Sunday, November 18, 2012





    
     The journey down course design road was a bit bumpy at times. I have to say I really didn’t know what to expect.  Overall, it was an enjoyable course. I have to admit that there is a lot of consideration that goes into the design that I had not thought of. For example everything connects from the objectives to the assessment.

     Designing the course was done in a step by step process. I have written objectives before but workshops or seminars which written the same as for a class but its less content. The writing of objectives for a course gets a bit challenging because you have course objectives and lesson objectives.

     You have to consider learner and non-learner issues with the design. Non-learner issues are those things that deal with the design itself. The books that will be used to other resources, assignments that align with objectives and assessments are all part of the non-learner issues. Then there are the learner issues. These issues are directly related to learner like their age or geographical location.

Selecting assessments that align with the learning objectives and learning activities is a component of the design that flows like a face to face class. Using diagnostic assessments can be challenging in the online environment requiring the distant learner to seek places where he/she can take proctored examinations. Formative assessment is important in academia whether it be face to face or online. This type of assessment gives the learner an idea of their accomplishments and areas in need of more attention.

     Content presentation included three areas of interaction student-content interaction, student-student interaction and student-instructor interaction. Each of these areas has to be addressed in the design. They need to connect with the learning objectives and activities of learning in the course. The design of the course should allow for adequate interactions to facilitate understanding of content, community building and instructor evaluation of student progress.

     The difficulty of this course for me was writing to the design. If I just had to design the course and not write a paper based on the steps of the design the challenge would have been less. I don’t think I am a bad writer but the specifics needed for this paper kept throwing me off. It also made me read a lot more because the leaner, non-learner issues were not simple to understand. Coming from leadership to academia makes you put on a different hat and look at things from a different perspective.

The review process of the design class was very interesting. I think I had the same challenge with the review that I had with the design. Proofreading is one of my strong points but I missed content issue on the paper I reviewed. Again it was about the structure of the paper that gave me a headache.

     Design worksheets were done for the first three lessons of the course. This process taught us how to link everything together from the learning objectives to the learning activities. The items that were designed for the content areas of the paper were plugged into the design via these worksheets. The assessments were also a part of the worksheets. The worksheets are like a blue print for each lesson and serve as guide for each lesson.

Overall, I count the experience as being a successful one. Writing to the design is hopefully something I won’t have to do again, but in the event that I have I think I am better prepared to do so. I’m ready for the last and final course of online certification and then ready to be a successful online instructor.