Description
The issue that would be addressed in this digital learning resource will be to help online instructors with some ways of engaging the online students from the beginning of their courses as that is a big factor towards their success.
Learning Goals
The learning goals for this digital learning resource are the following:
- Online instructors learn new methods of ingraining information into their students in their courses
- Online instructors learn how to establish a connection with the students early in the course.
- Online instructors learn how to keep the students engaged throughout the course.
Intended Audience
The audience of this digital learning resource is the online instructors.
Rationale
Student engagement in an online course is a big part of their success and this is the rationale behind creating this digital learning resource. As found by Williams and Lahman (2011), student’s online engagement plays a vital role in their success.
Tools
This digital resource will be created using:
- Video tools
- Internet tools
- Learner responses
It will be easy to access through the internet and will be free to all users. It will also be interactive through a comment section.
Assessment Plan
There will be an online quiz that can be taken after watching the video.
Learning Theory used
The learning theory used for this digital learning resource would be best matched with Constructivism. “Constructivist theorists claim that learners interpret the information and the world according to their personal reality, that they learn by observation, processing, and interpretation, and then personalize the information into personal knowledge” (Anderson, 2008, p. 30).
Instructions for Use and Plan for Use
This digital learning resource will be publicly published on YouTube as an open source with a provided comment section at the bottom of the video and a link to the online quiz in the video description.
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed. ed., Issues in distance education series). Edmonton: AU Press.
Williams, L., & Lahman, M. (2011). Online discussion, student engagement, and critical thinking. Journal of Political Science Education, 7(2), 143-162. doi:10.1080/15512169.2011.564919
July 24, 2018 at 1:50 pm
Hi May, this sounds like a fantastic project!
I appreciate the purpose of your digital resource – to help online instructors to improve their methods of teaching, connecting, and engaging with students. A worthy cause!
I wonder if the constructivism you mentioned will be a theory your resource will teach to online instructors as a means to improve learning, connection, and engagement in the classes they teach, or if the course itself actually takes place in a constructivist learning environment.
For quizzes, behaviourist questions with clear right or wrong answers are very simple to design and auto-grade. I think it would be more challenging to create and mark quizzes if the learning is constructivist. MALAT is a very constructivist program and we never take quizzes as part of our grade. If the quiz questions require constructivist-style answers, are you going to grade them yourself?
July 25, 2018 at 8:38 am
Hey May!!
Holy geez, you’re so organized!! This is a solid plan.
I didn’t think about this, but Angie’s definitely onto something–quizzes are pretty behaviouralist. I think this depends however on what questions you intend to ask as part of the assessment, and how responses are analyzed. Now that I think about it, thanks Angie, I feel totally insecure about my assessment plan now! :p 😉
May, I love the thought of connecting students with instructors early on. They seem shocked at my work when they realize there is a person watching them. Heh heh heh…
July 25, 2018 at 3:59 pm
Hi Angie and Krista,
Thank you for your comments!
You made an excellent point. For the purpose of this assignment, I will be using questions with the clear right and wrong answers, such as the multiple-choice and true-false type of questions so you are absolutely right that this type of questions does not really align with the constructivist style quiz. I believe the learning that happened while the instructors are watching the video/presentation (Digital Learning Resource) will align with constructivism, and I should have used both methods of learning in my post and thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I hope I make sense 🙂
May