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Learning
Design for EDUC 891 |
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A key feature of
this program is that as you master knowledge about the field of Educational
Technology, you get to apply that knowledge right away in designing curricula
or artifacts to support learning. This deepens your understanding of what you
are learning and helps you to transfer it to a setting that is meaningful for
you.
Your
assignment
You will design
a technology-enabled system, curriculum, or artifact of some kind to address
a problem of learning in a setting that matters to you. The content of what
is to be learned is entirely up to you (you should choose content with which
you are already well familiar if possible). However, there should be a compelling
reason why the technology you choose should be part of your learning design.
You may wonder how
technology-intensive your design needs to be. Members of the class come from
many different backgrounds. Some have a great deal of technical skill, some
very little. There is not time in the class for many technical workshops, so
your learning designs will need to take different forms. Those who wish may
develop web sites or multimedia materials. Others may design paper-based prototypes
or storyboards. Grading will not be based on technical sophistication, but on
the completeness and coherence of the design, as detailed below.
Guidelines
Your Learning Design submission will have two components:
- A short (3-5 page single-spaced) paper explaining:
- What problem of learning your design addresses
- How you define the problem, with reference to your experience and
the literature
- What technology you chose for your design, and why. What specific affordances
does the technology have, and how do these fit the characteristics of the
problem you identified?
- Either
an electronic resource (e.g. web site, CD-ROM) or a storyboard.
Whatever combination you create should address the following questions:
Audience |
Who
is your learning design for? |
| Learning
Goals |
What
is it that you want people to learn? |
| Problem |
What
do you know, from experience and from the literature, about why this
is difficult to learn? (In other words, why bother building a
technology-based learning design to teach this?) |
| Design
Document/
Specification |
Document
your learning design. What you put here will vary enormously depending
on the decisions you've made about the Learning Goal and Problem, so
you will have to work closely with your instructors to get clarity on
this part over the semester. The key thing to accomplish here is to
be transparent about how the design decisions you make are linked to
your understanding of the Learning Goal and Problem. Above all we are
looking for coherence.
Be sure
to include:
- Context
of use: Where will your audience use it? Over how long a period of
time?
- Technical details: How do you expect this to be implemented technologically?
- Activity structure:Will this be an individual or collaborative activity
(or some combination)? If part is collaborative, why so and how will
the collaboration work?
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| Assessment |
How
will you know if you have achieved the results you wanted with your design?
Many different strategies are possible, some of which you will see illustrated
in literature we read for class. We do not expect a very sophisticated
or fully-developed assessment of learning for this assignment, but want
you to demonstrate that you can develop ideas about assessment that are
coherent with the goals you have set for your design. |
Grading
Your
design will be graded according to the following rubric
A+ |
Exemplary work. We know just what you are proposing
to do and why. You make such a good case as to why this should be done,
and your design is laid out with such detail, that a team could go and
carry it out tomorrow. |
| A |
Your design is clear, complete,
coherent, and compelling. We know just what you are proposing to do
and why, and are convinced that it is an innovative and worthwhile project. |
| B |
It's mostly clear what you plan
to do, but your design has one of the following flaws: a) it may not
be clear why you've chosen to do what you have, or b) the reasons may
not be very compelling (ie. the problem does not seem very important),
or c) there may be a substantial lack of coherence among the various
pieces of your design. |
| C |
Your design has
two of the flaws described for a "B" grade |
| D |
Your design has three of the flaws described
for a "B" grade |
| F |
Nothing is submitted |