Short Course Design 1 Running head: Short Course Design Document

Short Course Design Document Darren Dennstedt University of Colorado at Denver INTE 5200 Designing and Organizing an Online Course

Short Course Design 2 Short Course Design Document

Overview

Students come to school with basic conceptual models of how electricity works. Many of these models are flawed with misconceptions. Misconceptions in science can remain with a student into adulthood if not addressed and corrected. As a result, clear learning objectives about simple circuits were developed at the onset of the design of the online course. The learning objectives developed for the online course took into consideration the current state science standards. Standard 1: Physical Science Students will understand energy comes in many forms such as light, heat, sound, magnetic, chemical, and electric. 1b. Show that electricity in circuits requires a complete loop through which current can pass. 1c. Describe the energy transformation that takes place in electrical circuits where light, heat, sound, and magnetic effects are produced. The desired learning outcomes for students include the following: 1. Students will understand a circuit is a pathway through which electric current flows. 2. Students will understand energy transfers between electric sources and receivers. 3. Students will identify the essential components of an electric circuit and understand the functions. 4. Students will identify materials that are conductors and insulators.

Short Course Design 3 As students progress toward understanding of the learning outcomes several essential questions will be considered. 1. How do we know that energy exists within a system such as in an electrical circuit? 2. How can you get electricity from a source to a receiver? 3. How does electricity flow through a circuit? 4. Can an object complete a circuit? The intended audience is a group of fourth grade students in a public school classroom at Timberline Elementary School. Enrollment of students is currently at 620 students: 76% White, 8% Black, 8% Hispanic, and 7% Asian/Pacific Islander. In 2012, Timberline Elementary School had 15% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch programs. The target audience consists of 28 students with the percentage of male and female students being almost identical: 52% male and 48% female. Five students are on an IEP (Individual Education Plan) and three have a 504 plan. A 504 plan is an individual plan developed for students with special health care needs making accommodations to allow for full participation in school. Understanding the student demographics was instrumental in the design process of the online course. Creating an online blended course that combines traditional face-to-face interactions with online computer activities seemed the logical choice when targeting the intended audience. Opportunities to participate in hands-on classroom activities which are supplemented and reinforced in an online course strengthen student understandings of the learning outcomes.

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Overall Instructional Design Decision

The design of the short course is directly connected to the fourth grade science curriculum taught at Cherry Creek Schools. The course is broken into a three week module that supports concepts taught in class for an electricity and magnetism unit. Often students have difficulty conceptualizing abstract concepts taught in a face-to-face meeting and need additional support and reinforcement of content. Building an online course that supports various learner needs that reviews concepts taught was the intended outcome of the course design. Elementary school students typically need to practice skills numerous times in order to gain mastery. Research suggests science concepts are best taught starting with inquiry questions or stating a problem, developing a plan, conducting an investigation, analyzing the data, and then being exposed to the content to reinforce the concept. Therefore, the design of the online course is structured around completion of hands-on science concepts in class and having content available online to reinforce concepts learned in class. A blended approach with teacher to student face-to-face contact, with a major portion of content delivered online, was the model utilized. Organization of the short course encompassed dividing the three main learning objectives into one week modules. Each learning target is a week-long lesson that builds from the previous week with the learner as the center of the teaching and learning process (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Location 723). The rationale for this design is rooted in the idea that elementary students need time and repeated opportunities to practice skills and synthesize concepts.

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Four Stages of a Course

According to Boettcher (2010), an online course can progress through four stages. Each stage has common themes which include learner responsibilities and behavior; faculty responsibilities and behavior, including the content of the three presences: social, teaching, and cognitive; how content knowledge and resources interact with a learners readiness; and the potential tools for the environment (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Locations 506-509).

Figure 1

Stage 1: Course Beginnings

Stage 2: Early Middle

Stage 3: Late Middle

Stage 4: Closing Weeks

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Course Stages

Stage 1: Course Beginning The first phase of an online course focuses on establishing a social community and getting to know the learners. Introduction of learner backgrounds and an assessment of learner readiness occur during this stage. The development of online resources and the tools for the designed learning experiences are in place (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Locations 526-527), at the beginning of the course. When taking into consideration the course developed for the ILT program was a blended course, most of the first phase has already been established in face-toface meetings. Getting to know the learners and establishing relationships has occurred in the classroom setting and was not embedded into the course shell. Moreover, due to the targeted audience age range, modeling of the tools and course site navigation will occur prior to learners progressing through the course. Although course goals have been purposefully integrated into the shell of the course, review of course expectations and objectives will occur simultaneously with face-to-face classroom instruction. Furthermore, a pre-assessment of student readiness is embedded at the beginning of the developed course. Learners are asked to provide information regarding their background knowledge of electricity and how it affects their daily lives. A scavenger hunt and course timeline have been included asking students to locate goals and expectations for each lesson to help ensure students understand the expectations of the course.

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Stage 2: Early Middle The early middle of an online course consists of learners working through the course shell exploring the content, and interacting with the resources. Building a community and interacting with small teams continues to be fostered. The intention of the course design is to immediately engage students in the concepts of electricity and magnetism to generate excitement. Engaging learners at the onset and early middle of the course is an important goal. Creating activities that will engage and challenge learners while expanding their personal connections to their existing knowledge (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004, pg. 23) occur in the use of simulations, participation in formative assessments, and access to additional resources, and content review. Participants are also expected to answer several challenging inquiry based questions that are directly connected back to the main learning targets. Evidence of learner thinking is documented throughout the first lesson including students making a quick video to support their thinking on how to make a light bulb light with an energy receiver. As the course unfolds, concepts are further explored with the foundation built in the first lesson. Stage 3: Late Middle In the late middle stage of the online course learners are continuing to focus on the content and explore how to build circuits. After exploring basic ideas of how to light a bulb using an energy receiver, now students start to integrate a switch and motor. The learning objective is to understand the difference between a closed and open switch and how electricity flows through a circuit. Students are now familiar with the basic concepts being explored and will participate in building schematic diagrams of a simple circuit. An opportunity to work as a community occurs when learners develop a peer rubric with guidance from the instructor. The peer rubric will be

Short Course Design 8 used to assess individual schematic diagrams created. Opportunities to make corrections to the schematic diagrams will ensue based on the peer feedback. At this stage in the course, the role as a teacher has shifted to the role of facilitator in the online arena allowing me to help individual students who may be struggling with the content and projects. Stage 4: Closing Weeks Stage 4 of an online course focuses on synthesizing the course learning objectives and activities are concluded. The facilitator continues to support learners projects and the course community (Boettcher, & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Location 562). The course designed for the ILT class is a small part of a larger unit being taught on electricity and magnetism, and therefore, is absent of many characteristics that Boettcher describes as the closing elements of an online course. However, each one week module built for the three week course ends with an opportunity for students to reflect and synthesize their learning. The concepts are reviewed using an age appropriate vocabulary game and short formative and or summative assessments for each lesson. Additional work on electricity and magnetism will occur in face-to-face interactions in the classroom culminating with a final summative assessment with completion of the entire unit.

Ten Core Learning Principles

Boettcher (2010) describes ten core learning principles that need to be considered when designing and managing an online course. These principles are intended to help guide the delivery of an online course while taking into consideration the learner and facilitator experiences. Understanding how learners construct meaning and interact with content can

Short Course Design 9 increase the successful delivery of an online course. The following table breaks down each of the ten principles. Table 1 Ten Core Learning Principles
Principle 1 Every structured learning experience has four elements with the learner at the center. Principle 2 Learners bring their own personalized and customized knowledge, skills, and attitudes to the experience. Principle 3 Faculty mentors are the directors of the learning experience. Principle 4 All learners do not need to learn all course content; all learners do need to learn the core concepts. Principle 5 Every learning experience includes the environment or context in which the learner interacts. Principle 6 Every learner has a zone of proximal development that defines the space that a learner is ready to develop into useful knowledge. Principle 7 Concepts are not words but organized and interconnected knowledge clusters. Principle 8 Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes. Principle 9 Everything else being equal, more time on task equals more learning.

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Principle 10 We shape our tools, and our tools shape us.

Principle 1: Every structured learning experience has four elements with the learner at the center. In principle 1 the focus is on the learner and the learning experience. To help guide the learner through the content, a clear set of expectations along with learning outcomes is provided at the onset of each lesson. As the learner progresses through the content, a list of activities to complete is clearly outlined under the learning objectives and a timeline is provided to help learners understand what they will need to accomplish. Several projects are customizable allowing for differentiation of learning. For example, students will have the opportunity to create a YouTube video demonstrating their understanding of a simple circuit. Participation in several simulations and short projects allow learners to test ideas learned in class while synthesizing core concepts and acquiring necessary skills to progress through the unit of study. As the facilitator, a review of what to accomplish on a daily basis for the learner will occur in a synchronous setting or classroom. Principle 2: Learners bring their own personalized and customized knowledge, skills, and attitudes to the experience. Principle 2 targets learner readiness or what knowledge and experiences learners bring to the course. A quick pre-assessment is embedded at the onset of the course asking participants to respond to several questions assessing their background knowledge regarding electricity. The embedded Google Form poses a variety of questions to help tease out science misconceptions learners may have at the onset of the course. The information can then be used to design

Short Course Design 11 experiences to ensure an accurate knowledge structure (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Location 793) or build on what students already know. Knowing what learners bring to the course can allow me as the facilitator to differentiate the course during synchronous meetings and through discussion posts in the LMS. Principle 4: All learners do not need to learn all course content; all learners do need to learn the core concepts. Principle 4 suggests that learners need not learn all the content, but have an understanding of the core concepts. The instructional design of the course on magnetism and electricity takes into consideration this principle as each weekly lesson is an extension of the previous week. Scaffolding occurs between each of the three lessons allowing students to make connections and synthesize understanding. Participants have several embedded opportunities to build circuits that range from a simple circuit to a complex circuit that has a switch. As learners develop expertise in the content experiences, they increasingly direct and customize their learning according to their needs (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Location 845). For example, students can practice making several different circuits in the embedded simulations allowing for further exploration of inquiry based questions. Principle 8: Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes. Principle 8 highlights the need to differentiate instruction and states different instruction is required for different learning outcomes (Boettcher &Conrad, 2010, Kindle Location 944). In other words, its important to offer a variety of opportunities for learners to gain knowledge and the skills necessary to be successful in a course. Using backwards design insures the instructional experiences are designed to develop competency for learners and connect back to the learning objectives. With that said a focus on what objectives learners were to accomplish was developed

Short Course Design 12 along with assessments prior to developing individual activities embedded into the course. These teaching and learning events have been created to support the learning goals. For example, having cooperative group work, synchronous activities, asynchronous activities, and face-to-face sessions will provide differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all learners. Additionally, differentiation for learners will occur as students are able to make revisions to assignments based on feedback from peers. Moreover, learners will be grouped based on ability, meaning low students will be paired up with high students during synchronous classroom activities. Lastly, some choice will be available for various projects like creating a video of a simple circuit allowing students an opportunity to showcase their knowledge. Principle 9: Everything else being equal, more time on task equals more learning. Principle 9 suggests the need to allow more time-on-task, as students spend more time interacting with, creating, and manipulating information and applying concepts and skills, the more facile, accomplished, and confident they will be (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Locations 955-956). The blended learning environment designed allows learners numerous chances for interacting with basic circuit concepts and with peers in a synchronous setting and online asynchronously. Participation in discussions and requiring learners to respond to other learners will develop collaborative skills making a real world connection. Embedded simulations and assigned short projects can help to effectively measure individual performance and engage the learner helping create a diverse experience. Learners are expected to reflect on concepts frequently throughout each lesson in short formative and summative assessments. As each lesson unfolds, learners review concepts taught in the previous lesson reinforcing the understanding of concepts and increasing time spent on core content.

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Ten Best Practices for Beginning Online Teaching

According to Boettcher (2010), to create an effective and efficient (Kindle Locations 1023-1024) online experience for participants she recommends following ten best practices to increase the success of the learning experience for both participants and the facilitator.

Table 2 Ten Best Practices for Beginning Online Teaching Best practice 1 Best practice 2 Best practice 3 Be present at the course site. Create a supportive online course community. Develop a set of explicit expectations for your learners and yourself as to how you will communicate and how much time students should be working on the course each week. Best practice 4 Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences. Best practice 5 Best practice 6 Best practice 7 Use synchronous and asynchronous activities. Ask for informal feedback early in the term. Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections. Best practice 8 Search out and use content resources that are available in digital format if possible.

Short Course Design 14 Best practice 9 Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning. Best practice 10 Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course.

Best Practice 1 Best Practice 1 encompasses the idea that the facilitator be available to the learner or present every day. The practice suggests that learners expect the facilitator of an online course to be available to answer questions or provide feedback and support at all times of the day or when the learner is logged in. Since the course developed is a blended course, learners will have opportunities to build relationships in the face-to-face classroom and continue learning in the evening after school. However, to ensure learners feel a presence by the facilitator, use of the LMS discussion post option will be utilized extensively to communicate expectations to learners and offer learners the ability to process information and ask questions. Additionally, participants will be able to contact the instructor directly through the LMS and discuss issues or post questions in the discussion forum. Coupled with the use of the mentioned tools, students will receive audio and text feedback on assignments completed and questions posed throughout the course. Best Practice 2 Creating a community of learners that feel supported is also a vital component of a successfully conducted online course. Learners need to feel valued and connected to the online community in order for the experience to be positive. To promote a supportive environment for the fourth grade learners a discussion forum will be utilized to allow students to gain assistance

Short Course Design 15 from other learners. Learners will also be divided into cooperative groups in both the face-toface and online environment to promote a community of learners. Best Practice 3 Best practice 3 pinpoints the importance of having clear expectations for learners and the facilitator on how much time should be devoted to communication and completion of online course tasks. Clear expectations of the time commitment will occur in face-to-face meetings with continual modeling of the LMS. In other words, the targeted audience of fourth grade learners will need to be walked through daily course expectations in the face-to-face environment. A quick review of daily expectations and assigned tasks will occur in class prior to the students attempting to complete the tasks at home. Tasks to be completed for the online course are built on the school homework policy for the targeted audience. Typically, students in fourth grade can only be assigned 30-40 minutes of outside homework, and as a result the designed course attempts to adhere to this policy. However, due to the engaging content, learners will most likely spend more time on tasks exploring content and customizing their own learning. Best Practice 4 The use of collaborative groups and individual experiences is an important component of an online course. Embedded opportunities for learners to work through activities in small groups and as individuals have purposely been included in the developed short course. Creating a YouTube video showcasing group knowledge of how to design a simple circuit is an example of how learners will have an opportunity to support each other. Building a peer rubric to assess each other further strengthens the learning community, while small individual project assessments have been developed for each lesson. Learners need a variety of opportunities to synthesize content and problem solve individually and in a group.

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Best Practice 5 The blended course developed incorporates both synchronous and asynchronous activities. Learners will receive some content and solve inquiry-based problems in the face-to-face synchronous classroom. Asynchronous activities will occur when learners are completing tasks that support content in the online course. Limited synchronous opportunities will be available for learners when they are in the online course environment. Designing a peer rubric using a Google Document could feasible result in synchronous collaboration by learners depending on preplanning in face-to-face meetings and or when learners are logged into the course. Best Practice 6 Due to the three week developed short course, the creation of surveys asking for learner feedback was not incorporated in the course. However, as the course unfolds a daily check-in with learners on what is working, problems developed, and general site navigation will occur in order to make changes to the course and foster student success. The targeted digital language learners will need face-to-face time to discuss site and content issues and process their understandings whole group. Best Practice 8 Use of content resources that are available in digital format (Boettcher, 2010, Kindle Location 1190) supports the need for digital language learners to interact with electronic content and be creative. Making use of simulations and tutorials within each designed lesson allows learners time to practice content and stay engaged. Fourth graders need to tinker with and manipulate information; embedded simulations and videos can engage learners allowing them

Short Course Design 17 time to develop their own inquiry-based questions. As a result, learners will perhaps dig deeper into the content searching out answers to their questions. Best Practice 10 Best practice 10 discusses the importance of wrapping up the course with a good closing. Use of other tools besides a final assessment should occur in order to assess learner knowledge. Tools such as a culminating project or presentation can synthesize the core concepts for learners while providing a meaningful experience and understanding of what learners know. The short course designed is a fraction of a larger unit on electricity and magnetism and ends with a short formative assessment. Learners will create a final project in a face-to-face setting at the completion of the unit.

Tools and Technologies

One of many steps in designing an online course is the selection of an LMS. Several course management systems provide adequate support and embedded tools for developing and building a customizable online course. The LMS selected to develop the short course was EDU 2.0 which offers many powerful free features, including an embedded grade book, the ability to set up learner groups, and discussion forums. Having greater flexibility in the design of the course shell and building activities with the learning outcomes, learners needs, and communication tool selection in mind (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004, p. 23) was a central idea. The tools and technologies used within the course developed were purposely selected to focus on the essential (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, Kindle Location 1374) tools needed to

Short Course Design 18 create collaboration among learners and foster understanding of core concepts. These essential tools included the following: Google Docs and Google Forms Collaboration is an important component that can effectively build a community of learners. Throughout the course developed, learners have opportunities to collaborate with each other, such as building a peer rubric to assess each others work. The peer rubric created in a Google Doc allows students to create and share in real time while analyzing the necessary components for an exemplar project. Allowing students to create a rubric releases the teacher from the responsibility of providing a project rubric and gives learners autonomy and accountability for their learning. The more autonomy teachers give to students in terms of negotiating the scope and quality of the content they are creating, the better (Richardson, 2010, Kindle Locations 853-854). Besides using a Google Doc to encourage collaboration, each weekly lesson has a Google Form embedded. Goggle Forms are easily embedded into the course and are efficient in quickly assessing a learners understanding. Simulations Science is innately an inquiry-based hands-on subject. Learners need to develop strong skills in comparing and contrasting events, organizing data, make observations, and to effectively communicate their understanding. Being able to make real-world connections while solving problems is a skill digital language learners must possess. An online course presents some challenges when trying to recreate a hands-on science investigation. To combat the lack of hands-on materials for students to use at home, simulators have been embedded into the course. These simulators allow the participant to manipulate the various components of a circuit to test

Short Course Design 19 hypotheses. Participants can practice skills taught in the face-to-face synchronous classroom at their leisure which in turn can deepen their understanding. The simulators selected needed to meet certain criteria such as, grade level appropriateness, ease of navigation, and the ability for students to share their thinking after completing a task. Many of the simulators allow students to share their thinking as evidence of their understanding. YouTube and Flickr Consideration of visuals is an important design element when developing an online course. Uses of YouTube videos and Flickr images have been incorporated throughout each weekly lesson to help clarify meaning of content in ways text or narration alone cannot (Reynolds, 2010, Kindle Location 1230 of 3575). The effective use of multimedia and visuals can increase the participants understanding of the core concepts. Images that connected back to content ideas were purposely chosen from the creative commons section of Flickr to help create a story for learners. When an image was unavailable that failed to fit the necessary criteria for the project, then Google Draw was utilized, a photo was snapped, or a video was created. Quizlet Quizlet is a free Web 2.0 tool that is utilized at the end of each weekly lesson. Basically, Quizlet is a flashcard maker that allows learners to review key vocabulary by combining visuals with text and offering interactive games. As each weekly lesson designed for the short course wraps up, students are expected to review and practice the key academic vocabulary. Exposure to the essential academic vocabulary words for each lesson can increase language development, support content knowledge, and allow learners to connect overarching ideas.

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Learner Assessment More than ever teachers are held accountable for student growth and achievement. The importance of understanding data and creating common assessments that align to common core standards are imperative. As a result, common assessments were designed prior to developing the short course with the purpose of embedding the standards into each assessment. Purposely working backwards from the assessment to the content while taking into consideration the learning objectives, can increase the connections for learners to the core concepts. Each weekly lesson designed for the short course has short formative assessments embedded to measure student understanding and to gauge student misconceptions. Formative assessments were designed using Google Forms which easily allow the collection of data. Open ended critical thinking questions along with general short answer questions were constructed in the embedded Google Forms. These formative assessments will be used to assess student understandings and misconceptions of circuits, conductors, and insulators. Additionally, students will practice creating circuits through online simulators and record working circuits in a discussion forum, printed artifacts, and through the creation of a video. A peer-designed rubric will be used to analyze other group members circuit drawings and provide constructive feedback on the synthesis of the learning objective. Opportunities for learners to be involved in their own assessment such as the peer rubric allow for relevant and meaningful evaluation. These authentic performance based assessments will be used to give learners feedback on how well they understand the information, and on what they need to improve.

Short Course Design 21 Lastly, a summative quiz is embedded in the week 3 lesson that encompasses all the learning objectives for the short course. The assessment will focus on whether the stated objectives of the course have been meet and whether the students have been engaged in the learning process (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004, p. 34).

Works Cited Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R.-M. (2010). The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Collison, G., Elbaum, B., Haavind, S., & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating Online Learning Effective Strategies for Moderators. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing. Conrad, R.-M., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the Online Learner. San Francisco: JosseyBass. Reynolds, G. (2010). Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations. Berkeley: New Riders. Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.