Week 4

1.  Explain what is meant by the dichotomy between the Internet as Content Transmitter and Internet as Communication Tool.  Explain your perspective on this dichotomy.

 The dichotomy of using the Internet as Content Transmitter can be viewed as how the Internet delivers the content of the material in an online class from the instructor to the students of the class.  Most of the time this is done through online readings or podcast presentations that the instructor creates or assigns for the students to view.  The learning process is how much of the information the students can retain and recall from the presentations or readings from the instructor.

Using the Internet as a Communication Tool can be viewed as how the instructor and students in an online class use the Internet as a means of discussing material or content about the class.  This can be done through email, discussion forums or discussion boards or with blogs.  I personally enjoy using the Internet as a communication tool because the discussion is asynchronous and the students in online learning environments probably chose this method of instruction because of their busy schedules and lives.  This gives everyone in the class an opportunity to participate in class discussions when they find a convenient time.

In the online math courses that I have taught, I have used the internet for presentations as well as a means for communication.  I have prepared and created my own video podcasts explaining how a math problem is solved.  The most recent video explained the process of how to approach, translate and solve an application (word problem) related to work.  Then I would assign several similar problems for the students to work on and ask them to email me back their solutions.  I would give them a week in which they can respond and I would work with them until they were able to arrive at the correct solution.  If there were many students who did not get the correct answer on a particular problem, I would create a camtasia video showing how the solution to that problem can be solved.

2.  How can good instructional design ensure that the course meets student needs?

Most of the students in online courses chose this format of instruction because of the asynchronous learning environment.  Many students may have work hours or family obligations that prevent them from being able to attend a traditional class on particular days and times.  For this reason, the design of a good online class should allow asynchronous learning.  I believe that the students should not be always required to be online at the same day on certain days of the week.  Sometimes this format is good, especially when real time responses are important or synchronous discussion is useful.  But a majority of the design of an online class should allow for students to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Students also want to feel a sense of contact or connection with their instructor.  A good instructional design would allow of dialogue between the instructor and the students and between students or peers in the class.  Students want to feel a sense being able to contact the instructor if he/she has any questions related to the content or material presented in the class and can expect a response fairly quickly.  This is what is described as instructional presence.

3.  How can good instructional design ensure course quality?

I believe that good instructional design is related to the quality of the course when both the instructor and the students feel satisfaction from participating in an online course.  The students need to feel as if they are learning something that is beneficial  and worth their time.  They need to feel instructional presence in the class.  They should feel respected by the instructor.  The assignments in the class should be presented in a clear, concise manner which is easily understood and the students should not feel that all they are doing for an online class is busy work which is going to have little or no benefit in future classes or career.

The instructor needs to feel satisfaction from teaching the class.  The instructor does not have the benefit of seeing the students' reaction to material that is presented in an online class to see if they are understanding the content or the assignments.  The instructor also may also not be able to get a sense if their students respect them as the instructor of the course.  I often find that my online students are more distant from me and only contact me when they have questions related to math problems.  This is very seldom since our software packages include videos and solutions to most of the problems.  This almost makes me feel as if I am not actually teaching the class but allowing the program to teach my students math.

4.  What is the difference between course level and individual activity level design?

The course level design of an online class is designing a class that is either synchronous or asynchronous, totally online or hybrid, deciding what types of technologies would be used in the class.  This should be based on what technologies the instructor is familiar or comfortable with as well as what most of the students in the class have access or available to them.  A course design that I have used in the past were camtasia videos to show math concepts.  It was very difficult trying to explain to my online students how the solution to a quadratic equation was found through email.  But once I used a tablet pc and camtasia, all of my writings and voice were recorded and I could send a short video to the student showing them the steps necessary in arriving at the solution.  This is very similar to what the students would experience in a face to face class.

The individual activity level design would describe how the students are engaged in the learning of the material for the class.  I feel in mathematics that students should practice as many problems on their own, then be able to explain to a peer in the class how the solution is found.  Most of the time, if the student can explain a solution to another student, then they have mastered the concept.  In an online class, the students can explain their solution using a discussion board or discussion forum.  This is sometimes difficult for the students because of the lack of mathematical characters available on the keyboards, but the students can write out their solutions on paper and scan their solutions in PDF format online for other students to view, along with their explanations.

5.  Using the first three stages of the ADDIE instructional design model, explain how you would go about developing an online course.

I would like to eventually develop an online course for our MAT 1A Calculus class.  This is a university level transferable course that would serve maybe 30-50 students per semester.  The main reason I would like to develop this course online is because these students are the most dedicated and mature students at the community college level.  The students in this class would hopefully understand the importance of thoroughly understanding the material and the importance of calculus in other courses in their future such as physics.

In my analysis stage of this course, I would survey the students in the prerequisite course which is Pre-Calculus.  I would find out past experiences with online courses, experiences with technologies such as course management programs or online software packages and their ability to clear explain a math problem through written dialogue.  I would give them a simple problem on the survey in which they could solve and then need to write out the solution so I could get a sense of how clearly they can explain themselves through written dialogue.

For the instructor, I would need to find out who would be willing to try teaching this course since very few community colleges in California teach calculus online.  I believe the reason for this is because the content of the material in this class is very hard to explain without having the students in front of you.  Also, as an instructor, it would be difficult to determine whether the students are understanding all of the concepts presented and explained in an online class.  I would also like to find out what technologies the instructor is comfortable using. 

The content for the calculus course would be standard.  We have a course outline of record requiring certain topics to be taught in the calculus course.  I would just need to make sure that all of the required topics were covered during the course of the semester in a logical manner.

The exams for an online calculus course would definitely need to be proctored, either on campus in a math lab setting, testing center or learning center on campus or with an off campus approved proctor, such as a librarian or professor willing to proctor the exam.  The exams would be a combination of multiple choice and free response.  The free response questions would be on paper and need to be scanned if done from an off campus location.  These could be emailed directly to the instructor.

The design of the course would be a combination of using WebCT and MyMathLab.  The WebCT would be used for the delivery of the instructor created videos and explanation of various problems asked during discussions.  Also, the discussion board in WebCT would be used by students and the instructor for creating dialogue throughout the course.

MyMathLab would be the primary source of content material for the course.  The students would have access to an online textbook, sample and practice problems, instructional videos and 24/7 online assistance with MyMathLab's tutorial service.  The instructor's role would be to assign the homework problems and design exams based on the homework problems from MyMathLab.  A majority of the learning would occur using this program.

The development of this class would be to offer it one semester along with a traditional calculus course to see which course was more popular with the students.  I believe the students would be able to judge for themselves whether they feel online or face to face instructional would be best for their needs. 

The testing of the course materials could easily be done using a common final exam for both courses.  Since the same material would be on the course outline of record, a common final exam could be developed based on topics that are required for the course.  The results and averages for the common final could be compared after the semester to determine whether the students did better in traditional face to face classes or an online learning environment.

James