Dev/Rev Planning

Dev/Rev Planning Process

Dev/Rev = New Course Development and Course Revision Projects

For the past four to five years, I’ve been assisting with developing processes for our College to improve our Dev/Rev Process. While I am an Assistant Director, that title is rather misleading as I am relatively low in the organizational hierarchy of the College. This is relevant because I wouldn’t have been able to make the progress I have to improve things for the designers, which includes myself, and the faculty if I didn’t have the support of my Directors and the Faculty and Administrative leadership of the College. We still have a lot of work to do together but I am happy for the progress we have made.

The presentation above is a distillation of a more detailed process flowchart.

https://app.diagrams.net/ was a huge find as it is a powerful, open-source option for creating diagrams. I really enjoyed working with this software.

In-line CSS and Left and Right-alignment on a single line of text

In a few lesson pages in SRA 111, we have two different topics on the same page. The content appears sequentially on the page. I needed a solution to let visitors know that below the first chunk of content, there was indeed a second chunk of content.

I found information on two websites that have helped me with a possible solution:

With this information, I was able to code the following…

<h2 style=”text-align: left;”>[Title of Content Chunk 1] <span style=”float: right;”><a href=”#chunk2″>[Title of Content Chunk 2]</a></span></h2>

…

<hr />
<h2><a id=”chunk2″></a>[Title of Content Chunk 2]</h2>

The top of the page looks like this…

And the link takes the user down to where the <id> tag is…

While not an entirely standard way of formatting text in our lessons, I’m going to try this out and see how it works for now. It’s better than not doing anything!

Storyboards for Analytic Exercises for Col. Jacob Graham

I started working with Howard on developing a few multimedia deliverables for one of our faculty, Col. Jacob Graham, who teaches SRA courses here at the College of IST.

Based on materials from Jake, I storyboarded some concepts that we’ll be building on this summer. I forgot how much I love storyboarding!

A Leaner Meaner Syllabus

Different courses have different syllabus formats in our online undergrad IST program. Ravi and I have been talking about standardizing and streamlining that format since I’m working on the other online undergrad degree: SRA for 2013.Here are the following sections…

Here are the following sections in IST 110 (Section 002)

Course title and information
Instructor Contact Information
Instructor Bio
Course Description
Course Goals and Objectives
Materials
MSDNAA & Labs
Library Resources
Technical Requirements
Class and Course Policies
Academic Integrity
Accommodating Disabilities
Additional Policies
Email Policy
Disclaimer
Grading Scale and Information
Course Schedule

We were considering the following changes

Course title and information – no change
Instructor Contact Information – undecided
Instructor Bio – undecided
Course Description, Goals and Objectives – consolidated
Resources – new

Materials – no change
MSDNAA & Labs – undecided
Library Resources – link to WC page
Technical Requirements – link to WC page

Class and Course Policies – does it have to be “Class and Course”?, undecided

Academic Integrity – link to WC page
Accommodating Disabilities – link to WC page
Additional Policies – undecided

Email Policy – undecided, move to instructor-related section?
Disclaimer – undecided
Grading Scale and Information – undecided, potentially move
Course Schedule – link to a page in ANGEL

This process should significantly reduce the size of and clutter of the syllabus.

OIDI Staff Meeting

SRA 111 SU12 David Saab – coordinated fixes to lab documents with John F and David S, final checks for course launch going on nowGoogle Docs Automatic Backup (more info) – pending IST Helpdesk software install, currently being manually backed…

SRA 111 SU12 David Saab – coordinated fixes to lab documents with John F and David S, final checks for course launch going on now
Google Docs Automatic Backup (more info) – pending IST Helpdesk software install, currently being manually backed up at: filesdepartmentsoidigoogledocsarchive
I’ve added a new Google Doc in “Team Projects” folder: “Smartbuilder Branching Project” (see last meeting “active shooter game”) – potential basis for a new project using Smartbuilder to see how this tool works.
3PlayMedia Estimates (see “3PlayMedia Assessment” GDoc) for courses – update > in progress > tallying media (will need assistance from students to expedite, Footnote ticket has been submitted), when is this due?
Packet-Switching simulation update – awaiting meeting with Ed about outcomes and assessments for the simulation; testing Storify (tool for aggregating and archiving tweets), Twitterfall (tool for visualization and aggreggation of tweets) to track hashtags–critical for feedback on progress and reflection

Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success, Week 1

Reflections on Week 1 reading: “We’ll Leave the Light on for You: Keeping Learners Motivated in Online Courses”This article focuses on key strategies motivating student in an online learning environment. Elements of this article tie to discussions that we had…

Reflections on Week 1 reading: “We’ll Leave the Light on for You: Keeping Learners Motivated in Online Courses”

This article focuses on key strategies motivating student in an online learning environment. Elements of this article tie to discussions that we had in our last LD Community meeting. Jeff Swain was emphasizing the importance of being able to articulate our approach as designers. He shared an anecdote about walking away from a painting that he really liked because the artist couldn’t articulate the intentionality of their artwork. It’s a great point. If we cannot share what we hoped to express through our work, then what difference is that then a really lucky monkey pounding away at a keyboard?

How would I hope to express my work to faculty as we being to sit down on a new project? I think that would be a combination of my stated approach, an honest survey of my strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learned. I don’t know if this means developing three different lists or one well crafted statement.

Getting back to this article. I’ve been thinking that one very useful engaging question to start with faculty might be, “how (what are the strategies and techniques you use) do you motivate your students”? I think this kind of question would be very useful for identifying ways that we could structure their content to address engagement, meaningfulness, goals, interaction, feedback, tone, etc.

A reflection on the entire course… it’s difficult to find a path in all this openness. I know that’s kind of the idea, but I get lost in all of the content and areas to explore. It’s negatively motivating to feel like I’m missing a lot of what’s happening.

An “OpenU” approach to course design

Before I start, I wanted to say that I’m going to take a different approach. I just posted an incomplete post to prove or remind myself that I can’t possibly cover all of the things that are going on. I’m having a hard enough time documenting what I do on an ongoing basis let alone add reflection to the work. At least I have what I am doing fairly well documented on my Google Site. So, my new approach isn’t to reflect on everything that has happened since my last post. I’m going to focus on one thing and try and build my skills there before considering something more expansive.

I don’t know much about The Open University in the UK, but we’re going to try an approach to developing courses that represents a significant shift for us here in World Campus Learning Design. Thankfully, I work with people who do understand what the Open University does and can help with understanding what and perhaps how we can use from their model.

The general approach that WCLD uses is based on a two-semester development time-frame. The basic idea is that if we want a course to launch in the Spring of ’12, we’ll start development in the Summer ’11 semester. One instructional designer will meet with one course author to develop and online course together. The author serves as the subject matter expert and is generally a faculty member selected by the academic-partner department head. The ID works with the author to provide pedagogical and design support. The ID is also a point-of-contact for numerous other resources like permissions, accessibility, multimedia, technical support, etc.

The big difference with this OpenU approach would be extending the development time to three months. The first month would be a brainstorming and planning session open to multiple ID’s and authors working on defining program-level design considerations. The second and third semesters would be used in a more traditional development tasks, however there would be differences how the ID’s and authors might collaborate during this time.

This is a fairly rough description of what we’re planning to do with WC Italian (IT) courses. I would be one of two ID’s, the other would be Juan Xia. Initially there would be three faculty members working together in the brainstorming session and then one would be selected as an author for each course. None of the faculty assignments are set yet, so we don’t know what that might look like.

I’m really looking forward to this approach. There are a number of reasons why this is potentially a great way to develop new courses in the future. First, I really like the idea of collaborating with another designer on a course. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, biases, perspectives, and styles. I don’t know Juan that well, but I’m sure we’ll get to know each other very well by the time this is over. Not only is she on a different design team, but she’s three time zones away! I would think this would be a great opportunity for her to feel more connected to the ebb and flow of daily life here in WCLD. She’ll bring to the table a very different set of competencies. Of course there will be challenges, but I think we’re the a great team to discover and work out potential bumps that the rest of the unit could benefit from.

Second, the brainstorming phase will potentially provide a unique chance to address faculty buy-in, faculty development, and explore a wide variety of solutions. I hope that we can get to the point where we can share inspirations from a variety of sources and define a strategy of offering innovative, world-class courses.

Lastly, I think we would be able develop higher quality courses for our learners because we’d be able to integrate support resources at the brainstorming stage and not during implementation. We’d be able to consider their ideas early enough when it would make a difference on the core design.

I’ll definitely be posting more about our progress and hang-ups.

Deafblind Curriculum/Structure Meeting

Leslie Demmert, Kent Matsueda, Ed Donovan, Carmen Herschell, Nan Rodgers, and Shubha KashyapDiscuss the details and management of the Low Incidence Instruction CE Certificate and get information from Nan/CE on the curriculum and structure of the programTypical Participant: K-21 (K-9)…

Leslie Demmert, Kent Matsueda, Ed Donovan, Carmen Herschell, Nan Rodgers, and Shubha Kashyap

Discuss the details and management of the Low Incidence Instruction CE Certificate and get information from Nan/CE on the curriculum and structure of the program

Typical Participant: K-21 (K-9) teachers and possibly their paired para-professional (verify this)

What are the course titles going to be?
Leslie will be sharing a draft of the “Certificate Proposal”

Have the instructors already been chosen?
guest presenters have been identified, but not confirmed
course 2 – two instructors
one lead course: Nan and Victor
weeks 1-3 person x
weeks 4-6 person y, etc.

What is their experience teaching online courses?
Can we get them into OL2000
request syllabus from course 1

video??? QTSS or Flash SS

Talk with Nan about options for Video/Audio taping

we’ll need to video tape some of the course 2 instructors during the conference

When will the courses run?

How far along are they with the development of their courses?
Syllabuses due when? course details, didactic presentations and online discussions

How much time will be scheduled for each course?

How would you describe the continuity between the four courses? Student participation, content, materials, interaction, etc?

Ed mentioned an assessment tool that will be used with the courses, what is this tool?

four-course, 12-credit certificate program, courses 1 and 4 cannot be taken at the same time
http://www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/low-incidence/credit-information.htm

Academic Leadership Academy: Elluminate Live

We can start scheduling now, using the new thing vs. old thing :-)New thing: unlimited rooms 🙂 we can request a room for a whole calendar year, we can access it whenever we pleaseHow many rooms will we need? Break-out…

We can start scheduling now, using the new thing vs. old thing 🙂
New thing: unlimited rooms 🙂 we can request a room for a whole calendar year, we can access it whenever we please

How many rooms will we need? Break-out rooms are available.

Public (formal (you can setup before the session) and informal (ad-hoc)) and private (create on the fly)
public room stay open whether people are there or not
private rooms exist only as long as people are there
content might be lost in private rooms once people leave
participants cannot move in and out of rooms? Kate is going to check on this

www.elluminate.com/support – to test out one’s connection/computer configuration
https://our.outreach.psu.edu/content/11094

How will the rooms be used during the room? Who will get moderator privileges?
What room features will be used?

Online Training:
http://www.elluminate.com/Services/Training/Product_Training_Resources/Moderator_Guides_for_V9.5+/?id=377
http://www.elluminate.com/Training/Documentation/Detail/88/?id=227

CAPE School Finanace

Erin: brainstroming sessionAttending: Erin, Bill Hartman, Tim PerryBill, reactions to the first offering? Bill: funding will dry up for school districts in three years; $350 million was removed from the state and supplanted by federal stimulus money; 07-08 to 08-09…

Erin: brainstroming session
Attending: Erin, Bill Hartman, Tim Perry

Bill, reactions to the first offering?
Bill: funding will dry up for school districts in three years; $350 million was removed from the state and supplanted by federal stimulus money; 07-08 to 08-09 is $2 billion short fall, this year another $1 billion short and then the pension hits ’13; numbers are unsustainable-bottom line; future is unknown

how do districts deal with this: 1. expenditures (teachers salaries), again not sustainable; 2. raise taxes (Act 1 – a restriction on how much property taxes can be raised, district by district taking account poor districts, up to 3-4%)

relatively few people understand the situation and that the math doesn’t add up

NCLB is looking at a 9% increase in requirements for reading 11% for math every year to get the toughest learners up since the low-hanging fruit have already been addressed in the past 4 years

this content: presentation
1 session presenting this information
then doing the model 1.75 hours (the model is a separate proprietary solution that is available for consulting outside of this context)
gotomeeting & accuconference were used to provide webinars

bill wants reactions from the audience, something he didn’t get via webinars
bill has recorded in-class presentations and have posted them ANGEL, lecture materials are online; session is use for questions and interaction

3.0 Credit and non-credit available for this program

(What are the reasons LD has shifted away iTunes U)

works best for session 4

session 5 how do you start to deal with the problem?
Bill move these up to the top

there would be “homework” (required for ACT 45) no so much more work as pre-work for the sesion
job-embedded assignments
presentation time will be allotted in the last session

individual or group work optional