Emily Kapfer Mora

ISTC 603

Final Project

Spring 2022
 I chose to review an online course I took for professional development through Shepherd

University: Picture This! Visual and Media Literacy for the Classroom. This course was

designed to give its learners strategies on analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating photos and

information from different types of sources (Shepherd University, 2022). A goal of this course is

to encourage educators to help their students become independent thinkers and learners

(Shepherd University, 2022).

I used the Towson University; Quality Matters – Gold Review Standards to review this

course. When reading through this set of standards, I thought about how much these standards

are evident in all of the Towson courses I have taken in my undergraduate and graduate studies. I

often feel as though Towson courses are all I know, so it was interesting to apply Towson’s

standards to another university’s course. Since Towson University and Shepherd University are

two universities that are well-known for their education programs, the Gold Review Standards

seemed like an appropriate fit.

I have taken many “EDPD” (educational professional development) courses through

Shepherd University with various instructors. These courses are designed to be asynchronous

and go-at-your-own-pace with one deadline for all assignments. Because of this, some standards

under the Course Overview and Introduction category were not met. It might be more

appropriate to say that some were not applicable to this course; it is difficult for me to say this

course does not meet certain standards when that is not the institution’s expectations and design

of the course. I was not required to have any interaction with classmates, and therefore was not

asked to introduce myself. There was not a formal syllabus provided, so I was not informed of

the course or institution’s policies. There was an instructor introduction at the beginning of the

slides provided, which included the structure of the course and how to complete it.
 The Learning Objectives standards require all learning objectives to be clearly stated and

measurable (Towson University, 2014). The objectives are not stated within any materials

provided by the instructor but are described in the course description on the institution’s website.

I am accustomed to a syllabus that shows the learning outcomes paired with the appropriate

learning activity, but this course does not have a format like this. Although these were not laid

out for the learner, I do believe that each of the eight learning activities support the objectives

given in the course description. For instance, I had to draw a sketch that included pictures to

describe the words on one of the informational slides; I thought this perfectly aligned with the

visual piece of the course.

Not many standards were met for the Assessment and Measurement category. There is

not criteria shared for learning activities, and I wonder if this is in an effort to leave the

assignments open-ended. I am not sure why else a rubric for each assessment would not be

shared. Simonson et al. (2019) discussed the idea of unanticipated consequences, where positive

or negative outcomes that were not expected are identified from a course. The format of this

course seems to intentionally follow this idea, as there will be a plethora of unexpected outcomes

with so little guidance given for assessment expectations. A grading policy is not provided,

either. The assessments do measure the learning objectives that were in the course description.

For example, I had to prepare a lesson where students had to analyze a source they would use for

research. The lesson had to include questions they would ask about the source, which I believe

helps them develop those independent thinking skills that were stated in the course description.

Looking at the Instructional Materials category, I realize that a variety of instructional

materials are provided. The presentation slides have videos, text, audio recordings, and images.

These are the four main materials I would expect from a virtual course. Some of the instructional
materials are clearly connected to the assignment on the following slide; other materials seem to

be included in the presentation because they are relevant to the topic of visual and media literacy,

but are not consistent with the flow and structure of the ‘materials, assignment, materials,

assignment’ pattern of the course. As I took a deeper look at the assignments, there was some

guessing with which materials I was supposed to use for each assignment. Though the materials

that were provided were quality content, the lack of direction that should have accompanied

those materials had a negative impact on the effectiveness of the course. Simonson et al. (2019)

says that grades and assessments are ways to determine course effectiveness, but students

reviewing the course materials is a way to measure this as well.

Before reviewing the Course Activities and Learner Interaction category, I had not

considered interacting with other learners in this course. Because of the format of the course,

there are no opportunities for interaction with other learners. I would recommend a platform

where we could at least view the work of our peers at the completion of the course to compare

with what we have done, if not a forum for discussion about the course content and assignments.

I do not believe every course has to go as far as requiring group projects to meet collaboration

standards, but it is valuable to learn from others because we could all interpret the assignments in

different ways. The timeline for instructor feedback is not stated, although having taken a course

with this instructor previously, I had this information from background knowledge of his

courses.

Considering the Course Technology standards, the necessary technology was readily

available for use. All I needed was a device and internet access to utilize the slides that were

provided for me. There were no links to privacy policies on external tools; however, there were

no external tools used because everything was embedded directly into the presentation.
 The standards for Learner Support are ones I had not thought of when thinking about

what the requirements of a graduate course might be. There is no information on technical

support; however, I would not expect this since the only platform to be used are Google Slides

and word documents. Assignments are to be submitted via email; if they were to be uploaded to a

platform such as Blackboard, then I would understand the need for technical support

information. There is no mention of the institution’s accessibility policies or services. This is

something that I would add into the presentation slides; although it may not seem necessary to

have technical support information for a simple course like this, it is crucial to have the

institution’s policies readily available. Because the institution’s policies are already integrated

into other courses, it would not be challenging to include them in this course.

All standards were met under the Accessibility and Usability category. Because all of the

media sources were embedded into the Google Slides, the presentation served as a one-stop-shop

for all learning materials. This allowed me, as the learner, to avoid being sent to different links

that had the potential of not working or showing me unwanted advertisements while viewing the

content. It was very convenient to have everything I needed in one place. Of course, Google

Slides is a simple and user-friendly platform that can present multiple modes of instruction. As

mentioned earlier, the content was presented in a multitude of ways for learners with different

learning styles.

Overall, this course meets some, but also does not meet many of the Gold Review

Standards. However, I think that keeps this course simplistic and stress-free, which is why it is so

popular for teachers continuing their education. Learner interaction was one of the key

components missing from this course, but I still feel that I learned a lot without the support of

peers. While I can depend on the support of peers in classes I take through Towson University,
the Visual & Media Literacy course challenged me to problem-solve on my own as I worked

through the assignments. I think there is a bit of an understanding with this and many of the

Shepherd University courses in this program that if an expectation is not provided, then it is up to

the learner to decide how they want to approach the objective. Examining these standards helped

me to realize that this type of learning format may not work for learners who learn best with a

high level of structure, but I enjoy this type of professional development.

Presentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UysheXFsU9x-B_gGmQjrHL1zFq0Zx4pB/view?usp=drivesdk
 References

Gold Review Standards - Towson University. (2014). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from

https://www.towson.edu/provost/initiatives/faculty-center/documents/goldreview/gold-

qm-rubric-1p.pdf

Graduate Courses in Graduate Professional Development – Shepherd University. (2022).

Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://media.suweb.site/2022/01/Spring-2022-

EDPD-Class-Schedule.pdf?v=1641893647?v=1641893563

Simonson, M. R., Smaldino, S. E., & Zvacek, S. (2019). 2. In Teaching and learning at a

distance: Foundations of Distance Education (pp. 318–329). essay, Information Age

Publishing, Inc.