View 4 | Designing in Action - MDDE 604

Overview

This VIEW displays my use of Moodle to create an online version of a course I have taught face-to-face for several years. This is the second VIEW I've created with the goal of demonstrating my program interest in curriculum design.

In writing this assignment, I believe I have touched upon the following MDE competencies:

1. Problem Solving, Analysis, & Decision Making

1.1. Recognize problems.
1.2. Define the aspects of problems.
1.5. Evaluate the relevance of information for a given situation.
1.6. Compare alternatives.
1.7. Make reasoned arguments leading to rational solutions.
1.8. Justify these solutions.
1.9. Present them to others.
1.11. Adapt solutions to suit varied situations.

2. Instructional Design & Development

2.2. Apply systems theory and systems analysis techniques to instructional design situations in distance education.
2.3. Describe and apply a range of learning and motivational theories to instructional design situations in distance education.
2.5. Develop instructional products or learning objects in distance education.
2.7. Apply instructional design principles and models in distance education, in your workplace, or in other instructional contexts.

3. Communication Technologies and Networking

3.1. Use a variety of communication and document sharing tools to create, reflect, and communicate with others.
3.3. Justify the applications of these technologies in real-life contexts on the basis of theory and research.
3.5. Apply these technologies in distance education and in real-life instructional contexts.

4. Communication & Interpersonal Skills

4.1. Write clearly and in a style appropriate to purpose (e.g. assignments, essays, published documents, and theses).
4.3. Justify and defend your ideas orally and in writing in meetings, forums, seminars, exams and other contexts.
4.4. Support the learning of others when involved in teaching, mentoring, moderating, or demonstration activities.
4.5. Participate effectively in collaborative group activities.
4.7. Work cooperatively with diverse groups and individuals both within the university and/or in the workplace.
4.8. Organize, and convey your ideas effectively through a range of communication skills and work collaboratively and in teams.

6. Management, Organization and Leadership

6.5. Manage workload, other commitments, and information needs within time and structural constraints (in both personal and team management situations).

Reflection on Competencies

This project required a lot of work. Primarily, outlining the idea for my course, then creating the content, including the instructional materials, the quizzes and assignments, and the graphics. It is the culmination of dozens of hours of writing and creating.

The proposal itself meant identifying learning goals, types of learning involved, objectives, instructional strategies and assessment strategies (2.2, 2.3). That initial work was a fair bit of reflection and writing (4.1). Then came the need to start creating content. Of course, some of this content came from materials I'd created over the years that I'd taught the course at my current job, but a lot of those materials still had to be adjusted or re-thought for the Moodle format. As I was taking this course alongside another (MDDE 614), I had to manage my time carefully (6.5).

What's more, the process wasn't as straightforward as one might imagine. I had to whittle down 18 weeks of material into what was suppose to be 3 hours or so of instruction. That meant carefully considering the process of TEM 4 writing and deciding what would and wouldn't be absolutely necessary to do it. A lot of important information was deemed 'not important enough', and simply didn't make the cut (1.1, 1.2, 1.5 – 1.7, 1.11). Likewise, I had to decide whether to incorporate the suggested changes I received from my student-reviewer. What's more, I had to offer suggested changes in return, and this required a fair bit of tact, so as to be useful while remain polite and constructive (4.4, 4.5, 4.7, 4.8). Through the use of the right communication tools, I believe we both found the experience rewarding (1.8, 1.9, 3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 4.3).

Overall, I feel I met my goal of creating a course that is useful, interactive, differentiated, accessible to its target audience, and supportive. Its usefulness lied in the fact that the TEM 4 exam was a real-world examination that all my writing students eventually faced, and the course as outlined offered one possible way of passing the writing component of the exam. Meanwhile, the interaction I hoped for was achieved through the use of forums, and the differentiation was offered through the use of outside content for aide and the use of further topics for practice. Students could therefore access the course with a wide range on incoming competencies. Finally, the supportive aspect of the course was offered both through the interaction with peers and the required feedback process, as well as through the use of positive language and reassuring advice throughout. All in all, I feel the result was an excellent course (2.5, 2.7).