And Finally...

The language and style may be quite informal, and technical assistance will be provided

I think I have now reached the stage where assistance would be beneficial.

Reflection on Resources...

Reflection on resourcing, including any new technologies, staffing and training provided

This point is largely moot, since no resources are going to be provided for the enhancement of this course.

The development environments used in this course (all Microsoft: Excel 2010 Visual Basic for Applications, Visual Studio 2010 with Visual Basic, Access 2010 (and Office 2010 for documentation)) are the latest versions available. Other development suites are available, but I felt it best to leverage my experience with these and, as freely available (apart from Office 2010, and only to registered students), usable examples of development tools in current industry use worldwide, they are popular with the students.

I am not aware of any forthcoming staffing changes for this course but, out of professionalism, I would like to have it developed to a standard where it could be comfortably taken over by a colleague in my absence. This is why I chose it as a vehicle for my CCEL studies, but no other resources are available.

I have created and delivered this course without actual formal training, but using my industry experience. Appropriate training is available, in the form of a number of official Microsoft Technical Specialist courses and examinations:

• 70-511 Windows Applications Development
• (70-513 Communication Foundation Development)
• (70-515 Web Applications Development)
• 70-516 Accessing Data

These are far beyond what is needed for a Level 3 course, but they will formalise my understanding. Resources are not available for me to follow them, so I plan to do so in my own time, and my Professional Development budget should cover the exam fees for three of them this year. However, I still have funded PD commitments from last year that I need to complete first.

Proposed Learning Objects, Media and Activities...

Proposed learning objects, media and activities are described, as well as the way in which they will be used

Given the relative maturity of my course, many of these aspects will remain unchanged. I will briefly summarise the course's current status, then discuss CCEL-specific changes that I plan to make.

Technically, the course is based on Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 using Visual Basic for application programming and integration, and Microsoft Access 2010 for database system development. I also have a lot of material that I have been using that involves Microsoft Excel 2010 using Vsial Basic for Applications, but this should be quite easy to convert to Visual Studio work and I will decide with the class which to emphasie at the time of delivery. I have no current plans to change this environment.

Learning Objects

The Learning Objects of this course are built closely around the following learning objectives:

• Identify the parts and structure of a computer programme
• Document and code programmes from a given design
• Describe the terminology of databases, including what data types are available
• Create a database system that shows the principles of databases
• Create, document and test these programmes and database system

The remaining learning objectives:

• Design, illustrate and desk-check solutions to computer programming problems and database system problems
• Reason statistically and make sense of Number to solve problems
• Apply learning of this course to real world context, including integration of core competencies (including change management, social responsibility, social context, Treaty of Waitangi and sustainability)

are either embedded in the objectified objectives (above), or incorporated into the programme-wide Final Project.

This comparison of learning objectives with learning objects is new to me, and enlightening. Although I don't currently have any leeway to make major changes in this area, I do plan to review the course content, to notionally put each individual activity into its learning object. That will enable me to review each parent object for consistency and completeness with respect to the learning objectives as a whole, and to ensure that a range of alternative teaching strategies, content types and activities can be offered within each object. I feel the best way to do this will be on an ongoing basis, as I review the material to prepare each week.

Media

Media-wise, my main immediate aim for the content of this course is to formalise it, so that the details reside somewhere other than in my head. Initially I will achieve this with slide presentations, activity documentation and explanatory notes for the students and with comprehensive session planning documents for myself and any other facilitators.

The development of computer applications is technically challenging for the students at this level, and I am currently reluctant to divert their attention to technical learning facilitation packages beyond what is currently in use: e-mail, Moodle shared work areas and network hosting of applications and documentation. Any future efforts I make in this area will probably be driven by programme-wide considerations.

In terms of media themes relating to activities and assignments, the subject of the course provides, of its nature, a rich environment for creation of versatile, interactive multimedia applications. Learner-centred discussions of what application scenarios to adopt for the final project assignment, usually end up selecting a computer game to develop. This is what I normally go with, but any number of business or leisure applications could be agreed and integrated into the project.

It might be possible to enhance this course to incorporate web-based applications, allowing for further interactivity - including the development of custom groupware tools, for example. However, this would have to be at the expense of current content, which would mean breaking the link with the current NACCQ basis modules. If this were to happen, I would need to review available web development environments and introduce disparate technologies, as the web-development component of Visual Studio 2010 (ASP.Net) is not suitable at Level 3.

Activities

I feel that this course currently contains insufficient formal content, and plan to create more. This means that it is going to be difficult to incorporate any further session-based activities. There are, however, three technical areas when I am concerned to alter or add content:

• Cutover from introducing programming with VBA in Excel to VB in Visual Studio
  • I will probably make this decision by discussion and agreement with the students
  • The current course material can be quickly adapted to work with either environment, but an early decision (within the first couple of weeks should be possible) will allow me to work out how much cutover effort I will require
• Formalised coverage of how to cope with coding errors
  • This will be incorporated in the initial rote typing exercises, and should not actually impact on available session time - it has been covered in earlier course instances, just not to the level of formalisation that I would like
  • I will take the relevant information from my old course logs, and include example code with errors in the session plans, for presentation on the overhead projector as before
• Integration of a database system into an application
  • I need to find a week around Week 11 to cover the information on how to do this
  • (It can be partly integrated onto the project time available from Week 12)
  • It will involve the students designing a database to the application's requirements rather than to their own wims, as is currently the case
  • On the other hand, it should work well as a summative group exercise

The course includes three summative assessment activities. These each correspond to one of the basis NACCQ modules. The first two are individual, and the final assessment is group-based: to produce a developed, tested and documented application for presentation in the CIT (Level 3) final project.

All of these assessments are as experiential as possible at this level and, beyond incorporating the new content (listed above), I have no current plans to change them.

Existing Learning Activities...

Existing learning activities critically reviewed – what works and what doesn’t

Here is a thumbnail list of what the course currently contains:

• Presentation and discussion of initial concepts, interspersed with rote typing of example programme code from the overhead projector
  • I plan to retain the rote typing, as it works quite well for a number of reasons:
    • The students get an implicit introduction to the development environments, rather than being daunted by overviews that they don't initially need
    • They only have to type accurately to get working programmes straightaway
    • They learn the value of accurate typing in computer programming
    • I can facilitate a build-up of a portfolio of useful programme components for them to use later in the course
    • Up to now, I have been able to use my coding errors as learning exercises, to explain what I did wrong, and how it affected the programme's behaviour
  • The use of my programming errors as learning exercises has been rather haphazard until now, and I want to formalise coverage of this important aspect
  • I badly need to improve the formalisation of the presentation and discussion of the background concepts - I have managed fine using my background experience, but this is a major stumbling block to having the course suitable for flexible delivery
• Guided development of specified applications
  • I feel there is work to be done on improving the selection of applications to be worked on, with respect to facilitating the course aims
  • I would like to combine rework of this with learner-centred selection of what applications to work on
• Individual and group application development activities
  • I plan to augment these activities with presentation activities - both interactive and documentary - as these are important skills in application development
  • Such presentation skills are also covered in other courses in the programme, but I need to address their specific use within the application development cycle
• Group application development and database integration work through the complete development cycle
  • This activity is embedded in the programme-wide Final Project, which is the subject of a sister CCEL blog by Hamish smith, my programme manager: CIT L3 Project

Back to CCEL Development Ideas: An Appropriate Balance...

You must address how you are going to provide an appropriate balance of face to face and flexible learning materials and assessment methods

My course is currently delivered and assessed entirely face-to-face, so my current redevelopment task is to plan to work towards tipping the balance towards facilitation of flexible delivery.

There are no current plans for this course to be delivered in any manner other than face-to-face, and no resources are available to me to enhance it for flexible delivery. I won't let this put me off, but I will take what advantage I can of this situation by concentrating on such flexible delivery enhancements as will improve the course in general. In addition to flexible delivery, I am also keen to enhance the course in terms of learner-centredness.

Steps that I plan to take to improve this course in these ways include:

• Formalisation of (previously logged) session activities, board presentations and class discussions for documenting and posting online
• More learner-centred selection of scenarios to be developed into computer applications
• Moodle Chat-board-hosted discussions on what application design methods the students would prefer to learn and use
• Introduction of some peer assessment, to be performed in a Moodle-hosted online area
• Generation of summative exercises suitable for online posting and completion, such as quizzes and short essays

In addition, the final course assessment - the integrated computer application - is incorporated in the programme-wide CIT (Level 3) Project space, which is interactively managed online by the students themselves (with the support of Programme Manager Hamish Smith, the other course lecturers and myself.)

My Design Overview

My submission for the second CCEL assignment, the Design Overview, is still in progress as I type. It will appear at: Design overview wiki 2011 (OP Online Moodle login required.)

Having said that, I have decided to post my thoughts about theoretical perspectives on learning facilitation and course construction on another page of this blog. I will post a link to the page from the wiki, sorry for the duplicate references.

My Course

The course that I am planning to use as a guinea pig for my CCEL activities is IB304: Developing Computer Applications in the Certificate of Information Technology (Level 3) of the ICT Department at Otago Polytechnic.

My review of who my learners are is here: Who Are My Learners?. This is a dump of my submission for the first CCEL assignment.

Without Further Ado...

I am looking at the third LT704 assignment as I type:

Create your own learning weblog (Blog) in which you record your developing ideas about the practicalities of the proposed design of your course. You must address how you are going to provide an appropriate balance of face to face and flexible learning materials and assessment methods. The language and style may be quite informal, and technical assistance will be provided.

Marking criteria:

Existing learning activities critically reviewed – what works and what doesn’t.

Proposed learning objects, media and activities are described, as well as the way in which they will be used.

Reflection on resourcing, including any new technologies, staffing and training provided.

This exercise will be quite awkward for me, because the course I want to (re)construct should actually be quite mature, having already been presented twice. However, awkwardness is a major part of my make-up, and I am keen to focus my LT704 efforts on it, because it was run "from the hip" up to now, and I want to formalise the course before anyone finds out how close to the wind I have been sailing, in terms of lack of formal construction.

Welcome

Hi everybody,

This is my blog for displaying my efforts at Constructing Courses to Enhance Learning, course LT704 in the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Learning and Teaching at Otago Polytechnic.

I look forward to hearing from you with any comment about my efforts.

Cheers,

Mike Goodwin