Instructional Design: Online Learning

Final Post: Contributions to Learning and Learning Community and Self-Score.

EDLD 5318

Score 91/100

Usability Video Reflection

Through completing the coursework in this most recent installment of the Applied Digital Learning program, I have had the opportunity to reflect on how to design an online course. These concepts are imperative if I want my innovation plan to succeed. There have been many times when I have heard fellow educators mumble, “I wish there was a way to reach my students more effectively than I am right now.” A Blended Learning course could be the answer to that wish.

In preparing my Instructional Design Model, I had to think about how I could improve the involvement of students in my classes. I opted to explore the development of an online Creative Writing Course. This could be offered as a class outside a student's normal school day or a home bound student who wishes to continue to earn credits while outside of school, or a Blended Learning (both online and face-to-face format) class. After considering the reasons why and my approach, I created my Rationale Video. I then worked to produce my Fink’s 3-Column table. As I thought about the progress of this online course, I decided to develop the first unit focusing on the Fictional Short Story. Since my district utilizes the Google Suite LMS to disseminate announcements, updates, and coursework to students, I developed a Google Classroom to facilitate the course. I then created a second Video to explain the structure of the course. I then had several students and colleagues complete a usability test on my Google Classroom course. I used a Google Form to conduct the feedback, which mixed the Lichert/Linear Scale and open-ended question responses. These are detailed in my Compilation Canva presentation and Compilation Video.

I would like to thank my EDLD 5318 core group members:

Jackie Bittner, Frank Seneriz,Kelsi Martin, and Whitney Davis for their support, guidance, patience, and insights during this term. They have been a true tour de force, and I am honored to have worked with them. Jackie set up a Padlet for us to collaborate and communicate. My group supported me through all the personal stuff I have been going through and were there for last-minute feedback on my work.

What has worked, and what can be done better?

EDLD 5318: As a class, we all joined a GroupMe chat where we have been posting our work for anyone to review and give feedback. In working with my Learning Community, some of whom are from the EdTech program, I got to learn from them and have been able to help them with certain elements that they were not familiar with. Constant communication with feed forward and feedback has been invaluable in this course. One of the things that I continue to struggle with is the balance of work/ school/ family during this program. I have been given increased responsibilities on the PBIS, UDL, and Cultural Proficiency Programs in my school and district. I then have to manage the time that is left between family and the ADL program, which makes me a very busy person with what seems less time each day.

Contributed to, helped build, and provided feedback to your core collaboration group and revised all assignments and reflected on revisions in this contribution to a learning activity.

In my Core collaboration group for EDLD 53189, I was able to provide feed forward and feed back on the work that was done throughout the course.

Completed ALL of the course readings, videos, and supporting resources.

I assigned myself a 91/100 for my overall grade for EDLD 5318. My assignments were completed. I watched all of the videos in order to understand the information for the group discussion posts. I was able to attend every online class meeting and was able to get my work and collaborative discussions in on time, but I realize they could have been more developed than what they were.

Met the various course activity deadlines indicated in the calendar.

I assigned myself a 91/100 for EDLD 5389 because although I completed all the required assignments, I submitted the module 2 collaborative discussion and Implementation late. I feel accomplished in the fact that I did attend and contributed to all scheduled class meetings on Tuesday evenings at 6 pm. I often received the clarity I needed for assignments in these class meetings and found a bond with my fellow cohort members.

I also believe that a rating of 91/100 is accurate because I

Although I did not take a leadership role in my core group, I made sure that I gave the feed forward and feedback when my group members asked for it.
Contributed to my learning and the learning of my colleagues by participating in ALL activities.
Actively contributed in the various course forums.
Posted most of my Collaborative Discussion posts in on time for comments from my group members, but did comment on the posts submitted by my classmates on time.
My postings reflect breadth and depth of thinking with research to support my thinking and are cited using APA.
Additional postings were made that did not require research but were rather to contribute to the learning.

I continue to develop a growth mindset throughout the ADL program and look forward to implementing my Innovation Plan to help my students become the learners they need to be in the future.

Implementation of Online Creative Writing Course

February 23, 2025

The class is an English Language Arts elective class in Creative writing. The class is intended to help students gain their original voice by giving them choices in subject matter and content in synthesizing original pieces of literature. This course is offered to students in ninth through twelfth grades.

I have chosen to utilize the Blended Classroom approach for this course. I look to advance Blending Learning with the flex model approach. By using online, self-paced, project-based learning, small group and one-on-one conferencing, I want to promote increased positive student engagement through peer and self-critiques. I hope this model will increase student responsibility for their learning while using the COVA model, providing students with choice, ownership, and voice through and in authentic learning experiences. This mode of instruction aligns with my district’s adoption of the four “C’s”: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.

Google Classroom

Video Explanation

REFERENCES

Bates, A.W. (2022). Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and Learning.

https://pressbooks.pub/teachinginadigitalagev3m/chapter/section-2-4-does-technology-change-the-nature-of- knowledge/

Finks Taxonomy & 3 Column Table Resources –

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gMqxX2SEtWmnQ37m4UxWUcWxy0w87rWj?usp=sharing

Harapnuik. D. (2021). Assessment Of/For/As learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8900

Harapnuik, D. (2018, July). COVA. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6991

Harapnuik, D. & Thibodeaux, T. (2023). COVA: Inspire Learning through Choice, Ownership,

Voice, and Authentic Experiences. Amazon.com Services.

Harapnuik. D. (2020). Feedforward vs. Feedback. https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=8273

Top 7 Instructional Design Models to Help You Create Effective Learning Material. (2021).

https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/instructional-design-models-process/

Instructional Design Model: Creative Writing

Short Story Unit

February 2, 2025 (extension: February 9, 2025)

Video Rationale

What is your subject, level of instruction, and intended audience?

The class is an English Language Arts elective class in Creative writing. The class is intended to help students gain their original voice by giving them choices in subject matter and content in synthesizing original pieces of literature. This course is offered to students in ninth through twelfth grades and the intended audience is those students.

What are the key institutional documents (i.e. syllabus, outline, accreditation standards, etc.) that will influence your design process?

As a teacher in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I will utilize the PA Common Core standards for Reading, Writing. Speaking, and Listening; the district-approved curricula documents; and the course outlines and materials the English department has adopted in creating and updating this course. Students are given a course-specific syllabus at the beginning of the semester. Google Classroom is the district’s LMS system utilized most at the secondary level in both our academic and Career and Technical Education Programs. Students will be given rubrics at the beginning of each unit of the Creative Writing class.

What design approach have you chosen? Why?

I have chosen to utilize the Blended Classroom approach for this course. I look to advance Blending Learning with the flex model approach. By using online, self-paced, project-based learning, small group and one-on-one conferencing, I want to promote increased positive student engagement through peer and self-critiques. I hope this model will increase student responsibility for their learning while using the COVA model, providing students with choice, ownership, and voice through and in authentic learning experiences. This mode of instruction aligns with my district’s adoption of the four “C’s”: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.

Who controls the learning?

Once the foundational information has been reviewed, the students are in control of their learning. By using the COVA + CSLE concepts, students will use their judgment as to what and when they will utilize to complete the course assignments. Students will be encouraged to speak with classmates, their parents, and others, use textual and video resources to gauge their progress, and use the teacher-mentor as a “last resource” when all others have failed to provide students with the information they are looking for. The teacher-mentor will be available for in-person one-on-one meetings during each class meeting and email and text communication during office hours. Students will be encouraged to set aside daily writing time. This will allow students to pace their learning while committing to assignment/ project completion.

Are you using competency-based education (CBE) or outcome-based education (OBE)? Why?

I plan on utilizing both CBE and OBE in the course. Successful writers instinctively know how to use rhetorical techniques and when to violate the standards set by the conventions of Standard Written English (SWE) for good fiction. Ensuring that students are aware of the basics of SWE and how creative writing and fiction writing may violate the rules of SWE allows the students to develop critical thinking and learn to “switch” between the requirements of formal essays and creative writing tasks.

How will you balance assessment Of/For/As learning?

Assessment Of Learning - Summative: quizzes, progress checks

Assessment For Learning – Formative: exit tickets, and class discussions

Assessment As Learning - Self-reflections and peer reviews where growth is evaluated

Are you moving your learners into deeper learning? If not, why not?

Yes. Students will work under the COVA+CSLE environment throughout this unit and the course. Empowering students to work independently, at their pace, and utilizing the experience of their peers before approaching the teacher-mentor with questions allows students to engage in critical thinking, self-reflection, communication, and creativity. These are skills that self-directed auto didacts need to be successful in the future. Students today need to be problem-solvers- able to utilize the tools and people at their disposal without asking the teacher, “Is this right?” It allows them to fail and learn from those failures, not abandoning the task because they have failed.

BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL (BHAG): At the end of the unit, ninth through twelfth-grade students will create at least one selection of original fiction and build their self-reflection, rhetorical, and academic communication skills. Students will begin to consider the layout and structure of a literary magazine as an end-of-course project.

Fink's 3 Column Table

Schedule:

Week 1:

Course Introduction
- Teacher- Mentor- “Who Am I?”
- Syllabus review
- Classroom expectations
- Classroom expectations: students present ideas concerning the day-to-day operations of the classroom, and those ideas are discussed, modified, and refined between students and the teacher-mentor to align with district, school, and best practices and standards.
- Student presentation- “Who Am I?”
- Instruction on P.O.W.E.R. writing system
- Freytag Model review

Week 2:

Video lessons on the elements, construction, figurative language, and conventions of Standard Written English (SWE) and Standard English Conventions (SEC)
Lesson on the differences between the short story, novella, and novel.
Students complete Quick Writes on “Givens-” short scenarios that allow the students to practice the concepts reviewed in the video lessons.
Exit Tickets

Week 3:

Small group work on dissecting the structure and elements of a published short story
- Groups will share through the use of Google Slides, Prezi, Canva, hard copy presentations, or other presentation means and compare the analysis of groups to each other.
Students create alternate endings or extend the conclusions of the dissected stories.
Students engage with the teacher-mentor in one-on-one conferences and with each other to present ideas for their first piece of original fiction.

Week 4:

Students work to synthesize their original short stories. Students will engage in
- Drafting
- Walk and talks
- Conferences with teacher-mentor as needed
- Re-watching videos on structure and rhetorical techniques
- Random check-ins with the teacher-mentor.

Week 5:

Students continue the work begun in week 4 through the writing lab/ workshop.
Students will pair-share with each other on the drafts in progress and complete exit ticket reviews on the stories they reviewed

Week 6:

The students will continue drafting their short stories seeking critiques and feedback using the same techniques utilized in weeks 4 and 5.
The teacher-mentor will hold one-on-one meetings with students to review drafts and provide support and guidance as needed.

Week 7:

Students will submit final writings for evaluation by teacher-mentor and peer critiques in a “Coffee and Critique” format.
Students will participate in self-reflections on their work and the processes focusing on self-commendations and recommendations for improvement in future tasks.

Course Syllabus: