Philosophy
Philosophical Assumptions
The single most important driving factor for my beliefs and actions is the desire to demonstrate care for others. My personal life, educational background, and career choices all center around deep-seated desires to help others and connect with them in meaningful ways. The term cura personalis resonates with me because it embodies these guiding desires and represents a sincere, holistic approach to education and related support systems (Bninski & Wozniak Boyle, 2020). Acknowledging intersectionality, embracing diversity, and maximizing accessibility: these are some of my foremost goals as an education professional that are continually shaped and reinforced by my focus on cura personalis. These ethically sound actions help me to empower and demonstrate care for others.
When designing and delivering courses to students, my actions and respective intentions are grounded by the concept of whole-person education. My priorities, core beliefs, and motivations are consistently reflected by the work I complete and the research I conduct. What I do, I will always do to demonstrate care for others. These are some of my key values, intentions, and actions pertaining to course design and delivery:
Rely on objective, research-based decision making and proven educational best practices
Value and seek to increase equitable institutional policies and procedures
Maximize efforts to ensure support services are widely known and accessible to all
Create inclusive and welcoming environments for all students
Prioritize the needs and wellbeing of students above all else
Design Prospectus
Scope
Given the importance of students’ interactions within a course, instructors should also consider the types of support and resources they can provide to maximize the odds of student success. Those who are not comfortable with technology or familiar with online education especially may rely on clear, easily accessible instructions and resources about how to navigate and interact with the course content. Therefore, this project includes lessons pertaining to technical communication and what information instructors should consider including in their courses to increase students’ senses of confidence and understanding of course expectations. Further, the project includes methods for communicating the benefits of LMS use to students and creating easy-to-navigate learning paths using these systems.
Methodology
This project models educational best practices through two online, publicly available courses: one focused on building a new course and one geared toward revising existing content. There are two primary benefits to this approach. First, instructors will have the opportunity to visualize and experience course design techniques in a learning management system that is commonly utilized for college courses: Canvas. They will take on roles as students and interact with the course using a learner’s perspective. This intentional design technique can allow for a deeper understanding of lessons through experiential learning (Heinrich, & Green, 2020). The second key benefit of this approach is that some assessments can be provided to help instructors measure their achievement of the course and module learning objectives.
The courses are available in a website that includes background information about the project and additional resources that may be beneficial for college instructors. The website serves as a central hub for the project and allows instructors to understand the purpose of the courses and how they are grounded in educational best practices and instructional communication research. Further, the website can help to inspire future research pertaining to course design and delivery techniques. Instructors will also be able to learn more about who created the website and courses and make contact if they have questions, comments, or would like to collaborate on future research and projects.
Objectives/Intended Outcomes
Learning Objectives
By navigating the website, participants should be able to:
Identify the purpose of the website
Locate step-by-step courses
View resources related to the project's disciplinary grounding
Upon successful completion of the “Creating a New Course” course, participants should be able to:
Construct measurable module learning objectives/outcomes that are aligned with course learning objectives/outcomes
Identify multiple methods for maximizing engagement in online courses
Create engaging assessments that measure achievement of learning objectives/outcomes
Create active learning activities that align with the assessments and learning objectives/outcomes
Locate engaging resources that support the achievement of learning objectives/outcomes
Upon successful completion of the “Revising an Existing Course” course, participants should be able to:
Modify learning objectives to ensure course alignment
Identify multiple methods for maximizing engagement in online courses
Revise assessments to improve engagement and course alignment
Revise learning activities to improve engagement and course alignment
Locate new resources or improve previously provided resources to increase engagement and better support the achievement of learning objectives
Assessment, Analysis, and Intentional Design
Achievement of the learning objectives may be assessed separately by individual institutions; however, publicly available courses generally are limited to self-assessments and automatically graded assessments, so participants will need to measure their own achievement of the learning objectives. Thus, incorporated assessments (e.g., multiple choice quizzes) will primarily determine participants' achievement of lower-level objectives. Since no data can be collected directly from publicly available Canvas courses and the scope of this project does not include collecting data on live participants, all other learning objectives/outcomes should be self-assessed or graded by another educational professional who is experienced in instructional design.
The website has undergone informal usability testing with colleagues to ensure participants can successfully identify the purpose of the course, locate the courses, and view resources related to the project's disciplinary grounding. To ensure the course objectives are adequately assessed, they were further broken down into scaffolded module learning objectives. The following lists display the CLOs and MLOs for both courses, with respective assessment titles and types shown in parentheses next to each item.
By the end of the “Creating a New Course” course, learners should be able to:
Construct measurable module learning objectives/outcomes that are aligned with course learning objectives/outcomes (“Determine Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify measurable verbs (“Measurable Verbs” assessed using a multiple-choice question and mark the words question)
Define "alignment" (“Measurable & Aligned Learning Objectives/Outcomes” assessed using a quick check question)
Classify statements as measurable/non-measurable and aligned/misaligned (“Measurable & Aligned Learning Objectives/Outcomes” assessed using a quick check questions)
Select measurable course learning objectives/outcomes (“Determine Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Connect selected course learning objectives/outcomes with measurable and aligned module learning objectives/outcomes (“Determine Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Justify the use of selected course and module learning objectives/outcomes (“Determine Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify multiple methods for maximizing engagement in online courses (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify educational tools available for increasing engagement (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Select strategies for maximizing engagement with assessments (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Select strategies for maximizing engagement with learning activities (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Select strategies for maximizing engagement with resources (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Create engaging assessments that measure achievement of learning objectives/outcomes (“Assessment: Select an Effective and Engaging Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Recall the qualities of aligned assessments (“Aligned & Engaging Assessments” assessed using a multiple-answer question)
Match module learning objectives/outcomes with aligned assessments (“Aligned & Engaging Assessments” assessed using a multiple-answer question)
Choose an assessment type (e.g., multiple-choice quiz, essay, etc.) that aligns with a module objective/outcome (“Assessment: Select an Effective and Engaging Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Investigate various strategies and educational tools to maximize engagement for the chosen assessment type (“Assessment: Select an Effective and Engaging Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Decide on a strategy for creating an engaging assessment that measures the achievement of the selected learning objective/outcome (“Assessment: Select an Effective and Engaging Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Create active learning activities that align with the assessments and learning objectives/outcomes (“Assessment: Select an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Define "active learning activities" (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a fill in the blank quiz question)
Match module learning objectives/outcomes with active learning activities (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a matching quiz question)
Brainstorm learning activities that align with at least one MLO (“Assessment: Select an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Compare active and passive learning activities (“Assessment: Select an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Decide on a strategy for creating an active learning activity (“Assessment: Select an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Locate engaging resources that support the achievement of learning objectives/outcomes (“Assessment: Select an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify methods for gathering resources (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a fill in the blank quiz question)
Classify resources as aligned/misaligned based on the context (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a multiple-choice quiz question)
By the end of the “Revising an Existing Course” course, learners should be able to:
Modify learning objectives to ensure course alignment (“Revise Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify measurable verbs (“Measurable Verbs” assessed using a multiple-choice question and mark the words question)
Define "alignment" (“Measurable & Aligned Learning Objectives/Outcomes” assessed using a quick check question)
Classify statements as measurable/non-measurable and aligned/misaligned (“Measurable & Aligned Learning Objectives/Outcomes” assessed using a quick check questions)
Edit existing learning objectives/outcomes to ensure the use of measurable verbs (“Revise Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Outline the alignment of existing course learning objectives/outcomes and module learning objectives/outcomes (“Revise Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Reflect upon the effectiveness of the existing course and module learning objectives/outcomes (“Revise Your CLOs & MLOs” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify multiple methods for maximizing engagement in online courses (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify educational tools available for increasing engagement (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Select strategies for maximizing engagement with assessments (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Select strategies for maximizing engagement with learning activities (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Select strategies for maximizing engagement with resources (“Assessment: Maximizing Online Engagement” assessed using a submitted document)
Revise assessments to improve engagement and course alignment (“Assessment: Revise an Existing Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Recall the qualities of aligned assessments (“Aligned & Engaging Assessments” assessed using a multiple-answer question)
Match module learning objectives/outcomes with aligned assessments (“Aligned & Engaging Assessments” assessed using a multiple-answer question)
Align existing module learning objectives/outcomes with assessments (“Assessment: Revise an Existing Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Investigate various strategies and educational tools to maximize engagement of one assessment type (e.g., multiple-choice quiz, essay, etc.) in the course (“Assessment: Revise an Existing Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Decide on a strategy for creating an engaging assessment that measures the achievement of the selected learning objective/outcome (“Assessment: Revise an Existing Assessment” assessed using a submitted document)
Revise learning activities to improve engagement and course alignment (“Assessment: Revise an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Define "active learning activities" (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a fill in the blank quiz question)
Match module learning objectives/outcomes with active learning activities (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a matching quiz question)
Determine the alignment of existing learning activities (“Assessment: Revise an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Indicate which existing learning activities are active and which are passive (“Assessment: Revise an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Compare the perceived effectiveness of the active and passive learning activities (“Assessment: Revise an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Decide on a strategy for revising a learning activity to ensure it promotes active learning and measures the achievement of the selected learning objective(s)/outcome(s) (“Assessment: Revise an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Locate new resources or improve previously provided resources to increase engagement and better support the achievement of learning objectives (“Assessment: Revise an Engaging Learning Activity & Resource” assessed using a submitted document)
Identify methods for gathering resources (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a fill in the blank quiz question)
Classify resources as aligned/misaligned based on the context (“Learning Activities & Resources” assessed using a multiple-choice quiz question)
References
The following list includes all the sources used in designing and developing this project.
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