Week 3 Blog

The Design Document Process

Creating a design document has always been a challenging task for me.  Having to think through the entirety of a course at the very beginning is a very daunting task.  I want to think of all of the possibilities and set up a successful course but I learned through this process that there is no such thing as a perfect course.  No matter how many times you think and rethink, plan and replan, you will always have something that can be improved.  This process has really hit that home with me.  I sat down and was very deliberate about how I designed my course.  I know I am just learning but I didn't expect to not see some of the things that were suggested by my peers.  It really helps to have an outside set of eyes on something.  Often I would imply something in my design.  I would know what I was talking about but it was not clear to anyone else.

With that start, I had some really good feedback on my Design Document.  There is a sentence in my Summary of Analysis that my peer reviewer pointed out.  He needed some clarification on the statement.  It was something that many teachers that I work with had mentioned to me.  I did not provide enough explanation around the statement for it to make sense to an outside party.  I am in the process of going back and changing that part of my paper.  I am going to include more context around that statement to make sure that anyone reading my design document will be able to understand that part.  That one statement is actually the entire reason for me creating this course.  It is to fill a hole I see in the new hire orientation.  It was really eye-opening to see that I missed the point with that statement when it was the beginning issues that I am trying to address.  

I still need to add more on the constructivist philosophy and how it is used in my course design.  I added more to it after getting my paper back but I still need to add more information.  I am looking into more research and documents on that educational philosophy that can be used to strengthen my paper.  I want to use specific references, mentioned by my peer editor, and then explain those references in my paper.  This will give me a more academic feel to the Design Document.

I really learned a lot during this week's assignments.  It is always good to get another set of eyes on your work, no matter what it is, to make sure you are going down the path that you think you are going down.