This course is scheduled to be designed in the summer and taught and evaluated in Fall 2006.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

UDL Reading First 4 Chapters

Rereading these chapters has caused me to rethink the strategy that I will be using to create the content for the course.

It seems to me that many of the strategies presented in this book cannot be applied in sections but need to be applied consistently throughout the course. If I decide to use one type of support in one section I need to make sure that the same type of support is provided in the other units. Planning will be very important, not only in the design of the look of the web page, but in the inclusion of specific instructional support alternatives.

At the same time, I am aware that I need to begin creating some of the pages for the course so that I can see what training needs I will have to design the elements which I want to include.

I know that I must consider the recognition, strategic and affective networks as well as contextual and detailed presentation of information as I design the lessons. I will include text, audio/speech and images to present the information in the lessons. I will include readings from the text, outside reading materials/articles, assignment instructions presented in text, speech and visual formats. For the images I will include short video clips using voiceover powerpoints and some graphics. During the introduction to the unit I want to include the UPPOPR strategy both in text and in speech format.

For each unit, I want to include some goalsetting, self-monitoring and reflective exercise. I may do that as a short answer quiz or in discussion. I can't decide if I want to use the more private setting of the quiz in which students may reveal more of their process and their failures which is ultimately important for learning or if I want use the discussion which will enable them to read each others work. When I do this in face to face classes, I ask them to write and them invite them to share some details from what they have written. I haven't decided if I want to do both or just one. Maybe what I can do is to do the quiz for one unit and then the discussion for another unit and see what differences I see and what differences they see and then ask the students to choose which one they think they learned more from and want to continue doing. This is good in a way but does not fit with the consistency which I want to build in the class.

I was reading "Term Length as an Indicator Of Attrition in Online Learning
David Diaz and Ryan Cartnal" http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=196 and started to wonder about the length of the class. That is something which I need to consider. How will the units be structured and what is my target length for the course? The authors argue that even though most students' stated preference is 10 weeks, their finding suggest that 9 and 6 weeks is the optimal length. I still haven't decided.

2 Comments:

Blogger Rich said...

I agree. The book is a methodological approach to teaching in general, and teaching students with new media in particular. The central idea, to me, is multiple access points. Developing a network structure of presentation and entry points into the content. As we've discussed, if you do this for one unit that will be a good starting point.

I think the quizzes should reinforce the positives. This is what I've setup in CourseCompass with our 2311 online course. If there are incorrect answers, the response teaches what should have been answered and why.

I disagree with the authors about length of class. I think that is relative to the subject matter and the type of student. Some classes, however, need a baseline of information--frontloading, we call it, with readings and content. And then move into exploration thereafter. We did that with grantwriting, in a way. Other courses require exploration throughout while reading in order for personal application. And that's the approach with classical rhetoric.

What's the approach with the course you're designing?

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