Curriculum+Design

Online curriculum design should look like this...

Sometimes design can be quite elaborate in nature and complex. Develop a "road map" to help you guide your route to address your objectives.

A. Navigation
Okay, this is a little "too much" navigation but you get the idea.

D. Process

 * Allow some time for participants to process and think about what they are learning
 * Perhaps even to go back and re-read a section or taking a break
 * This is a good time to "go outside" and perhaps look at resources or enable choice making for specific interests
 * Think, pair and share time
 * Posting to a blog or wiki
 * Journal writing - thoughts, questions, feelings, idea generation, etc.

H. Reiteration/teaching
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy: **Key:** Elements colored in black are recognized and existing verbs, Elements colored in blue are new digital verbs (please note: British English spelling) The digital additions and their explanations are as follows:


 * Highlighting** – This is a key element of most productivity suites; encouraging students to pick out and highlight key words and phrases is a technique for recall.
 * Bookmarking or favorite-ing** – this is where the students mark for later use web sites, resources and files. Students can then organize these.
 * Social networking** – this is where people develop networks of friends and associates. It forges and creates links between different people. Like social bookmarks (see below) a social network can form a key element of collaborating and networking.
 * Social bookmarking** – this is an online version of local bookmarking or favorites, It is more advanced because you can draw on others' bookmarks and tags. While higher order thinking skills like collaborating and sharing, can and do make use of these skills, this is its simplest form - a simple list of sites saved to an online format rather than locally to the machine.
 * Searching or "Googling"** - Search engines are now key elements of students' research. At its simplest the student is just entering a key word or phrase into the basic entry pane of the search engine. This skill does not refine the search beyond the key word or term.
 * Bullet pointing** – This is analogous to listing but in a digital format.

Author: Churches, A. 2007, Educational Origami, Bloom's and ICT Tools

=5 key elements in Successful online learning (Adapted from SUNY Learning Network, 2007)=

1. Model - model lessons, plans, activities, content, etc.
 * leadership
 * peer lead trainers
 * interdisciplinary approach to build online community developers
 * access to resources
 * hand over hand activities (e.g. online course with face-to-face training and individual support)
 * templates and wizard type orientations
 * repetitive training for professional developers

2. Support
 * Individual instructional design support -- your Ed Tech program or each other (?)
 * Technical help desk for participants
 * ... in a variety of formats
 * key leader to help with direction

3. Approaches
 * Opportunities for participation
 * Peer mentoring to assist with trouble shooting
 * Consultants must develop the course themselves
 * Robust, reliable, and a stable network & technology

4. Evaluation/Assessment
 * Commitment to the process - what is working; what can be improved
 * Observe, research, collect and share best practices
 * Collect and contrast data
 * Provide equivalent or alternative assessment choices: demonstration of knowledge

5. Quality
 * course content - planning for updates/edits
 * quick start course design for immediate success
 * opportunities for reflection, evaluation and revision
 * on-going support and training