Presentation of experiences and Recommendations at Kaleidoscope meeting in Park City, Utah. October 28, 2011.

1. Kaleidoscope Project Notes
Experiences and Recommendations
Daryl Smith O’Hare and Susan C. Hines
Chadron State College, Chadron, NE
Park City, UT October 28, 2011

2. Presentation Outline
Part 1: Project Management, Instructional Design
1. Planning: Schedules, Calendars, Deadlines
2. Course Design: Technical and Structural Issues
3. Learning Design: Arcs and Outcomes Tracking
4. Divisions of Labor and Developer Roles
Part 2: Course Development, Online Instruction
5. Getting the Best Content
6. Measurable Learning Outcomes
7. Creating and Orchestrating Content
8. Learning as a Community
9. The Impact of Multimedia
10. Reflection and the Portfolio
11. Feedback and Contacts

3. Planning: Schedules, Calendars, Deadlines
Experiences 1. We kept a regular development schedule, but the first deadline
(for course outcomes) was difficult to meet, as there was little time to bring the SME/writer
up to speed on the ID process. 2. We (the ID and the SME) developed and installed the
course in 8 weeks, then made course revisions during the 8 weeks during which the course
was taught. It was stressful on the SME (to teach while revising), but it
was important to make the revisions while the revisions seemed important
to make. 3. During the initial writing of the course, SME deadlines for modules
Recommendations were on Fridays, with revisions of modules due on
the following Wednesdays. The ID would provide
feedback on the modules by Sunday and meet via
Skype with the SME on Mondays to assure that edits
and recommendations were understood.
Recommendations 1. Longer
development timeframes are needed. Consider a
minimum of 10-12 weeks instead of 6-8 weeks.
2. Clarify minimum standards for course design.

4. Course Design: Technical and Structural Issues
Experiences 1. In the absence of any
clear-cut technical design standards for this
course, we took the high road: the course would
be as open as possible and built in the lingua
franca of the WWW: HTML (with CSS and some
JavaScript). 2. It would be built on a modular
principle, and would meet compliance standards
for ADA/508, and meet or surpass instructional
design standards such as those advocated by Quality Matters. 3. If this course was going
to be “adoptable,” it would need to be technically sound; content would need to work in
popular web browsers. 4. Additionally, the content would have to be creative and
compelling; the course would have an integrated media layer that made regular use of
embeddable objects.
Recommendations
1. Take the high road whenever you can, and build courses in
such a way that anyone can use and re-purpose them with relative
ease and in any platform. 2. HTML and CSS are very LMS-friendly.

5. Learning Design: Arcs and Outcomes Tracking
Experiences 1. All good courses have an internal logic and rhythm by which
students learn. We thought it best to make what was implicit explicit, however, and included
a graphic depiction of the learning arc early on in the syllabus; each course module fully
realizes an arc, and it is along key points of the arc that assignments are completed and
submitted. The regularity by which
assignments are completed and submitted
(say every Thursday for discussions
and every Monday for written exercises)
fosters consistency in students. 2. Wouldn’t
it be nice to have a course that cross-
references all of its assignments with its
outcomes and instructional content? We
though so too—and discovered that students
could benefit from the connection, as well.
Recommendations 1. The
best designs feature no more or less of what
is necessary to do the job exceedingly well.

6. Divisions of Labor and Developer Roles
Hines O’Hare Experiences 1. To get the
job done in a way that made good use
Project Manager Subject Matter Expert
of our time, we divided our labor along
Instructional Designer Writer
specific job functions (see table, left).
Editor Researcher
Proofreader Proofreader
Beta-Tester Beta-Tester Recommendations
1. While it’s not impossible, it is
unusual for two academics in the same discipline to be highly productive in a collaboration
as equal partners performing the same function. We recommend that course developers
list the roles that are involved in producing a quality course, then decide who performs
certain roles. 2. The management, design, and editorial functions are more important
to the process than novice developers realize, particularly if the novice is the SME/writer.
Even if you are a development team of one, try to split these roles out from your writing
and research. 3. Have faith in a solid design process, and try not to cut corners even when
the timeline seems impossible. Too many online courses remain in their initial iterations
for years to come, as course revisions are typically put off by lack of time or funding or both.

7. Getting the Best Content
Experiences 1. We found it difficult to find a single
open textbook that supported the entirety of the course. 2. And,
too many texts were not using the kinds of media that would be
compelling to Generation Y students. 3. We spent too much time
performing fruitless WWW searches. 4. How to determine OER
material was often unclear, so even when useful materials were
found, we were not always sure they could be used. 5. The
good news is the frustrations of search led to a content strategy
based upon disparate texts, images, audio clips, and videos.
The course itself would become a kind of textbook, using the
topics within modules to provide a clear context for media use.
Recommendations
1. If you can’t find a textbook that supports your course, use
multiple OER. 2. To avoid time consuming searches, find sites
that index OER and use your own social network as qualified
RAs. 3. Don’t be afraid of new media; sometimes it doesn’t
make sense how you’ll use it until it’s embedded in the page!

8. Measureable Learning Outcomes
Experiences 1. Writing course outcomes can be an unfamiliar process, as they
are normally dictated by academic programs or departments, by other instructors or
textbooks. 2. It’s difficult to tell sometimes if an outcome is actually measureable.
3. It can be a little intimidating to come up with outcomes that are useable by other
institutions. 4. Module-level outcomes are not typically developed in traditional
classes. So, it was surprising to learn they are the corner stones of online courses.
Recommendations
1. Have course-level outcomes before you get started
designing modules (even though they may change).
2. Remember that it’s a process, that you will have to
tweak outcomes to meet the overarching goals of the
course. 3. Design assignments and support content
around outcomes. 4. Understand the difference
between goals and outcomes. Many goals may not
be measureable but outcomes must be.

9. Creating and Orchestrating Content
Experiences 1. We stuck to a contemporary
approach to writing and critical reading skills, as we
wanted something fresh for students who typically
dread taking a composition course — we went about
deprogramming the dread. 2. It was so important to find
the right content that when we couldn’t find it, we
created it. 3. And when we did find it, we integrated it
directly into the topics pages. 4. One of our favorite finds
was the telescopic text “I Made Tea.”
Recommendations 1. Utilize an
Instructional designer’s expertise in employing technical
content – if you worry about it, you won’t have time to
do any writing. 2. Even if there is copyright free work
out there (literary samples, for example) do not settle
just because it is free—seek other free avenues. 3. Provide
context for everything. Remember that students should
have equal access to content. Cite sources.

10. Learning as a Community
Experiences 1. Learning was
iterative, and students started to feel a
rhythm to the way the course worked.
2. Students responded well in discussion forums,
often exceeding the minimum requirements.
3. Students built a strong community,
relying on targeted peer review as a main source
of revision. 4. We dealt with grammar issues
“workshop style.” Students created
teaching reports by investigating their mistakes,
researching their mistakes, fixing their mistakes,
and sharing the results with the entire class.
The class then evaluated which report was
the best. This process was empowering.
Recommendations
1. Create banks of feedback that you can reuse in general commentary. 2. Don’t be afraid to
change a module if it does not work. We didn’t love Module 6, so we edited for the next run.
3. Seek media examples that are interchangeable with assignments.

11. The Impact of Multimedia
1. Students overwhelmingly loved the TED Talks. The TED Talk
Experiences pictured on this slide made it possible to show students how other
disciplines create and use portfolios.
2. Students also enjoyed the OER
texts, which were sufficiently
compelling and not unnecessarily long.
3. We used
a wide variety of media, including
our own Facebook notes. We wanted
to underscore that social media can be
a great space to find and develop ideas.
Recommendations
1. Find media that appeals to the kinds
of students that you teach. 2. Make
sure it can be viewed in the most
popular web browsers. 3. Makes sure it is ADA compliant—that images use ALT tags and
that videos use close captioning and that audio has transcripts. 4. Note that providing various
media appeals to different learning styles. We loved TED’s interactive transcript!

12. Reflection and the Portfolio
Experiences 1. Students were able
to evaluate their work by creating a portfolio
of their best writing accompanied by a reflective
essay about their developing writing process.
2. Remember that teachers make mistakes, but
mistakes can be remedied—like writing in a
composition course: it’s a work in progress.
3. Students used the discussion forum,
writing exercises, and essays to look at early
and developing work to discover their
evolution as writers. 4. They looked back on
their stumbling blocks and how they worked
around them.
Recommendations 1. Remember to make your submission instructions
specific. The portfolio assignment omitted length requirements, which was problematic for
some students. 2. Remember that courses should evolve with their students. It is important
to make revisions. Change is good. Change is good. Change is good.

13. Feedback and Contacts
“Looking back at my first assignment, diagnostic writing, I cannot
believe how horrible I wrote. In my first writings, I would use run on
sentences and vague references and found that much of what I wrote
did not make sense. Now when I look at my most recent writings, I
cannot believe the difference, and swear someone else wrote them.”
– Composition I Student, Chadron State College, October 2011
You can visit Composition I at: http://shines.courseagent.com/kscope
Contact Information
Daryl Smith O’Hare: doharecsc@gmail.com
Susan C. Hines: shines@courseagent.com