For the past few years, I've been suggesting the development of an online course for one of our popular General Education courses, and there had just not been the funding available for it. Fortunately and due to the hard work of some fantastic colleagues, a grant was won for the development of courses that could attract enrollment from outside of our college. Two courses targeted these students and one seems to be a certain success as it will be a requirement for any who is planning to go on a study abroad trip to a German-speaking country. The one I am currently designing attracts a lot of interest, but already has a high percentage of students from outside the college. Since the grant will be used to fund the instruction of the courses first run this summer, I'm working towards meeting the UITL course redesign incentives in order to be able to motivate the rather expansive work of translating and designing a course for online instruction. Part of this was to attend the Kickstart Week: Course Design Institute (Online).  This page will serve as a basis for the portfolio that is required as part of the redesign requirements.

 

Getting Started 

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1.  Confirm Your Eligibility

 

The first step to qualifying for the instructional redesign incentive is to confirm eligibility and as a full-time lecturer who has completed the Teaching Practices Inventory, Teaching@OhioSate modules, and the UITL reading list, and applying and being confirmed as eligible, I'm ready to begin the process of using the transforming the in-class course I instruct into an online version (I already - like many of my colleagues -  am already reconfiguring and changing, experimenting with new instructional strategies, technology, and material). 

 

2. Identify a Teaching Challenge or Research Topic 

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I am transforming a course into an online iteration and by doing so, I hope to also gain insight into how I might be able to transform/update and renew the course material for the in-class students. In essence, this isn't just a redesign of a particular element, but a redesign on a grand scale that will provide a blueprint for the possible transformation of other courses. The primary concern in this transformation is that the course remains transformational for the students, in the sense that they feel engaged and through forming and interacting with a community of other students, they might be better able to understand their role in relation to others. The course provides historical background for the Holocaust, but much more than that, it attempts to complicate the symbolic image that many have and present them with a myriad of diverging and challenging perspectives, contexts, and relationships. 

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The challenge is then in making an online course more inclusive, so that it may perhaps also address the problems inherent in a large lecture format and make the assignments there more inclusive as well.

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3. Choose an IR Pathway

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I have chosen to begin the redesign with the ODEE Kickstart Week and through the IR weekly cohort meetings. I've applied for the ODEE Kickstart Instructional Redesign endorsement and will also continually seek out the opportunities that could improve the methods and reflection during the development of the online course. 

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4. Complete the IR Interest Form

I've completed the IR interest form and been approved for the UITL instructional redesign initiative and have been assigned a meeting cohort. I'm looking forward to the work we will do over the next semester and can't wait to begin. 

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IR Portfolio

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Section I: Instructional Context and Pedagogical Approach

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 The course on the Holocaust in Literature and Film will be taught online for the first time in the summer of 2020.  I'm still uncertain about how much enrollment we're going to look to accept and for it to still be feasible. I also hope to gain some insight into the in-class iteration of the course through the redesign and reflection on the materials, assignments, and goals. I've taught the in-class version of this course probably around 8 times and each time trying to tweak it and often add more material. I think I will try to pare down the complexity somewhat and really focus on clear, consistent, and quality design. 

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The primary focus for me in teaching the course is to have students reflect on how language shapes our perspectives and to encourage the development of their own individual critical voices (Those are my estimations of the goals under the GE literature and Diversity Elements. I determined that this was of primary importance because the dangers of succumbing to populism, the lack of respect for individual differences, and the ignorance of the misinformed are one of the lessons that the Holocaust has taught us. By looking at the Holocaust as a warning, it becomes clear what signals and impulses should be looked for and guarded against and what personality types can be developed to safeguard an equitable, just future.

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To evaluate students, I'll be looking for the development of their thought over the period of the course, which will require taking stock of where they are at the beginning of the course, and then presenting them with background and perspectives that will challenge and ask them to develop their own perspective in response to what they are reading and seeing (Div: goal 2). In addition, they will be looking at the strategies used to tell and convey these perspectives, thereby considering how what they saw and how they use symbols constructs/fashions and shapes their own perspective of the world (Lit: goal 1). 

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I have tried to update the course with more contemporary material, moving the last part of the class to their own world and exploring how these things connect. What I would like to do even more is to begin with the goal in mind to be teaching the past in the contemporary - so that every lecture connects to their world in some way. I began to track their development and transform the essay prompts to have them become more individual and self-reflective, having the course build towards an expansion of their own inner experience. I think that, however, the size of the course has kept me from experimenting with different forms of activities other than essays and response papers. I would like to make them even more interactive and engaging and I think the ODEE Kickstart has already helped in identifying some areas in which I could improve. 

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Section II: Development and Planning

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I selected the ODEE Kickstart Week because of the structure provided and the many topics it covered for creating an online course. I selected it because of its specific focus on the differences between online and in-person teaching and how to leverage the strengths of online instruction to your advantage. Each day brought new insights into the many aspects in which I could tackle the course. 

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Day 1 - Course Design and Quality

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Quality in Course Design

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One of the most important aspects of teaching online that I wanted for my students was that they did not feel like they were alone in their kitchen reading and completing a series of tasks (alone), but were engaging in a community of learners from the get-go.  I am committed to creating assignments that would encourage inclusion - while respecting and fostering individuality. Ways of implementing this included recording and sharing lectures, setting students into team assignments, and providing them the sense that there was an instructor and student presence.

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Introduction videos for the week that show I am a real person can help create that presence, also email answering policies and grading policies can further that.  Encouraging engagement with others through activities like discussions that would require careful prompt construction and group projects. And to keep it interesting, I would vary the methods and learning materials, use direct and indirect sources, provide opportunities to demonstrate learning through different modes, and by having them complete application-based assignments (projects). 

 

 The clarity in assignments is key. That students understand not only what they should do, but why they are doing it. I want to be very clear in what I am doing and also what they should be doing. Finally, I want them to build community, but keep the depressive and cynical elements at bay. With variety, community, clarity, and presence, I think I can construct a good working model for an online course. 

 

Course Exemplar Show and Tell

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Importing predesigned elements that help keep the online course design clean and consistent was incredibly helpful. I appreciated the modules and instruction that had been put into the design and being able to see best practice examples would make the work easier as I look to create the content of the course. I especially liked that many aspects that I might forget to address are keyed into the design, which will help keep the course objectives in mind and also in the students' minds while they complete the assignments. Students like explicit instructions and aides, such as notetaking sheets can help keep them attentive and thinking about what they should learn. It was also through these examples, that I started thinking about some of the ways other instructors had connected and used gamification to make their material more engaging. I began brainstorming different possible activities that would align with my course objectives.

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Introduction to Backward Design; Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs), assessments, and alignment

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This section really had me rethink the course as chronologically upward building into a course that took its feet planted in the present and while looking at the past, took a look around to see how it was applicable today. This had me also shift the objective from being a destination that we reach at the end, to something that is introduced, repeated, and challenged early on in the course and worked on throughout. I think that this was an incredibly helpful and insightful activity that has had me think about other courses I teach and how I can look at those differently.

 

Day 2 - Assessments

 

UDL & accessible assignments

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I found this insightful and always wanted to be as inclusive as possible. I found the tool 'No Coffee' to be a valuable aid in testing sites, and it encouraged me to use a variety of materials in devising the course to make it accessible in a variety of ways. The first thing I did when I got home was to start to look at the pdfs I was using and whether these were screen reader accessible or not.  I started to redo many of the scans or find alternatives in order to make the course more accessible.  In essence, to ensure that there are multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation and expression. This meant making assignments more flexible, presenting information in multiple ways, and using the tools in MS Windows and Adobe DC to create accessible content. The USG common sense top 10 list was funny and helpful. 

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Building Assignments in Canvas

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Seeing the variety of assignments that were available and working with proctorio were eye-opening. I especially

 

 

Section III: IR Implementation

 

 The first step in redesigning the course for the online study was to plan the syllabus with backward design in mind. Using best practices models and in conversation with ASC Tech to meet the requirements for approval and to discuss strategies for enhanced participation and community building for students. After the Kickstart week, the course syllabus that had begun to take shape during the last weeks of the semester provided a map for the weekly components that I would embark on creating over the break. The core components of every week would include an overview, 1) three ten minute video lectures - one on the literature,  one on the social-historical themes, one on the film - 2) three online surveys on each video, 3) discussion questions or assignment with peer reviews, 4) End of the week quiz.  Thes reading, viewing, and writing/speaking assignments for each week were further developed, scaffolded, and organized. 

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I began importing the templates that had been provided by the Kickstart Week and thinking through the overview, reading/viewing, lecture introductions, questions while viewing, and follow-up surveys. Working through the templates provided a standard format that would make it easier for students to know what I wanted them to get out of each section and prepare them for what they would be doing. I thought it so useful, that I imported the templates into my other courses and began revising my in-person courses with the intention of providing quick, easy, and clear instructions for each of their assignments.  

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I considered how some of my large lecture classes could improve by facilitating a sense of community as I had learned was necessary and possible in online classes. I began using the assignment structure I had planned for the online course in the in-person class to see how the assignments would work to build community and gather feedback from students. The initial community building exercises and workload in the early weeks went very well, problems arose however with discussions and discussion responses, in that I had assigned peer reviews in order to have a good distribution across all posts. Students, however, replied early, before the reviews were assigned and so there was some confusion later as to what they needed to do specifically. I was able to clear this up, but I soon found that the discussions led to confusion and in the courses with 118 and 245 students, it could be problematic. I decided to reduce the number of discussions and also reduce the overall load of assignments, since the weekly expectations of reading and film analysis, coupled with writing/video assignments seemed to be too much for that level (2000 and 3000 level courses).  

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