen will review and check understanding of key concepts covered in the preceding screens. Page C17

4 Unit 3 title Designing and developing your course 3a. Conducting the learning context analysis/goals for instruction Participants will identify the learning context for which they will be designing their course. Participants should have a particular course in mind as they proceed through the process for designing and delivering their own online courses. IDA Activity #1: Conducting the Learning Context Analysis This activity is designed to give you hands-on practice with the analysis of the learning context during the needs assessment phase. Zheng and Smaldino (p ) suggest considering the learning context or learning environments as one of the key elements of designing online instruction in order to ensure the success of the instructional design process. At this point, the needs assessment is broad more at the course/unit level. Complete the activity with a particular course in mind. For each of the following steps participants will be provided with samples of a complete IDA to refer to as they eventually plan for their own online course. 3b. Learner analysis Participants will summarize the learners they anticipate will be the target audience for their course. Pod: Blended Learning IDA Activity #2: Conducting the Learner Analysis This IDA focuses on conducting an analysis of the learners (also called target audience and target population). The Zheng and Smaldino article (2009, pg ) reminds us of the importance of considering learners characteristics, especially in distance education where you often do not see the learners. In the case of finding out about the learners, the more the better! Learner analysis will help you avoid several dangers: assuming all learners are alike; the learners are like the designer; creating instruction that is appropriate for no one. 3c. Content/Task analysis Participants will conduct a brief content analysis on their course. This activity is designed to give you hands-on practice with learner analysis. Complete the activity with a particular course in mind. Pod: Blended Learning IDA Activity #3: Conducting the Content Task Analysis We have analyzed the context and learners related to this instruction, and now are ready to analyze the task that learners must complete. This component of the instructional analysis focuses on the tasks, steps or factors critical to performing the task you identified in your instructional or learning goal. Essentially, this is accomplished by specifying what an expert would do to solve the problem or accomplish the task. Pod: Blended Learning Page C18

5 3d. Planning the Content Participants will plan to generate the content for their course. What is effective content? IDA Activity #4: Planning the Content As Zheng & Smaldino explain (p. 116), a basic instructional design principle is to plan the content around the needs of the audience and engaging the learners. They also go on to say that content organization is very important in achieving learning objectives: the way in which to organize the content may affect learning outcomes directly. Some things to consider as you plan: Distant learners need (1) content that meets their needs, (2) obvious directions for their actions at each phase of the course, (3) as much control of the pace of learning as possible, (4) a means of drawing attention to individual concerns, (5) a method of investigating their progress and acquiring feedback from their instructor(s), and (6) materials that are useful, active and interesting (Zheng & Smaldino, p. 118). In terms of instructional strategies keep these points in mind: Diversify and pace course activities, do not use long lectures. Combine content presentations with discussions and student-centered activities. Use locally relevant examples (real-world) as often as possible to help students comprehend and apply course content. Cultivate strategies used for student reinforcement, review, repetition and remediation when you deem it may be necessary (depends on the learning objectives). (Zheng & Smaldino, p. 119). Additionally, look to the Bonk & Dennen table for a listing of various activities to consider and their purposes this is often a way to be sure your activities are engaging and not repetitious. Links: variety of instructional strategies: Instructional Strategies Online: Illinois Online Network, Instructional Strategies for Online Courses: Carnegie Melon, Identify Appropriate Instructional Strategies: Pod: Link to CoI framework. Pod: Blended Learning. Page C19

6 3e. Assessment approaches and methods for online environment 3f. Selecting media Participants will plan for the assessment of learners based on learning tasks in their course. Participants will investigate available media and select/generate appropriate media for the learning tasks in the course. IDA Activity #5: Planning for Assessment and Evaluation Assessment is a critical component of the design process. "The only way to know that the objectives have been achieved is to observe, measure, and evaluate the learner s performance after instruction has taken place" (Briggs & Wager, 1981, p. 160). Therefore, we are left with the task of creating assessment tools that are valid, reliable, and efficient in evaluating what the learner can do or can know. These performance measures will enable the monitoring of the learner s progress in learning what your instruction is designed to teach. This activity is designed to give you hands-on practice with the creation of a valid, reliable and efficient assessment tool for your unit or lesson. Complete the activity with a particular course in mind. Pod: Blended Learning. This screen will give samples of media and good matches/bad matches for intended purpose. IDA Activity #6: Media Selection The objective of this activity is to determine the appropriate instructional media to use during each event of instruction. Reiser and Gagne define instructional media as "the physical means by which an instructional message is communicated" (1983, p. 5). Thus, a movie, television program, printed text, overhead projector, computer program, animation, and an instructor's lecture are all considered media. For media selection, you should consider the limiting conditions for both development and implementation in terms of time, costs, skills, and resources available. Another important factor is to determine whether you are designing individual or group instruction. Pod: Link to CoI framework. Pod: Blended Learning. 3g. Evaluation approaches and methods for online environment Participants will plan for the evaluation (formative or summative) of their course. [Further information on instructional media can be found in Course 5: Using Technology Tools in Teaching Online ] Evaluating Your Course/Reviewing the Final Course Product. The objective of planning for the evaluation of your course design is to plan for the formative evaluation of your instruction. As stated by Michael Scriven (1967) in Shambaugh & Magliaro (1997), Ongoing, or formative evaluation, helps to determine the effectiveness of lessons, activities, and Page C20

7 An alternative approach: Backwards Design An alternative approach: the UMT model Unit 4 title Focus on strategies and activities: Diversifying 4a. Intro to focus on strategies and activities: Diversifying Participants will understand the importance of diversifying their course activities. assessment details while these are in development and can, therefore, be revised (p. 221). This IDA will help you determine: 1. who will do the ongoing evaluation, 2. what is being evaluated, 3. when the evaluation should occur, and 4. how the evaluation will be conducted (i.e. tools you will use). Things to also consider are unanticipated outcomes, unanticipated occurrences (e.g. the technology didn t work for a particular activity), student perceptions such as learning and satisfaction. Think about your evaluation plan as if you were planning to produce your course for others to consume (e.g. other instructors, other schools). Activity: Course Review (see course evaluation rubric). Pod: Blended Learning. This will be a sidebar pod that is worked throughout this unit, a something to think about section A few paragraphs explaining the model and references for further readings This will be a sidebar pod that is worked throughout this unit, a something to think about section A few paragraphs explaining the model and references for further readings (see SSAZ) Merill s 5 First Principles of Instruction (see Graine p 36): Task/Problem-Centered Activation Demonstration Application Integration [Further information can be found in Course 4: Being a successful online instructor ] Page C21

8 4b. Varying your activities with a purpose 4c. Case study: Open Educational Resources Participants will implement at least four different types of activities within their course. Participants will understand the basics of OERs and locate relevant sources for use in course development. Table of activities from Bonk & Dennen Common synch and asynch tools Discussion-based activities Application Activity: Revisit your course design. What types of activities would you now consider adding that you don t already have? Screen will contain a brief introduction to different OERs. Activity: Locate three relevant OERs for your intended course; evaluate them. 4d. This screen will review and check understanding of key concepts covered in the preceding screens. Unit review Unit 5 title Common pitfalls in the design and development process 5a. Common pitfalls Participants will consolidate their understanding from earlier screens of the common pitfalls that can occur during the design and development process and gain strategies on how to Video: Practitioners explain different instances of issues which occurred during the process of designing and developing their courses. Scenario Activity: Select ways to overcome these pitfalls or plan in advance to deal with them. 5b. Plagiarism (from designer point of view) 5c. Planning to diffuse plagiarism for your students cope with/avoid them. Participants will familiarize themselves with common plagiarism issues and apply best practices for avoiding plagiarism in their course development. Participants will be aware of options available for dealing with student plagiarism issues. Common plagiarism pitfalls. Activity: Test your plagiarism assumptions. Pod: Your Context locate and review institutional/program guidelines related to plagiarism. Tools such as turn-it-in, having students submit papers and return the results with paper, locate and review institutional/program guidelines related to plagiarism. Page C22

9 5d. Copyright issues 5e. Unit review Participants will understand and apply the basics of copyright and specifically how copyright applies to educational contexts. What is copyright and why do we need it? Copyright basics Rules of Thumb for Copyright and Education Copyright in the international context This screen will review and check understanding of key concepts covered in the preceding screens. Page C23