Introduction

Designing an effective online course can be challenging and has a different focus from traditional face-to-face lecture courses. For effective online learning, the instructor needs to take on the role of facilitator providing curriculum that supports collaborative and self-directed learning. An instructor would begin designing a course by determining the student population and the course outcomes and build the pedagogy of laddering learning activities and corresponding assessments based on the student population and outcomes.  Using a Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide, an instructor can move students from knowledge or the introduction level to evaluation or the most advance level for a subject. Assessment tool selection should be based on both the appropriateness of the tool to assess the given objective and the incorporation of a variety of assessment tools throughout the course. Laddering activities and assessments based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and using a variety of assessment tools will also help prevent plagiarism and increase authenticity.  For additional information on copyright laws and preventing plagiarism for online courses, click on the links provided.

The course I have selected to present in this assignment is an experimental course being designed as individual learner Webinar for Madison College. The hosting platform for the Webinar has not been chosen, making the selection of specific assessment tools difficult. For purposes of this assignment, I have chosen to use the Course Management System Blackboard as the platform for the course. Below I have outlined the benefits and drawbacks of using a course management system, the course description and population for Personal Change Management, course objectives, basic course outline, and provided an evaluation of general online assessment tools that may be used in the course.

Course Description and Student Population

Personal Change Management is a one-hour Webinar course designed for independent study offered through Business, Industry, and Community Services of Madison College. Personal Change Management provides the employee the opportunity to reflect on the impact of change, to acknowledge his/her reaction to change, to identify attitudes and reactions to approach change more positively, and to create an action plan to positively approach change in some aspect of his/her life. The Personal Change Management Webinar provides the foundation for The Change Process-Personal Change course designed for employees who want to become a positive change agent for an organization, and The Change Process-Supervisory Management course designed for providing supervisors the fundamentals of change management.

Students are introduced to the ABC’s of personal change. A- Acknowledging change is inevitable, B- Being positive about change with attitudes and reactions C- Creating a personal action plan for positive change.

Learning Objectives

Student

-         distinguishes between the events the student had minimal control over and the events the student had significant control over by selecting a minimum of five events using an online survey.

-         identifies personal reaction to change by reflecting on how he/she reacted to at least three recent significant changes and lists the outcomes of those changes because of his/her reaction by journaling online.

-         analyzes current reaction to change and identifies a minimum of three personal attitudes or reactions that can be adjusted to approach change more positively by completing an online survey.

-         applies ABC’s of personal change by completing an online quiz with 80% accuracy.

-         creates an action plan to focus on positively approaching change in at least one situation in his/her life by blogging plan with a commitment of periodic review.

Keys points of instruction

1. Pictures/video of events are visually displayed along with voice over highlighting the significant changes. Examples would include technology, economy, death, birth, school, marriage, politics, wars, medicine, and social changes.  Student recalls significant changes impacting their lives in the last five years by watching a video clip/PowerPoint of recent events
2. Statistics and facts are given about the rate of change, the positive impact of change, the challenge of change, the inevitability of change
3. Introduction of A-Acknowledging change is inevitable
4. A list of significant change events is provided and the student selects which events he/she was impacted by recently. The student moves the events into a table based on the amount of personal control he/she had on the event actually occurring. The visual typically show more items in the little or no control over the event actually occurring. Individuals waste a lot of energy and get frustrated over events they have little control over. You do have control over your attitudes and how you react to change.
5. A maze of reactions verbs are made available for the student to use in describing their reactions and outcomes to at least three major changes in their life using online journaling.
6. Provide options of how individuals react to change
1. I can’t
2. It has been done before it won’t work
3. It doesn’t impact me- Denial
4. Frustration
5. Resentment
6. Anger
7. Fear and resistance due to

                                                              i.      Sense of loss

                                                            ii.      Threatened

                                                          iii.      Sense of failure

                                                           iv.      Loss of power

                                                             v.      Loss or change in relationships

                                                           vi.      Change in territory

                                                         vii.      Lack of competency

1. Excitement
1. It is not that we don’t like change, we don’t like being changed. Acknowledging change is going to happen and determining how we will react to change can increase your involvement in the change process.
2. Introduce B-Being positive about change with attitudes and reactions. Positive alternatives for reacting to change are provided.
3. Student recall prior change events and reactions and selects at least three personal attitudes or reactions he/she can change to respond to change more positively through an online survey.
4. Introduce C- Creating a personal action plan for positive change. It is up to you to decide to begin to react to change positively. Do you want to spend time and energy on complaining or resisting the change or do you want to create a plan of action to get the most out change, not let it happen to you, and make the most of it.
5. Typical changes are listed with two alternatives: one denying or resisting the change, and another accepting the change and responding with a positive attitude and plan of action. Students are asked which option best represents the ABC’s of personal change. Multiple options are given increasing complexity and providing a variety of business and personal events. Feedback is given regardless of answer what represents ABC of personal change.
6. Change is constant, have a plan to address a reasonable and manageable amount of change. Confidence comes from conquering the  fear of change. Changing how you react will take time and practice.
7. Students are provided an outline for personal action plan for change and asked to select at least one area in his/her life they will focus more positively on reacting to change by developing a plan. The positive attitudes and reactions from earlier exercise are listed for the student to use in their action plan. Students enter their action plan on a blog.

At the end of the course, the student should be more aware the inevitability of change, understand the ABC’s of committing to personal change, and have an personal change action plan to begin his/her journey of becoming more positive about change. 

The four assessment tools selected for this course include an online survey, online journaling, online quiz, and blogging. 

Summary

By using diverse assessment tools that are connected to multiple taxonomy levels and by using assessments that are learner-centered and authentic, the course has been designed to provide the student an engaging learning experience. The use of a CMS seems like a logical choice for ease of use, centralization of data and activities, and companies security concerns. CMS provides the company with activity and completion information. The use of a CMS also provides Madison College with information about completion rates, times, and responses, which could be utilized to improve the course.  

Conclusion

Taking a course from face-to-face to online is challenging. The Personal Change Webinar is taking face-to-face curriculum and moving it to an online independent study course, which provides the additional challenges of no participant question and answer mechanism and predetermined or limited facilitator feedback. The success of this course will depend piloting the course in person with students who have a variety of technology skills to gain feedback on content, flow, ease of use, and assessment effectiveness.