Tag Archives: curriculum

curriculum design based on graduate attributes, contemporary education environment and resources

First reflections on the new ACADPRAC 703

Off to a ‘not so great’ start as there are many enrollments issues to be sorted. However, considering the class sizes I have had before, 2 being the minimum, I think having 5-8 people this time is a real bonus. Panic has set in over student pages as I have realised there are glitches in the system that allow student editors to see the hidden pages. Though they cannot edit or see the content-which is displayed as work in progress- I feel it is not a professional look. Also, linking to unpublished sites in image map makes it go to edit view where access is compromised for hidden content. Answered the first student query as I did not have access to the right CECIL instance of the course, I couldn’t see the students enrolled. Then there was the palaver over enrollment caps, ACADPRAC 703 somehow had a capacity for 5 students on SSO which isn’t correct at all. If anything there could be 50 students which I rightly pointed out to admin and they realised it was a typo!

This confusion between ACADPRAC 703F City 2014 and ACADPRAC 703FX 2014 certainly exists and needs to remedied through CECIL admin. I finally got access to the correct course.
Design aspirations:
>> interactive course with focus on peer-peer communication and collaboration.
>> input from students to negotiate the assessment 2 format and timing.
>> clear guidelines on what is required and what is desirable but not essential e.g. links to Fellowship and CLeaR Lights programme.
>> information to lead into further exploration and personalisation of the learning experience.
>> journal for student reflections, collaborative glossary and student pages to create an online presence

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Promoting active learning

How do I promote active learning in my own teaching? The course I am reflecting on is ACADPRAC 703: eLearning in University Education (a postgraduate paper). The course content is fully online hence majority of the facilitation of learning occurs online.

Teaching strategies and relevant graduate attributes
To enable students to develop (1) an “understanding and appreciation of current issues and debates in the field of elearning”, I incorporate exploratory exercises where students are prompted by a question or reference to find out more on a particular topic and feedback to the group. Since all this happens online, they are developing (2) the “capacity to locate, evaluate and use the information effectively”. By role modelling as an effective e-moderator, I encourage students to engage in discussions and develop their skills to (3) “make appropriate use of advanced information and communication technologies”. Apart from individual contributions, students are expected to collaborate on a group task to negotiate and determine the focus of their online report on ‘elearning futures’ and this hones (4) their “ability to work independently and in collaboration with others”.

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