Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment 4 Reflection
ETEC565A
Dr. N. Boskic
March 3, 2018
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ASSIGNMENT 4 REFLECTION
Assignment 4 Reflection
To best recognize our extensive work together throughout this project, we wrote a
collaborative reflection. When we calculated our working hours together, we realized that we
have spent up to four synchronous meeting hours per week to discuss, design, and edit all of
the different aspects of Assignments 3 and 4. We will include an individual reflection portion at
When we first met to discuss creating our course module, we knew we wanted to
explore an LMS tool and content that would both utilize and challenge our complementary skill
sets (Alexis’ experience as an instructional designer and Joyce’s teaching experience). Bates
notes to adhere to best practices for online learning design teachers must “[work] closely with
instructional designers and media professionals whenever possible” and that “teachers working
with instructional designers will need to decide which media they intend to use on pedagogical
as well as operational grounds” (Bates, 2015). Implementation of the SECTIONS model means
collaboration between multiple stakeholders. We also wanted to work with an LMS with which
neither of us had worked extensively. This left us with the two choices of Moodle or Google
Classroom as we had interacted as students or administrators for the other LMS options. Our
next step was to refer to each of our LMS Evaluation rubrics that we had created in Assignment
2 to assess Moodle and Google Classroom. Though neither LMS platform met all our
expectations, we felt that Moodle best fulfilled our criteria for functionality. When referencing the
LMS Evaluation Rubric (Cruz et al., 2018), Moodle met or exceeded expectations in the
following areas:
communication.
● Allows for user-unique curation of course content including the integration of external
learning tools.
Once we had chosen Moodle as our LMS, we then began to focus on the course content
and design. We chose to create a course that would serve as a transition course for students
who may be entering (or re-entering) a postsecondary environment. After discussion of our own
experience as beginning postsecondary students, we felt one of the most challenging areas was
our course, “An Introduction to Academic Research and Writing”. Our major focus for
Assignment 3, the Course Overview, was on how to make the course as accessible as possible
for a wide range of students at differing skills and abilities. Another important area of focus for
our Course Overview was recognizing and supporting the cultural and emotional transition
students would be making as they enter into a postsecondary learning environment. Kahu &
Nelson (2017) discuss that though student success and retention are key issues that face all
higher education institutions, most discussions in this area fail to include “four specific
psychosocial constructs: self-efficacy, emotions, belonging and well-being” which are key to
We believed that course design that emphasized clarity and organization of content,
supplemented with “user-friendly” language and self-reflection would help support students in
the above elements. For example, we worked on creating a clear calendar and course
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schedule, and placed all expected assignments and assessments to the forefront of the course.
In addition to our administrative language such as “Course Schedule” we also give a subtitles
posed in colloquial terms, “When is everything happening?” which we hoped would give a more
We also discussed how assessment practices could be a particular area where we might
be able to support the students’ growth as learners. As a continued effort towards promoting
self-regulation and learner reflexivity, we provided clear expectations of the assessments in the
course at the forefront of the original course page (which has now been revised). Nicol notes
that “in order to self-regulate their own learning, students must have a reasonable
understanding of what is required in assessment tasks” (2007, p. 55); this research motivated
our efforts towards transparency and clear expectations. We followed a three stage model for
2. Design appropriate assessment tasks that will directly assess whether each of
As we write this reflection, we now understand that this emphasis on simplicity and
organization, although effective for some, could be improved upon. As a result, our discussions
for Assignment 4 and beyond focused intensely on how to enliven our course to ensure student
changes to our course. We focused on innovation moving into assignment 4, and we focused
more on the activity components of our course. For assignment 4 we completed the Module 1
portion of our course which runs through weeks 2, 3, and 4. Our main area of focus and
concentration was Module 1; however, we did include placeholders for Modules 2 and 3 with
backward design and planning in mind. In our revisions and Module 1 design, we wanted to
enhance our diversity and variety in interaction for our students to better reflect the constructivist
foundation on which we had based our course creation, as “interactivity and interactive features
in a multimedia application facilitate interaction between the computer and the user, and
increases user engagement” (Bates & Poole, 2003, as cited in Neo et al., 2007, p. 471).
First off, we changed the location of our assessments within our Moodle course. Instead
of having the assessments grouped together, we moved them to be within the corresponding
modules. Secondly, we adjusted our discussion board in the Course Overview module to be
more creative and engaging. For example, we changed the Week 1a discussion to be a video
response, rather than a traditional written introduction, and we included our own video
introduction as well. Additionally, we adjusted the schedule we created to better reflect the
specific course modules. Finally, we also worked to create consistency in our imagery and
sizing of images (ie. instructor images, and the addition of activity images).
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Furthermore, we worked hard to change the overall layout of our course. We added in
visual elements, including linked banner images and activity images. As well, we worked to
implement group activities that would enhance the constructivist nature of our course including
activities in Flipgrid, Padlet, and Wiki. Additionally, we also embedded a Twitter hashtag feed
(#academicresearchandwriting) that students can follow for additional tips and resources.
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At the end of our work together, we both felt that the course now better
Digital Story
**Note: Here we include our reflection on the Digital Story, also previously posted in the
course blog
We chose a medium that would work well with our course topic of introductory
postsecondary research and writing, so we chose to work with Pecha Kucha as it is a proven
effective storytelling technique (Beyer, 2011). On first glance it might seem like Pecha Kucha is
a slide show presentation, but Pecha Kucha presentations are more strategic than slideshows
Pecha Kucha presentations are generally 20 photos with 20 seconds per photo. The
difference between a Pecha Kucha and a slide presentation is the focus on the visuals within
the slides. Pecha Kucha stories don’t deliver information through text on a screen, the images
speak for themselves as guiding tools for the audio storytelling. Pecha Kucha storytelling
encourages the presenter to condense their ideas into bite sized “chunks,” which helps keep
viewers engaged (Carter et al., 2001). According to findings, “…by using diagrams and visual
metaphors instead of just text, the perception of the presenter by his or her audience can be
digital storytelling format created by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo, Japan in
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February 2003. The word pechakucha itself is an onomatopoeic word for the sound of
To meet the assignment guidelines, we shortened the Pecha Kucha slightly to 13 photos
but we feel our product still holds true to the concept– a visually compelling presentation that
engages the audience and provokes further discussion. Please note that the length of our video
is due to our two combined time allotments. Another interesting challenge was creating the
audio for the piece. We are located in Vancouver, British Columbia (Joyce) and in Calgary,
Alberta (Alexis) so we needed to account for geographical and time differences while still
remaining true to the dynamic nature of Pecha Kucha. We recorded our session live and
synchronously; though this required a number of takes, we were committed to the fluidity and
We centred the narrative of our digital story in the Pecha Kucha on the challenges and
issues we faced in our own postsecondary writing and how we overcame some of these
struggles. Our story is, first and foremost, intended to help us connect and gain trust with our
students. At the same time, we refer to tools that might be helpful to them in the transition into
quality writing topics, and social emotional skills such as self-reflexivity and perseverance.
Because Pecha Kucha are intended as a way to provoke discussion, we will follow up this digital
story in our Course Module with student opportunities to discuss our video further, or to create
their own.
To learn more about Pecha Kucha presentations, please check out the following resources:
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General Information:
http://www.pechakucha.org/
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM4TXMBGLdY
In Vancouver:
https://www.pechakucha.org/cities/vancouver
http://www.pechakuchavancouver.com/
In Calgary:
https://www.pechakucha.org/cities/calgary
https://www.facebook.com/PechaKuchaYYC/
Working with Joyce was a highlight for me in my last semester of MET. Throughout the
assignment 4 we gained insight into what it means to be innovative and creative in LMS courses
(which can often be limiting). I believe that by working together, our understanding of innovative
LMS design was enhanced through our ability to discuss challenges with one another, and our
I feel fortunate to have been able to work with Joyce, as she has an extensive teaching
background, which is different from my personal experience. While the assumption is usually
that designers and teachers don’t work well together, I didn’t find this to be true. I found that
Joyce and I had skills that complemented each other throughout this process, and that we were
both able to learn more as we discussed the pros and cons of each course aspect from our
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varying perspectives. I have gained a better understanding of course progression for student
learning from the perspective of an instructor with the insight that Joyce provided.
I’m sure that I will be able to bring what I learned from this assignment forward into my
work. In the next couple of weeks I am starting a new job at the University of Calgary, and I will
be working in the LMS platform, D2L. I am new to D2L, and I’m certain that the strategies Joyce
and I used in Moodle and the troubleshooting we underwent will be useful in learning the D2L
platform.
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References
Bates, T. (2015). Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model. In Teaching
pedagogical-differences-between-media/
Beyer, A.M. (2011). Improving student presentations: Pecha kucha and just plain PowerPoint.
Carter, T., Hardy, C. A., & Hardy, J. C. (2001). Latin vocabulary acquisition: An experiment
Cruz, C., Kim, J., Ross, K., Schultz, K., & Wong, J. (2018) ETEC 565A: Learning Technology
Kahu, E. R., & Nelson, K. (2018). Student engagement in the educational interface:
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., & Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the
Neo, M., Neo, T., & Xiao-Lian, G. T. (2007). A constructivist approach to learning an interactive
Nicol, D. (2007) E- assessment by design: using multiple- choice tests to good effect, Journal of
http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/030
98770601167922
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Rust, C. (2002). The impact of assessment on student learning: How can the research literature
158. 10.1177/1469787402003002004