Exercise #1

Write a 750-1000 words essay about your vision of an ideal online learning
experience. How does it look like? What is it composed of? How can you bring
engagement to this remote learning experience? How do you know it's ideal?
(does it satisfy the learning outcomes & appeal to the learners?).

As the term implies, learning best happens through experience. The ideal online learning experience
is the one that enables the learners to achieve the desired learning outcomes in a learner-centric
and goals-oriented way. It is also cognitively challenging, authentic, and actively engaging through
employing innovative instructional modes to help accelerate talent and improve performance.

Many elements should exist in a learning experience for it to be successful, some of them are:

1. Quality Content

Learner's levels of motivation and engagement are directly proportional to the quality of the
course's content, and as a result, they learn much more naturally. On the other hand, low-quality
content feels like a burden and the information is barely retained. It should positively answer this
question; would an expert in the field recommend it to anyone curious about the subject?

2. High level of engagement

(How can you bring engagement to this remote learning experience?)

This can be achieved through: 

a. Interactive multimedia Integration 

Incorporating media components contribute to knowledge retention but only when they are
interactive. In an ideal online learning experience, content is presented through incorporating
various multimedia elements into the presentation, such as interactive videos, podcasts,
infographics, activities, and more. That is more engaging than reading a long text or set of
instructions. 

b. Effective communication

Because learners are social human beings in the first place, an ideal online course includes
opportunities for interaction between a learner and another by encouraging cooperative learning
that permits participants to gain knowledge from one another to enhance the overall learning
experience. For example, learners may get involved in a Twitter conversation discussing their own
experience in a specific part of the course. Or learners may be required to work on a group project
together via an online forum. That fosters a sense of community and gives learners the support
needed to ask questions or seek peer guidance. Interactions between instructors and learners may
involve students receiving personalized feedback and support on their work, which turns learners’
mistakes into teachable moments.
 c. Praxis

If the content is king, then experience is the emperor. We are moving to a mode of learning that is
less dependent on the acquisition of information and more dependent on the application and use of
that information in real-world settings wherever possible. There should be room for challenging
learners’ comprehension, research, and critical thinking skills to maintain high levels of authenticity,
inclusion, and interest. That could take place through providing online quizzes at the end of each
module and giving feedback on the results, in addition to capitalizing simulations, applications, on-
the-job training opportunities, and case studies.

1. Efficiency in content creation

The ideal course is tailored to learner personas that identify their needs, motives, level of
knowledge, the pattern of learning, and preferences. It helps identify the proper pace of the course,
which means the learner is neither bored nor overwhelmed. Consequently, they have plenty of time
and notice to complete large projects but also are kept engaged by small meaningful assignments
during.
It also identifies the level of scaffolding that should exist throughout the learning process. Moreover,
it assures that the content addresses different learning styles that correspond with multiple
intelligences and allows room for more subject exploration. That helps learners make the most of
the experience and guarantees knowledge and skill enhancement.

2. Learning pathway and guide

One of the central elements in an online learning environment is the learning pathway. It helps
learners navigate their academic and co-curricular journeys and provides a roadmap to the
transformation that will happen to them along the way in their skills, knowledge, and attitude. This is
where they check on their overall progress and how close or far they are from the main checkpoints
in the course outline.

The study guide is the student’s reference to the content, structure, and activities associated with
the online course. It must include a clear description of the instructional aims and learning objectives
of the course, the list of learning resources, such as textbook chapters to read, associated articles to
consult, supplementary readings, and websites of interest. It also includes the assignments or
projects the students are to tackle, along with a clear indication of the quality elements making up
the assessment criteria.

3. A user-friendly attractive interface

In addition to being catchy and interactive, there has to be consistency in the design from start to
finish. It should get the learners familiar with the course structure and sequence of each module to
avoid distraction or confusion. Nevertheless, the layout of the course should be clear and easy to
follow and have some intuitive features to help for easier navigation. Students should always know
what to do next and know how to access relevant information and resources. If needed, an
orientation can be included as a starter module to give them a walkthrough of the different features
of the interface and how they can access them.
Assessing the success of an online learning experience could be a bit challenging. However, there are
many valuable sources at hand that identify the level of quality.

1. Online course participants are in a unique position to tell what is working and what needs to
be improved. Surveys and questionnaires in the middle and at the end of a course can reveal
the strengths and weaknesses of the online instructional strategy used.

2. When course objectives and goals are SMART and accurately identified beforehand, the
criteria to monitor learners’ progress, transformation, and performance are clear enough to
measure the result of the experience in relation with the desired learning outcomes.
This provides an opportunity to judge the quality of the learning experience and give
feedback to learners on their areas of strength and weakness.

3. Sources such as emails or forum posts of student questions, dialogue within forums,
feedback from group interaction, end-of-course student surveys, LMS reports on student
interaction patterns, and student assignment results are useful in a learning experience
assessment.
Exercise #2

Dear learner,

Thank you for completing this project. Your overall score is 75%.

Here is how your submission has been graded. We hope you find it useful and
helpful for your future submissions.

Parameter Score Comments

Problem Solving 2 In the product differentiation and strategy sections, you

successfully identified the main product differentiating
factor and the potential unique key features through
depending on facts as evidence to validate the reliability of
your strategy. Your reasons to choose such features matched
the competitors' weaknesses presented in the competitive
analysis. On the other hand, you needed to research more
solid facts to conduct the product-market fit analysis more
accurately.

Data 2 You managed to gather and use different types of relevant

Management data. However, some important information was missing.
For example, on page 4, you mentioned that the data from
the market share figure is useful when put together with
other important data that wasn't included in your report. You
needed to further research and gather these data to support
your point of view. Furthermore, the charts and the
competitive analysis needed more utilization to reflect their
correlation with the decision-making process.

Decision Making 2 For most of the elements of the marketing plan, you
managed to leverage data to provide recommendations. You
made decisions regarding some elements such as marketing
techniques, the go-to-market strategy, and the key distinctive
features. However, the data collected was not enough to
decide on the proper market to enter. You needed to employ
the information to present a more accurate launching plan
and be confident of which potential market to choose, which
is one of the objectives of the report.

Solution 3 Although the report did not include all the required
Communication decisions, you managed to identify the reason and steps to
implement all the plans and strategies of the marketing and
launching.
Areas of Strength: (These are practices you should continue doing)

1. You exerted conscious effort to do research and write the report in a satisfactory
organized manner. Well done!
2. You managed to elaborate and give examples on essential ideas.
3. You tackled all the points required in detail.
4. It was effective to use tables, figures, and charts to illustrate qualitative and quantitative
information and make comparisons.

Areas of Improvement: (These are practices you should start doing)

1. You need to maintain clarity. At times, you needed to avoid ambiguity to convey
complete information. (for example: on page 4, the sentence “we stop playing safe” is
not clear)
2. Make sure to do more thorough research. (A product-market fit analysis lacked some
data)
3. You could include all related information in the same section. (You needed to mention
how you will make the product stand out in the Competitive Analysis part)
4. For more neat writing, you are advised to number your main points and subpoints. 

Additional Comments:

It is recommended that you proofread your written work before submitting it to check on
grammatical and spelling mistakes.