Introduces the practice of learning design and its application to technology-mediated learning environments. Explores the principles of learning design, examines how to create learning experiences for others and teach for understanding. Opportunities to plan, design and develop an interactive learning experience using technologies specific for teaching and learning.
Good morning!
Thanks for your work last week on getting your Blueprints to me. I will turn those around as quickly as I can so that you can proceed with your Interactive Learning Resources. I suggest that you not proceed until you've heard from me on the blueprint. Consequently, you don't have much writing to do this week. Just Blog Post #3.
This week we will focus on the characteristics of a well-designed online course. Some key terms that you'll need to understand (or at least be aware of and know where to find) are surface and deep approaches to learning and constructive alignment from a short series of (somewhat corny) videos called Teaching teaching and understanding understanding.
Then we will dive into a very practical book called Teaching in blended learning environments which is available for free through Athabasca University Press. Click on the Free PDF tab to download either individual chapters or the whole book. Alternately, I've embedded the chapters in this week's unit materials. You are not required to purchase this book unless you feel it would be of value to you. You'll benefit from learning about the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework as you skim chapter 1, then become more familiar with design considerations in alignment with the three presences of the CoI: cognitive, social, and teaching presence in chapter 2.
There's a bit more reading this week, but it's pretty accessible. If you have difficulty understanding some of the concepts, please reach out to your colleagues. Talk to your group members, ask questions, offer answers, talk about the implications of the readings for your interactive learning resource. Feel free to write an extra blog post to ask your questions. There is a large amount of writing and publishing about the CoI, including at coi.athabascau.ca:
Of course, you can also ask me.
Your blogs
One of the reasons that this course is using WordPress as a platform is to encourage you to use it to build a Community of Inquiry. I hope you will take some time to explore each others' blogs and follow a few people's progress through the learning challenge!
Week 3 is posted!
Click Units in the menu, then Week 3.