Missing the Cake
Do you ever go to the store to buy a cake, but end up with a pie instead? They are both desserts and delicious. The pie was really tasty and satisfied that sweet tooth craving, but you still want cake.

I created an online resource for teachers to develop an understanding of personalized pathways. I ended up with a great repository of information with opportunities for reinforcing practice, but I wanted the course to become a community of learners sharing and growing. So what is missing?

As I looked back through the course, I built in many places for teachers to research and understand the elements of personalizing learning for their studens. However, there is no instructor involvement or interactive opportunites for teachers within the course. As the cake became a pie, the course evolved into more of a training manual for reference purposes. At this point I would like to modify the course form its original purpose to become a more dynamic learning environment. My initial focus would be the splash page incorporating the missing onboarding components to create a sense of belonging and comfort for the users. Following the guidelines from “Three Common E-Learning Design Issues”, I have created an initial splash page design using concepts to lessen visual distractions by centering text, limiting font choices, and being conscious of alignment (“Three Common E-Learning Design Issues,” 2013). I have also incorporated choice for the users to initiate onboarding.
I particularly like the onboarding ideas listed on the blog from Zen Courses about making sure your users know the before and after starting the course modules(Allen, n.d.).  I modified their lists to fit my own concepts of successful onboarding. The image below depicts my concept of the course splash page.
Many of the elements are designed based on the suggestions from the Zen blog. Before you start the course is where the users are welcomed to the course, told what to expect in the course, and given general expectations. After you start the course will orient the users to the course providing learning outcomes and assignment descriptions (Allen, n.d.). About the instructor will be used to provide contact information and an initial onboarding assignment.  
The onboarding process will also help to create a sense of community.  Plante and Asselin discuss the challenges of creating social presence outside of the traditional classroom. The researchers found caring traits such as honesty, respect, and compassion are not only effective in a face to face environment, but also effective when demonstrated in the online classroom. They provide a table a ways to create this online social feeling using practices such as use of discussion boards, frequency of contact, timeliness in responses, appreciative tones in communications, and using human phrases for greetings to name a few (2014, pp.219-222).  The welcome message in the onboarding strategies initiate these positive types of communication early on.


References:
Allen, J. (n.d.). “How to automate onboarding in your online course.” Retrieved from https://www.zencourses.co/articles/onboarding-your-online-course
Plante, K., & Asselin, M. E. (2014). Best practices for creating social presence and caring behaviors online. Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(4), 219-223.
Three common e-learning design issues & how to avoid them. (2013, February 26). Retrieved from http://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/three-common-e-learning-design-issues-how-to-avoid-them/?_ga=1.119861000.1066486230.1464120036

Comments

  1. pmackFebruary 18, 2019 at 7:00 PM

    Alicia,

    I guessed what your missing ingredient was before I finished reading the first paragraph. Engagement is always the secret spice to any learning. You created a splash page that transformed from plain sugar water to strawberry lemonade. Wonderful! By the time your learners reach the "Dive In" button they are committed to uncovering something new through the now engaging class. Thanks for sharing.
    Pamela

    ReplyDelete
  2. MollyFebruary 26, 2019 at 8:41 AM

    a great job, Alicia! I think that sometimes we become so excited in sharing cool tools and knowledge that we forget to invite conversation on these tools to foster more excitement.... I would love to see your finished product!

    ReplyDelete

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