Reflections
 

WEEK 1 – Designing with Learning in Mind

The Sunday before the actual course began, our instructor had an optional LIVE orientation, like an online group chat, which was great. It's a terrific idea and a wonderful alternative for the instructor to get to know the students. I plan to add that to my instructor toolbox to use in the future. 

As a visual learner, I especially appreciated that at the end of the introduction section of this module was a concept map. It really mapped out in a very clear way the major points in the introduction and was very helpful in organizing what I had just read. In looking ahead, I was pleased to note that each module had one.

The required readings were interesting. I liked the different formats. I came to the realization that instructional design has many more facets to it than I had thought. As a result, one definition for it doesn’t seem to be enough. I’m looking forward to exploring more into that as time goes on and forming my own definition.

During the podcast on Defining Instructional Design, I instantly connected with the reference to experiential learning because that was something that I have done in the past and will continue to do. I find it to be very useful. I appreciate that I can now put a term to what essentially is,“learning by experience or by doing”.

Form 3b (New Course Thoughts) that I needed to fill in as one of our activities was extremely helpful in organizing my thoughts and keeping me on track with my course design. I liked needing to delve deeper into things and think more concretely about different aspects of the design process.

Reference:  Manning, S., and Balzer, D. (2007) LTGR Ep. #13 – Defining Instructional Design." Audio blog post. The Learning Times Green Room.

WEEK 2 – Mapping the Future

This module was focused primarily on learning objectives and what that means to us and the course we are designing. I felt like I learned a lot about learning objectives from our readings. Perspectives that I really hadn’t thought about before, which is good because that caused me to look at learning objectives in a different way. One of the concepts we learned about is called alignment, which really resonated with me. I likened it to a slot machine where the goal is for everything to line up and match and when that happens… jackpot!

What I realized after this module is that I prefer the ABCD or CABD way of writing objectives. For me, it’s simple in its design and makes sense when filling in the blanks. However, I still struggle a bit to word it correctly. I think the problem is that I try to put too much information into the objective and it becomes wordy and loses its focus. I also found referring to a list of active verbs often used with writing learning objectives helpful with my own wording. The mastery quiz we took about learning objectives was a good self-assessment. It identified what areas were still unclear for me and needed review.

The next form in the series of forms we were to complete, Form 6 (Course Outline), helped me to organize and structure my course. The task was to come up with modules and group them by theme so that future changes would be easy to do without too much trouble. I needed to also put measurable learning objectives for each. Once I came up with the themes, it was not that difficult to match the objectives with the theme. I can see why it makes sense to do it that way. Not only to make changing things easier, but I felt like it had really helped me to put my thoughts together and sort things out.

WEEK 3 – Designing for Assessment

This week we were given the option to post our discussion as usual by writing it or by presenting it as an audio/video file. I thought it would interesting to try a new method, but once I had written my post, I realized that it would be too long as an audio/video post and didn’t do it. However, I will definitely keep it in mind as something that I would like to utilize in future courses I might design. It's always beneficial to find ways to engage the different learning styles of the students.

The topic for this module was assessment, and I appreciated that we spent a good bit of time on feedback because I believe the two belong together within the learning process. It reinforced for me, the important role formative assessment and feedback play in making the instruction and learning more successful and meaningful to the students. I believe feedback is a valued tool, and when executed correctly it can be extremely effective. Within each of my modules, I plan to provide opportunities for feedback to happen. Those opportunities will be incorporated into the activities making it an integral part of that learning process and not a separate event. This continuous feedback and interaction with the students can work toward establishing a rapport with them, getting to know and understand their strengths, weaknesses and how they learn. It can provide invaluable information that would help me adjust the learning experiences to make them more meaningful. It is crucial for the feedback to mean something to the students, to motivate and empower them to want to make changes and perform better within the learning process.

The forms we needed to fill in this week were Form 6.2 (Course Outline with Assessment) and Form 7 (Learning Process). The first thing I did with Form 6.2 was to put down all my objectives that I had written for Form 6 (Course Outline). Once I did that, I was able to look and see what assessment activity would achieve my objective. As I started filling in the blanks, I realized that I needed to go back to Form 6, change some of my objectives, and tighten up a few others. I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to make those revisions since my objectives from Form 6 were already approved. However, I decided to go ahead and make the changes because they made sense to me for the themes and what I wanted the students to do and learn. As a result, I ended up with fewer objectives, but I feel the learning progression is better as well as the alignment.

WEEK 4 – Active and Engaged Learning

This week was about designing the instruction to keep students motivated and actively engaged in the learning process. I know it kept me actively engaged! It was also about aligning our own course objectives with the activities and assessment. We were doing this by using William Horton’s instructional strategies of Absorb-Do-Connect learning activities. Listed under each category are specific activities and strategies, which were very helpful when I was trying to fit the Absorb-Do-Connect activities within my course. It pushed me think about how I could vary my teaching strategies and activities to meet the needs of more learners and learning styles. Linked to that, from our readings, was the idea of generational differences in learners, which gave some insights that I didn’t have before about that, and is something that I need to be cognizant of in the future.

Using Form 6.3 (Course Outline with Assessment Ideas and Activities), we filled in our objectives and assessments and added activities to the chart following Horton’s model of Absorb-Do-Connect. It was important to make sure all was aligned. While doing this, I realized that I would now need to go back and revise Form 6.2 (Course Outline with Assessment) because of the changes I just made. I was actually glad I needed to do this because it forced me to really focus on my objectives and on what was important for the students to learn. It also helped me to strengthen up my course as well as see what other resources were needed by the instructor and the students.

Reference: Horton, W. (2006). e-Learning by Design (1st ed.). United States: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated.

WEEK 5 – Aligning Instructional Strategies

This week was a creative design week, to convey concepts and goals to our learners. One task was to design either a text or graphic syllabus for our course. The other task was to create learning guides for two of our modules. I found it very interesting to read about syllabi and learning guides. I have always paid attention to the syllabus of a course, but have not really done that with learning guides. Maybe because I didn't understand their value. This module changed my mind about that and made me realize how worthwhile the learning guide can be to both the instructor and students during the learning process. I have to admit that I just glanced at the ones for this course, but I have since gone back and taken a good look at them. In doing so, I was able to self-assess and see what I actually learned and what I should probably reexamine.

For the syllabus, I decided to create the graphic syllabus because I felt that would be the best for my 5^th grade learners. A graphic syllabus does not have to have too many details, which is good for that age group. Keeping everything as simple as possible, would help them focus on what they would be learning and not on questions about the details. It would also serve as a checklist for the students on their learning and something they could refer back to when they are writing their reflections and evaluations about their learning experiences. Although, I have since realized that creating a text syllabus first is a good way to make sense of my graphic syllabus and to know what should be included. It also gives me the flexibility to decide to use just one or both.

As a visual learner, I greatly appreciate the graphic syllabus. Having one for each module of this course has truly helped me to organize the concepts within those modules. I really enjoyed the creative process of putting my graphic syllabus together and was thankful that we did some of the prep work beforehand, which made it easier to construct.

Creating the learning guide was extremely helpful in seeing how everything aligned and came together. I liked that it gave me an organized view from start to finish. By filling in each section, I had the opportunity to reassess and make sure it was how I wanted my course to go. I was able to truly appreciate the significance of the progression of the tasks that we have been doing and how necessary the process of aligning my objectives to the activities/strategies and to the assessments is to the success of learning.

WEEK 6 – Designing Content

There were quite a few things this week that had an impact on my continued design of my course. One of the topics we read about this week, which I feel is extremely crucial in the design process, is the concept of “Chunking” or breaking something big into smaller chunks to make it easier to learn. Research has shown that the brain processes smaller bits of information better than bigger pieces of information. Which made complete sense to me, especially when I looked at how I like to learn things and realized that I automatically try to break things down and chunk them into in ways that make it easier for me to learn and remember. With our courses, we basically started that process earlier with other activities, but this week I felt that I actually achieved it. The progression and steps we have taken to arrive at this point have been exceedingly worthwhile in me being able to do that. It has also made me recognize how much time and effort and editing happens in the design process. I have a completely new, deeper appreciation for successful classes like this one, knowing how much work it took to design.

For the required form for this week, Form 10 (Chunks and Bridges), we were asked to pick two modules from our course and provide introductions to the chunks and transitions between those chunks. While doing that, I realized that even though I didn’t put “Chunking” as a specific objective, it is absolutely a fundamental part of the module. I make a point of introducing my students to the term, “Chunking” so they would become familiar with the terminology and connect it to the concept. By having the students chunk the material themselves, they are developing a good skill, especially since they will be chunking in the future with the other modules.

We also investigated Learning Objects and Learning Object Repositories. The repositories are similar to a one-stop-shop for those ready-made resources to use within a course. It’s good to have a central place to begin searching. We were asked to share a Learning Object with the group that we would be using within our course. However, within the repositories, I was not able to find anything that I felt would fit with my objectives. I decided that I wanted to use a ready-made video, so I searched and found one that would be used as the Absorb activity for one of my objectives. It aligns exceptionally well with the Do and Create activities for that objective. We also read about the need to have a student go from the passive learner to an active learner in order to reinforce the learning, and I feel I have done a good job of doing that in my course.

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WEEK 7 – Designing for Best Practice

I found this week to be very thought provoking. I did a lot of reflecting about my course, my methods of teaching, and my views on instructional design. It was interesting to read about Best Practices or what actually works and how that can be applied when designing instruction. I was happy to be able to get an in-depth look at Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accessibility by taking an exceptional tutorial. It reinforced what I already knew to be true about the importance of incorporating those principles when designing instruction and that I definitely need to think about it for my course now and any future courses that I might design. This topic is something I have always thought about it and I think because my background had me teaching and counseling hearing-impaired students, I am more sensitive to the need for UDL and accessibility. The exciting part is that with all the technology and tools now available, more can be done to make learning accessible to all learners and being flexible and open to new possibilities can make that happen even sooner.

We also looked at different common quality rubrics, which helped me, get a better idea of what I should be including in my course design. I liked going through the different ones seeing which one I felt worked the best for me and was the easiest to work with and apply. Although, what I came to realize was that I really didn’t like one over the other. Each had their redeeming qualities and what I really wanted to do was pick things from each one and then combine those things into a unique rubric just for me.

I really appreciated that final form, Form 11 (Notes about Universal Design, Accessibility, and Best Practices), that we needed to complete. It made me dig deep into my course and contemplate ways to make it more accessible and UDL friendly. While doing that, I happily realized that I had already implemented some of the ways to accomplish this within my course.

The biggest thing I learned while creating my course, is that the instructional design process is always in motion and changing. Sometimes that means the only way to move forward is to go backward and sometimes there are detours along the way. Understanding how this process works and armed with the tools and information I have learned, I believe I am equipped to be a better instructional designer.