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