Week 7

Utilizing tools that are readily available reduces the amount of work that you have
to do. Since I have been playing around with instructional design, I have often looked at
ways to reduce my workload (stress level). They are a lot of great resources out there to
help me design more efficiently utilizing the most current methods available. This week,
we did activities related to universal design. I was thinking that UDL and ADA
compliance were one and the same. After reviewing the reading and doing the course
review utilizing the provided rubric, I realized the differences. UDL focuses on
accessibility for learning and ADA focuses on access to the learning. We completed a
questionnaire related to UDL, Accessibility, and Best Practices. These are my
responses to the following question:

**List and describe briefly 5 places in your course design that you can
deliberately incorporate principles of universal design and accessibility:

1. Videos/Audio add closed-captioning [With these, I can ensure if I have
someone who is vision or hearing impaired, they can still access the content.]

2. Reduce the amount of graphics [Utilizing this technique will help individuals
who have less internet access
capabilities (slow speeds, dial-up, etc.) access my site.

3. Select viewable colors/fonts. [For screen readers, this would provide better
accessibility]

4. Test my site with a 508 accessible testing website. [You can plug your url into
either on of these tools to assess its
accessibility]


http://wave.webaim.org/

www.powermapper.com


5. Adding descriptive text to my graphics/pictures [Utilizing a resource like WEB
AIM, (Web accessibility in mind) to help me in making my graphics and pictures
comply with universal design protocols. I plan on implementing these practices in
all my future eLearning design processes.

Reference

** http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html



Week 6

The chunking activity was a little challenging. My main concerns were having too
much information or a lack of connection between the Intro, chunk, and transition. I
reviewed the reading several times and I did a little research on my own just to make
sure that I understood what was expected.

This week was a little easier but no less challenging. I was reading as much
information as I could related to chunking. I like the concept but it shatters the 50
minutes of instruction and 10 minute breaks that I have been imposing on my students
and serving in all my years of learning. Doing the chunking activity has pointed out
things that Im not doing effectively in my class. I need to take another look at my
facilitator guide. Just from the chunking activity, I do a poor job of transitioning. I do an
overview of how the modules connect, but I lack the reinforcement that a good transition
provides. Not only that I need to figure out a way to further break down that mystical 50
minutes of instruction rule. Applying chunking will be a great start.

The Ready Made Content discussion was very enlightening this week. There
were great responses in regards to effectively utilizing it. Most of my classmates shared
my thoughts in regards to advantages and disadvantages. I though the key takeaway
was the importance of making sure that the RMC is relevant to what you are teaching.
To further expound on that, dont be afraid to add to the RMC based on your individual
knowledge of the topic and of your students.


Week 5

This module was a little stressful. I went back and forth trying to determine how
much information to include in my syllabus. I didnt want to put useless information in
my syllabus by trying to be too thorough. The Learning Guides were equally
challenging. How much information do I put in it to make an effective tool for the student
and not make it about me? These activities really made me think critically in regards to
what I would want to see in a syllabus or learning guide. I guess my main takeaway
after the design process is over is trying to make the information applicable to and
understandable by my students. They really need to know what Im trying to teach them
and not how I arrived at the design.

There was a discussion post related to the use of graphics and colors in our
design schema. This article, Color Meanings In Design, was very interesting. According
to Jo (n.d.), Every color creates an emotional reaction in people. These reactions will
be based on culture but by far and large the reactions they create are similar. There
was another article, The Colours in Cultures, that displayed a really detailed infographic
displaying the affect that colors have on different cultures.

I enjoy seeing graphics and colors. I believe they give a presentation or a class
that attention getting energy that is required to enable students to really absorb and
Connect with the materials. Going back to not making it about my course design, I was
more than a little concerned about accessibility issues. How do I make sure that all my
online learners have the ability to absorb and Connect with my content? We will be
receiving additional techniques and tips in module in regards to accessibility.

Reference

Jo, K. (n.d.). Color meanings in design. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from:

http://designyoutrust.com/2012/11/color-meanings-in-design-infographic/

McCandless, D. (n.d.). Colours in culture. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from:

http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2353_infographic_w969.png


Week 4

This week we looked at alignment and the importance of ensuring that our
objectives were accurately conveying what it is that we wanted our students to learn.
For the activity, I found my self rewriting a lot of the Do Activities because, to me, they
just didnt seem like they were steering the students to where I wanted them to go. The
relationship between the three activities can easily cross over into each other. I reread
Hortons book especially the chapters related to absorb-do-connect.

The discussion this week brought up some interesting topics related
engagement, discussion board content, and teaching across generations. For me, the
key thing that I would want my students to do is participate in the discussion. I want to
encourage without forcing them to think critically. I also really want to tap that inner
knowledge that they bring to my class. I think for any discussion group, you would have
to keep on track as much as possible. Let the conversation flow. My key thing that I
would be most concerned with in teaching across generations is to make sure that I
dont bore my techies or loose my less technical students. Hopefully I could address
this possible issue before the class starts. Ideally it would be great to have tech tutors
work along side my students who are not as tech savvy.

Week 3

This week we started to apply assessment ideas to our learning objectives,
hence the weeks topic, Designing for Assessment. I understand the importance of
creating a variety of assessment ideas to check my students understanding of the topic.
I tried to stay away from the standard quiz/exam type assessment. Application is a little
more important than good memorization skills. The ultimate understanding of any
training is the application, of what you learned online, to the real world. Can you do
what you know is true measure of how you have interpreted and analyzed your new
knowledge.



There were interesting discussions in regards to the utilization of rubrics. My
interpretation of rubrics is that they are the compasses in relation to learning objectives
being waypoints on an educational map. Its also critical to write clear objectives and
accompanying rubrics that reflect the content that you are presenting. Bad learning
objectives and bad rubrics affects the students and the facilitators. For the students,
nothing was gained from the training; for the facilitator, you loose educational credibility.

I was reviewing final project portfolios and I see that there are a number of
different ways to organize the forms. I was trying to find a consistent way of organizing
my form. Maybe this will become more apparent as we go further along in the course.


Week 2

Creating the lesson objectives for my module was made simple by the multitude of
reference and examples that were provided by the facilitator. I utilized the revised
Blooms Taxonomy Table to create objectives that progressed from lower level to higher
level thinking skills. My key thoughts for writing objectives for my course design were
relate to an internet article that was posted by ATSD. This article from ASTD, Write
Application-Focused Learning Objectives ask two very important questions:


How will the participants be able to take action on the information from your
session back on their job?
What results will they be able to produce because they came to your session?
My main concern for writing effective and applicable objectives is based on a
question thats always in the back of mind: What is the student able to do months or
even years after the class? I dont really think a learner needs to master memorization,
but practice application The discussion topics in this module will help me to focus my
course design. I cant afford to write unclear objectives. My leadership workshops are
base on modules that support each other.

Reference

ASTD. (n.d.). Write application-focused lesson objectives. Retrieved 6 February, 2014,
from:

http://www.astd.org/Events/Speaker-Information/-
/media/Files/Speaker%20Information/TKApplicationFocusedLearningObjectives.ashx




Week 1

Starting out for the first week, there some interesting discussion topics. We
differentiated between online and classroom training. The brick and mortar (f2f) is
considered the traditional format. It is part of the educational socialization for all my
classmates. The online format provides 24/7/365 always available convenience. Online
was considered a safer environment for individuals to contribute and learn. We tackled
the question of determining whats the best to determine whether an individual has
actually grasped the content. I picked up valuable information related to the time
management discussion.

The key discussion points were related to properly maintaining the balance between
family time and class time. I got some very interesting, but not surprising results from
the learning styles inventories that we discussed. (VARK and the Learning Style quiz
from the Edutopia website. What I learned from this discussion is to utilize these
inventories as guide to help me to design to cater to my student demographics. We
delved into class behaviors and the respect and decorum that are critical to the success
of all students in an online class. The main focus was to ensure that the learning filed
was level for all attendees. It is very important to get as much information out to the
student prior to the start of the class. This helps to make the transition to online learning
easier for the first timer and the experienced learners.