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Collaboration and Distance Learning – Artifact Report
Statement
of Problem
The Collaboration and Distance Learning site was developed as part of
a course on Distance Learning Design. Our focus was on developing a site
that would be used for a summer session class that was to be taught completely
online. Joni Dunlap was the project sponsor and provided content and design
requirements and constraints. The class worked as a team to produce the
site for Joni, who had set the end of the semester as the time frame for
producing a completed product.
Analysis
Our goal was to develop a complete coursed that would be delivered to
other Masters degree students via the World Wide Web. Joni gave us the
topic, guidelines for required elements, and worked with us in determining
delivery and content methodology. We met with Joni no more than four times:
once to receive the assignment, once to discuss parameters, a third time
to review the content we had begun to develop, and then not again until
the product was finished.
Rational
for Approach
Joni wanted us to develop a course that used the constructivist methodology,
so we used that methodology in analyzing, researching, and producing the
product. The entire class worked as a team, breaking out sub-sections
and elements to small groups to speed up production. We took this approach
in order to gain a feel for what the summer students would be experiencing;
in effect we were passing our successes and failures with constructivism
into the product in order to make it a constructivist experience.
Report
on Results
Our class was able to deliver a completed course to Joni at the end of
the course. Unfortunately, our product did not meet her expectations.
In our final meeting, she praised us for creating a constructivist-based
online learning experience, however we had over-expanded the scope of
the class and produced too much to teach in a summer session.
During the debriefing, we decided that we needed more input from Joni at different points along to project to make sure that we were within project scope and that what was being developed was meeting her needs.
Evidence
of Value
The Collaboration and Distance Learning project could have been a full-fledged
class that would have fit into the ILT curriculum. While the final product
was too extensive, Joni did feel we had met the initial goal of the project
(to produce a class) and felt there were elements in the product that
could be lifted and applied to the course she had in mind.
Reflections
The process of producing such a large product seem daunting, as we were
teaching ourselves about distance learning, producing instructional materials,
and applying constructivist theory. In effect, we needed to quickly become
experts on the topic so as to be able to turn around and teach it to those
who were coming after us along the educational path.
Our
class we held over a spring session, and the class we were building was
to be run that same summer. It might have been better if our class was
held in the Fall, and then Joni would have had more time to review the
material and make adjustments over another semester before using the product
to teach a course.
I found the entire process challenging and rewarding. While I was disappointed
the product was not fully utilized, I gained quite a lot of experience
producing instruction within a tight deadline.
Responsibilities
Met
Responsibility 2:Designs instruction or human performance strategy
to meet the needs of learners
One of my main contributions to the project was setting up a threaded discussion and message board system that would have allowed students to collaborate with themselves and the instructor. We felt the board would have been the nexus that brought all the participants together to interact virtually. I modified an “open source” solution obtained from XXX and integrated it into the other pages we produced
Responsibility 4: Understands how to capitalize on teh capacities and abilities of each learner
Because we were learning how to create distance learning instruction as we were learning about it at the same time, there was a steep learning curve. Not only did I need to create systems that would help the summer students learn, but I also helped my fellow team members learn about and use technology to develop our project. Some participants were comfortable using our development tools, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, others were not totally comfortable with the tool and often turned to me for advice and assistance.
Responsibility 5: Manages complex projects and resources in support of learning
This was a large project that needed to be produced quickly. Different participants were able to take on developing different parts, based on their content familiarity and skill sets. I assisted with researching our topics, but my greatest contribution was heading the production tasks: putting the content into web pages, linking the pages together, and creating a unifying interface. I also designed the main logo and icons.
Responsibility 6: Uses incisive and relivant assessment and evaluation techniques
Throughout the project we continually reviewed our materials, making sure they supported previous learning as well conveyed new knowledge. While we did not have access to the students who would be taking the course in the summer session, we felt our class was a similar demographic, so we were constantly checking each others work, making sure that it made sense and supported our learning objectives.