Kaleidoscope Project NotesExperiences and Recommendations

Park City, UT October 28, 2011

Daryl Smith O’Hare and Susan C. HinesChadron State College, Chadron, NE

Presentation Outline

1. Planning: Schedules, Calendars, Deadlines2. Course Design: Technical and Structural Issues3. Learning Design: Arcs and Outcomes Tracking4. Divisions of Labor and Developer Roles

5. Getting the Best Content6. Measurable Learning Outcomes7. Creating and Orchestrating Content8. Learning as a Community9. The Impact of Multimedia10. Reflection and the Portfolio11. Feedback and Contacts

Part 1: Project Management, Instructional Design

Part 2: Course Development, Online Instruction

Planning: Schedules, Calendars, Deadlines

development timeframes are needed. Consider aminimum of 10-12 weeks instead of 6-8 weeks.2. Clarify minimum standards for course design.

Experiences

Recommendations

Recommendations

1. We kept a regular development schedule, but the first deadline(for course outcomes) was difficult to meet, as there was little time to bring the SME/writer up to speed on the ID process. 2. We (the ID and the SME) developed and installed thecourse in 8 weeks, then made course revisions during the 8 weeks during which the course

1. Longer

was taught. It was stressful on the SME (to teach while revising), but itwas important to make the revisions while the revisions seemed importantto make. 3. During the initial writing of the course, SME deadlines for modules

were on Fridays, with revisions of modules due onthe following Wednesdays. The ID would providefeedback on the modules by Sunday and meet viaSkype with the SME on Mondays to assure that editsand recommendations were understood.

Course Design: Technical and Structural Issues

1. In the absence of any

1. Take the high road whenever you can, and build courses insuch a way that anyone can use and re-purpose them with relativeease and in any platform. 2. HTML and CSS are very LMS-friendly.

Experiences

Recommendations

clear-cut technical design standards for thiscourse, we took the high road: the course wouldbe as open as possible and built in the linguafranca of the WWW: HTML (with CSS and someJavaScript). 2. It would be built on a modularprinciple, and would meet compliance standardsfor ADA/508, and meet or surpass instructionaldesign standards such as those advocated by Quality Matters. 3. If this course was goingto be “adoptable,” it would need to be technically sound; content would need to work inpopular web browsers. 4. Additionally, the content would have to be creative andcompelling; the course would have an integrated media layer that made regular use of embeddable objects.

Learning Design: Arcs and Outcomes Tracking

students learn. We thought it best to make what was implicit explicit, however, and includeda graphic depiction of the learning arc early on in the syllabus; each course module fullyrealizes an arc, and it is along key points of the arc that assignments are completed andsubmitted. The regularity by which assignments are completed and submitted(say every Thursday for discussionsand every Monday for written exercises)fosters consistency in students. 2. Wouldn’tit be nice to have a course that cross-references all of its assignments with its outcomes and instructional content? Wethough so too—and discovered that studentscould benefit from the connection, as well.

best designs feature no more or less of whatis necessary to do the job exceedingly well.

Recommendations

Experiences 1. All good courses have an internal logic and rhythm by which

1. The

Divisions of Labor and Developer Roles

job done in a way that made good useof our time, we divided our labor alongspecific job functions (see table, left).

1. While it’s not impossible, it is

Hines O’Hare

Project ManagerInstructional DesignerEditorProofreaderBeta-Tester

Subject Matter ExpertWriterResearcherProofreaderBeta-Tester

Experiences

Recommendations

1. To get the

unusual for two academics in the same discipline to be highly productive in a collaborationas equal partners performing the same function. We recommend that course developerslist the roles that are involved in producing a quality course, then decide who performscertain roles. 2. The management, design, and editorial functions are more importantto the process than novice developers realize, particularly if the novice is the SME/writer.Even if you are a development team of one, try to split these roles out from your writingand research. 3. Have faith in a solid design process, and try not to cut corners even whenthe timeline seems impossible. Too many online courses remain in their initial iterationsfor years to come, as course revisions are typically put off by lack of time or funding or both.

Getting the Best Content

1. We found it difficult to find a single

1. If you can’t find a textbook that supports your course, usemultiple OER. 2. To avoid time consuming searches, find sitesthat index OER and use your own social network as qualifiedRAs. 3. Don’t be afraid of new media; sometimes it doesn’tmake sense how you’ll use it until it’s embedded in the page!

Recommendations

Experiencesopen textbook that supported the entirety of the course. 2. And,too many texts were not using the kinds of media that would becompelling to Generation Y students. 3. We spent too much timeperforming fruitless WWW searches. 4. How to determine OERmaterial was often unclear, so even when useful materials werefound, we were not always sure they could be used. 5. Thegood news is the frustrations of search led to a content strategybased upon disparate texts, images, audio clips, and videos.The course itself would become a kind of textbook, using thetopics within modules to provide a clear context for media use.

Measureable Learning Outcomes

are normally dictated by academic programs or departments, by other instructors ortextbooks. 2. It’s difficult to tell sometimes if an outcome is actually measureable.3. It can be a little intimidating to come up with outcomes that are useable by other institutions. 4. Module-level outcomes are not typically developed in traditional classes. So, it was surprising to learn they are the corner stones of online courses.

1. Have course-level outcomes before you get starteddesigning modules (even though they may change).2. Remember that it’s a process, that you will have totweak outcomes to meet the overarching goals of the course. 3. Design assignments and support contentaround outcomes. 4. Understand the differencebetween goals and outcomes. Many goals may notbe measureable but outcomes must be.

Recommendations

Experiences 1. Writing course outcomes can be an unfamiliar process, as they

Creating and Orchestrating Content

approach to writing and critical reading skills, as wewanted something fresh for students who typicallydread taking a composition course — we went aboutdeprogramming the dread. 2. It was so important to findthe right content that when we couldn’t find it, wecreated it. 3. And when we did find it, we integrated itdirectly into the topics pages. 4. One of our favorite findswas the telescopic text “I Made Tea.”

Instructional designer’s expertise in employing technicalcontent – if you worry about it, you won’t have time todo any writing. 2. Even if there is copyright free workout there (literary samples, for example) do not settlejust because it is free—seek other free avenues. 3. Providecontext for everything. Remember that students shouldhave equal access to content. Cite sources.

Recommendations

Experiences 1. We stuck to a contemporary

1. Utilize an

Learning as a Community1. Learning was

1. Create banks of feedback that you can reuse in general commentary. 2. Don’t be afraid tochange a module if it does not work. We didn’t love Module 6, so we edited for the next run.3. Seek media examples that are interchangeable with assignments.

Recommendations

Experiencesiterative, and students started to feel arhythm to the way the course worked.2. Students responded well in discussion forums,often exceeding the minimum requirements.3. Students built a strong community, relying on targeted peer review as a main sourceof revision. 4. We dealt with grammar issues“workshop style.” Students createdteaching reports by investigating their mistakes,researching their mistakes, fixing their mistakes,and sharing the results with the entire class.The class then evaluated which report wasthe best. This process was empowering.

The Impact of Multimedia1. Students overwhelmingly loved the TED Talks. The TED Talkpictured on this slide made it possible to show students how other

1. Find media that appeals to the kindsof students that you teach. 2. Makesure it can be viewed in the mostpopular web browsers. 3. Makes sure it is ADA compliant—that images use ALT tags andthat videos use close captioning and that audio has transcripts. 4. Note that providing variousmedia appeals to different learning styles. We loved TED’s interactive transcript!

Recommendations

Experiencesdisciplines create and use portfolios.2. Students also enjoyed the OER texts, which were sufficiently compelling and not unnecessarily long. 3. We useda wide variety of media, includingour own Facebook notes. We wantedto underscore that social media can bea great space to find and develop ideas.

Reflection and the Portfolio

to evaluate their work by creating a portfolioof their best writing accompanied by a reflectiveessay about their developing writing process.2. Remember that teachers make mistakes, butmistakes can be remedied—like writing in acomposition course: it’s a work in progress.3. Students used the discussion forum,writing exercises, and essays to look at earlyand developing work to discover theirevolution as writers. 4. They looked back ontheir stumbling blocks and how they workedaround them.

specific. The portfolio assignment omitted length requirements, which was problematic forsome students. 2. Remember that courses should evolve with their students. It is importantto make revisions. Change is good. Change is good. Change is good.

Recommendations

Experiences 1. Students were able

1. Remember to make your submission instructions

“Looking back at my first assignment, diagnostic writing, I cannot believe how horrible I wrote. In my first writings, I would use run on sentences and vague references and found that much of what I wrote did not make sense. Now when I look at my most recent writings, I cannot believe the difference, and swear someone else wrote them.”

– Composition I Student, Chadron State College, October 2011

Feedback and Contacts

You can visit Composition I at: http://shines.courseagent.com/kscope

Contact Information

Daryl Smith O’Hare: doharecsc@gmail.comSusan C. Hines: shines@courseagent.com