EL7003+Course+Design


 * ** EL7003-8 ** ||  ||
 * ** Instructional Design and Engaging E-Learning Activities ** || ** 8 Designing an e-Learning Course ** ||
 * Steve, a true pleasure to work with you as I saw steady improvement throughout the course! We still need to work on objectives, even though you are in T&D, it is a vital connection between what a student learns and how we determine learning has taken place. Writing objectives is a vital part of instructional design, but you will get it with more practice I'm sure! The final paper was superior substantially achieving all learning outcomes (or objectives!) and integrated key concepts from the course materials and your own research. You supported your information through a plethora of additional outside sources (some of which I plan to review in more detail!) **
 * Steve, a true pleasure to work with you as I saw steady improvement throughout the course! We still need to work on objectives, even though you are in T&D, it is a vital connection between what a student learns and how we determine learning has taken place. Writing objectives is a vital part of instructional design, but you will get it with more practice I'm sure! The final paper was superior substantially achieving all learning outcomes (or objectives!) and integrated key concepts from the course materials and your own research. You supported your information through a plethora of additional outside sources (some of which I plan to review in more detail!) **

=Designing an e-Learning Course= Oracle provides hardware, software, service, and educational products worldwide. I am an instructor for Oracle America and provide technical training and other services for my customers. In a training role, I teach in physical classrooms, either at an Oracle center, or at a customer’s location, and I also teach online. At Oracle the expectation is that the content and hands-on lab activities for traditional and online courses will be the same ( Watts, 2012a ). Oracle’s online offering is called Live Virtual Classes (LVC). Students and instructor are able to communicate synchronously using a conference call (phone) connection, while the content is projected in real-time to individual work stations by using the WebEx technology management environment. WebEx also provides synchronous two-way chat, polls, question and answers, and video interaction of instructor and students through webcam. Each class participant has access to a lab environment to practice the skills taught in the class through a remote connection, and the WebEx environment can project participant’s lab screens for demonstration or troubleshooting purposes ( Watts, 2012a ). Over the past three years I have observed when LVC classes have six or fewer students, quality scores from post-class survey evaluations are very high, //M// = 99.84, SD = 0.46 (out of 100.0). When there are more students in the class, the quality scores are noticeably lower, //M// = 96.27, SD = 3.35. Degradation of scores is not perfectly correlated between score and class size, so there could be additional confounding variables. However, size of the class does have a strong negative correlation to quality score, r = -.581, p < .001, implying that there is something going on. Since the survey question most affected by this change is , “The instructor managed student participation well,” the course I am focusing on is one that is more likely to have a high enrollment and that I am more likely to teach often. For this reason I have chosen the XML Publisher for PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools Release 8.50 Edition 1 course (Oracle, 2009; Watts, 2012a ).

Course Introduction
XML Publisher for PeopleSoft Enterprise PeopleTools Release 8.50 (XMLP) is a two-day professional development course offered by Oracle to adult functional and technical students who are usually sent by commercial or governmental customers. These students have generally been chosen for training because they are either new hires or have changed positions and require a practical knowledge of how to create and implement an XML Publisher reporting solution to perform their job functions. As the vast majority of students in Oracle courses have a bachelor’s degree the level of content is on par with undergraduate coursework ( Watts, 2012a ). The course content is broken into eleven lessons, namely (a) course overview, (b) technology overview, (c) setting up XML Publisher, (d) creating and registering data source definitions, (e) creating templates, (f) defining XML Publisher reports, (g) running and viewing Query-based XML Publisher reports, (h) implementing sub-templates and template translations, (i) intermediate RTF techniques, (j) running XML Publisher reports using PeopleCode, and (k) a course review ( Oracle, 2009 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). After completion of the course, learners are able to:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Set up an XML Publisher reporting system.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Identify when to use specific data sources, and create them.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Create intermediate RTF, and basic PDF templates.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Define XML Publisher reports, and demonstrate competency with report attributes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Create, implement, and register sub-templates.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Utilize ad hoc, scheduled, and programmatic execution of XML Publisher reports.*

Icebreaker Activity: My Classmate Is
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Task:** Introductory exercise for the beginning of the XML Publisher course <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Objectives:** Learner will utilize the WebEx learning environment to introduce another student to the class.* <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Method:** Synchronous <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Time required:** Depends on the number of students, but usually less than a half-hour. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Materials:** This activity will utilize the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Prior to this activity I will mute all learners on the audio conference call (Audio), will select the environmental properties to allow students to be able to chat between themselves, and will display on the whiteboard the following list: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At the beginning of class, the producer will introduce all students to the various features of the WebEx learning environment; including how to use two-way chat, question and answers, and the muting and unmuting features of the Audio.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">WebEx whiteboard feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Two-way chat feature, and
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Name
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Location and time zone
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Student expectations
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Reporting experience
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Something about you that most people do not know

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">After the producer’s introduction, I will introduce the activity using the Audio, saying: Good morning! I am glad that you are here at the beginning of the PeopleSoft XML Publisher class! To start the class and give you practice with some of the WebEx features that just introduced to you, we are going to do a short activity. In this activity you will be using the chat facility to interview and get to know one of your peers. On the white board you will see a list of five items. In your chat I want you to get answers for at least the information listed. You will have 10 minutes to interview and chat with your fellow student. After the interviews I will then ask you to unmute the audio line, and introduce the student that you interviewed to the rest of the class. If you will look on the right side of the WebEx learning environment you will see a list of the students in this class. You will be interviewing the student immediately below you. , since you are last on the list, you will be interviewing, who is first on the list. Are there any questions about the activity? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At the end of ten minutes, I will direct each student to do two things. First, use the chat to broadcast the name and time zone of their partner to all participants. Second, in order of the student list, use Audio to introduce their partner (Watts, 2012b).

Rationale:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I chose this activity to welcome and introduce the students to myself, the learning environment, and each other, fostering good will, encouragement, and excitement regarding the forthcoming course.

Collaborative Activity: Summarize the Learning
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Task:** A collaborative discussion activity to promote learner’s learning goals. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Objectives:** Learner will demonstrate his or her understanding of the course material and contribute to the collaborative discussion by summarizing salient learning outcomes and concepts and tying them to his or her own rational e for taking the course.* <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Method:** Synchronous <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Time required:** One-half to one hour <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Materials:** This activity will utilize the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Develop five initial questions related to the courses objectives and goals to use as a springboard question for each group. Divide the students into two to five groups of at least three but no more than five students each. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I will establish a break-out session on the Audio and in the two-way chat (chat) window for each group. If this is the first break-out session that we have conducted, I will introduce break-outs and how to switch between the main Audio and chat channels and the break-out Audio and chat. I will introduce the activity by stating: You will be working in small groups as we proceed through this course. The activity we are about to start serves two purposes. You will become familiar with the facilities that enable small group work in the class environment, and in each group you will answer a question regarding the course objectives. The course objectives and the material to be covered are found in lessons one and two, starting on page 1 in the student guide. In a moment, I will send your break-out session number, and a question you will discuss and come to consensus regarding in your group through chat. You will have 20 minutes. During this time you will also need to select a spokesperson to present your answers when we return to the main session. At this point, I will assign groups and send the questions, and the learners will join their break-out sessions. I will rotate my attention to each group in turn. During each turn I will listen and make myself available, but will not interrupt the ongoing discussion unless they have a specific question for me. After 18 minutes I will announce that the groups have two minutes to wrap up their discussions. At the end of 20 minutes I will gather them for the main session. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Upon returning, each spokesperson will read their question and deliver the groups consensus. I will facilitate this discussion determining how each group came to their conclusions, if there were dissenting views, and clarifying any misunderstandings regarding objectives, or ideas for how the knowledge and skills gained in the course can be applied (Watts, 2012c). Each student on the team will be evaluated based on the rubric in Appendix A.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Break-out capability of the audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Break-out capability of the two-way chat feature, and
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Student guide for the XML Publisher course
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This course has been designed to expose you to the knowledge and skills for developing and executing XML Publisher reports in the course of your work. Based on the objectives identified for this class, how do you expect to use the knowledge and skills from this course in your work?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The objectives for this course build on each other so that at the completion of the course you will be able to develop and execute XML Publisher reports with a number of advanced features. Which two of these features do you feel will have the biggest impact on your success in implementing XML Publisher reports?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This course was designed to provide you with useful knowledge and skills in developing and implementing XML Publisher reports. Of the objectives for this course, which one do you feel will be the most useful and why?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">After completing this course and returning to work, you are approached by a co-worker. This co-worker is wondering what they would be able to gain from attending this course. Choose from the objectives of this course and explain why gaining the knowledge and skills associated with one objective are essential for his or her success in XML Publisher.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">After completing this training you will be able to create and execute XML Publisher reports with a number of advanced features. How do you plan on using these skills and knowledge now, and how will this allow you to gain advancement in your company?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process: **

Rationale:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I chose this activity to introduce students to the objectives of the course, and garner buy-in and excitement regarding how the learning will benefit the student in his or her current work setting.

Course Related Activity: XMLP Hands-on
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Task:** Collaborative team activity to promote learner’s learning goals and provide real-world hands-on experience using the technologies and concepts taught in the course. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Objectives:** Learners will collaborate with their group members to develop a case study to identify the various elements in creating a report <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">that will print student confirmation letters from the training database. Once the solution is designed learners will individually create the report in their lab environments, and then demonstrate them. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Method:** Synchronous <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Time required:** One hour to 90 minutes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Materials:** This activity will utilize the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I will create groups of between three and six students per group. On the white board I will include a description of the project, and a picture of a possible solution. The description is as follows: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Using the audio conference call I will introduce the activity as follows: <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In a moment I will divide you into teams and assign your break-out session numbers. Using the knowledge that you have gained in this course, you will determine how you will retrieve the data from the database, and then identify each of the definitions you will have to create in order to print an individual confirmation letter for each student in a specific course that will look something like what is on your screen. You will formulate a complete design of the definitions that are necessary to accomplish this task. Once you have a complete design, you will individually create the report that you have designed. You may continue to collaborate with your teammates, and with me, until each of you has a tested report. You have 75 minutes to complete both the design and the working report. Your team will present your finished report along with all of the definitions that were created to the rest of the class. You may identify a single spokesperson, or you may take turns in this presentation. Are there any questions? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Once I have clarified any questions the activity begins. I will then facilitate the discussion of solutions at the end of the activity (Watts, 2012d). Students will be evaluated on this activity according to the rubric in Appendix A.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Whiteboard feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Break-out features of the audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Break-out features of the two-way chat
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">XML Publisher student guide
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Remote lab environment for each student, and
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Collaboration features of the WebEx environment.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In this activity you will be divided into groups, and in your group you are to plan a report that will print student confirmation letters for students registered in a specific course. The students for each course are listed in the PSU_CRS_SESSN table, and are contained in the PSU_STUDENT_TBL table. The final report should look similar to this:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><a picture of possible solution>
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process: **

Rationale:
Due to the difficulty and intricacies of the course material, a collaborative activity that permits students to discuss the various aspects of a problem, facilitates better learning, long-term remembrance, and understanding of the material.

Interactivity Activity: Quick Polls and Surveys
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Task:** A collaborative activity to promote learner’s learning goals, and demonstrate understanding of complex or confusing course topics. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Objectives:** Learner will participate in an online poll to evaluate his or her understanding of potentially confusing or complex topics in the course material. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Method:** Asynchronous <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Time required:** Five to 10 minutes per module. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Materials:** This activity will utilize <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Identify between one and five questions regarding topics in a specific module that will evaluate learner understanding of course content, while providing an assessment of learner learning and pace. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Prior to the activity I will instruct students regarding the poll and identify the time limit as follows: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">To make sure that we are on track, and to test your understanding of the material from this last module, you will be participating in a short quiz. The quiz will show up in the lower right hand corner of your WebEx environment. In this window you will respond to the questions that are presented. The time remaining for the activity will also be displayed in that window. Once the quiz is complete, the correct answers along with a group average will be displayed. Good Luck! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">After the poll I will facilitate a discussion of any concepts or questions that show a misunderstanding regarding a topic.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Polling and survey feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Grading and tracking feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process: **

Rationale:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">End of module polls provide detailed feedback to the instructor regarding whether learners understand and are tracking with complex or complicated topics of the course.

Reflection Paper
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">A student’s first experience in a class creates in his or her mind an expectation of what is to follow ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">DeSilets & Dickerson, 2008; Watkins, 2005; Zigmond, 2008 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). Icebreaker activities have a number of student benefits; students get to know one another, a spirit of interactivity is created, and the learning environment is intensified by creating a positive tone ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">DeSilets & Dickerson, 2008; Watkins, 2005; Zigmond, 2008 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). The only potential con is if the activity impedes on limited classroom time. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Collaborative and team building activities engenders an interactive and engaging environment enhancing the likelihood of success for the online student ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Abrami, Bernard, Bures, Borkhovski, & Tamim, 2010; Boling, Hough, Krinsky, Saleem, & Stevens, 2011; Pelz, 2011 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). Collaborative activities require the active participation of all students in a group; otherwise some students are carrying the load for the rest. Collaboration facilitates and enhances the four learner relationships; learner-instructor, learner-learner, learner-content, and learner-technology. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The purpose of each course is the changing of the student’s world view in relation to the course content. Course related activities breed student involvement, interest, and increased motivation. To achieve these results the concepts and objectives of the course need to be clearly presented in a lively form so that the learner focuses on the content longer and more deeply, he or she must be actively engaged ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Ali & Ahmad, 2011; Alshare, Freeze, Lane, & Wen, 2011; Lam & Bordia, 2008 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). As long as the activities are relevant and useful, there is no downside to course related activities ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Albrami et al., 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Student interactivity is requisite for learning. Studies show that the benefits of increasing interactivity between students and content, the instructor, and other learners results in greater satisfaction ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Al-Fahad, 2010; Boling et al., 2011; Ferguson & DeFelice, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">), better learning outcomes ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Abrami et al., 2010; Jackson, Jones, & Rodriguez, 2010, Martinez-Caro, 2011 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">), higher motivation ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Omar, Kalulu, & Belmasrour, 2011; Park & Choi, 2009 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">), a sense of community ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Boling et al., 2011; Pigliapoco & Bogliolo, 2008 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">), and enhanced engagement ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Oncu & Cakir, 2011; So & Bonk, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). There is no negative outcome from introducing interactivity into an online course since without it successful learning cannot take place.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Conclusion
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Collaborative activities need to be appropriate to the learning style and type of student, as well as appropriate to the complexity and length of the class. Activities can be used to introduce students to each other, to reflect and engage in higher-level processes regarding class materials, to diminish feelings of isolation and engender social context, and foster excitement and interaction among students irrespective of the distance between them. If time and thoughtful preparation are taken, these activities will result in successful learning and achievement of the benefits described.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP1] Good job on these objectives. Now just make sure that each of the activities meet one or more of the objectives and you are golden! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP2] This is not an objective, but what the student will do. Probably need to add another objective – Students will participate in the WebEx learning environment – for example. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP3] How does this fit with the course objectives presented? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP4] What is highlighted is an objective, the rest if what a student does. Don’t confuse what a student learns with what a student does…


 * = References ||
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