Reflective Summary I

So far we have read many studies discussing the factors that should be taken into consideration when building an online learning community, reviewed a couple of virtual learning communities and had many implications regarding the features, structure, etc. of effective virtual learning communities. Now, it is time to synthesize and reflect how we will apply all our knowledge in future design of online learning environments. Below I will mention the context, learners and subject matter of the online course that I plan to design and develop as a requirement of this course, and then discuss my conceptualization of the design. Lastly, I will conclude by mentioning how I have developed my design frame.

Overview of My Project
I will design and develop an online course for the institution I work. The course is going to be about Fundamentals of Technology. That course will provide students with the fundamental concepts, principles, and ideas needed to understand how business is operated and managed in a rapidly changing global environment, which is needed for success in business-related careers. Basic computer, database and Internet skills will be covered. This course will also provide job readiness skills and soft skills that are critical for success in any workplace setting. Learners of this course are high school students and adults.

Conceptualization of My Online Course


















This will be a practice-based community. Riel and Polin (2004) suggest that ‘practice-based communities are groups with shared goals that offer their members richly contextualized and supported arenas for learning (p. 20)’. I will design this course based on situated learning theory (Collins, 1988; Lave, 1988). Collins (1988) defines situated learning as: ‘the notion of learning knowledge and skills in contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be useful in real life’ (p.2). So, I will use authentic context and activities to ensure that the learning environment reflects the way the knowledge will ultimately be used (Collins, 1988; Jonassen, 1999). I will use a number of theoretically grounded instructional strategies and principles to ensure learning. First, the use of technology will be performed and demonstrated by instructors, and those demonstrations and modeling of processes will be provided in downloadable video formats as well as text and graphic based formats. According to the multimedia principle of Mayer (2009), “people learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone (p. 47)”. Second, analogies will be used to introduce complex and hard-to-visualize technological systems to the students (Smith and Ragan, 2005). Third, reflection opportunities will be provided to ensure transfer of knowledge to real world.
Social interaction will be an important feature of this course. Students will be encouraged to discuss and exchange information through forums and real-time communication tools. Subgroups will be formed for each career field, so the students in the same career field will develop their own information database, which will reflect their shared interests, goals and needs. For example, the students in Graphic Design career field will have a designated area to discuss their own professional goals, needs, interests, problems, etc. However I don’t know if it would be possible to develop structured collaboration activities. My concern is that students in individualized learning system study at their own pace. A student can enroll the classes at any Monday. So, each student in the class is at a different part of the course. I don’t know how realistic it would be to track where each student is at and pair the students at the same level.
Another important component of the course will be the application of the knowledge. Students will be encouraged to do hands-on activities to practice the skills they learned. For example, they will be asked to develop a PowerPoint presentation after they learn the procedure of presentation development.
Support will be provided throughout the course. The support should be including but not limited to technological support (Riel &Polin, 2004), promotion of intrinsic motivation (Collins, Brown & Holum, 1991), coaching (Collins, Brown & Holum, 1991; Jonassen, 1999), and providing opportunities to make choices (Kaptelinin & Cole, 2001). Also, students will be encouraged to sign up for a professional social networking site - LinkedIn to communicate with the practitioners of their field and improve their employability skills.

Conclusion
Each of the class activities (reading textbooks and PPTs, discussing with peers and instructor, reviewing virtual learning communities, writing blogs, etc.) was very helpful in framing these design ideas. While Renninger and Shumar’s (2002) text introduced the basic concepts and sample successful and unsuccessful virtual learning communities (i.e. WISE, MediaMOO, etc.), Koschman, Hall and Miyake (2001) provided the key consideration points in design of collaborative virtual learning communities. Especially, sample virtual learning communities (e.g. MediaMOO, WISE, Ning, MERLOT, etc.) let me see what works and what doesn’t work. Peer discussions and blogs were also helpful since they made me articulate what I learned and how I will use what I learned. Articulation of the knowledge required me to review the text back and forth, which made me see a new point each time. PPTs and additional articles provided by the instructor backed up the necessary design features theoretically. I am really looking forward to developing this online learning environment.


References

Collins, A. (1988). Cognitive apprenticeship and instructional technology (Technical
Report No. 6899). BBN Labs Inc., Cambridge, MA.
Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Holum, A. (1991). Cognitive apprenticeship: Making
thinking visible. American Educator, 6-11, 38-46. Reviewed by Dan Watola.
Jonassen, D. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory (Vol. II, pp. 215-239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Kaptelinin V, Cole M. Individual and collective activities in educational computer game playing. In: Koschmann T, Hall R, Miyake N, eds. CSCL 2: Carrying Forward the Conversation. Mahwah, NJ, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum, Chapter 8, 2002:297-310.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice: Mind, mathematics, and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed). New York: Cambridge University Press
Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W. (2002) Building Virtual Communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
Riel, M. Polin, L. (2004). Online Learning communities: common ground and critical differences in designing technical environments. In Barab, S. A., Kling, R., & Gray, J. (Eds.). Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 16-52.
Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J., (2005). Instructional Design (3rd ed.). NY: Wiley.