Welcome to Class!

Week 1: Getting Setup & Job Interview

Week 2: Beginning Moodle Projects

Week 3: Constructivist Instructional Design

Week 4: Feedback on Your Moodle Project Topics

Week 5: Problem-Based Learning

Week 7: Assessment

Week 8: Designing Effective E-Learning Activities

NO CLASS - SPRING BREAK

Have a nice break!

Week 10: How to Finish Up Your Moodle Project

This week just please watch the video below and read the Finish Moodle Project assignment, in which I give you some specific ideas for how to finish up your moodle projects (due March 31st) and meet the minimum requirements as specified in the Moodle Project Guidelines, especially the constructivist activity requirement, the multimedia requirement, and the exit survey.

Also I'll show how to create screencasts for your moodle course, and how to link to and embed videos or flash widgets in your moodle course.

Week 11: Features of Good Online Courses/Training

This week is a work week to work on finishing your moodle project, due next week (March 31st).  On campus students I recommend you attend the brownbag instead at 11:30.  I'll be in the lab afterward to help anyone with their moodle projects.

Please just continue to work on your moodle project, due next week, March 31st - see the Moodle Project Guidelines and the Finish Moodle Project assignment.

Below you can compare and contrast some examples of online courses and lessons about one particular concept: population sampling.

See which courses:

• are designed specifically for the online learner
• are designed with scenarios/problems rather than traditional lecture/text
• are supported by interactive multimedia or software
• are clear about why the topic is important for the learner (big issue, essential questions, ala backward design)
• incorporate formative assessment
• and which are just more engaging and more professionally designed

Week 12: Professional Development with Social Networking Tools

This is a work week to finish your moodle project.  I've extended the deadline to Thursday, April 7th.

I'll be giving a brownbag this week in the computer lab at 12:00 instead of 1:30.  It will be a mini-workshop on how to use social networking sites for professional development and training (via learning communities), such as twitter, linkedin, and academia.edu.

Attendance is optional, but that will be our class meeting this week.  It will be videorecorded and I'll be posting the links and resources here for the online students.  I'll be in the computer lab during our normal class hours to help people with their moodle projects.

Week 13: E-Learning Evaluation:

This week you need to finish up your moodle project (due April 7th) and then start trying out other people's moodle projects (pick at least 3) and leave some constructive feedback in the exit survey by April 14th.

Then you'll post one final post-mortem blog post with your reflections on your course.  What were some lessons you learned, things you liked or didn't like about using a learning management system, what are some things you'd like to do if you had more time or money, etc.  That blog post will be due by Thursday of finals week.

This week: While you finish up your moodle projects and start checking out others, below are some optional resources on evaluating e-learning and other instructional products or teaching.

Week 14: Multimedia Learning, Simulations, Games

This week we'll have two guest speakers discuss their use of virtual worlds and 3D in their training/educational projects: Peter Blair (opensim & special education) and Ben George (google earth, 3D panaramas in landscape architecture education).

See the notes and links below for many helpful resources.  I especially recommend reading through the Multimedia Learning Cheatsheet.

Week 15: Work on Multimedia Presentations

This will be a work week to work on your final Multimedia Project.

No class this week, but I'll be in the computer lab to help out with your projects.

Please fill out our course evaluation on blackboard if you have not already (the blue thumbs up icon in our course at http://bb.usu.edu/).

Week 16: Final Multimedia Presentations

On campus students will be sharing their multimedia project with the class.  The final deadline however is next week, Thursday of finals week.  Please post a link to your project or attachment to the Help Forum or else to a blog post, and I'll email out to everyone a list of all the projects next week.

Some final things to do:

Fill out the course evaluation (blue thumbs up icon) in blackboard (http://bb.usu.edu) if you haven't already.

Allow guest access to your moodle course.  There was a bug in the upgrade to moodle 2.0 preventing guest access.  To fix it, go to your course -> Settings -> Users -> Enrolment methods.  Then from the popup choose 'Guest access'.  Now you can add a link to your course in your masters portfolio and tell people to click the 'Login as guest' button to access it.

Go back over the pdf copy of the job interview we did at the start of the semester to review what you have learned.

Here are some additional things you might add to your portfolio/resume:

• e-learning design
• learning management systems (moodle)
• backward design framework
• constructivist instructional design
• problem-based learning
• whatever multimedia tools/skills you learned, such as screencasts
• other things you feel you learned and would feel comfortable doing if asked to, such as assessment and evaluation
• I would recommend adding a statement of your philosophy of instructional design to your porfolio.  You can mix and match and customize instructional design techniques and technologies to best fit each context, see this quote:

I first encountered the problematic relationship between plans and situated actions when, after years of trying to follow Gagné's theory of instructional design, I repeatedly found myself, as an instructional designer, making ad hoc decisions throughout the design and development process. At first, I attributed this discrepancy to my own inexperience as an instructional designer. Later, when I became more experienced, I attributed it to the incompleteness of instructional design theories. Theories were, after all, only robust and mature at the end of a long developmental process, and instructional design theories had a very short history. Lately, however, I have begun to believe that the discrepancy between instructional design theories and instructional design practice will never be resolved because instructional design practice will always be a form of situated activity (i.e., depend on the specific, concrete, and unique circumstances of the project I am working on). (ref)

Email me if you have any questions or need any help with anything!  I've enjoyed having you this semester!

FINALS WEEK - NO CLASS

The Post-Mortem Blog Post and Multimedia Project are due by Thursday of this week.  Please post a link to your multimedia presentation/demo in the Help Forum or else to your blog.

Thanks for your hard work this semester!  Have a nice summer!