HRD 1100 Course Redesign From Group 3 link

Here is the link that Group 3 has produced a webpage redesign for the HRD 1100 course.

http://group3redesignofhrd1100.webs.com/

Primary Analysis Questions For Group 3

Primary Analysis Questions

Case Study Group Project

Group 3

Tiffany Schnepel, Catina Jackson, & Megan Balamut

1. What is causing the frustrations Georgina and her students are facing?

The frustration is coming from mistakes that both the students and the teacher are making. It is obvious that the students are not taking the time to actually read through the website. When students do not read through the materials for the online course they often miss dates or assignments and then push the blame towards the professor. This happens often in online courses, students think they know what they are doing but in reality panic when they do not receive the grade they desired. Some of the questions the students are asking can be found on the website. The teacher's design of the webpage is not very clear and easy to read.
Another big problem is that Georgina is approaching her student comments/complaints like a professor. She's not seeing things from the student's perspective. She set the website up, but she isn't the one who uses it actively every day. She knows what she has put on the website and feels that it is satisfactory for the students to learn from. It would be a good idea for her to set herself up with a dummy account and actually work the course as a student; that way she could see that there are a few sloppy areas that could be adjusted for clarification. All of the information seems to be there on the website that the students need, it's just not necessarily in an orderly or easy to find fashion. For example the syllabus with the specific dates and requirements shouldn't be a link within a link, it should be front and center so that is cannot be missed. In which will probably cut down a lot of emails asking questions to the professor that can be answer by simply reading the syllabus. And lastly Georgina should not be chasing her students down for assignments. If her students aren't reading the website, syllabus or talking amongst each other than that is beyond her control. This is not high school and even though this is a one thousand level class, which mostly freshman take, they know that if they do not turn in the work then they will have a missing grade or a grade deduction depending on the teacher. Granted she should e-mail the class a copy of everything at the beginning, but she should not e-mail them individually for assignments. If it is in the syllabus, than it is up to the student to read it, and complete the tasks. Students at times have difficulty in the first week or so with getting acquainted with the online course and what will be expected of them throughout the course. There is no need to have a lot of frustration on the students behalf or Georgina's, they all need to work together and help Georgina in making progress to creating a better online course for next semester. We all make mistakes and they can be fixed just like this online course can.

 

 

2. Develop a flowchart of Georgina's site as it currently exists. Develop another flowchart with your recommendations of how to solve the current problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. What other improvements would you recommend for the existing pages in order to decrease student frustration?

The overall color scheme of the webpage could use some improvement. The colors are not inviting and they do not work well with each other. Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use throughout the course website, which should be added to the page to decrease student frustration. Good use of graphic elements such as photos, subheads, and pull quotes are great to use when breaking up large areas of text. Every web page in the course site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages. Making the introduction to the course part of the front page along with the syllabus will show the students that these are important and to always refer to these before you email the professor. A good way to see if the students have read the course syllabus and course website thoroughly is to give them an online quiz that will be due at the end of the week. So that Georgina and the students will feel more comfortable with knowing the information and if they get the answer wrong the students will want to go and find the correct answer choice. If the basic course information is there every time the students log on it would be hard for them to avoid reading it. With that being said, the information about the course assignments and due dates should be on the front page as well, which is normally in a calendar format. Some students are good at keeping track of what is due and when it is due, but others just depend on the course calendar. On the webpage that vital information is not on the front of the course page, it is hidden inside of a link, which to some students who do not navigate throughout the course will not find it easily. Sending out a mass e-mail to the entire class with those important documents on the first day is also a great idea so that way when students email Georgina, her proper response could be that it is posted on the homepage and was also e-mailed out to each student, therefore please refer to the proper page. A very simple improvement that could be made is to have a hyperlink for Georgina's e-mail address, so that way the students can just click on the hyperlink and begin their message. The discussion forum does not seem to be easy to find. If it is an important part of the class there should be a link to it in larger font so that it can be easy to find. There is no place on the current website that shows where the discussion forum can be found. Making some of these adjustments and improvements will make the online course easier to navigate through and put less stress on the professor and the student.

4. As design experts, how would you work with Georgina to fix these problems?

To fix these problems first Georgina would need to go to a professional in the technology department so that way they could look over the online course and double check the information. Having other peers to look over the webpage will give her a variety of feedback on her course design. When creating an online course everything needs to be easy to navigate and make it user friendly. With having a professionals help, this will also help with some of the technical errors that can occur at times, and also help to give the webpage a bolder appearance rather than just a white background. Choosing a text that is very easy to read and simple will help a lot as well. Applying easy to use navigation buttons for the discussion board and assignments would also be something to talk to the technology professional about. By making the links color-coordinated and underlined so that they are visible to the reader is going to help the students out with finding what they need. Exploring the students feedback and given the information that she has received throughout her first online course design, she will now be able to create a more easy accessible course for her students to use with just a little help the course should be up and running smoothly.

5. What options are available for salvaging this course at this point? Which course of action do you recommend?

This course does not need to be completely redone. It just needs some professional attention from the technical support, so that the course can be designed properly. Sending out an email, would be a good first start to point out to the students that this is your first course and to please cooperate with her in fixing the current problems in the course. This is a learning experience not only for the students but also for Georgina. Creating an online course is not something that can just be done overnight, it is a task that does take a lot of time and effort to produce a good quality course website. Continue with how the course is for now, as all of the information is there, with adding just a few improvements the course will eventually run smoother than it did in the beginning. Eventually everyone gets used to how the course needs to be navigated through and as to what is due and when. Everyone needs to be patient and to work together in trying to solve any of their concerns. But to first ask their question in the discussion board before e-mailing the professor. Giving the students a tutorial website that they can go to that will help them be able to navigate through the website will make things less stressful on everyone. After Georgina goes through the website and sees what her students are talking about from their perspective she will have a better grasp on how to restructure her website. From a student's perspective things just need to be rearranged and a little clearer for easy reading. And lastly with providing the students with a course evaluation link will help Georgina see where the students are having the most difficulty. For example UNT uses the SETE course evaluations. Overall the course is not in that bad of shape, but for Georgina and some of her colleagues to look through the course would not be a bad idea. Gaining feedback upon trial and error is not something that will hinder a person but will simply make things better in the long run.

 

 

For Week 9

For week 9 of the group project I feel that everything is going really well. We are definately working well as a group. Everything was to be turned into me by tuesday and it was, therefore I was then able to compile everything together and then submit the draft to my other two group members for them to look over and really check it to make sure we are all on the right track with the group project. Lastly the only problem that we really ran into was the fact that when making our flowcharts we found it somewhat difficult, in that the course web design was not very helpful. And the flowcharts just turned out to be really basic.

But other than that we are about to be on our last week of class and it is on to graduation ceremonies for me on the 14th I can't wait!

Prezi Presentation

Becoming a Teacher on Prezi

Week 8 of LTEC Class

So far this week has gone by really fast and everything seems to be going really good for my new group, which is group 3.

In my group I have myself, Catina Jackson, and Megan Balamut. We are going to have everything ready and completed for our group portion completed by tuesday of week 9 so that way the group leader which is myself will then compile everything together so that it can get turned it at a decent time.

If we have any problems or concerns along the way of completing the task we will simply e-mail and or contact one another to handle the situation at hand so that we can move on to the next task.

Presentation

Take a look at my presentation that I did through prezi:

http://prezi.com/ek_vr_dysfus/becoming-a-teacher/

LISTEN...... LISTEN.... (podcasts)

Personally I feel that podcasts are great, if I could have each and every textbook to where I could listen to it that would be absolutely wonderful. An interesting fact that I found was that podcast are also called non-streamed webcast. I find these very interesting and they are some what compared to how some internet classes are operated. I enjoy listening to other peoples thoughts and ideas. Through podcasts people are able to listen to what someone has to say rather than read about it. I had never listened to a podcast before until today, they are very interesting and I enjoy ed them, at least most of them. My math teacher has been using podcast for my online class, they are somewhat boring but they go step by step on working out problems. Which is very easy for me to understand and to follow along with. I have the options to pause it, rewind nad do everything I need to do so that way I fully understand the lesson and the message that he is trying to get across.

A Vision of Students Today

I really enjoyed watching this video, I felt that it helped capture the overall meaning of college.

Video Blogs

I thought all three of the videos were great. They really gave a lot of valid and useful information that I already previously knew and some information that I did not know. If I had not taken this class I would have probably not ever came across any of these videos. I do not get on you tube very often, but I do use technology each day. Through all of these videos they have shown me that change needs to happen in the school system but change had happened in the technology department. The video Sir Kin Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? Ideas are worth spreading and as I am a substitute teacher for Arlington ISD and I have noticed that creativity are hard to come upon through the day to day curriculum that the school districts use. I do feel as if this video is speaking to us in this class. One point that he used was that creativity in schools is just as important as literacy. Some people say that the time for the students to be creative is during art, in which art class is a time to let them be creative but they go to that class what once or twice a week. That is nothing compared to actually getting the chance to be able to express your thoughts and feelings throughout the day numerous amounts of times. I feel that that statement is very true. Students need to learn how to express their ideas and be creative.

He really uses a lot of fact and thoughts about the lack of creativity in schools, and focuses on his audience and grasping their attention throughout the video. Schools that are killing creativity are a major issue but it is still happening in classrooms today. Children and students need to have creativity in their curriculum and give their feedback and thoughts on everything. Creativity does not have to just be in an art form it can also be shown in English, Math and a ton of other non core subjects.

This video was so true, but interesting with all of the statistics and everything. Each and everything we do is revolved around going to college and gaining career seeking knowledge. Yes, we do spend a lot of money on textbooks that we usually never can resell back or actually do not need for the class. I think that all of the books should definitely be put online, just as classes should. Having everything online would make things a lot better.

This video touches on some of the day to day classroom issues and also touches on the overall college experiences that I and millions of other college students have to deal with on a regular basis. All of these statements were so true in the video and I hope that future college students are able to watch this video so that they do not get the wrong impression of college and think it is all just fun and games. College is expensive and is some what over rated with all of the things that they offer. My overall experience has been some what okay but I prefer taking online classes rather than sitting in class for an hour and feeling like you have just wasted an hour of your time with the teacher just reading everything to you from the powerpoint slides that he or she post online. I find that extremely nerve-racking. But in the end you are recieving a higher education and that is what you need in this world to actually make it day to day in a career.

Web 2.0 to me is absolutely great!!! The internet today has definitely changes even in the last 10 years. Just as all of the technology advances that we have also had in out day in age today. Internet and web 2.0 allow us as users to create blogs, WebPages and so much more that we can use on a day to day basis. I truly do not know what I would do without the internet; it is so useful and is easily accessible everywhere I go and with everything I do. Technology is how I thrive each day and is also a part of how I am able to take this online class. The internet is extremely use and is how we are able to find information right at our fingertips.

I really enjoyed all of these videos in fact I have been on you tube more often now, watching all of the crazy videos that are on there, but there are also alot of really educational videos that I came aross and have caught my attention. I did not know that all of that was out there, but it is you can look up anything and everything. Other than that, these videos really helped me to go out onto the internet and dig deeper. I usually just get online for classwork, social networking and that is about it. Now I am able to go alot further and find out more information. Reading blogs is also another thing I have never done before but it is actually a lot of fun you are able to express your thoughts and ideas online and to other people who may want to read what you are discussing.

Mind Mapping

For my first mind map, I created it on paper with my purple and black pen. This was really alot of fun I have never created a mind map before but it really gave me a chance to look outside of the box and really think about how I got to where I am now, and what it will take for me to become a teacher for my future career. With graduating this year in August, it really has made me think of a ton of options and ideas while I was making my mind map. Below you will find my pen and paper mind map and I also have my computer generated mind map below that.

With this mind map that I created on the computer I found that it was alot easier to create rather than the one on the actual pen and paper. I enjoyed creating it on the computer, it allowed me to put everything together on one page rather than having it look all scrambled together and as one. With the computer generated version it gave the mind map a completely different look and a more simple but crisp look compared to my mind map above that was very messy but had alot of information in it.

Potential Benefits of Visual Designs

Some potential benefits of using visual techniques in instructional design is that it helps organize your thought and opinions. I found that when I used paper and pen my ideas were some what colliding together and everything just looked all put together on one piece of paper. But when I did it on the computer I was able to move things around and it looked simple and clean.

Design Considerations

To discuss about the design considerations for this weeks group project I would have to say that technology definatley depends on what a person will have to bring to the table.
Some other considerations are that:
A person should be able to discuss about what way they are wanting to approach the project.
Different group members will submit different materials and have several opinions about the case study that we had to discuss this week. For instance some people may think that it is perfectly fine that the teacher should stand behind the podium the whole time while he or she is teaching. Which I do not think is right, because teachers should move around the classroom and interact with the students.

Well these are just a few ideas as that each person,student, and professor will be different and has a different way of teaching no matter what students you have.

Blogging &Twittering

Blogging and twittering are somewhat the same. On Twitter I am new to because I am so used to being on facebook and my yahoo email rather than anything else. But from the video that I saw and the information that I have read about twitter it really makes people feel more connected with you. Whether it is with a simple tweet about call me, let's do lunch or you can also tweet about what you are doing that day and how things are going for you. People can then follow you on twitter and check up on you to see what all you are doing. Alot of celebrities have twitter account and talk about their shows and what they are doing for that day. It is interesting reading about what people are doing all over the world.



As for blogging I am new to as well. It is very different, but it seems like for all of my computer classes they do require you to have a blog site and to use it frequently. I think that blogging is pretty neat, it just takes a little getting used to. Blogging is also similar to twitter and to facebook as well, as it it a place where you not only can talk about what you are doing for today and what your status is but you can also talk about what is in the news, some ideas you may have or whatever other information you want to talk about. Your blog is the place where you can write about it so that other peopl can see what you have wrote. You can comment on what people write and give each other feedback off what one another has said.



Blogging and twittering maybe used for learning objectives on Bloom's taxonomy. They include cognitive: which involves your mental skills and knowledge. So it would correlate with both of the sites with bring valuable information and read-able infomation to the sites you are providing information on. Affectiveness including growth in feelings or emotional areas, in other words your attitude. You can feel a sense of someones attitude through the way the type something and the combination of words that they use. And lastly psychomotor is manual or physical skills. For blogging and for twittering you would use the majority of the Bloom's Taxonomy skills and the three domains of educational activities.

My Own Myths

The myths that I have about online classes is that taking courses online is alot easier and from what I heard before is that you really just have to choose what classes to take because some of them can be hard. For the most part online classes can be challenging due to the simple fact that you do not actually meet in a classroom so you have to be your own teacher and learn from what your instructor has laid out for you in materials. I have taken a math class online that was extremely challenging and I hated that class but I was able to continue on and pass the class. Some other myths that I have are not about online classes but about ghosts and spiders and all kinds of other creepy stuff. I especially like to watch the history channel that has the show about all of the crazy myths and ways that people say that can kill their selves, and whether or not it is fact or fiction. I enjoy reading about what people think about myths because alot of them are quiet interesting and at times funny.

Copyright Issues

According to the copyright office one of the rights accorded to the owner of copyright is the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work in copies or phone records. One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of "fair use." The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law.

Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
  
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
  
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
  
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work (U.S. Copyright Office, 2009).
  

A court case in particular that dealt with copyright issues was the case of Bill Graham Archives vs. Dorling Kindersley Ltd. It was filed in 2006 and was not finalized until 2009. The attorneys included William F. Patry, and Richard Dannay, as the judges consisted on Amalya L. Kearse and Reena Raggi whom are circuit judge, and Jane A. Restani as the primary Judge. Basically the case was about a concern that the scope of copyright protection afforded artistic concert posters to be reproduced in reduced size in a biography of the musical group the Grateful Dead. The copyright holder Bill Graham Archives appealed from a judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The motion for summary judgment was dismissed, and its copyright infringement action against Dorling Kindersley Limited, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc., and R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company was also dismissed. The case was reviewed and the summary was granted. The judge agreed that with the court Dorling Kindersley's reproduction of Bill Graham Archive's images is protected by the fair use and is an exception to copyright infringement (Opengavel, 2009).

This case really cause my attention because I thought that is was very interesting that any little thing that someone publishes or does in any kind of book or magazine or whatever it may be that they need to check on what they are putting in their work and get it copyrighted. There are so many issues with copyrighting and tons of laws on ways that you need to go about doing things, that if you just make one mistake then you are probably going to eventually have a lawsuit coming your way.

I thought this case was interesting because the only thing the company did was reproduce a picture and resize it to put in a biography for the musical group Grateful Dead. But unlike this case there were several other cases that I could of chose from to blog about but for some reason this on caught my attention.

Week 1

Well this week has gone by really fast. I am so glad it is almost Friday. The class LTEC 3440 seems like it has alot of really neat information to learn about. I thought that the test were really simple and easy. As I am on my computer pretty much all day or for the most part of the day for work and for school and my social life some-what. So I kind of know how to do alot of the powerpoint presentations and other documents that are available to access on the computer.

A typical day online for me would be to check my e-mail, then go to my online class for tcc which is music appreciation, then to do my two classes online for unt and then Facebook. Then I usually get to work after that. But for the most part I like to get my internet class work completed by the end of the afternoon so that way I do not have to worry about it later on.

Well that is pretty much it for my week 1 information for LTEC 3440.