- What have you learned this week regarding the design of online learning activities to support student learning?
We often look at the milestones during our road drive. The reason behind this phenomenon is reminder of being on track. These signs give us confidence to our prior destination goal and help us to adjust our speed according to the time. Curriculum offers the same purpose. Our weekly assessment help us to do small bit of work each week. If this would not happen we will stop journey and get demotivated for the very long journey. Designing a course and its modules especially online, is incomplete without the colorful addition of signposts. The curriculum signpost helps the student assurance that he is advancing towards his goal step by step. Motivation is fulfilled and the journey of learning continues. It is the vision of the total endeavor and top minds uncover all stated and unstated goals which a student is supposed to cover during the course think of horse’s racing course, overcoming each hurdle will give marks and hope to reach the end in a victorious way. Victory is the achievement of goals. In this week, our curriculum was finalized uncovering all the goals which our students were supposed to achieve during their flipped classroom session.
Whatever our students learn will be checked through assessment and it should be objective and accurate. We should assess our curriculum. “Curriculum theory should be focused on advancing the field, and should thus be a ‘normative undertaking which needs to be animated and informed by a vision of what education should be’ (Deng, 2018, p.701)”.
A curriculum should support robust assessment so that one should be clear about one’s learning. “Finally, assessment as learning can be defined in two interlinked ways. First, at a very straightforward level, tackling assignments and revision is when higher education students do much of their learning. Second, assessment as learning is a subset of assessment for learning and sees student involvement in assessment, using feedback, participating in peer assessment, and self-monitoring of progress as moments of learning in themselves (Black and William 1998a)”.
- Where and how did you learn this, during your work for this course this week? What particular activities or prompts helped you?
This phase of curriculum development is the core of any certificate programme. I used to learn through secondary research published in digital resources and registered journals. YouTube channel and other online forums. Group discourse was also helpful. All the employed methods are mentioned in the citation. “curriculum theory must be concerned with, and have a strong relationship with educational practice, ‘and the inner work of schooling that are defined by specific curriculum content or material, specific students, and specific teachers within a specific instructional context (Deng, 2018, p.702)”.
“The assessment strategy of a particular course has a major impact on student activity (Snyder .1971)”.
- From what you have learned this week, how has your understanding of designing online learning activities changed? How has it stayed the same, or your existing understanding and perspectives about this been reinforced and confirmed?
I thought that online blended platform is ready and our course is ready to be kicked off from pilot project but curriculum design study opened many areas before my eyes which need to be studied to become a successful course launcher. Curriculum effectiveness, curriculum implementation, teacher student understanding in curriculum understanding is very important in reaching the online blended e-learning. “An approach to learning is not a fixed characteristic of an individual but is influenced by their perception of the learning environment, most particularly the assessment task (Morgan and Beatty 1997; Biggs 2003)”.
Student’s feedback is the blood stream in learning. “Research indicates that students value feedback (Hartley et al. 2002; Weaver 2006)”.
Trouble shooting of students should addressed and teacher or his assistant should help them. “Difficulties with a particular concept or problem may signal that further or different tuition is needed. (Angelo and Cross (1993) and Nicol and MacFarlane-Dick (2004)”.
- What has this suggested regarding your current strengths in your practice that could help you design online curriculum?
A curriculum should be balanced in socializing all the students. Equal online participation should be ensured in it. The structure should be based on maximum learning and participation. “A group of friends could dominate online discussion, thus intimidating others who were newcomers” (Ke, 2010, p. 817).”
Curriculum effectiveness is judged by assessment and all forms of assessment should be employed in blended e-learning course to ensure the success on our course. “The assessment as learning approach is challenging prior ideas about the separation of formative assessment (assessment for learning) and summative assessment (assessment of learning) (Carless et al. 2006; Hounsell 2006) and replacing it with the notion of ‘learning-oriented assessment’ characterized as ‘when tasks are ‘‘fit for purpose’’; when students are involved in the assessment process in ways which support the development of evaluative expertise; and when feedback is forward-looking and can be acted upon’ (Carless et al. 2006: 396)”.
The curriculum should match the goals and should fulfill our objectives and it should be rigorously assessed. “The notion of matching course objectives with assessment underpins the concept of ‘constructive alignment’ (Biggs 1996)”.
- What has this suggested regarding what you might do to further develop this in the future? How might you do that (specifically)?
We never change our curriculum very much .We can change our strategy of teaching or our software at most because vision is rarely changed in online blended e-learning. We the test of our validity and consistency is assessment. We have to be generous enough to check ourselves. Our success of the course depends on the achievement of our goals and feedback is the signpost of our goals. Curriculum fulfilment is ensured through formative assessment. “There are varying views on what the principles of assessment should be (Jonsson and Baartman 2006; Quality Assurance Agency 2006c)”.
Curriculum should be market based and it should enable student to secure job after getting the required course to be done. “As competition for jobs intensifies and technology in the workplace continues to change, students can no longer only acquire the requisite competencies through traditional coursework but are increasingly relying upon internships to improve their skills and enhance their competitive advantage (Hergert, 2009; Seung-Chul & Morris, 2015)”.
- What has challenged or surprised you, during your learning this week?
Sometimes feedback back fires and people take it as a negative connotation. So, feedback should be according to the culture and its frequency should be according to the need and its method should be acceptable. It has challenged me in my practice. Sometimes negative feedback is taken negative by faculty and it effects teacher’s performance. Cordial relationship of teachers is compulsory thing in curriculum accomplishment. “There is very little research on the use of exemplars to establish standards (Baird et al. 2004)”.
The verification of feedback can boost the confidence of a teacher as all whistle are not true. “Feedback, even of the most carefully crafted type, could be fated to be misunderstood and ignored (Mutch, 2003: 37)”.
- To what extent do you think you have achieved each of the learning outcomes for this Week 8? If you think there is room for you to achieve these more fully, what could you do to help yourself achieve that?
The ultimate goal of the curriculum design is to make the student enable to make decision independently according to the professional cadre. Knowledgeable, Critical and independent thinking is the dream of any curriculum design.
Whatever curriculum maybe, the end result is the product which justifies our whole effort. So, we have to design differentive strategy in curriculum design employing different group according to the need of the students for maximum learning outcome. “Current, online education is mostly the model of one-size-fits-all standardized curriculum that ignores the needs of students (Saba, 2012),”
Frequent test should only be informal and formal test should be minimal as they will encourage student confidence and hybrid learning aims at study at the pace of students. “Lots of small assignments may limit the chance for reflection and make them ‘rather narrow in scope and undemanding in nature’ (Gibbs 2006b: 17)”.