Feedback and Updates on Creating the Transformative Digital Vision Course

I have received feedback from two of my classmates on the course I’m designing in Canvas. First, I used a program called Canva, www.canva.com, to create the graphics in the course. The splash page contains a graphic listing all of the modules that will need to be completed throughout the duration of the course. On my computer, the text on the graphics was very easy to read. However, when viewed on other computers it was more difficult.  So, I redesigned the graphic so that the text is easier to read. In the next peer review, I hope my peers find it easier to read.

When I click through the course, it is hard to believe that it took the amount of work and time that has gone into creating the project so far. For example, as I work on each module, it takes quite an amount of time to ensure that all of the details in one module are consistent with the other modules. I get extremely frustrated when I am participating in an online class, and the information in the various areas such as the syllabus, assignments, and modules are reporting due dates or other requirements that are inconsistent.  

I find the course content easy to produce because I work with the subject matter each day. I know that if I was designing a course in a subject that I am not so familiar with that it might take even longer to create the course. Fortunately, there are many videos on YouTube that can supplement the course materials. However, I have had to produce content so it is tailored to the expected outcomes of the course. And that definitely takes more time to complete.

In addition, as I build the activities for each module, I reflect to see if it is the best online pedagogy for the student task. For example, does the task allow for active learning, interactivity, or collaboration? These specific pedagogies promote and enhance the online learning environment and ensure that students are engaged in the course (Ukpokodu, 2008). In this course, I also want to ensure that the activities and the applications chosen model transformative learning. So, as I build each module, I double check to see if the web applications or resources I have provided are conducive to achieving this task. Again, this takes more time to research; therefore, the timeline becomes hard to meet when you are focusing on the quality of the course.

Reference

Ukpokodu, O. N. (2008). Teachers’ reflections on pedagogies that enhance learning in an online course on teaching for equity and social justice. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 7(3), 227-255.

Online Instructional Design and Considerations

The instructional design document is the roadmap for creating the course in the Canvas learning management system (LMS). As I have begun building the modules in the LMS, some activities in the design document have been tweaked as well as enhanced along the way.

For example, I am using social media applications in my course to demonstrate to administrators how they can connect with other experts in their field. I discovered that you can embed a twitter handle or hashtag into a Canvas page, so participants can view the conversations within the LMS. Basically this works off of the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) technology. You can find the application collections in EduAppCenter.com, which is managed by Instructure, the creator of Canvas. Any application on the EduAppCenter page can be embedded into the LMS for a seamless experience for the user. The only downside is that many of these applications use a key or secret in order to be installed. This represents that a fee is associated with the application. However, I noticed many free applications that could be integrated such as Educreations, Youtube, Dropbox, Quizlet, Wikipedia, Vimeo, and Slideshare.

I have also noticed that I left out some details in the design document and a few areas need minor revising to ensure the participant has a clear understanding of the concepts being introduced. In my third module, I forgot to create an assignment or assessment for brainstorming a personal learning network. In my design document, I only listed an assignment dropbox for the final product; however, the task could be quite difficult for people not familiar with personal learning networks (PLNs). So, I added a monitoring or checkpoint assignment. This assignment will provide an opportunity for the instructor to offer feedback or redirection if the participant is struggling with the newly introduced concept. The assignment has little weight in the overall course, but it will provide insight into the overall understanding of the concept before the participant begins to construct their own PLN. Research has shown that providing feedback guides the learner’s performance and is positively related to their achievement (Reigeluth, Watson, Watson, Dutta, Chen, & Powell, 2008).

The design model is working well so far, as I am constantly referencing the instructional design document as I build the modules. There are so many details to consider when you begin placing instructional content online versus a face to face course. The pedagogy that is selected for the online course must be carefully considered and revised to ensure it meets the needs of the learner in the LMS format.

Reference

Reigeluth, C. M., Watson, W. R., Watson, S. L., Dutta, P., Chen, Z., & Powell, N. D. (2008). Roles for technology in the information-age paradigm of education: Learning management systems. Educational Technology, 48(6), 32. 

Reflection on Developing a Course in the Canvas Learning Management System

So far, I have been pleasantly surprised by the intuitiveness of how to build a course in Canvas. Before you begin creating your course, it is important to map out how you want to organize your instructional materials, assignments, discussions, pages, syllabus, and modules. I plowed right in to the program and quickly discovered that it would be worth my time to map out the overall navigation of the course. Once I decided on organizing the materials into weekly modules and accessing the modules from a home page or landing page, the organization of the course began to flow.

One item that has been rather challenging is the use of the rubric feature. I am a firm believer in the use of rubrics to establish assignment expectations. And the rubrics are fairly easy to build within Canvas. The only problem is that it drives me crazy that I have three areas in each criteria of the rubric, however, the lines will not align. In addition, the rubrics are managed under the outcome section. I would suggest to Canvas that rubrics have a section of their own. Furthermore, you can’t clone a rubric and make minor adjustments to it for a similar assignment. Instead, you must completely re-type it. Last, the student must select the gear button in the upper right hand corner to view the rubric, or you must hyperlink it to its URL, which seems much more difficult than it should be.

I have just about completed 25% of my course and have received feedback from a peer. The feedback was helpful, and I always welcome input from a second opinion. In addition, I did glance through his course and found them to be very similar in structure, so I must be on to something. I have created my own graphics and discovered that the main graphic on the landing page displays a little too dark for some monitors compared to how it appears on mine. Another note is to always check your work on various computers, browsers, and on a variety of settings. And I don’t want to forget to check it on a mobile device. Although, I think I read that Canvas doesn’t fully support the iPad application just yet.

Finally, I provided feedback to another classmate today. The best advice that I could give her was to consider how the participant would navigate through the course and what the most logical manor is without missing any important instructions or assignments. Along with this, is ensuring that you are also considering how the students will learn. For example, what are the pedagogical principles being used in the LMS, so students are successful learners (Suddaby & Milne, 2008). I feel these are truly the first big obstacles that the course designer must tackle after a strong instructional design document has been created.

What have I learned from the process of developing instruction in an LMS? I can conclude that it is very time consuming although once it is completed may look very simple to accomplish.  Perhaps that is what a good instructional designer does for the learner? They make everything very easy to navigate and provide explicit instructions, so the learner has a clear understanding of the course expectations.

Reference

Suddaby, G., & Milne, J. (2008). Coordinated, collaborative and coherent. Campus - Wide Information Systems, 25(2), 114-122. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/1065074081086660