Running Head: Narrative Course Description and Justification for Social Media

Narrative Course Description and Justification for Social Media

Contributors:
Patricia Beers Block
Dorita Bekker
Shaneek Celdon
Reece Chekan
Spencer Chambers
University of Maryland University College
Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 1

Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media

Abstract

Patricia Beers Block have compiled the assignment, Dorita Bekker, Shaneek Celedon,

Spencer Chambers, Reece Chekan. Patricia and Shaneek worked on the ingredient sheet, Patricia

completed the spreadsheet, while Reece did the Power Point voice section. The Word document,

in which, they give a full description of the course and the justification of selected media was

completed by Spencer, Dorita and Shaneek. The group managed to complete the project through

Synchronous and Asynchronous technology such as postings in Leo (Asynchronous), group

discussions (Synchronous) and email.

Narrative

UNC is a State University that has decided to implement a distance education course as a

part of an overall strategy of the university to become a dual mode university offering complete

programs online. Distance education is seen as a cost effective way to reach a broader range of

students both traditional and non-traditional. The pilot course will be an introductory course

named Introduction to distance education-e-learning.

Organizational Structure

The organization is that of Dual Mode Institution. This program will serve as the distance

education and e-learning department of UNC State University. There will be an academic chair

of the department who will oversee the overall program. Under the chair, there will be

management, management support, academic and professional staff.

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Justification for Media Choice

The use of Social media in distance education promotes learner engagement, cognitive and

meta- cognitive learning skills such as reflection, critical thinking, and construction of

knowledge and understanding of ones individual learning process.(Blaschke 2014). It also

gives students the opportunity to engage in and outside the learning environment

Learning Management System (LMS)

Our organization chose Moodle as our LMS because of its ease of use, its open source and it is

fully compatible with mobile devices. Moodle stands for modular object-oriented dynamic

learning environment, and it allows for extending and tailoring learning environments using

community sourced plugins. It can be used for blended learning, distance education, flipped

classroom and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors.

Mobile Access

According to studies cited in Docebos 2014 report on trends in distances education, mobile

technology will occupy over 70% of the technology used by 2017. (Docebo, p.5 2014). In order

to prepare for this our organization will select and implement an LMS which is fully accessible

via mobile device.

Teaching and Learning

Methodology.

Our organization chose to use a combination of methodology and pedagogy in order to create a

learn centered program that provides excellent student support , lowers dropout rates and

produce acceptable learner outcomes .The approach is at its core constructivist which mean the
Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 3

objectives are organized to allow learners to contribute to the development of knowledge. The

design of the course will be based on the following three pedagogical principles proposed by

Powers: The first is course planning which occurs before course delivery. Secondly teaching and

learning support that happens throughout course delivery. The third and final principles if based

on evaluation activities that relates to student performance. (Power, p.4, 1997)

Reasons for using online discussion

The inclusion of discussion into our course, serves a multiple purpose. This discussion form also

part of the assessment and student are encouraged to participate. One of the main purposes of the

Discussion board is to encourage an inter- active exchange among students and instructors. It

enables students to ask clarifying questions, to give feedback, to compel students to think

critically and to hone persuasion skills. It adds variety to the program which can become

monotonous with it relying on videos, online readings and evaluated requirements. Most DE

students enjoy the interaction with others and the personal connection enhances the educational

experience. Students can now demonstrate that they mastered the content and in many cases it

compensates for those who did not do well in the assignments .Asynchronous online discussions

lend themselves to giving everyone the opportunity to have their say and to post it. Student also

share links to relevant and interesting sites and even the introvert can have input since there is no

crowd present.

Learner Support & Retention

Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 4

With every student that drops out, there is the added cost of the negative feedback students will

give in regards to the institution, in addition, losing students and having to aggressively recruit to

compensate is costly in terms of direct cost as well as increased cost over the life of the program.

Having a strong student support system is probably the most important aspect of distance

education

Counseling & Mentoring

What counselling and/or mentoring will learners need to succeed? How will learners get

feedback (particularly on skills development)? How will learners relate to other learners so they

are mutually supporting? (Bates, 2016).

Assessments

Our organization proposes implementing detail assessments for learners at the beginning of the

course. Based on these assessments, instructors will work with leaners to develop individual

skill development plans. This will help insure that the learners that need the most guided

instruction will receive it. As the learner develops his or her skills the less guided instruction is

need and learners can engage and develop in a way that will allow them to participate in a more

constructivist model of learning. This will have a huge effect on the confidence of the learner

and reduce recidivism.

Learner Feedback
Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 5

I believe learners should get consistent feedback based on the needs of that individual which is

delivered in a constructive manner with intention of retaining as many learners as possible. This

can be done by engaging each learner and intervening in any areas that may cost the learner to

drop out.

Learner Interaction.

In order to develop and active learning environment, I will create discussion boards so students

can discuss topics and share their ideas. I will assign various group projects in order to foster

collaborative learning.

Learner Support

Having an effective learner support component is essential to providing distance education to

learners. In addition to the fact that teaching and learning is done at a distance, cultural

differences and learning styles makes it important to have mechanisms in place to effectively

support learners and insure they feel they are being supported by the instructor, staff and the

institution . I believe online learning should be done in collaborative way in which learners and

instructors interact in a way which fosters a community of inquiry approach to learning.

(Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 200)

Evaluation and Reporting

The most important objective of the program evaluation process is to ensure the objectives of the

program align with learner outcomes and the learners ability to achieve them. (Stravredes &
Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 6

Herder, 2014). In addition, a student survey should be completed at the end of the course to

identify areas of learner dissatisfaction and areas of needed improvement.

Costing Based on Student Learning Hours

Accreditation of learning between institutions is based on learning time. A course of three US

American credit points corresponds to 150 SLH. Since credits are intended as measures of

effective learning we could regard to some extent cost per student learning hour as a cost-

effectiveness proxy. (Assuming we develop two versions of a 150 SLH course, one as a low cost

print version, one as high cost multi-media course and students are equally successful we would

say that the print version is more cost-effective than the multi-media version.) Specifying course

credits in terms of student learning hours (SLH) is becoming increasingly common. For distance

learners, who often study part time, such notional required learning time may be important for

their choice of courses. Moreover, it provides a reference point for the course developers, e.g.

when determining the amount of reading to be expected. If you tell students that they can

successfully complete the course if they invest ten hours per week, then you need to carefully
Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 7

control the amount of reading, the time for completing the assignments and, possibly, the time

they would have to listen to the radio or communicate in an online class.

Course

The course carried 3 credits of 50 student learning hours (SLH) each.

This course is developed by a course team comprised of UNC faculty that has training in online

education. In addition, Instructional Designers ((ID) who will serve as course managers will be

employed in order assist faculty and staff develop and deliver the course in online environment.

The development team will use Moodle, an open sourced Learning Management System (LMS)

to deliver the course. This is seen as cost effective and has the potential to form the foundation of

a full online program. The team has decided to populate the SLH with different activities.

Course Cost

Management cost

The cost includes administrative and ongoing course management issues such and issuing

contract in time. The cost amounts to 0.5 of an annual salary of course manager at $70,000. And

0.5 of the time of a PA at an annual salary of $40,000.

Course development cost

The period of development extends over one year. Three groups of people in development in

different functions: managers, academic staff, and professional/technical staff.

Management
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There is one responsible course manager who invests a fifth of his/her time for the course during

the year of development: the manager is supported by a personal assistant who works 0.8 of

his/her time for developing the course.

Material development

The following items must be developed: Course Learning Management System (LMS), 6

YouTube videos, social media (Facebook Twitter) content development & implementation

syllabus, discussion prompts for online assignments. One Essay assignment, e-portfolio, learning

journal, one collaborative assignment. Note 1 hour academic time is rated as 30 USDF whereas 1

hour professional time is rated at 20 USD. 1 hour IT time is rated as 100 USD.

(1) For the development of the LMS is assumed 50 hours academic time; 10 hours

professional time; and 6 hours IT time.

(2) The YouTube videos require 20 hours academic time; 10 hours professional time; 6 hours

IT time.

(3) The syllabus requires 10 hours academic time.

Narrative, Course Description, and Justification for Social Media 9

(4) The discussion prompt require 50 hours academic time.

(5) Assignments 9 hours academic time.

Maintenance cost: Money is set aside for course maintenance. It is assumed that 29 hours of

academic time will be needed but only 5 hours of professional time will be needed

Delivery Cost

The major cost of delivery is the academic time required for LMS Social Media and online

discussions. It is estimated 150 of academic time is needed. However, not this cost is a semi-

variable cost. Since the outcome of the calculation here should be the variable cost per student

the semi variable cost have to be distributed over the number of students participating in the

class. Thus divide by the number of people participating in the class.

Marking assignments: The types of assignments that have to be marked: one essay .5 hours one

spreadsheet .666 hours. Collaborative assignment .5 hours However, there are 5 participants in

the group so the academic time for collaborative assignment in 2.5/.5. This means a contribution

to the variable cost per student with .5 hours of academic time.

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References

Bates, T. 2016. Building and effective learning environment. Retrieved from:

http://www.tonybates.ca/2016/02/22/building-an-effective-learning-environment/
Moore, M. Kearsely, G. 2012. A system view of online learning. Distance Education. Third
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Power, M. 2007. A dual-mode university instructional design model for academic development.
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Stavredes, T., Herder, T. 2012. Strategies for student success. A Guide to Online Course Design.
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