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Justification for Course Design
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According to Moore, & Kearsley, (2005), “the information and activities that are communicated in distance learning materials should be organized into self-contained lessons or units”. I also concur with their assessment that one of the main reasons students pursue distance learning program, is that a course of study provides a structure of the content and the learning process. For distance learning in K-12 environment, it is even more imperative to have this principle fully captured.
Moore and Kearsley also posed a number of questions that need to be addressed in the design and development of a distance education course. I will list a few that I believe are crucial in the K-12 environment. These are:
- What content should be included or left out?
- How will the material be sequenced and structured?
- What media will be used to present the different "chunks" of material?
- What teaching strategies will be used?
- How much interactions will there be between students and instructor, students and students?
- How will learning be evaluated and what form will feedback to students take?
- What production methods will be used to create the materials?
The stages in Instructional Systems Design (ISD) as outline by Moore, & Kearsley, (2005), was adopted and adapted to guide in the decisions for this model, and explained accordingly:
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Analysis stage in which I analyze the content-to identify the specific skills that students require to demonstrate mastery of subject matter, the prior knowledge of the learners, the learning environment, and the required knowledge and technology skills that students need to possess if they are to be able to perform the desired behavior at the desired level. Since it is assumed that learners had prior knowledge of the Technology Education content, as well as technology skills, the learning objectives are set accordingly.
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The Design stage is loaded with emphasizes on the performance of the students on the activities, and the interactions of students based on the learning objectives. I tried to match activities, teaching strategies, and the media selected to communicate the information the students in order to provide an opportunity for them to practice that particular behavior. The assessment, review and feedback procedures are designed to ensure that the student performs, in writing or media, what is specified in each objective.
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During the Development stage I worked tirelessly to create the instructional materials such as charts, rubrics, videos, tutorials instruction sheets, self-reflection questions, etc. to communicate what is needed for achieving the learning objectives.
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Though the Implementation phase is to be determined, the instructional materials are already prepared for delivery,and activities designed to initiate student-students and teacher-to-student interactions are also prepared in advance.
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