EDTECH 522 Module 5 Reflection: Building an Online Course

This was an interesting assignment! I have used Canvas sparingly as an instructor and this really gave me a chance to better understand its capabilities. Beyond that "mechanical" aspect, I now have a much better sense of what to do (and what to avoid) when building a course, for online learners of any age.  I'm the primary person at the school who has responsibility for creating these teacher (or student) courses, so this assignment was timely, as well.

I've been on the receiving end of a lot of online courses (through BSU and elsewhere), so I think I have a reasonable perspective on what does work organizing courses. I think this manifested itself while building the Notability for Teachers and Students course. I was very conscious of three considerations: course navigation, easy to use course pages (aware of limited student learning 'channels' capacity) and a clear course "entry point."  My goals were:

• provide simple, consistent and complete navigation so the learner would never feel lost or frustrated about the navigation.
• provide the 'right' amount of content detail. 
•  ensure students felt comfortable and confident entering the course - understand objectives, due dates, assessment, course navigation, and so on.

I am highly confident that I accomplished the first goal. I went over the navigation many, many times, adding appropriate links on every page I could think of that may assist a learner in getting through the lesson with no (or at least low!) frustration. I had a friend look over the lesson as well to confirm that links made sense, worked as designed and so on. I caught myself making last-minute changes right up to the point (and even a bit beyond) when I posted the link as 'complete.' I have a good sense now what to do for future courses to make the navigation as easy to use and bulletproof as possible, and I am happy for the learning achieved in this important area.

The second goal is a bit harder to judge. Since I know the tool (Notability) reasonably well, it was

Book photo - public domain

easy to fall into the trap of  'just one more thing' added to the page. One of the big limitations, to me, using the web  for delivering course materials is the amount of scrolling sometimes required to understand the 'full picture' of what's being taught. So, I tried my best to be cognizant of that as I developed my pages. This manifested itself  as I split larger modules (units) into smaller ones, and split assignments into smaller, more digestible chunks.  Part of my approach was to include screen shots of the Notability iPad app, and that did necessitate more page real estate used than desirable, which meant more learner page scrolling. I will await what my peers and professor say in terms of how well I met this goal. My reviewer said it was not an issue, and felt the overall result was not overwhelming. I am hopeful that's an accurate assessment!

Goal three, the entry point, was something I wrestled with, and the structure and page content went through several iterations. I kept reviewing the requirements for the page, and made MANY modifications to the page to clarify expectations. I hope I set the students up for success as they entered the course. It also helped that I was able to look at other students' end results before I submitted my course.  Simple things not initially obvious became more clear as I reviewed the intro page. For instance, setting off the information about due dates, objectives, assessments, navigation, etc. with headings to separate them made a huge difference in how the page looked, and its readability. A simple change, with a high-impact end result.

In summary, this was a challenging and ultimately fulfilling assignment that definitely improved my skills in designing online instruction. I feel much more confident in my ability to create an online learning environment that will much more effectively support student learning.

Public domain image downloaded from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=44496&picture=book on 11/23/15