Student Name: Danielle Gaylord Student Number: 040474802

Course Code: EDU2002 Course Name: Developing Online Course Content

Course Learning Evidence of Learning Where/When Experience Level of

Requirement (CLR) Ask yourself: Occurred Competence
● How do I currently use this knowledge/skill? If work or volunteer (1-5)
● What previous training have I had to gain this experience, please name the
knowledge/skill – workshops, courses, on-the-job? company/ organization, and
● What personal development or volunteer experience do I the dates of employment.
have in this area?

1. Translate content I feel like this CLR sums up the whole role of a course I currently facilitate this 5
material into engaging developer/designer! This is definitely something that is always in course at Algonquin and have
presentations for the the back of my mind as I write content, create assessments, and done so for 2 years now
learners. think of engaging ways to package it all up for students so that (from spring 2019).
they will be engaged and enjoy the course.
I have been a course
To illustrate how I have done this in my work experience, I will developer with Algonquin for
share some specific examples. I just finished designing a course 2 years (since June 2019) and
where rather than just provide the learners with the key terms have developed several
they will encounter in the module, they are required to click on a courses in different
panel to have it expand and reveal the definition (see screenshot programs.
below).
I also have students click on each type of descriptive research to
reveal more information about each type. In the image directly
below, you can see that the “Surveys” is selected after it has been
clicked, and then students need to click on the other two types to
switch the focus (“Case Studies” has been selected in the second
image).
One more example of how I try to translate content into engaging
presentations is when I embedded some questions into a video
that learners needed to watch. Below you can see where the
video pauses and they need to click on “Question 1”.

After they do so, they are presented with a quick question to

answer that is related to what they have just heard/seen in the
video.
 I feel that encouraging students to be an active participant in the
content they are presented with deepens their learning and
enhances their experience.

2. Select and justify There are many ways to deliver content, and I think that taking I currently facilitate this 5
different content delivery advantage of as many as possible enhances learner engagement. course at Algonquin and have
methods that enhance Presenting learners with text-based content is essential and done so for 2 years now
learner engagement usually forms the bulk of most of the courses I develop, but this (from spring 2019).
could be quite different in a different field such as interior design
or art which is much more visual therefore perhaps videos or I have been a course
pictures would be more beneficial. developer with Algonquin for
2 years (since June 2019) and
I definitely do rely on videos as there are so many high-quality have developed several
videos available that connect directly to the content I am courses in different
creating. For example, in a module I created on active listening, I programs.
augmented the text-based content with a video clip from “The
Big Bang Theory” show that demonstrated this concept perfectly
(see screenshot below). I felt that while the students would learn
about the basics of active listening by reading the content,
watching a fun and memorable video would then solidify that
new information.

Another example is when, in a module that focused on effective

note-taking, I created an example of someone’s notes and
inserted icons throughout the image. Students were encouraged
to try to identify which specific note-taking strategy was being
identified, and then they could click on the icon to reveal the
answer.
 Finally, reflecting the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework in a
course provides wonderful opportunities for learners to engage
with their peers, often on a discussion board. When learners are
encouraged to respond in a thoughtful manner to a peer’s
posting, they are given the opportunity to understand the
content from someone else’s perspective. I can’t count the
number of peer replies on a discussion board I have read where
students have said “Wow, I never thought about it that way!”
While the information provided by the students in their initial
discussion posts isn’t created ahead of time by a course
developer, the opportunities to do so are. It is for this reason that
I always create discussion board activities (both graded and some
ungraded), just to take advantage of these wonderful “a-ha”
moments that come when one student phrases something in just
the right way that it finally clicks for someone else.

3. Select and implement The online design principle that highlights the value of using a I currently facilitate this 5
content based on online variety of media in a course is something I always have in the course at Algonquin and have
design principles back of my mind. I have taken online courses where I was simply done so for 2 years now
greeted with a wall of text, and I remember feeling both (from spring 2019).
discouraged and bored before I even got started. I wasn’t
motivated to even get started on that reading. When I contrast
that with other courses where there is a little paragraph of text I have been a course
followed by a picture, then more text followed by a short video developer with Algonquin for
clip, I can imagine how that would have made such a difference 2 years (since June 2019) and
for me as a learner. I would have been eager to see how the have developed several
picture connects to what I just read and excited to be able to courses in different
watch a little video. Having a course broken up by media programs.
provides learners with little milestones where they’re just
working on small chunks of information at a time rather than
being faced with pages and pages of text.

The second design principle I reflect in the content I create is

making a course interactive. I just finished designing a course
where rather than just providing the learners with information
about the three goals of psychology, they need to click on a panel
to have it flip over and reveal the information (see screenshot
below).

I felt that was much more interesting than simply listing three
points that they would be likely to just gloss over. The degree to
which learners are asked to be active participants in a course has
a significant impact on their level of motivation and degree of
engagement.

One of the EKSs listed under this CLR is constructing an online

module using a storyboard. I do this in every course I develop as
it is how I communicate my vision with the course designers who
 then bring my course to life. I have inserted a snapshot of one
storyboard I created.

As you can see, I have experience with creating learning

outcomes and activities (two EKSs listed under this CLR) as they
are required elements in every storyboard that is created.

4. Identify and There is one type of social media I rely on and find extremely I currently facilitate this 5
demonstrate types of beneficial, and that’s YouTube. Not only do I occasionally use it to course at Algonquin and have
social media available in deliver content (as I explained above), but I also use it to augment done so for 2 years now
learning management the typed assignment instructions that are available to students. (from spring 2019).
systems For every assignment in all of my courses, I create a screencast
where I go through all of the expectations in detail and I have been a course
preemptively answer common questions or areas where students developer with Algonquin for
tend to get stuck. I then post these screencasts on my YouTube 2 years (since June 2019) and
channel and post a link in the course. While YouTube isn’t a social have developed several
media tool that is directly available in Brightspace, it is one that courses in different
Brightspace supports, and I am happy to take full advantage of it programs.
as I have heard countless times how helpful those videos are to
students.
5. Organize course In one particular course development project, only modifications I currently facilitate this 5
content and activities in to the content (rather than starting from scratch), were required, course at Algonquin and have
learning management so I edited the course (content and assessments) directly in done so for 2 years now
systems Brightspace as opposed to working from a storyboard to send to (from spring 2019).
a designer. I did need to redesign the course flow, so this
required me to change the order of some modules, condense a I have been a course
few into one, and expand one into a few, so there was some more developer with Algonquin for
complicated organization that was required. 2 years (since June 2019) and
have developed several
As a facilitator of numerous courses at the college, I will often courses in different
propose changes to my course content or assessments when I programs.
feel they are required, and once approved, I will go into
Brightspace to make these changes directly. Just this past term,
we discovered that all of the assessments in a certain course were
focused on Early Childhood Education even though it’s a general
education course and students from many other programs are
taking it. While I was able to keep a couple of learning activities
and make some small adaptations to others, I did need to design
mostly all new activities and assignments, so I determined where
in the course they should be placed, and reflected these changes
in the assignment folders, gradebook, and in the content itself
(because students are guided to the activities and assignments as
they make their way through each module in Brightspace). I also
felt that certain activities that we were able to keep were better
suited to occur earlier in the course, so I organized those
activities in Brightspace accordingly.