Designing Online Learning Acivities

I have decided to read chapters eight and nine this week in Empowering Online Learning by Bonk & Zhang, (2008). The reading, reflecting, displaying and doing (R2D2) theoretical framework extends the “doing” activities for hands on learners. The pragmatic question implied in chapter eight asks “what do we do now,” and gives guidelines to help the learner express their new acquired knowledge. Simulations can imitate reality situations and challenge the learner with viable situations accommodating new found information, while game playing can add a flavor of fun with a bit of competiveness.
Simulating in the medical field can, in fact, assume a real life situation without the cost of a life. While it would be awe inspiring to assist the learner with real life critical situations, cost for the programs could be disadvantage, especially for a state community college. Online case scenarios are within reach and with the versatility of the internet, most computer systems can accommodate this type of learning without much adjustment. Our college uses Web CT for online testing and is already formatted for discussion groups, case scenarios, games, resources for research, as well as, the current page used for exam purposes.
Wiki’s can be used as an adjunct site to list further practice scenarios or discussion questions, depending on the need. Using other websites will assist the student to learn the internet and introduce sites foreign to them. If needed, SurveryShare, is available to help with data collection as a component of active learning, in a real “world” setting. The key to chapter eight is doing something with newly learned knowledge or skills and gives practical concepts to subsidize the learning process as described by the R2D2 framework model.
Chapter nine gives outcome measures with examples for all the doer strategies discussed in chapter eight. Our school currently uses action research for a community research project that has been changed, this year, to include online postings and guidance from the instructor. Next year this project will be 95% online with an in class presentation for peer review and according to, Bonk & Zhang,
(2008), the learner-centered index is high which gives the project validity.
Content review games, such as jeopardy, bingo, hangman, and word puzzles are user friendly and assist with knowledge retention by actively doing Having the students design a puzzle by using a website such as Puzzlemaker, to test other students is a great idea! Of course, online resources are a must for student research and adding a glossary would be very fruitful. Already, our nursing course lists words in a syllabus for the student’s benefit, so the alternative of devising a plan to have the students share in the responsibility of finding definitions and adding them to the online site is sensational!
As always, new knowledge can produce trepidation and when it stretches a student’s ability and takes them out of their comfort zone, they can be paralyzed with fear. “Doing” can reduce those fears and help the learner gain confidence with new skills, while having fun doing it!

Reflections/Week 10

I have to smile, when reading the task analysis for preparing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was cynical. Then a thought occurred which made me smile broader. A particular movie depicting a young man who was displaced from the African Jungle to experience the American lifestyle knew little of the social existence of a strange place called New York City. He was devoid of all acceptable American standards including the use of silverware, clothing, and suitable behaviors. His caretakers realized they had to include step by step instructions with everything! One funny episode included the young man making a fruit drink in a blender, well, the caretakers forgot to tell him to put on the lid and you can guess what happened! We take so much for granted!
Morrison, Ross, and Kemp (2007) wrote that a topic analysis consists of two types of information including the identification of subject content and how the content is made or the structure of it. They give us the different content structure classifications to aid with teaching design for task analysis. I wish they would have considered topics I could relate to such as fashion design or pedicures/manicures instead of the nails, screws, and bolts that mean nothing to me (I can always consult the subject matter expert (SME)).
I appreciated chapter five and was wide eyed as I discovered all the different types and ways of writing objectives. Prior to this chapter, objectives were unclear and resembled more of goal than instructional purposes. To realize there were domains such as cognitive, psychomotor, and affective gave me insight to the “real” world of writing objectives for instructional planning. To have the observational verbs at my fingertips is a relief and the given examples are great visual tool. I was always guilty of shying away from correcting or writing existing goals because they seemed austere and certainly beyond my expertise. Now I can use either Mager and Beach or Merrill’s models or resort to Bloom’s taxonomy levels, complete with examples, to introduce objectives with focal learning needs in mind!
Different ideas rose as chapter six addressed the sequence of instruction to help the student have greater success with completing the course objectives. Motivation is a key factor in presenting materials and the different sequencing events portrayed in the book give food for thought. Our theory content is limited by the current syllabus and objectives, but realizing all the different instructional methods, winds of change are very near.
I think I am a semantic learner, someone seeking a deeper understanding and wanting higher tests scores, while some of the students definitely fit the phonemic level, not reading for the meaning or learning for application. The teaching steps mentioned in chapter seven are helpful to understand how to plan theory class and achieve the objectives designed for optimal comprehension. Design is often overlooked in the instructional process, but is much needed to assist the learner to master the topic. I like the sequential teaching method of attitudes; it really drives the subject home and gives the learner hands on involvement. After all, from all I have read, student participation is a key component to successful learning!
Reference
Morrison, G., Ross, S., & Kemp, J. (2007). Designing Effective Instruction. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. U.S. A. 76-165.