I am back on board for completing my Special Topic as part of the Graduate Certificate in Applied eLearning. A slight change of focus from what I had originally planned, however, having just completed one of the other papers Educational Design for eLearning, have decided to use one of the Hotel Management papers – Rooms Division Operations Management sites as the focus of the Special Topic.
So here is my plan:
Planning and Learning Outcomes
This post will hopefully outline my plan for my Special Topic, concentrating on the learning outcomes of the paper. This will also become a guide for me for the semester to ensure that I keep on track. I will also consider setting up my own timeline for the semester to ensure that milestones are met.
What do you want to do?
The overall plan is to develop a face to face course into a course that may be taken by students studying at a different institution (that we collaborate with). Although it would be predominately seen as a distance course, I would like it to be more blended learning so that there is interaction between the facilitator and students.
Why?
The key reason for choosing this course is that there is the need to offer this paper online for students at another institution (it is a core paper that they must take as part of the Hotel Management major which is only offered at our institution).
By creating an online option this could allow other students to be able to take this course who may not be able to make on-campus classes.
Over the past few years there has been a push for more flexible learning offerings among our programmes.
What are the learning outcomes/project outcomes?
There are two different learning outcomes, obviously my own personal learning and the actual project outcomes.
I would like to explore some different eLearning technology that I have not previously used before. As an institution we have just moved to Moodle (open learning management system) at the start of 2010 (from Blackboard) so I am trying to navigate my way round Moodle, which will be used for this project. I would like to be able to use some videos or quizzes within the project that will assist the learners. Use of Camtasia to demonstrate the use of a reservation package and to ensure more interaction between students and facilitator as well as students to students.
In terms of the project outcomes, it will provide an efficient way of delivering a course to remote students, as well as providing a very comprehensive resource and support for f2f students as well.
Why are they important at this time?
My own personal learning outcomes are important as I know that I have students wanting to take my papers online and I do not want to offer them an inferior product due to location and therefore want to understand the requirements of elearning. Through the project I hope to have a better understanding of the needs and requirements of students studying online (of course I am myself one of these, so through this blog I can also give my own reflections of the process).
Does it require a budget?
I will of course try where possible to not have a budget! Where possible I will look to use software that can be downloaded for free or use existing software that is available through the Polytechnic or resources on Moodle.
Does it require approval and from whom?
My Head of School has given me approval for the project.
What is the underpinning literature and practice that you can draw on?
My research will be underpinned by current literature in elearning such as Mason and Rennie (2006). I will also need to consider the different learning styles of the students and augmented learning (how the student interacts with the technology). I will explore different online materials. The Elearning Guidelines (Milne & Dimock, 2006) will also be a valuable resource for this project. I will also draw on Gilly Salmon’s (2000) five stage model which try’s to create greater interaction and participation between participants in elearning courses.
References
Mason, R., & Rennie, F. (2006). Elearning: The key concepts. New York: Routledge.
Milne, J., & Dimock, E. (2006). eLearning Guidelines. Guidelines for the support of e-learning in New Zealand Retrieved 8 March, 2009, from http://elg.massey.ac.nz/Guidelines-questions.pdf
Salmon, G. (2000). E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online. London: Kogan Page.
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