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.