CONFIG-U Learning Tool
Embedded Files
Overview
Overview
Goal Alignment: Goal 2 - Increase Student Engagement
Course: ETEC 511 - New Foundations of Educational Technology
Assignment: Proof of Concept Learning Tool
Opposing Forces: Theory Based and Non-Theory Based Design
GA_config.mp3Goal Alignment
Goal Alignment
My second goal is to develop a research-based method to increase engagement and interaction in online courses. As such, this artifact was chosen to display how I have infused learning theories that can promote engagement (i.e. constructivism) into a course design tool that teachers could use. In order to reach my goal of improving engagement by 10%, I will need to tackle the issue on two fronts. One will be in the way teachers engage with students. The other will be in how students engage with their courses. In order to make these courses more engaging, teachers need a tool or methodology to revise and improve them. This tool (or at least the concepts behind it) could also be introduced to achieve the goal of increased engagement.
This artifact reflects my experience in instructional design as well as implementing elements of metacognition, constructivism, discussion forums, various forms of assessments, UDL, and EDIDA into instructional design. It also shows my experience in conceptualizing a learning tool from the ground up in order to improve engagement in courses once they are built and delivered to students.
I chose this artifact for this particular goal because I believe it highlights my ability (in theory) to tackle the issue of student engagement through the development of new tools.
Metaphor / Opposing Forces
Metaphor / Opposing Forces
This artifact connects to the overall metaphor of opposing forces because it displays the tension between Theory Based and Non-Theory Based Design. Some teachers build course content with a top-down approach, while others build bottom-up. Some base their design on habits, intuition, or their own ideas about what makes a good course, but do not follow specific learning theories. This can often lead to a lack of organization and/or consistency. On the other hand, teachers who start with a specific learning theory in mind but follow it to the letter also run into problems since the learning context changes frequently and often unpredictably. As such, the infused learning theory has to be flexible and differentiated.
The tool we designed, because it offers prompts that are optional, allows the teacher to take the best of both worlds, using their own judgment as they design but also reminding them of important concepts and ideas that may or may not need to be included. The intended result is course content that is consistently based in a valid learning theory while maintaining the ability to pivot as needed.
metaphor_config.mp3
reflection_config.mp3Reflection
Reflection
The most difficult part of this process was figuring out how we would explain our tool given the fact that we could not actually build it. We had a strong concept in mind but it took a quite some time for us to come to the end point of using Canvas screenshots with interactive Genially buttons laid over top. This worked well enough for a demo, but it could not go beyond that. Our group started this project by brainstorming various ways we wanted to configure our target audience. We landed on this idea of helping teachers build courses that were rooted in prominent learning theories since many of us had experience with instructional design and knew how hard this was for many teachers. The concept behind the tool seemed to evolve organically with this group.
I think this artifact aligns very closely with my goal because increasing student engagement is a large task that must be tackled from multiple angles. An important (if not the most important) component of this lies within the course content itself, particularly for online courses. The tool displayed in this artifact would be a massive step toward my goal of increasing engagement in online courses.
Future Steps
Future Steps
Even though this tool does not exist, I am able to build course content with the prompts that the tool would offer in mind (since I created the prompts that CONFIG-U theoretically uses). By investigating the various ways a tool could prompt an instructional designer to align more closely with constructivism, for example, I now have these strategies solidified in my mind. I can essentially apply the prompts without receiving them from the tool (for the most part). This should improve my ability to build more engaging course content. In addition, since I have a framework of how to apply learning theory to course building, I can expand to theories beyond what we covered in this project.
future_config.mp3Page updated
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