Week 4

The first and most important step in the planning stage of instructional design is to clearly define your learning goals and or course objectives. A good course design should echo these intentions. All throughout the design process you should assess your approach to ensure that the course serves to fulfill your students needs and the goals/objectives.

There are many characteristics of a good instructional design that contribute to the quality of a course. Some that come to mind are organization, ease of use and adaptability. No matter the quality of the content being delivered, if the course is difficult to navigate through and the organizational structure is not well thought out, then the overall quality of the course will suffer Also, no two courses are ever the same. I believe that an instructor should always leave room to adapt a course to their students’ needs.

In my proposed eLearning course, I will dedicate a significant amount of attention to the needs of my students because of the nature of the content being taught.  I will need to develop the site and structure the content in a way that is as user friendly as possible because the subject matter could pose to be difficult to follow if not delivered properly. Also, because this is in a sense a pilot course, there are little “proven activity structures” to fall back on. For the most part, everything will be created from scratch including the layout, content and activities.

The primary goals that I have for my course are to effectively convey the content, to make the course enjoyable for the students and to obtain feedback that will be valuable when updating the course for future classes. I plan to assess my students understanding of the content with weekly activities I the hopes that I could monitor their comprehension and identify students that may be struggling early on. Not only will I be demonstrating tasks that the student will need to replicate, but I will also have assignments that give the students the creative freedom to develop their own small projects. From this I should be able to better gauge the experience levels of my students and adapt my course where fit.

The process that I intend on implementing when developing my course is fairly straightforward. I have a good grasp on the range of content that I would like to cover (composing an entire song). Luckily, a song is composed of several components, so I plan to cover each component in a separate weekly segments. Doing so will allow the students to focus on each section separately and cumulatively and ultimately combine all that they’ve learned. My expectation is that the course will be received as a fulfilling experience, given that each student will have a completely original musical piece that they’ve created.

In order to ensure that the students stay on task, I will assign small tasks weekly. I plan to structure the course within Moodle. I prefer Moodle because of its flexibility and ease of use. I have to admit that I haven’t used any other CMS extensively, but Moodle seems to be the least restrictive from what I’ve experienced. Moodle can accommodate most every need that I have for this course including: discussion forums, embedded videos within quizzes and a comprehensive grading database. The only real constraints are the limitations on the layout of the course. As a web-designer I like to have content arranged throughout a page. Moodle is generally based on a top down format, but this is fine for the purpose of the course because it is what most students are accustomed to anyway.

As for the development and testing of the content, as mentioned before, I will have small tasks scattered throughout the course. The students will be tasked to demonstrate their knowledge and upload their files to the server. This will keep the students in the practice of using the software and give me an idea of which students will need additional support. I will not only use these activities to monitor my students, but it will serve as a means for motivating my students through individualized feedback. I will also have one graded comprehensive evaluation. The questions within this assessment will be designed to measure the knowledge based on the basic information covered. There won’t be any strategically phrased questions or tricky multiple-choice questions, just simply stated questions with the idea that either you know it or you don’t. The final evaluation will have to be graded manually. It will be a challenge to set up a rubric for this, being that it will be musical composition that I’ll be grading. I won’t be grading on musical taste or choice of arrangement, rather the demonstrated proficiency of procedures taught and attentiveness to the criteria covered in the course.

Week 3

I think that some of the most common interactions are those that are most adaptable and efficient for the participants. The asynchronous forms of communication, such as email and various other means of text-based discussion online allow for all forms of interaction to occur. Within an online class setting, the vast majority of the interaction occurs between the learner and the content. Here the content is for the most part static subject matter that is presented online or in other readings.

I would say that the larger percentage of the interaction in my course would be learner-content based. I will present video tutorials accompanied with images and text that will guide the student through each task. I would also like to have a discussion board in place for each section of the course where students could post issues that they are experiencing or concerns that they may have pertaining to the current task. Being that I am requiring students in my course to use new technology to engineer their assignments, I am not expecting them to have prior knowledge in this respect. For this reason I need to have an expansive learner-learner component in place that allows students to learn from one another’s experiences from a similar perspective. I would like to have the ability to address the issues and concerns of my students and provide additional resources, whether they are additional video tutorials, screenshots with text or audio samples. It would be a lot of work initially, but once in place I could archive these resources and refer to them in future classes. I also hope to incorporate activities that warrant different types of interactions and layer them in a manner that they all support one another seamlessly. This will be an especially challenging task in the course because of the technical nature of the content and the span of experience levels that I expect to encounter.

The leading objective for my course is to familiarize students with the progression of composing and mixing a complete song from start to finish using only a computer and a few peripherals. My goal is to get them comfortable in working within the virtual music studio environment, utilizing its devices and the overall process of sequencing musical notation. I am expecting that my students will, at the bare minimum, have a decent understanding of basic music composition and be familiar with common vocabulary as well as a song’s structure. Here again, I am presuming that the largest challenge will lye in teaching the technical intricacies of the software rather than the fundamentals of music composition.


I will incorporate several video presentations into my course that will serve as guides for many of the steps in creating and routing devices within the audio software application and give students an overview of what their weekly tasks are. These presentations fall under the “Absorb” classification because the students will only need to watch and listen to them. I plan to embed a video at the beginning of a few modules in order to introduce what will be covered. Provided next will be supporting images and text describing the task in further detail followed by another video that will illustrate the actual procedures. I will only use video as a necessary tool to demonstrate complex tasks that would otherwise require a lot of elaborate text. I plan to have a PDF equivalent of each video to meet compliance standards. The purpose of these presentations will be to provide clear instruction and a resource that students can reference when they come to the “Do” activities.

After the task is explained and demonstrated the student will be prompted to participate in a “ponder activity” where they can decide what approach they’ll take for their next task. There may even be a few “stop and think” questions to encourage brainstorming. Next will be a practice activity that’ll require the student to transform the information that they’ve just obtained into knowledge or skills. This is classified as a “Do” activity. Within these activities I will ask that the students set up a recording session using the previous video as a step-by-step guide. There will be guidelines in place as far as the instruments or framework of the composition, but these activities will give the students a large amount creative freedom. They are intended to help the student gain confidence and inspire them forward toward their next task. An example of such an activity would be for the student to create a drum pattern using any percussion instruments and tempo that they want.

The next task will have more restrictions because it will be part of a cumulative project. It will require that the student develop an original musical sequence based on several criteria. This task is called original work and is classified as a “Connect” activity because it is essentially asking that the student connect what they’re learning with what they know. Here they will perform a genuine work and submit it for critique. An example would be to create an original bass line at a 92 BPM tempo that compliments the kick drum pattern in the previous weeks drum pattern. They are creating a musical pattern using tools that they are learning and applying them to they know about music (tempo, scale, instruments etc.) The assignment will be uploaded and critiqued by fellow students similar to how blog posts are commented upon in this class. The final “Connect” activity will be a group project where each member must develop an original phrase or melody that ultimately compliments one another within the composition as a whole.

I have briefly and ambiguously described the core content of my proposed course. I’ve listed resources that I feel will enhance the overall learning experience of the participants, but at the same time realize that scripting, recording, editing and posting video introductions and tutorials for each module and providing ADA compliant alternatives is probably being a little overly ambitious on my part (especially being that I entered this class two weeks behind schedule). I will do my best to create the course how I envision it and incorporate audio, graphical and video tools that reinforce the learning goals that I hold for my students.

Week 2

For the first course, the primary issues from a course designer’s perspective would be the varying degrees of technical skills possessed by the professors. Whenever you are presented with a task to produce one interface that will be utilized by multiple users, you should always keep in mind those that are the least experienced. I would identify where the lowest level of experience was and remain attentive to their comfort levels throughout the design process. I would probably then hold an orientation for the faculty to familiarize them with the course’s layout and features and use their feedback to make the final revisions before mounting the course. Another concern in this case would be the needs of the instructors’ as far as content is concerned. I would meet with the instructors frequently, both collectively and individually, to ensure that there is constant support and that the course is structured to accommodate these needs. Lastly, I would take into account the students’ general level of motivation. I know that they are capable from a technological standpoint, however they are younger students so it would be advisable to present them with weekly graded tasks to sustain their focus. Being that the subject matter is math, there is no real need for student –to-student interaction so this would most likely be an instructor led course with the majority of the communication being asynchronous.

In the second case scenario, we are presented with a much different set of circumstances. A single instructor leads the course and the subject matter is less rigid. Since the instructor is most experienced with face-to-face interaction with students, I would attempt to preserve this as best possible in an online format. I would focus on the instructor’s strengths and incorporate them into the content. For instance, if the instructor were a great lecturer, I would record and embed audio and video lectures on topics that corresponded with the syllabus and make them available as optional “teaching moment” resources. Since the course covers content that is divergent, there would need to be a holistic approach in place that is somewhat learner-led. To do this, there would need to be an expansive discussion board/forum available where students could create their own threads. There would be required postings on the primary discussion, but students would be encouraged to initiate and partake in their own discussions as well. I would also integrate a few synchronous sessions that would serve as lecture/class discussion meetings. Depending upon the comfort level of the instructor, I would advise that the content of the course be updated or modified weekly based on the class discussions and feedback.

For the 3rd course, the most pressing concern would be the attention span and motivation level of the students. Since they have already been identified as having high risk for dropouts, I would need to get a good idea of their interests and intentions. I would strive to create stimulating content that the students could relate to and keep them engaged. I would pre-develop this content with the instructors since they have never taught the course before, but concentrate on keeping it current to the trends of student life. I would also look at the resources available to the students and their level of technical proficiency. If they were fairly adept, than I would set up synchronous video chats, possibly in groups depending upon the class size, to discuss strategies and skills that are essential to become a successful student at the college level. I would develop content that requires a high level of interaction and participation and have small assignments due weekly to keep the students on task. Most importantly, I would try to make the course as enjoyable as possible while still effectively delivering the necessary content. One example would be to present students with video case scenarios of possible encounters or obstacles that they may face during their college experience and allow them to choose their approach in handling each circumstance. The student could select their course of action from multiple choices and at this would prompt a sometimes-humorous pre-recorded video portrayal of what the recourse would be based on their decision. I would reinforce this content by creating awareness that its purpose is to give the students the direction and tools needed to thrive as they begin their college careers.

Week 1

Hello ETEC 541. My name's Nate Wildes and I design online training modules and web content for the College of Ed. I'm looking forward to constructing an actual course model and hope to implement technologies that I've never used prior to this class. I plan to develop a digital music production course focusing on a brand a new software application engineered in Sweden. I've been an independent producer for about 10 years now and have been slowly but surely establishing my production company. I started as a graphic designer and now do photography, web-design and audio/video production. My goals for this quarter will be to utilize my strengths in these areas and to explore new technologies in the E-learning arena. I plan to create an user-friendly, yet dynamic site that is well organized, visually appealing and adaptable to all learning styles. Time permitting, I hope to develop and incorporate video tutorials with audio accompanied with printable PDF instructions. My inspiration will come from music production courses that I've taken at Berklee. I would like to learn more about the instructional design process and the theories behind different learning strategies/methodologies. I feel that I have a firm grasp on the technology aspect of E-learning and should enhance my knowledge in the actual learning process and methods to best facilitate this using technology. I know that I will accomplish this by setting goals and establishing clear learning objectives based on the purpose of my instruction. I'm excited about this quarter and am looking forward to corresponding with my fellow ETECies!