Talk:Jim's Portfolio Page
Scope and wiki -- Jianwei Zhang 21:08, 3 March 2009 (EST)
Hi Jim,
You are working on a very interesting topic. Two comments:
(a) Re. your focus/scope, you said the following:
4. The contents of the course will focus on proper construction of assignments (subject to change)
Clarity of instruction
Awareness of Purpose and importance to planned educational outcomes (including assignment point value)
Rubrics and expected content of student work
Achievability given current student knowledge and skills
Specific deadlines – broken down into smaller parts for larger or long term assignments. Use of accepted educational methods to improve retention and transfer
Modeling and teaching of time management and content management skills
These all have to do with "how to." I guess your needs assessment may also reveal the needs of why and what, helping teachers understand student stress and why a content subject teacher should care. What kind of research source/reference are you drawing on? It seems all these are from a cognitive and instructional perspective. May some of the psychological techniques (building self-efficacy, social support networks, dialogues and sharing) be applied to classroom settings and integrated with instructional design? I have not expertise topic though, but you may search more.
(b) wiki used as a learning tool is not as powerful as LMS, but you can still create spaces for learners to upload plans and engage in discussions, for example by setting up a space discussion page Talk:Example discussion page
Re. objectives -- Jianwei Zhang 15:29, 29 March 2009 (EDT)
This will be very interesting and solid mini-course! Great to see the specific objectives you've identified and sequenced. I'm posting my comments below for you to consider:
Enabling Objectives 1. Students will demonstrate comprehension of the symptoms and causes of student stress as explained in a short reading by making choices between several prompts.
You may think about replacing it with "will be able to identify the symptoms and causes of student stress by analyzing specific student cases" (is this what you meant? I don't know what your short reading means)
2. Students will identify why it is important to reduce student stress in order to improve performance and satisfaction of students within a course by making choices between several answer prompts.
Think about deleting "in order to improve performance and satisfaction of students" as this is the answer to the why.
6. Students will reflect upon the experience, evaluate the level of success with the techniques, and compare these with other students (instructors) by engaging in an online discussion with other students taking the same online course.
What do u mean by "the techniques?" Will you provide tools for participants to use to measure their students' stress level?
"compare these with other students (instructors) by engaging in an online discussion with other students taking the same online course" This reads more like a learning activity than an objective.
7. Instructor will evaluate the course content and instructional design by creating and evaluating data from an online survey of students that have completed the course.
It is great to do this, but it may not be necessary/proper to state this as an learning objective.
Feedback on your course unit 1 -- Jianwei Zhang 22:14, 30 April 2009 (EDT)
This is very solid, helpful, and well-organized mini-course! Nice work! Several suggestions:
(a) I think a useful teaching strategy that can applied to this topic is case study. In/near the beginning of your unit 1, providing a specific case/example would help to engage learners and anchor their thinking. You may also have the participants to revisit the same case after reading the article you provided.
(b) Re. the following text:
"Please read the article below and watch the video. Based on the class notes above and the readinga and videoAfterwards please participate in an online discussion with your classmates using the discussion tab of this unit. Focus on the following questions and issues within your discussion.
1. What are some of the causes and effects of student stress?
2. Without mentioning names, compare your experiences of student stress with that described in the notes, article, and video
3. How do you think reducing student stress might aid students in your class or other classes that you know of?
Please Follow the link below, read the article, and reflect on ... http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2318912 Can School Shrink your brain?
Please watch the following video detail the potential that student stress has on increasing drug use
Video Link [1]"
These are two activities/themes, so should be separated and marked out. To guide the learner's attention and thinking, each activity should have a subheading and begin with a brief word about its goal/why.
(c) At the end of unit 1, you may want to provide a reflection on the take-aways and make a transition to unit 2.
Hi Jim, e. (aka Elizabeth K ) here. I really like your videos, although the second one in Unit 1 (Causes & Consequences of Student Stress) needs some form of introduction, since as a simple [2] I missed it on my first pass through. It's well worth viewing, as it brings the physiological aspects of why psychological stress is harder on the body into clear focus.
The format for your whole course is very good, easy to follow. I could only suggest that the navigation you initially provide from your portfolio page, such as the links back to whole class listing, to portfolio, and to each of the spearate lessons be included as a consistent block for each page. That way, if we need to go back for something, we won't have to use the back key, which can often bring us back through many pages we really do not wish to see that we've viewed in the meantime. Also, consistency makes it easier to retain the overall "map" in our heads as we traverse the interesting topic you've chosen.
Your learning outcomes are well stated, and your instructional sequencing (as available so far) already facilitated my learning of the content- many thanks form one who previously considered herself an SME in the field. Your use of the discussion page looks as if it would work...but even though my project is to be about collaboration, I've no idea if I could actually coerce any students to use it as yet (the trials & tribulations of adult education with no real credits or grades accorded). The technical quality is excellent, your synopses are easy to read. I very much look forward to viewing the rest of your lessons as they become available- Roles of Instructional Design in Student Stress & Implementing Instructional Practices to Reduce Student Stress. If you let me know when they are posted (email?), I'll be sure to comb them over- no typos or grammatical errors thus far!
THANK YOU for showing us all what an original topic, well chosen, can do for the course design. Keep up the good work =) e.
Hi Jim!
The introduction of Jackie's Case Study REALLY works to draw the scenarios home. I especially like your emphasis on student control- being an employee with no control right now, I know how much even the illusion of choice can alleviate stress =) Recalling student days, under similar dictatorial conditions, sends those "flight or flight" neurotransmitters into overdrive (minor in psychology, technically the biology of behavior). Another favorite concept you've brought up is that of revision- in terms of motivation, why NOT allow for revision, so as to transfer the learning in the most appropriate (and in this case, recent) context? I'm with you on this idea- it's not about increasing grades, it's about putting the effort to the best possible use. Why do so many teachers cut off their student's learning efforts with an arbitrary deadline?
If you like, I can provide a detailed typo/ dangling clasuse list, complete with suggested revisions. I can see from your post times that you're still in the process of revising (as are we all!), so I wouldn't do so unless you request it. Not sure how you feel about it being posted here, vs. the relatively more private area of the BlackBoard email exchange. Just let me know if you'd like it!
Thanks for a refreshing break from my own revisions; Excellent Choice of Topic!
=) e. (also posted to your BBoard email; in case your attention has escaped collaborative potential)