Project Three: Course Planning
Developing Creative Assessments for an Asynchronous Course
Role: Instructional Designer
Context
I developed a course activity and strategy for an online psychology class at a university. The data suggested that students were taking the course, passing knowledge checks, but were not spending an adequate amount of time interacting with the source material. Students were skipping crucial readings, case studies, and examples that the later parts of the course build on.
Tools and LMS.
As the instructional designer, I used the university’s LMS to develop an activity where students would have to create their own podcast episode. Students had to make the episode geared towards high school AP students. This meant that the objectives were college-level, but the language had to be broken down and explained as though a high schooler could understand. Thereby ensuring that the students could demonstrate what they had learned, their ability to explain these topics, and gave them a creative project that took them outside the computer screen and off of simple assessments.
Decisions and Process
A big design decision I had to make was coming up with an equitable project for students offline. I decided on a podcast as I looked into free software that fit the same technology requirements students were already meeting through the course. I also found examples of how to create a podcast, synthesize information for high schoolers, and a few tips on public speaking.
Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes were positive for the students as they displayed command of the material and created fun podcasts! With my background in adolescent education, I felt right at home coming up with this type of curriculum. I’d love to be able to create more in the future.