Week 13 Blog

After a learning curve that was based in the new Learning Management System (LMS), I have pretty much completed my course.  I did enjoy the challenge of having to learn a new LMS and how to work inside that system.  I have allowed me to really use an LMS to create a course and see the positives and negatives of having that type of structure to use.  It has really made some tasks that I struggle with extremely easy, like online discussions, and made some more difficult, like giving students some freedom in how they complete assignments.  This can still be done but takes some more planning than the less structured digital assignment platform, Google Classroom.  In a blended learning environment, a true LMS might be a bit much for the teachers that I serve.  In a totally online environment, it works well.  The course that I am designing, it a totally online course that uses the LMS in a variety of different ways.  It works for that type of design really well. 

The implementation discussion will start next semester.  I plan on presenting the course at a meeting before the winter break.  I want to try to roll this out to a select group of first-year PISD teachers this spring so they can help refine the course.  New hires start their technology orientation sometime during March.  If we are going to use the course, I would like it to be ready for the first teachers that complete their technology orientation. 

Week 11 Blog

I was able to sit down and get the modules completed this week.  I am still developing the course evaluations right because that feedback is important to set up the refining of the course that will happen once it is launched.  I was a good bit behind the development.  I wanted to be completed a bit earlier.  I had to rethink some of the assignments to fit in the Canvas learning management system.  Once I got a good handle on how I could structure the courses and looked at some the UNT courses that I have access to, I was able to understand the structure a bit better.  There are still some things that I would like to tweak as far as how I structure the course but I am not sure how I would make the changes.  I might add a test module and try some different ways to display the content.  I know as a learner how I like the modules structured but I am not the only learning type.  I am thinking about creating these sample modules and having some colleagues and my high school students look at the structure to see what they think.  It never hurts to get as many outside opinions as I can. 

The biggest challenge I have faced is the learning curve for Canvas.  It is structured in a specific way and gives you certain page types that you can use for your development.  That structure is great to help get your content to learners in a certain way, I just had to think inside that structure instead of delivering the content in the best of multiple platforms.  I have learned that all projects will have some troubles on the way.  It does not matter if you are working on something that you have done many times before, you never know what will happen during your development.  You could run into some outside work issues that will take up your time and energy.  Those issues must be dealt with and you must complete your work.  I had that issue and found that focus has been difficult to maintain.  I have had to work through that to keep developing this course and getting it completed. 

I feel my strengths are in setting up a linear course.  My thinking is very linear and it moves from one step to the next.  I know that I can work through that type of course and set it up properly.  I need to work on staying on my deadlines and working through any adversity.  I have been too easily distracted and had to really focus on completing this when I should have developed it at a more deliberate pace. 

I have really enjoyed setting up the course and I hope to keep developing it for the rest of this semester to get something set up that will be useful and that my district can adapt to help all of the new hires we have to add each year to keep up with our growth.

Week 10 Blog

Designing this course has taken me more time than I expected, but doesn't every project.  I am really having to think about the way I want many of these tasks to work.  A lot of the course is turning out to be the dissemination of information and very little student interaction or creation.  I do not like that.  I am having to go back in and put a bit of a twist on the parts that are informational and try to move some of the creation tasks in between.  I am thinking of adding in some modules to break it up and give the learners some more skills in G Suite for Education.  The skills will be very basic but they could potentially help make the beginning of the year much more simple.  I am probably going to add in a Google Forms module to help with any early data gathering or quizzes the teachers might want to create. 

I will be able to meet my deadline.  I really enjoy the task of tweaking the modules to engage the learners more.  I am hoping that my tinkering does not take me down too many more rabbit holes and I can really make some decisions to complete the modules.  It seems that as soon as I sit down with an idea, something comes up that takes me down a design decision hole.

I have been talking about this course to some of my superiors at my district.  They are open to the idea of trying it out with some sample teachers to see if they think it would be useful.  If so, it might be something that we roll out on a much larger basis.  Even if that does not happen, I am going to get some feedback from some teachers that would be willing to help me refine the course for the sake of my education.  I really look forward to hearing the feedback from people taking the course as learners.

Week 8 Blog

Working on this project has been an interesting process.  During my work on this project, it has been really eye-opening to the design process.  It has taken a very specific pace.  I am trying to keep up with the pace set by the course but it has been difficult to keep up.  This is because of other commitments.  The regular corporate timeline for a project like this is 3 weeks.  I am guessing that is from start to completion.  I see that timeline working but at a quick pace.  I could see one week of work taking the time to get the design document right so the first part of the assignment is really set up properly.  If this document is not correct, then the course is going to be wrong from the start.  A week to really design a good course design document would really take an attention to detail and the ability to have someone there to review and edit the document to make sure all of the possibilities are set up and all of the objects are set up towards the goal of the course.

The second part of the process would be building the course.  This part would take the most time and take the most discipline.  It can take some time to gather all of the information, resources, assignments, and media.  This task could take a while if all of the things are not already in one location.  Having to go out and find all of the resources for my course can take some time.  I know what I want each module to do but I do not know where the material is located.  I am trying to use already created resources but I might have to make some.  That is the issue that I can see in hitting the 3-week deadline.  When designing a course like this, it is important to get some feedback from other so you would need to be done with building the course in time to get a review or two.  Time would also need to be there to make changes based on the feedback that you have done.

The corporate timeline is one that can be done but would really take some focus to get all of the parts done with enough time to properly create it.  But if this was your job, and you spent your work days creating, this can be done.  It would be interesting to try to keep up with that timeline and see if that was something that could be followed.

Week 7 Post

Working inside a Learning Management System has been different than just working to create digital assignments.  Designing a course inside that system has changed the way I am approaching this course.  It took about a week to really understand the way Canvas worked and how I can create the assignment types inside it that are needed.  The LMS has given me some structure to my assignments.  It has given me an easy way to do create some of the environments like discussions that are more difficult in other environments.  It also gives an easy structure to hold all the documents in one place and allow them to open up as they are completed.  These structures are helping give the course a nice flow from one module to another. 

There have been some challenges as well.  The structures are something that is different than I am familiar with using.  This has caused some tasks to take different forms than I was originally thinking.  This mainly comes from the way the instructions are used in this platform. It works best to explain the entire module in one document and then move through the work than explain each assignment individually.  This is different but it does allow the educator to help explain the learning process to the learner and that allows the entire module to be seen as a unit. Each assignment is part of the unit and adds to the overall learning goal for that module.

I am starting to look through my feedback.  I am going to take into account what was said as I build the rest of my course.  It is always good to get an outside set of eyes on something that I am creating.  I tend to overlook things that are missing.  I read in the things that are supposed to be there but are left out.

Overall building the first part of my course has been challenging.  I enjoy learning a new environment to use and I have almost started thinking in the Canvas mode to create assignments.  I am looking forward to creating the rest of my course.

Week 6 Blog

Learning a Learning Management System (LMS) can be challenging.  In my current role, I take the official stance of the district and do not prefer and LMS.  The total of my experience with any LMS has been through UNT’s program.  During my two years in the program, I have used Blackboard and Canvas from the student side.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages but they seem rather strong. 
Learning to use an LMS is a challenging task.  You have to really think inside the flow of the LMS to set up your course for your learners to follow easily.  I am accustomed to working in an online learning system but nothing that really organizes your content like a LMS.  I really enjoy the different and the organization of a LMS.  It helps to organize the information in a better way than just using a website to give the student their assignments.  From an instructor point of view, it helps in designing the course because there are distinct modules.  This allows the course designer to set up distinct learning breaks.  These breaks can serve any function that you want them to service but the distinct breaks are there. 
This has also been a challenge.  It seems that each module is not complete even when I add all of the information that I need.  They feel like I am not allowing the student to complete the module with all of the information they need.  This is where the course evaluation can help to develop the course.  I can use the learners that complete my course to help refine it.  A good designer is never done with their course.  They are always looking to change things that need to be changed to better help their students.  This is a process that I am not familiar with this process but it is the way to create a good course. 

Week 4 Blog

Empathic Design is something that I have not heard about until looking at the list of designs this week.  It is interesting because empathy is a great way to create relationships with learners and learners tend to learn better from an educator in which they have a good relationship.  By starting the design with what would benefit the learner as far as places to start and what to include is an interesting idea.  This is mainly a corporate design technique.  That would explain why a K-12 educator is not familiar with something like this.  Lenoard and Rayport set out five steps in how to approach this design type (1997).  These five steps are observe, collect data, reflect and analyze, brainstorm, and prototype.  These steps are set up to assess what your learners know, where they are in learning, and what you need to teach to get them the knowledge they need with the minimal about of time.  That is the empathy part, think about your learner and set up learning for them from their perspective.  The models used in K-12 education takes some prior knowledge into account but teaches all aspects of the lesson not just what the learners need to know.  In a classroom, there could be a wide difference in what learners walk into the classroom knowledge and since the educators are responsible for teaching all parts of the lesson, they design lessons to teach all parts that need to be learned.  That is the biggest difference.  This model is something that would work really well in corporate settings.  By designing learning like this, it can help create learning that will hit the mark with people that must complete modules like this in addition to their regular job.  Corporate learning is something that happens to employees that are usually added to their normal job.  Starting design from their perspective could help create some very effective learning.  These instructional designs like this are the results of putting different design theories into practice.  To get the Empathic Design, a designer looks at the theoretical model and then set up an instructional design model from that theory.  These design models are what the instruction follows and that is what the impacts the learner.  The theory behind the learning is what sets up the model but it is the model that sets up the learning.

Leonard, D. & Rayport, J. (1997). Spark Innovation Through Empathic Design. Harvard Business Review November - December 1997.