Reflection

E-learning Instructional Design 763

"What I'm taking away with me...
Module 1: Design with Learning in Mind- The introductory post (ice
breaker) was a very engaging discussion post about the animal that best
describes my personality. This was a great opener and seemed to set the
stage for the course. There was discussion about instructional design, pros
and cons of online learning, and changes in the process of teaching and
learning online. These discussions tied into the module nicely and got us
thinking about how things differ in an online course versus traditional.
Student centered learning also was a large focus in our discussions. Since I
am new to teaching, I am not really familiar with other methods.
Module 2: Mapping the future I decided to test my course development
projects and used actual content from my courses. These were my first
curriculum projects so I really needed that reassurance before opening them
up to my students on January 26th. I was a nervous wreck but thought this
would help me get a feel for how things were aligned. All I did was copy and
paste a couple of my objectives and submitted. Much to my surprise I
received positive feedback!
Module 3: Designing for Assessment- This week we shifted gears to
assessment. Once you develop content to support the objectives,
assessment must follow closely. This can come in many different forms. I
think most people assume it must be in the form of a test but there are
different methods such as quizzes, discussions, observations or
presentations. Once again I wanted to test my course and submitted
assessment activities that I had created. These were once again acceptable.
At this point I was gaining confidence that my class might just be ok.

Module 4: Active and Engaged Learning- This week I felt like I had
reached the peak of the mountain climb. The information regarding Hortons
Absorb-do-connect really made sense to me. I wish someone would have put
it in such simple terms when I was trying to create content. This is an easy
concept but I really struggled with the quiz this week. I enjoyed have to do
and redo the quiz about 6 times but finally I got it straight! Once again I was
happy to know that I had these 3 components built into my content!
Module 5: Aligning Instructional Strategies- Creating learning guides
and a syllabus was the focus of week 5. I learned that in certain settings a
graphic syllabus is acceptable. I had no idea this sort of syllabus existed and
really enjoyed looking at a couple examples. My syllabus is a template
created by the college and I basically plug a few required components into
the document. The learning guides creation was an easy assignment for me.
The positive feedback continued to flow in. At this point my classes had
already started and things were going well.
Module 6: Designing Content- I really struggled this week trying to wrap
my brain around the assignment of chunking the material. I think I was
overthinking this because I had all the necessary components (chunks) but
needed to explain it in a simple format. I decided a flow chart may be
easiest. In my courses, I do this with an introduction video and then a
checklist of activities. I was happy to receive the great feedback that I
exceeded expectations and did a better job with the narrative than others. I
decided to complete my Weebly this week and worked all weekend to get the
remainder of the components in place.
Module 7: Designing for Best Practice- Learning about best practices
and rubrics was exactly what I needed at this point. In my courses, my
discussion board rubric is not holding up. This rubric needs a lot of work. I am
struggling try to grade off this rubric because I dont have clear categories.
Unfortunately, I am stuck with it for the entire semester because these
courses are asynchronous. Students can start on day 1 (January 26th) up to
April 1st.
For whatever reason, I signed up for this class thinking I was going to learn
about how to improve the appeal or look of my courses. I completely
missed understood the title and focused on the design word instead of the
instructional word. In the end, I came out with a sense of reassurance that
my course is solid! The timing of the class was perfect and it really did
provide a sense of security for me.
I am leaving this class with many sparks and ideas to incorporate for the
next class. I have not experienced having several discussion prompts to
choose from. This was very refreshing and helped to alleviate reading the

same posts over and over. I liked being broken up into groups to keep
discussions to a more manageable component. After using Flipgrids on the
first module I was super excited. I went to school the next day and was
thrilled to show them my posting and this awesome tool. Unfortunately, my
bubble burst with the words closed captioned. Hopefully this will change
because I already have ideas of how to use this in my classes.
To my instructor: a special thank you for the positive feedback which built my
confidence at the perfect time! Thank you for taking the time to help me. You
constantly tried to engage students, provided wonderful feedback and
incorporated new learning tools for us to use.
Thank you again!