ONTL 7101 Designing Online Courses
Final Blog
Barbara J.
Anderson 8-6-2015
I have had a difficult time with the blogs that we have been asked to
write so far in the ONTL courses 6101, 6102, and 7101. It has always been tedious for me to go
through each lesson folder that I had set up, write about the objectives, and
how I had accomplished them. I have
always found it to be a very good review and reflection process. However, ONTL now feels different! So much theory has been put into practice
this term that I feel more confident in my understanding and application of the
course and learning objectives as well as the knowledge gained.
This course has been all about how to design good online courses for
students. Chickering and Gamson (1987)
presented seven important principles for good practice in undergraduate
education. Although they were not
developed specifically for use in online courses, the principles could be
adapted for use in online classes. As
online courses are designed we should always consider the importance of and be
guided by student-faculty interaction, student-student interaction, active
learning, prompt feedback, time on task, higher expectations, and to respect
diversity in student ability and learning styles. Having many years of college-level teaching
experience has assisted me in understanding these principles and perspectives
from which to design the revision of my online non-majors Biology 1100 course.
Lesson 1 introduced design in general. Course Objective #3 (CO #3) referred to
interactions to build the online community for greater success, persistence,
and retention. This was accomplished
with discussion board posts and responses about our chosen topic for design, a
Collaborate session with an icebreaker, and discussion board posts with our
introductions. Although our class is
very small this term with four students these activities helped us to build a
better classroom community. Differences
between traditional and online classes were explored. In online classes the instructor is more of a
guide whereby students must become independent learners. This student-centered focus must change the
perspective about how an instructor designs the course. For an online course design, the directions
must be more complete and more clearly written, interaction of various types
must be built in to promote community, netiquette must be presented and
practiced, feedback and communication on many levels is more critical to
prevent isolation, and the course must be edited often by constantly checking
for changes in online links, etc.
We reviewed the “Seven Principles” so that we can apply them as we move
forward in the design of our course.
Since we peer reviewed classmate’s work at many points during the design
process, methods of giving and receiving feedback were explored. When giving feedback you should be
honest. If a negative criticism is given
a constructive solution should also be given so that improvement can
occur. When receiving criticism consider
negative feedback as a way to improve your design and don’t get upset. Feedback should also give positive comments
about things done well to promote motivation.
For my design project I chose a revision of the online non-majors
biology course that I teach. The goals
were to make changes for building community with discussion and group work, to
include multimedia, improve the level of lab activities, to use a variety of
learning activities to accommodate different learning styles, and to consider
accessibility issues.
Lesson 2 was our introduction to the design process. Designing the online course requires more
attention to detail, subject matter, types of students, available technology,
strategy to promote active learning, interaction to build community, etc. One objective for the lesson was to decide on
my mode of delivery which will be fully online like the existing course. My second objective was to write the course
objectives for my revision project. All
objectives whether at the course or lesson level must be written with active
verbs so that the task can be measured.
Bloom’s taxonomy (Anonymous, nd) includes a list of useable verbs for
constructing objectives from the knowledge level of learning (1st
level) through evaluation and synthesis (levels 5 and 6). For example Bio 1100 CO #4 asks students to
recognize the stages and importance for mitosis and meiosis, while CO #6 asks
students to solve various types of genetics problems using Punnett squares, and
CO #11 asks students to evaluate contemporary global issues. Course design always begins with objectives
and everything about course design including assessment, content, and
interaction must align with the objectives so students will be successful in
completing the outcomes. The third
lesson objective required the design to split course content into units of
study called lessons or modules. Lesson
1 will be an orientation to the course, the next 10 lessons (#2-10) will be
biology content (intro to biology, cells, cell division, genetics a, genetics
b, evolution, behavior, populations, ecology, environmental issues), and the
last lesson # 12 will be wrap-up and closure.
The culmination of lesson 2 was the Course Overview section of the paper
which was peer reviewed before submission.
Lesson 3 concerns itself with non-learner and learner issues and
how they may impact design. CO #1 and LO
#2 (from ONTL 7101) refer to the considerations of non-learner (NL) issues for
course design. NL issues are not
directly related to students and are often not under the direct control of the
designer, but can still cause an impact on course design. For my course design I found several NL
issues that I needed to consider. These
included text changes every three years (so that most assignments and learner
materials needed to be edited and updated), a full-time instructor needs to
monitor these changes and mentor other instructors who teach the class (for
consistency), and the length of the term varies (from 15/16 to 8 weeks in
length so that modifications might need to be made in the complexity of
assignments although all of the same objectives must be met).
Learner issues (CO #1 and LO #1) are directly related to students who
can impact design. Although
prerequisites like math skills are tested, sometimes students still have issues
so remediation may need to be made available early in the course. Knowing who your students are in terms of
background is important. For example, if
many of your students have family and work responsibilities you might need to
allow additional flexibility in your course design for assignment due
dates. If you find out that your
students lack necessary technical skills you should make technical support
available to them. In addition, students
use a variety of learning styles (CO #2, LO #3) such as visual, read-write,
auditory, and kinesthetic to accomplish their learning goals. The designer needs to vary the strategies (LO
#4) for achieving learning. For example,
when choosing content or activities to engage students they should not all be
the same learning style. A variety of
methods such as audio, transcripts, video, and hands-on labs should be included
so students can be successful in using their best learning style for doing
classwork. Accessibility must also be
considered so that all students have access to the entire course. For example the student with auditory issues
should have written transcripts available and the student who is visually
impaired should be able to use closed-captioned videos and/or a screen reader
for print material. Both NL and L issues
are important to consider early in the design process so their impact will be
minimal to allow student success.
Lesson 4 concerns itself with assessment whereby both the student
and instructor can determine progress and knowledge levels. A variety of assessment strategies
should be utilized to allow students
with different learning styles to be successful. Assessments are determined early in design
before content or activities and must always align to the objectives. Feedback from assessment is critical for both
student progress and design modification that might need to be made by the
instructor. Assessments can be diagnostic,
formative, or summative. For my course
diagnostic testing is done before the course starts for reading and math skills
to determine readiness. Remediation in
skills may be necessary before enrollment is allowed. CO #8 and LO #1 and 2 address assessment
strategies. Any assessment strategies
used must align with the learning objectives (LO #2). Formative assessment occurs while the
learning is in progress like discussion board posts and responses, drafts of
lab design, reports, or papers, or Learning Curve (student specific questions
from text publisher). Summative
assessment occurs after the learning process is complete to determine objective
mastery such as lesson quizzes, final draft of lab design/experiment/Capstone
project paper, or objective midterm/final test.
When designing assessments authentic examples that will allow the
student to incorporate their personal knowledge and experience is valuable in
the learning process (CO #9, LO #3). In
Biology 1100 the design and execution of the experiment on pollution or the
Capstone project on predator-prey may allow students to bring personal
experience to the assessment.
Rubrics are essential to assessment (LO #4). Rubrics are grading schemes that allow the
student to know about assessment expectations and grading criteria. The use of rubrics allow fairness and
consistency in grading and feedback.
Lessons 5-7 involved the actual design for three lessons for Biology
1100, writing for the design worksheets and paper sections, and peer review for
each step in the process. I chose the
following three lessons for my design process:
Lesson 1 – Orientation, Lesson 7 – Evolution, and Lesson 9 –
Populations. In Lesson 5 lesson
level learning objectives were written and content resources were chosen. Lesson objectives were written (LO #1) for
each of the three lessons to support course objectives (content lessons) using
active measureable verbs. Lesson 1
includes non-content but required orientation/background information. An example of an objective from Lesson 1 (LO
#2) is: Identify the characteristics
needed by an online learning student.
Lessons 7 and 9 include actual biology content. An example of a learning objective from
Lesson 7 (LO #3) is : Illustrate an
example of natural selection leading to adaptation to the environment and from
Lesson 9 (LO #5): Compare and contrast
density-independent and density-dependent population regulation methods with
examples.
After lesson objectives were written a variety of content resources (CO
#5) were selected that will allow students to “learn what they need to know” so
that they are successful in mastering knowledge. Although Lesson 1 does not contain actual
biology content, orientation materials must be made available so that students
have a sound foundation from which to start the course. The course syllabus/orientation/calendar must
be clear and complete “course guides” and should include the following
information: objectives, lesson topics,
schedule/calendar, assignments/assessments, grading policy and scale, course
policies such as participation in discussion/groups and netiquette, academic
honesty, accessibility, links to academic (like registration) and student (like
counseling and technical support) support, instructor contact information
,etc. An initial lecturette should
include an overview of course structure and policy. A Collaborate session should be planned for
building community using an icebreaker and to overview the course. A variety of content styles (visual,
read-write, auditory, and kinesthetic) should be included such as electronic
articles, videos, transcripts, discussion board, etc for the topics of online
orientation, netiquette, online learner characteristics, how to use Collaborate
or Blackboard, etc.
Content resources were also selected (LO #3) for lessons 7 on evolution
and 9 on populations. For Lesson 7 I
selected several resources to support LO #3 on natural selection: text, evolution website, video Evolution of the Peppered Moth, and video
Natural Selection and the Rock Pocket
Mouse. For Lesson 9 the following
content resources on population regulation support LO #5: text, website on Population Characteristics,
video Density-Independent Limiting
Factors, and video Density-Dependent
Limiting Factors.
It is not enough just to present content resources. The designer must always remember that
interaction is critical to learning. A
variety of strategies should be used to allow students to interact with the
content so that they are actively engaged which leads to increased levels of
deeper learning and therefore increased mastery of objectives. Interaction could involve student-content,
student-student, or student-instructor.
All promote active engagement to increase learning (LO #3). The focus of Lesson 6 is the
interaction between the student and content resources (CO #5 and LO #2) which
result in learning activities. If
learning activities actively engage students with content, learning will be
deeper, long lasting, and more meaningful.
For example in Lesson 7 on evolution students interact with the content
of the video Natural Selection and the
Rock Pocket Mouse by completing a worksheet as they watch the video and
participate in an interactive lab called Darwinian
Snails where they take on the role of the predator searching for easy to
catch prey based on adaptations and natural selection. In Lesson 9 on populations students interact
with content on two videos on limiting factors by working on Too Many Deer! (data analysis, web
search for solutions, group work, discussion board), Isle Royale which is an
interactive lab on predator-prey, and entries in a student journal for
population regulation. These
student-content interactions help students to understand and apply the content
on a deeper level and provide tools for showing mastery of the learning
objectives.
When developing learning activities the designer must consider how much
work a student is able to do with other responsibilities in a week’s time for a
lesson (LO #3). I tend to get so excited
planning activities that I make the workload too heavy. In both Lessons 7 and 9 I changed some group
work and substituted individual student journal work and moved some required
resources to optional resources to lighten the workload. Activities can be either individual or group
focused. When using collaborative/group
projects group background information should be integrated into the content
resources. Productive group work
requires: clear and complete directions,
group structure, procedures, resources, enough time for work and completion,
and choosing group members.
Lesson 7 focused on both student-student and student-instructor
interaction. These two interactions are
critical to building the online community so that students persist, are
motivated, have support, and are able to achieve deeper levels of
learning. CO #7 and LO #1 indicate the
importance of student-student interaction to the online learning experience. An example of this would be discussion board
posts and responses and the activity Too
Many Deer! from Lesson 9 where students work in a small group to collect
data about deer populations, conduct a web search to find solutions, and then
post their best solutions to the discussion board.
Student-instructor interaction and instructor presence are also
important for building the online community (CO #6 and LO #4). Instructor interaction can be one-many or
one-one. Examples of one-many (to a
group of students, public) could include:
class announcements, answers on the course question discussion thread,
and responses on the discussion board to refocus the discussion. Examples of one-one (to single student,
private) include: emails and grading of
assignments to provide feedback. The
instructor needs to use one-many as much as is appropriate to help the
instructor workload be manageable.
Interaction activities that involve applying background/life experiences
(CO #9) help in making for greater interaction and more memorable learning. Also as part of this lesson decisions were
made as to which assignment would be submitted for grading like the worksheet
for Natural Selection and the Rock Pocket
Mouse video in Lesson 7 (LO #2) and to check that content assessments and
objectives were aligned (LO #3).
With the basic design and the paper for Biology 1100 online complete for
peer review Lesson 8 turned its attention to quality review. To maintain high quality standards and
improve online courses they should undergo regular periodic review using a
system of standards that describe exemplary courses (CO #10, LO #1) such as QM
Standards rubric (Anonymous, 2011). The
rubric outlines best practices for online courses and allows their application
in this review process (LO #2).
Standards for evaluating an exemplary course like ONTL 7101 includes
reviewing: course overview and
introduction, learning objectives and competencies, assessment, instructional
materials, learner interaction and engagement, course technology, learner support,
and accessibility. We practiced using
this rubric by evaluating ONTL 7101. The
exercise was tedious, but worth the practice.
In Lesson 9 we reviewed the course design and paper for a
classmate and did a QM Review. Feedback
that I received from my reviewer was valuable and for the most part was
incorporated before submitting my final edition of design worksheets and design
paper. For Lessons 10 and 11 I am
now finishing up class with my final blog, portfolio additions, and class
survey with final comments.
I feel that this class has been the most challenging of the three so far
because of the need for the application of concepts, knowledge, and
practice. I especially feel that our
peer review process built a strong online community and was instrumental in
improving our course design and paper. I
appreciate designing and writing in steps rather than writing all of this
design in one step at the end. This
class has been very rewarding in that I can see that I have learned the basics
for being a successful designer of exciting online classes.
References
Anonymous. (2011). Quality matters rubric standards 2011-2013
edition with assigned point values
(online) retrieved August 6,
2015
Chickory, A. and Z. Gamson. (2007). Seven principles for good practice in
undergraduate education (online) retrieved August 5, 2015
