Instructional Design Portfolio

Here are some samples of the work I have completed in my role as an Instructional Designer. For more samples please email me at amanda.hopkins@gmail.com

Technical Writing Certificate, Mount Royal College

• Total of six courses developed for the Fall of 2006. Each course was developed using a similar template and similar Blackboard structure to maintain consistency across the Certificate.

Nursing Portfolio

• Guidelines for Instructors to use when teaching students how to create a professional portfolio.

Student Online Learning Orientation

• As Mount Royal College moves toward computer assisted or on-line delivery of course materials, it is of benefit to you, the student, to be oriented to using the tools and skills necessary for completing these courses. This site has been built to provide you with the tools necessary to successfully navigate and utilize the learning resources available within a computer assisted course or a fully on-line course environment. The tutorials are not meant to be exhaustive, but introductory; they will not cover every feature of the software or learning platforms, but will enable you to navigate and work within these environments.

Macroeconomics

• The following is a Macroeconomics course I developed. The course is one of the first Economics courses in Alberta, Canada to be delivered in a full online version.

Wikis and Blogs for the Classroom

It's been way too long since I have posted anything on the blog. I think life just gets in the way and sometimes I get discouraged by the monotony of the day to day-especially in the area of work that I am involved in- online learning. Sometimes you need to read an article or go see a talk to feel motivated and realize that what you are doing daily is really worth it!

I had this experience yesterday after going to a talk at the University of Calgary. The talk was given by Dr. Curtis Bonk of Indiana University - a guru in Blended Learning and in Educational Technology. I loved his passion for his profession. He was a great speaker and certainly brought up some interesting points. Loved it when he said "STOP comparing face to face with blended learning... they are 2 different strategies for teaching." Anyways as a result of his talk I have felt re-invigorated about e-learning and about what I do, day in and day out.

I was forwarded a really great article on the use of Wikis in the class and I am extracting the tips that were offered from the article:

Approach 1: Student Journaling
Instructors want students to journal for a number of reasons: to demonstrate writing proficiency, to expose understanding (and misunderstanding) of conceptual knowledge, to establish the habit of regular reflection, and to engage in meta-cognitive reflection, to name a few. The wiki allows students to journal for their own benefit, or for peer or instructor review.

Approach 2: Personal Portfolios
By enabling students to collect and organize digital assets such as course notes, images, Web resources, and PowerPoint slides, the wiki can help learners to make connections between and among those assets.

Approach 3: Collaborative Knowledge Base
In the more classic use of the wiki, groups can use the environment to create a shared knowledge base of information. This can be used to allow students to develop a project in small groups, to work on a small piece of a larger class project, or even to have students themselves create and maintain the course Web site.

Approach 4: Research Coordination and Collaboration
The wiki allows multiple collaborators who are separated by physical space to collect ideas, papers, timelines, documents, datasets, and study results into a collective digital space. Researchers can also use the space to store draft files for their papers: MS Word, LaTEX, or even writing directly into the Web pages of the wiki. Additionally, funders and junior researchers can be given "read only" access to all or certain parts of the space.

Approach 5: Curricular and Cross-Disciplinary Coordination
As departments become increasingly creative in their efforts to accommodate more students in a distributed/blended learning environment, curricular coordination among faculty and T.A.s gets increasingly important. The wiki allows for departmental personnel, instructors, and teaching assistants to organize common course assets, such as syllabi, office hours, and assessments, without having an endless email chain or difficult to schedule face-to-face meetings.

Use Case 6: Conference and Colloquia Web Site/Coordination
Many departments, schools, and scholarly centers at the university have academic conferences and colloquia. By allowing presenters and attendees access to add and edit content, the conference wiki can serve as a resource before, during, and after the event itself. The wiki can also be used by conference administrators as a means of organizing the event.

(Examples from: http://www.campus-technology.com/news_article.asp?id=17502 )

Learning Outcomes drive PROCESS and CREDIBILITY

Learning outcomes, learning outcomes, learning outcomes... something that is stressed daily by my co-worker Don Watts, but only recently has been enforced in my current role. Learning Outcomes drive the quality of learning and of course design.

Learning Outcomes are the backbone to each assessment, activity, and related content.

A practice that our Instructional Design team needs to become more deliberate about is including the following instructions with each Activity and Assessment:

• A Description of the Activity/Assessment
• "How to" instructions on successful completion
• How to submit the activity/assessment (technical information)
• What will the learner be graded on? What is the rubric for the activity/assignment?

Not only will this create a quality course, but it will also reinforce the outcomes of the course.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

The first morning of the workshop there was an invited speaker. Dr. Chere Campbell Gibson spoke to our group regarding the process that we would be going through in the 2 days. She framed the workshop by giving a talk on "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue". We all attend workshops or conference sessions where you wish the speaker would just stop and surrender to the group. Dr. Gibson was in a league of her own! She was motivational, academic, and knowledgeable in the subject of elearning- characteristics I highly value in the field of online learning.

Something Old

• Distance Education and Quality Assessment.
  This was a great way to frame the conversation with Dr. Gibson. She began by describing the "Something Old" in context of e-learning. That something old is DISTANCE EDUCATION! It has been around for years and the exercise of assessing quality in distance education is old as well.

Something New

• Technologies
  Audio, Podcasts, Tapes, VOIP, Video, Print, Computer
  Refers to the NEW technologies that are used to deliver Distance Education.

Something Borrowed

• Quality Characteristics of Learning
• Feedback
• Stimulating conversation
• Participation
• Motivation=engagement
• Hands on
• Assignments/Exercises relevant to the content
• Realistic Application
• Enthusiastic/Passionate Teacher

Something Blue

• Learner that Fails

Quality Characteristics: NEED ACCESS TO SUCCESS

What do learners wants?

• Course Structure and Good Design
• Learning Community
• Access to Technical Support: 24 x 7
• Information on what students need before the course starts
• Consistency between courses
• Assignment detail and clarity- what is expected?
• Detailed feedback
• Faculty member biography and intellectual knowledge of the course/subject matter
• Mandatory learner orientation

Anything available to the F2F learner should be available to the online learner!

• Program Information
• Q&A readily available
• self-assessment

What do faculty need from Administrators to be successful elearning instructors?

• Incentives- release time, rewards
• Class size restrictions
• Instructional Designers
• Resources
• Understand why and how the course fits within the mission of the institution
• Experienced knowledge
• Policies and procedures "segregated fees"
• Forward thinking technologists
• 360 evaluation of graduates- document the positive/negative
  

Reflections from Evaluating Distance Learning Courses for College Credit

I attended a two day workshop in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the American Council on Education. The workshop was "Evaluating Distance Learning Courses for College Credit" and it was absolutely incredible! It was a two day (8:30 am - 5:00 pm each day) hands on worskhop with only 22 attendees, great environment for small group discussion.

The Workshop Outcomes included:
At the conclusion of the workshop, the participant should be able to:

• Describe Quality-Driven Distance Learning
• Discuss the signifcance of each element in the ACE/CREDIT Review Process
• Apply the Guiding Principles for Distance Learning in a Learning Society when examining Distance Learning Courses
• Apply Evaluative Criteria when Reviewing F2F and DL Courses
• Develop knowledge and skills to successfully review either F2F or DL courses for college credit

I have decided to post a variety of learning experiences from the workshop. Rather than posting my experience as one long summary of notes, I thought it best to post them as individual experiences.... so enjoy!

Assessments- sometimes they are the exercises to the final marathon

In the Faculty Learning Community for Blended Learning, we had an interesting conversation about assessment and learning outcomes. As I grow in my position as an Instructional Designer I realize the importance of learning outcomes. In the learning community we discussed the importance of verifying your learning outcome with an assessment. I really appreciated this conversation as it made me reflect on the courses I develop with faculty. It also requires that I become more deliberate and mindful of the work I do in developing courses.

As our community began discussing assessments, the question was raised "Do we motivate students by giving them assignments worth 1 and 2%?" This then brought forth the question about the role of Discussion Boards as a tool for assessment. Often, as I work with faculty in developing online courses it is suggested that they give "participation" points to students for their contributions to the Discussion Board. However, this only winds up being about 5% of their final course mark.

So... is it motivating and valuable to the student's learning experience to complete the "piddley" assignments?

In some cases I argue YES. I see learning as a process and something that requires constant practice. Over the course of a semester it is valuable to have students use the discussion board as a reflective area and as a place to collaborate with other students and give eachother feedback. Reflection and writing is a great way to think about one's understanding of material. If an instructor assigns reflective assignments or even Q & A assignments in the Discussion Board that may only be 1-2% of a student's weekly mark, aren't we assisting them in exercising their learning? I see learning as an exercise that needs to be continually worked on, week after week after week, so that they are trained and prepared for their marathon... their final exam.

Instructional Design: What is the Research Saying?

As with all educational technology research, Instructional Design research is constantly evolving. Best practices in Instructional Design is really about keeping up with the research and evaluating the work that you are doing. Below I have listed some key themes that are present in Instructional Design Research.

The following information is extracted from L. Dee Fink's paper Intergrated Course Design: A Model for Creating Significant Learning Experiences. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003 as well as from MRC's Instructional Design Team, 2005.

The key to designing a signficant learning experience is to follow the key components of Integrated Course Design, as shown in the diagram below.
Ensuring that your learning goals, teaching & learning activities, and feedback & assessment goals are aligned will enable you to create an effective and significant learning experience for the student.

Key Questions to ask When Designing Learning Experiences

• What situational factors play an important role, when designing courses and curricula?
• What should our full set of learning goals be?
• What kinds of feedback and assessment should we provide?
• What kinds of teaching and learning activities will suffice, in terms of achieving the full set of learning goals we set?
• Are all the components connected and integrated, i.e. are they consistent with and supportive of each other?
  

Course Structure

Key to excellent teaching in an online course is course structure. Take a look at the following article entitled Course Structure: Most Important Factor in Student Satisfaction.

The Role of the Online Teacher and Student

The following information is from: Palloff, R. and Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student: A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Josey Bass.

The Role of the Online Teacher is about creating a learner-focused online environment.

What does this mean..? According to Maryellen Weimer, author and professor, there are 5 key changes that need to occur to create a learner-centred environment.

1. The Balance of Power Needs to Change
   Become a "guide on the side" and be the CONTENT EXPERT! "As content experts, instructors create the container for learning, establishing meaningful boundaries to the area and helping students to stay on track. However, they are not the fount form which knowledge flows." (p.125)
   
   
2. The Function of Content Needs to Change
   Have students work together to create knowledge and meaning. Make the process of learning collaboratively the focus and not the content.
   
   
3. The Role of the Teacher Needs to Change
   "If the goal of teaching is to promote learning, then the role the teacher takes to accomplish that goal changes considerably." (Weimer. 126) Students want the teacher to be PART of the class- either as the facilitator or co-learner.
   
   
4. The Responsibility for Learning Needs to Change
   Students will get out of an online course what they put in...
   
   
5. The Purpose and Process of Evaluation Need to Change
   Reflection, surveys, "muddiest point".

What does the Online Learner Want?

• Reassurance that their postings on the online discussion are on track
• CLEAR instructions: expectations and assignments
• Course assessments and surveys- frequent "temperature" checks
• Reasonable work load
• Prompt feedback
• Orientation to the technology
• Technical Support
  

Teaching Excellence in an Online Course

My interest in online teaching excellence began when I took a course The Spirituality of Teaching Excellence at the University of Calgary as part of my Masters in Educational Technology. As I read all of the readings, I realized that teachers value the face to face contact with students. I, too, am a person that values connection however my job is to develop online courses for faculty to teach at a distance. In order for me to live an undivided life between my work and my passion for teaching and connection, I had to find the teaching excellence in online learning.

Attached is part of my paper on Teaching Excellence in an Online Course.