For the GVSU faculty development "Fundamentals" workshop

1. 7 Things you need to know:
Things 4, 5, & 6
Content Delivery
© Created by Glenna Decker @ Grand Valley State University

2. Where did we leave off?
 We’ve discussed
 The difference between traditional in-seat and online/hybrid
course delivery.
 Planning your course and introduced some of the technology
tools that you might use
 The importance of thinking through and communicating with
detail
 Including Syllabus Additions
 Have you left feedback on the discussion board for others on
their syllabus revision? Has anyone left comments or questions
for you?

3. An overarching topic: Content Delivery
Let’s state the obvious:
Identify the content that you need to deliver!

4. Backward Design
1. You begin with your course objectives.
2. You next look at how you will know if your
students meet the objectives – that is
through assessment.
3. You choose your assessment methods.
4. Last you develop the content.
1. (Okay, there’s a little more involved in the
process than this….I know where there are
great resources if you’d like to learn more!)

5. Assessment
 Assumptions
 You know your course objectives
 You have established means for assessing their learning
 You likely practice both formative and summative assessment
 Methods for online/hybrid delivery
 How do you currently assess your students’ learning?
 How much formative assessment do you practice?
 What about summative?
 High stakes?
 Low stakes?

6. High or Low Stakes
 High Stakes
 Example: Midterm & Final
 Midterm = 30%
 Final = 40%
 Paper/Project = 20%
 Incidentals = 10%
 Can you identify some reasons this might not be the best
approach for an online course? (a hybrid course?)

7.  Community
 Security
 Take advantage of what an online delivery adds to
your possibilities
 What are some alternatives?

8. Low Stakes!
 Still want to use online tests?
 4, 6 or even 8 smaller quizzes
 “Open Book”
 Weekly quizzes on assigned reading/modules to check for
understanding (and reading!)
 Example:
 Thirteen quizzes during the semester, dropping the lowest score,
cumulatively worth 20% of the course total

9. Other alternatives
 Wikis  Essays
 Journals/Blogs  Projects
 Portfolio  Application/
 Presentation Demonstration
 Case Studies  Other ideas?
 Resources…

10. Thing 4 and Thing 6
Content Delivery & Building Community

11. Organizing your content
 What you are teaching
 How you are teaching
 An often reported frustration for students is
when a course appears disorganized and they
have difficulty knowing what to do and where
to find it.
 This costs them time that they could otherwise
spend actually attending to the content and
their frustration may impede the attention they
give when they finally find what they need.
 The confusion and back-tracking limits student
engagement.

12. Suggestions
 Structured and Consistent
 Into Learning Modules
 By Theme
 By Week

13. Considerations
 Chunking
 This
is described in the (re)Designing
Content learning module.
 Readability
 Review the document “Readability
Statistics.” (A one-page handout.)

14. Interaction
 interaction between the student and
the content material;
 interaction between the student and
you; and
 interaction among students in the
class.

15. http://communitiesofinquiry.com/

16. Community of Inquiry
 Social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with
the community (e.g., course of study), communicate
purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-
personal relationships by way of projecting their individual
personalities.” (Garrison, 2009)
 Teaching Presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of
cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing
personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning
outcomes (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001).
 Cognitive Presence is the extent to which learners are able
to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection
and discourse (Garrison, Anderson and Archer, 2001).
Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. (2007)
Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, and Guidelines. Jossey-Bass.

17. Develop Community through:
 Active interaction
 Course content
 Personal communication
 Collaborative learning
 Socially constructed meaning evidenced by questioning,
reflection and agreement
 Comments directed primarily student to student rather than student
to faculty
 Peer evaluation
 Sharing of resources among students
For community to develop, faculty and students have to sense
the presence of each other and build trust.
Palloff and Pratt (2007)

18. Methods
 Lecturing
 Text
 Podcast
 Video
 Synchronous
 Learning Objects
 Web sites
 Video
 Problem Based Learning/ Case Study / Critical Incident
 Discussion / Dialogue / Discourse / Debate
 What else??

19. Communication Content Assessment
Announcements Post documents Online quizzing
Email Learning units
Surveys
Discussion Board Adapted release
Pronto Web resources Blogs
Group pages RSS Feeds
Wiki
Journals Blogs/Wikis
Submit assignments
Grade Center Library Resources
Collaboration Scholar Grade Center
Wimba Voice Podcasting
Turnitin
Telephone Wimba Classroom
Wiki iTunes U Track Statistics

20. Next:
 Please go through the (re)Designing Content learning
unit. You will be asked to begin the development of an
individual unit of content and post it (or the outline) on
the discussion board.
 This should include the following:
 Identify your organization structure
 Outline the content
 List the “how”
 Include the assessment