Week 2: Creating Intro & Structure

Your Course IntroCourse StructureCreating LessonsCopyright & Digitization

*You should now have final learning objectives and goals for your course, and some ideas for projects & assignments to assess student learning.

*This week, keep those objectives in mind as you work on developing your course skeleton and introductory materials.

Your Course Intro:

*Use the top section of your course as the course intro. *This is where you will place items and announcements students need before the course begins. *Use directives, such as “START HERE!” to grab students’ attention.

What to Include in Your Course Intro:*Syllabus & Course Calendar*Course description, goals & objectives*Instructor introduction and contact information*Tech requirements (software & skills), how to navigate the course, who to contact for tech help*A list of major assignments, percentages, grading scale, & rubric*A forum for students to introduce themselves.

Forum for student introductions:*Asking students to introduce themselves promotes community building online.*Provide the first thread, and consider posting a picture. Encourage students to do so as well.*Along with a name & short bio, ask students why they are taking an online class, and if they have any experience with online classes.

Your Intro: Several Options:*Students love getting to know their instructors, even in the online environment. Consider making a video using an iPad or a screencasting program to introduce yourself to the class.*Other options - create a powerpoint presentation with your info & pics, or write up a short biography.

Course Structure:

*Your course is going to contain a considerable amount of material - it’s extremely important to maintain a consistent structure from week to week so students can find what they are looking for.

Course Structure: Ideas:*Choose 1 or 2 days assignments will be due, and keep those the same each week (example: discussion post due each Thursday, weekly assignments due Sundays). *Be aware of your students’ schedules. You may need to tweak the days & times assignments are due to accomodate.

Course structure: Ideas:*Find a structure you like, and set up each week with the same pattern (example: weekly objectives, lesson, tasks, resources, assignments). *Keeping a consistent pattern helps students know where to find the information they need in Moodle.

Course Structure: Ideas:*Practice consistency in all elements of the course:

-email reminders the same day each week-use the same Moodle assignment type-use the same type of forum for discussion-Be available via chat or phone the same day/time each week

Novelty within the Structure:*Having a consistent structure is not meant to remove innovation from the classroom. *Build novelty into activities from week to week - new websites, videos, graphics, etc.*Allow for flexibility with online ‘office hours’ - let students set virtual appointments at times that work for them.

Remember to Think Backwards:

*As you think about the structure of your course, and begin building assignments and lessons for the class, always be asking how those materials align with the final course goal.

Best Practices for Powerpoint Lessons: *If you embed the lesson, also post it as a file- that way it’s still accessible to students if the embedding technology fails. *If converting presentations from a traditional classroom, review and edit your powerpoint slides carefully - make sure to include written explanations for concepts usually done verbally.

Best Practices for Video Lectures:*Keep them short! If you have a lot of content to cover in a video lecture, break it up into 5 minutes sections and record several short videos instead of one long one. *Write an outline or script before recording. This ensures you won’t forget anything important, and helps you stay within the time limits.

Tools for Video Lectures:*iPad or other tablet device

- great for intro videos - just point at your face and record

*Screen-casto-Matic & Screenr.com- Screenr & Screen-cast-o-matic are great for recording audio over your powerpoint slides. When you are done, send videos to YouTube, or save the file to your computer.

Embedding Your Content into Moodle:*After you’ve created ppt presentations and videos, you need to upload them to Moodle. *Use the Mediacorp tool to embed your files:

*Upload your files, then click “add next” to the one you want to embed. *View video in this week’s readings for more info.

Using Copyrighted Materials Online:

As you prepare your lessons and materials, you may find outside resources - websites, articles, images, and videos - you want to include in your course.

Copyright & Fair Use in the online environment is extremely complicated!

Using Copyrighted Materials Online:*Use database articles, websites, and images as you normally would (Business faculty- please contact your librarian for information on using case studies from Harvard Business Review).

*DVD or VHS Videos you use in a traditional classroom likely CANNOT be converted for use in your online course.

Why can’t I convert my DVDs?*Fair Use and copyright law is vague, but recent decisions imply that fair use doesn’t extend to online classrooms.*To secure legal rights to convert/stream video is time consuming, and often expensive.*Even if legal rights are secured, it can take weeks to complete the conversion process.

Instead of Digitizing DVDs…..There are lots of great sites with free & legal video content (links posted in Moodle):

Or, students can rent videos (these work best for courses showing popular Hollywood movies):

C-Span Video Library Discovery Channel Khan AcademyPBS Video Ted Talks TeacherTubeYouTube

Amazon Hulu (subscription) iTunesNetflix (subscription) Public Libraries Redbox

Tasks for this Week: *Create an intro video or powerpoint for your course, and practice embedding media into your Moodle course!*Post to the discussion board any questions, comments, or frustrations with this process. If you’re willing to share your creation, post your ppt or link to your video to the forum too. *Complete the Moodle lesson for this week.