Mini-Session, Accessible Course Design, and Some Cool Tools

Last week you really developed the flow of your course. You should have a vision of where you want your course to go and what you need to do to achieve that vision. It might still be a little foggy and in the distance, but the scafolding of your course is ready to go!

We also have a mini-session this week. The session will show you how to create online videos and use social networking tools for online learning. It will conclude with some ideas for assessing online student performance. This is a full session, but you will leave with some great ideas to take your course from ordinary to extraordinary. The session is Wednesday, April 27 from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. in the CPDE Faculty Lab (NUC 322).

This week we turn our attention to Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility. You will learn a lot in the module, so I won't spoil it here. This is a very important module and your activities for this module will be a little more challenging than last week's from a technical standpoint. But don't worry! Pay particular attention to the resources listed on the Application Activity Summary (4.1 in the Table of Contents). You will find tutorials and step-by-step guides to walk your through.  

This week also gives you a bit of a breather on focusing on your course design. If you need to spend a little more time to see that vision through the fog, now is a good time to think about the learning objectives, those heading titles, and all of the consistent elements you want to include in each module and/or week.

If you finish with this week's activities early, jump in and start writing some lessons or experimenting with some cool tools. Just to get you started, here are a few tools you can try:

 

An Online Scrapbook/Visual Book Tool

http://www.mixbook.com/edu

An Online Magazine Creator

http://www.issuu.com/

Tool that Allows Interactive Voice, Video, Phone Call, or Text Responses to Instructor-Posted Media http://voicethread.com/ (UCO has a pilot for this running now. Contact your lead instructional designer if you want to upgrade the free account to a Basic account.)

A Great Wiki Tool

http://pbworks.com/content/edu+overview

An Online Blog/Poster Tool

https://posterous.com/

Using the Internet for a Web Quest

http://webquest.org/index.php

An Online Poster Tool

http://edu.glogster.com/

We know this is a very busy time of the semester for you, but please try to get caught up if you are behind. As always, don't spend too much time in frustration as you work on your course. A quick redirect to an online resource or letting you know what button to click can often save you hours of frustration. So let us know if you need help and keep up the good work!

The CPDE Instructional Design Team

Module 2 - Building Course Structure

Hello again! It is good to see you back in the workshop and ready to learn more about building your course for online delivery. This week we are going to focus on the key structural elements required by the Quality Rubric. The rubric will be used to measure the quality of your course and I think you will find it very helpful when used as a course development guide. Take a moment to read the first lesson and be sure to click on the six sections for detailed information about the rubric. The second lesson will help you organize the course content using either folders, learning modules, or a combination. In the orientation meeting, everyone elected to use the course shell template with (16) structured learning modules. Fantastic!! We hope this decision will save you all valuable time. The required activities in the workshop assume you are starting with a blank course. So, instead of creating sixteen new modules, create one and title it “SAMPLE” and use the “SAMPLE” module to add headings and html files. You can also edit the provided modules to fit your course. For example, you may want to change the name from “Module One” to “Chapter One” and edit or remove the HEADINGS provided in the modules to fit your needs. When you finish the activities, be sure to go to the 4.2 Module 2: Submit Activities link, type “COMPLETE” and submit the assignment. For great examples of course organization, login to WebCT using the username: online and password: quality. Remember to post your questions and comments to the Workshop Q & A. The conversations in the first two discussions were very supportive and full of helpful ideas. You have all done a great job building a community of learners in the workshop. Keep up the pace and have a great week! Tracy

Welcome to the eLearning Course Design Workshop

Welcome to the eLearning Course Design Workshop (aka the eCDW) and the Designovations blog. You will learn much more about the expectations and opportunities in the eCDW in this module and you will do a couple of activities to help us and your fellow participants get to know you. In Designovations, the instructional designers, Tracy Fairless, Liz Monsma, and Andrea Stone, will share our thoughts on the current module and expand on topics that we think need more attention or direction. So much of the content for this workshop has been planned, edited, and edited again. This blog will be our informal space to write like we talk and let you see more of our personality! (Don't be scared. We are all very pleasant people.) You will also see resources added to this blog including new tutorials we create on the fly to answer others' questions and interesting tools or web sites we find along the way. You can always go back and read previous weeks' notes too by using the date navigation to the right. You can also follow this blog using your Google account and blogger, so you will see when we have updated without even accessing WebCT. This orientation module is extremely important for your success in this workshop. Please read it and post any questions you have in the Course Q & A. The CPDE instructional design team is here to help, and we want you to succeed! Now what are you still doing on this page? Get moving to the Lesson to learn more about the eCDW. See you back here next week for more Guiding Notes.