Really wondering what sort of technology to use to support the site.
As I’m focussing on Google tools it would be nice to build the resource in Google Sites. BUT, these are somewhat limited – a websearch has not shown up any visually appealing user friendly examples of sites using Google Sites, so I remain to be persuated. Also, I need to check out the plugin-ability of Google Sites – is it open enough to embed content from other sources such as slideshare, infographics etc?
WordPress is usable but I’m not completely comfortable with it even after having used it in the Instructional Design module last year, and for this eportfolio of course. But – it looks good, is very easy to embed content from other sources – so it’s very likely option.
Interactivity
This resource will be self-supporting ie once it goes live I will not be answering queries about how to use the resource. However, maybe a twitter hashtag could be used to build in some interactivity and allow a community of practice to build up around the resource? Can add a twitter feed and perhaps populate it with some initial tweets/remarks to stimulate use. This would provide an easy channel of communication for potential users. They could respond to each others queries and point each other towards interesting and useful resources.
Audience
Aspects of this resource will be of interest and benefit to anyone seeking to use elements of GSuite for Education to support their teaching. However, the primary audience for this resource will be DIT academic staff who are interested in using GSuite for Education with their students. The reason it is targeted at a specific institutional group is that my research has shown that in DIT access by students to the VLE is an issue for almost all lecturers – registration processes can hamper when a student gets access to the institutional VLE webcourses. It is easier for student to gain access to GSuite than webcourses. However, the student still needs to be eligible to register with DIT in order to gain access to their DIT Gmail account – and this account is the basic prerequisite for showing up on class lists within Google and therefore to be eligible to access Google Communities and Google Classroom – the primary means of organising Google to support teaching. Therefore a small but significant element of the resource will cover access issues, and this element of the resource will only be of interest to DIT staff.
Instructional Design model
Need to identify a model that I will follow in the development of the resource. Used ADDIE previously and found it very workable. Analysis – Design – Development – Implementation – Evaluation. Use Analysis to identify the “performance gap” – in this case the missing skills and knowledge around the use of GSuite to support student learning.
Analysis: who are the learners and what is the goal or intended outcome?
Design: subject matter/learning objectives/media selection
Development: lesson materials, media and documents
Implementation: Put it all together effectively
Evaluation: review/check actual outcomes against intended outcomes
Alternative model: G Conole – 7 Cs of Learning Design – Conceptualise, Create, Communicate, Collaborate, Consider, Combine, Consolidation
Using this in conjunction with Bloom’s taxonomy of learning (know, comprehend, apply, analyse, synthesise, evaluate) – all are important but ultimately it’s about application and synthesis – knowing how to use the knowledge and using it in conjunction with your own existing knowledge to create new knowledge.
Vygotsky’s ZPD (zone of proximal development) interesting in this context – need to be aware of not pitching the resource at the wrong point in terms of prior knowledge. Audience analysis will help with this. I initially had thought it was un-necessary to use a persona in terms of audience analysis but when you think of the differing levels of ability of DIT staff then perhaps it would be good to characterise exactly who the resource is for instead of making it just “maybe useful to everyone”
Storyboarding –
Rapid Prototype – build storyboard to meet the needs of the audience
Needs Analysis: What issues am I trying to address? What do I want the learner to be able to do after the course? What are the learning objectives?
Then think about content, activities and interactions. As Google Sites is so easy to use it’s almost possible to use it as a rapid proto-typing tool
Instructional Design: From class notes week 1: “the process consists of determining the current state and needs of he learning, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some “intervention” to assist in the transtion”
Assessment and Evaluation –
Two issues – how to evaluate the overall resource itself – how to know that it’s working. I’m not going to have time to evaluate with end users (and had never really factored this in as it’snot forming part of the journal article) but I need to set out clearly the learning outcomes I have for the resource. And then I myself at least can evaluate the course at the end.
How to build in some assessment for the user so the user can determine themselves that they have manged the course effectively – a checklist of skills. And maybe that checklist could also work as a step-by-step guide to building your Gsuite support.
Consider badging? A bit pointless? Consider some way of tying this in with the National Forum Professional Development
msc943 