Lesson 1

Last Updated: 08/21/2023

Orientation

Goals

• Become familiar with the course structure.

• Get acquainted with classmates, teammates, and instructor.

• Initiate team work.

• Participate in various course preparation activities.

• Understand and build your Personal Learning Environment/Network (PLE/N): Assignment 1: PLE/PLN.

Instructor's Note

Welcome to ETC 645!! In this orientation week, we will complete certain course preparation activities. Failure to complete these activities may create difficulties with your progress in this course. This course requires students to be familiar with the course structure and completing the orientation; if properly pursued will ensure this familiarity. Students must read the syllabus carefully because the design of this course is very different from other educational technology courses.

We witness the annus horribilis of 2021 segueing into 2022. Let's pray 2023 will be annus mirabilis. I encourage you to take an active leadership in integrating technology to support diversified learners. Digital platforms can be used to connect people, build communities, share love, promote peace, and support social justice. Unfortunately, however, these technologies can also be used to disseminate misinformation, influence biases and prejudice, and spread hatred.  As learning design and technology professionals, we remind ourselves of our commitment to society and of our values and responsibilities in the fair use and ethical practice with technology to facilitate learning, improve performance, and provide creative solutions to educational problems. We seek to design learning environments that demonstrate our understanding of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. We seek to design and develop learning materials, resources, programs and media that celebrate and value the diversity of our society as a multicultural community. We seek to engage learners in evidence-based critical thinking and guide them to form valid judgement based on facts, science, and evidence instead of being influenced by misinformation, conspiracies, biased opinions or beliefs in social media.

Why Online Learning?

I would like us to watch this video: TED Talk: Simon Sinek's Why good leaders make inspire action. You may have or not have seen it.  I highly encourage watching it or watching it again.  After watching, ask yourself "why online learning?"

Here is mine to share with you: 

• I believe learning is a journey, not a result. Forging learning is about changing ourselves.  Building identify through learning is about changing the world.

COVID-19 has prevented traditional learning instructions in 2020, 2021, and 2022; contrarily, it has accelerated the largely ignored value of online learning. Now educators and students are required to rethink their teaching and learning priorities. While struggling with insufficient learning presences, students and instructors, from k-12 education to graduate and post-graduate studies, arouse with the appetency for stronger social connections in online learning communities.  Ironically, students are well familiar with connecting on social networking sites, whereas school’s formal education fails or inhibits them to connect more specifically in online learning environments. Such observed phenomenon ardently beseeches a better knowledge of networked interaction in online learning communities in more formal or non-formal learning settings.  It will support students and teachers to recover the joy and effectiveness of learning and teaching after the sudden shift from FTF to digital.

Learning is a "personal" journey.  So we should take "control" on our learning journey.  Frequently, we have different travelers (other students, teachers, others) constantly join our learning journey and depart from our journey.  Are you the type of person who learns more and/or learns more effectively outside of the classrooms? Don't we always learn anywhere and anytime in our life? Identity involves entering a community to draw strength from that community and to give strength there, too.

Online learning supports better lifelong learning. I study, research, and implement online learning design, development, and practices strategies so I can walk with my students to fulfill their dreams of learning. 

Online Learning Framework

When we approach different type of learning, we need to learn the applied framework of the learning.  For example, in ETC645, we will learning about "online learning." We need to build our knowledge and skills on "Online Learning Framework."  We need to ask:

• What is an online learning framework? 

• What is the theory for online learning?

• What is the pedagogy for online learning?

• What is the model for online learning?

• What is the instructional strategy for online learning? and

• What is the analysis/assessment for online learning.

ETC645 course content is based on "online learning framework" below.  Use this framework to help you conceptualize your online learning instructional design knowledge and skills.

The image below shows:

• Theory: Constructivism

• Pedagogy: Online Learning Community

• Model: OCoP (Online Community of Practice) Design Model

• Strategy: Constructivist strategy

• Analysis: OCoP (Online Community of Practice) Framework Analysis

Critical Thinking

Before you continue reading the Orientation materials, I like us to challenge ourselves with this question. Based on the large body of literature, there is no difference in learning outcomes between online (distance or technology-based) learning and face-to-face learning.  This is what we call "No Significant Difference" phenomenon. 

To learn more about No Significant Difference.

Question: Since there is no significant differences in learning outcomes between online learning and FTF learning, why do we need to spend so much effort to learn the design, development, and teaching of online learning?

You do not need to answer this question now.  I would like us to ponder this question while studying ETC645 instructions.  In the last week of our class, we will have a chance for us to share our opinions for this question.

Highlights of the course:

Our class focus more on online instructional design and development with online technology integration rather than learning how to use online tools.

• Students will be involved in various team activities: various team work, online technology evaluations, online instructional strategy evaluations and online project presentations...,etc.

• Integrating Personal Learning Environment/Networks (PLE/N) with Web 2.0 into course activities. It is a good experience for us to learn more about this new educational technology trend of integrating open and close systems to advance teaching and learning.

Course materials are organized into eights lessons. Each lesson is divided into three sections:

• The Instructor's Notes section is where the instructor provides learning guidance and information for the lesson. It may be updated depending on the students' progress and learning experiences. 

• The Activity section lists all important activities in which students should participate, such as lesson discussions. 

• The Assignment section lists the various assignments. 

Give you more control on your own learning

Since the course length is 8 weeks, it is highly suggested that you start conducting the readings immediately.  Some readings may take longer to comprehend.  Most readings are available online; therefore, you can read them on your computers and mobile devices if you wish.  REMEMBER: the course instructions and materials are constantly updated by the instructor and the students to result in dynamic learning experiences.  If you wish to print the course materials, be sure to check back for any updated.

It is important for you to maintain good communication with your teammates and the instructor. Frequently, you will have questions or issues that require help to be resolved. Maintain close communication with your teammates and the instructor. I always like to hear from you, even when you are doing well in the class.

Graded Weekly Lesson Discussion Activities

We have fairly heavy weekly lesson discussion activities that requires us to engage in active and interactive learning. Previous students indicated that they learn the most, effectively, and efficiently from their peers in addition to from the course.  Lesson discussion is more like to reflect on the learning content. The peer moderators and the instructors frequently integrate "Socratic Questioning Strategy" to facilitate the discussion.  The purpose is to engage students questioning and analyzing their discussion action and decisions which maintains and improve the reflection quality.

"Instructional Design" & "Learning Engineering"

Are these two terms the same? They are not necessary the same but they are related to each other.  Do you have proficient skills and knowledge in both fields? 

Wagner (2019) defined:

• "Learning engineering incorporates skills and competencies from data science, computer science, and the learning sciences, focusing on technical standards, technology-based tool and platform solutions, and instrumentation.

• Instructional design focuses on skills and competencies from cognition, communications, creation of experiences, and the representations of information to be learned. Assessments determine if, in fact, goals and objectives have been achieved."

Many of you are or will be seeking a career in instructional design field. What attitudes, skills, knowledge, and experiences do you need? If you have interest in learning more about instructional design or learning engineering field, I recommend you read these resources. ETC645 and ETC655 will prepare you in both areas.

• Kilgore, W., & Gogia, L. (2019, August 8). A Snapshot of Instructional Design: Talking Points for a Field in Transition.

• Wagner, E. (2019). Learning Engineering: A Primer : Research Library | The eLearning Guild.

• Wagner, E., Barr, A., Blake-Plock, S., & Robson, R. (2018, September 10). 7 Things You Should Know About Learning Engineering.

Additional information:

• Additional Readings: You may conduct additional readings to obtain better understanding on the course content.  This is based on your personal knowledge and skills in the particular topics.  Do more research to obtain more readings to prepare yourself for the course instructions.

• Due to the course migration to Canvas, you may see some course instructions, materials, and activities that  may have not migrated correctly. If you see something that doesn't make sense to you, please do not hesitate to contact me through BB Learn e-mail. I will correct them ASAP.

• Can I access some course materials, and instructions outside of Canvas?

  • Yes, many of our course materials and instructions reside outside of Canvas. In fact, they are on Google Sites. This is because our course integrates the new concept of Open Educational Resources (OERs). If you want to access our course materials and readings, you can visit https://sites.google.com/site/etc645 without logging on Canvas. In other words, you can access our course wiki on your mobile devices.

  • Each instructional page on ETC645 Google Sites includes a PDF format for different viewing options. The PDF link is located on the top of each page.

Activity

Preparation Activities

Complete Digital Interaction Survey (Currently not accepting submission.)

• Log in your NAU GMail account first before accessing the survey.

• Complete Digital Interaction survey to learn your digital interaction and self-regulated learning skills. 

• By responding this survey will help you to understand different online interaction and online learning engagements.

• After completing the survey, you will receive a copy of your response results to help you to address this discussion questions.

• Review each question you answered, if you answer any question below "4," I encourage you reflect on how you can improve the question statement for your online learning. Based on ETC students' experiences, and records, students who score "4" and higher generally:

  • Have more positive online learning experiences,

  • Participate & contribute more to online discussions and group work,

  • Engage in more active and interactive digital interaction.

• Keep a copy of survey result e-mail.

Community Building: Self introductions: Discussion Board

• Purposes

  • Deeply listen to the stories of names to build community

  • Critically explore our own culture and others'

• Stories are the foundation of identity. What is your story?

  • • Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity." -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian writer

• It is important to know a little something about the people in our class. To do that, we post our self introductions on the Discussion Board area. Self-introduction is an excellent resource to use in forming a good team; therefore, open yourself up. If you have pictures that you would like to share with us, please do so. Here are some ideas to help you get started. A video self-introduction is welcome.

  • Tell a story of your name. What you liked to be called.

  • General information about where you live and what you do.

  • What your expectations are for our class.

  • What makes you unique.

  • A picture of you, or an image that represents you.

  • Links to some of your favorite things.

  • Your hobbies, etc.

  • Anything else that you want to provide

Form a team

It's not what you can learn from this class.  It's about what we can learn together in this class.

All students are required to form SIX teams, depending on the final numbers of the enrollments. Students should form their own teams by using Canvas Group Sign-Up feature. Each team is composed of ONE or TWO members based on the numbers of the students in the class. However, when one or two students are left without a team, they may be assigned to a group to form a team with 3-4 members. It is recommended that students select teammates who have similar professional interests. Reading the students' bio will help introduce you to your classmates. Teams will collaborate throughout the entire semester. Building good relationships with teammates is highly encouraged, therefore, you must be thorough in your bio and be open about yourself.

After forming teams, each team has a few things to accomplish in this week.

• Exchange contact information, particularly an alternative e-mail or other contacts.

• Start the conversations and planning for group assignments:

• Lesson moderation (Group 1 moderates Lesson 2, G2 moderates L3...G7 moderates L8.).

• Assignment 4: Final Project: Online Professional Development for Global Digital Learning.

• Assignment 5: Final Project Presentations

• Guidelines for building a team

OPTIONAL Activities

• Team Governance: Apply Google Docs to complete the Team Governance.

  • Guidelines for the Team Governance.

  • Team Governance can be modified anytime in the semester with all team members' agreement.

• Reference Tool

  • Zotero:  is a tool for you to collect, cite, and manage research resources. We will be involved with numerous research resources . It is critical to have a useful tool to manage our valuable resources. Zotero Tour

  • Mendeley: is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research.

• ETC645 Facebook Page: If you use Facebook a lot, you can LIKE ETC645 Facebook Page so you can receive ETC645 announcements on your Facebook feed without visiting Canvas.

• Try Doodle: Have difficulties scheduling teammates for online meeting? 

Assignment

Assignment 1: PLE/PLN

• Grade: 5 points

• Individual Assignment 

• Easy (1) - Challenging (5): 3 (Previous students' ratings)

• Submission:

  • Template:

    • View: ETC645 Assignment 1: PLE/PLN Setup Template

    • Download: ETC645 Assignment 1: PLE/PLN Setup Template

  • Use Google Docs to share your file with the instructor at ct68@nau.edu

  • Not familiar with Google docs? Take Google docs Tutorials and/or Get Started with Google Docs

  • File Name: ETC645-YourLastName-YourFirstName-Assignment#. EX. ETC645-Tu-Chih-A1 (Incorrect file name or file format is unacceptable & will result in point deduction.)

  • Give the instructor "Editor" privilege so the instructor can provide feedback onto the shared document.

  • Why submit assignments via Google Docs?

  • Provide the Google Docs link on Canvas.

Instructions:

Goals:

• Understand the pedagogy of Personal Learning Environment (PLE) & Personal Learning Network (PLN).

• Understand the concept of open and close learning environment and networks.

• Build a PLE/PLN.

Tasks:

• Complete:

  • Complete the readings. After the readings, it is encouraged to create your own PLE/PLN, Part A & B, which are optional.

  • Part A: Creating Web 2.0 accounts (OPTIONAL)

  • Part B: PLE/PLN Personal Portal Setup (OPTIONAL)

  • Part C: PLE/PLN Analysis (REQUIRED)

• Read:

  • Tu, C. H. (2014). Construct your PLE. In C. H. Tu, Strategies for building a Web 2.0 learning environment. ABC-CLIO. Santa Barbara, CA. 

  • Weller, M. (2020). Personal Learning Environments. In 25 Years of Ed Tech (pp. 123–128). AU Press.

Part A: Creating Web 2.0 accounts (OPTIONAL)

• GMail 

  • Use: NAU Gmail to collaborate and submit assignments.

  • Learn: NAU Gmail at on NAU's Google Apps.

  • Course Google Calendar 

    • Add ETC645 Course Calendar to your Google Calendar. 

    • Why use Google Calendar? The course events listed in the course Google Calendar is the same as Canvas Calendar. Adding ETC645 Google Calendar to your Google Calendar, you can view course calendar without logging in Canvas.

    • Optional

      • Learn: import, export, sync Google Calendar.

• Diigo (Social Bookmarking): You can use Diigo to manage distributed learning resources/bookmarks but not required. 

  • Learn: 

    • What is Diigo?

  • Watch

    • At least two Diigo tutorials.

  • Create

    • A Diigo account

    • Feel free to use existing Diigo account, if any.

    • Diigo offers free Teacher/Student accounts.

  • Install

    • Diigo toolbar for your browser.  It provides better interface to use Diigo.

  • Join

    • ETC645 Diigo Group

  • How to tag for ETC645

    • See ETC645 Tagging Architecture and how we tag and organize our lesson required readings, optional readings, and resources.

    • ETC645 Resources

  • Read: (At least read one)

    • Classroom collaboration using social bookmarking service Diigo

    • Diigo for K-12 Education (Select your own article to read)

• 10 Twitter Accounts Every Teacher Should Follow

Part B: PLE/PLN Personal Portal Setup (OPTIONAL)

• Instructions:

  • Obtain Symbaloo, Chrome (use your NAU GMail) account. 

    • Symbaloo, or Chrome apps? The choice is yours.  Tryout different platforms.

    • If you have existing Symbaloo, Google Chrome PLE, please use it. You can create different tab for our course.

  • ETC learning & PLE

    • If you have a PLE tab from previous courses, you can use the same tab or create a new tab for ETC645. 

  • Learn different personal portal tools:

    • Symbaloo

      • Learn Symbaloo EDU

      • Watch: at least one tutorial

        • Symbaloo tutorials

    • Google Chrome Apps or Extensions

      • Require you to install Google Chrome browser

      • Learn Chrome Apps

• Symbaloo/Chrome Setup Instructions

  • Log on your Symbaloo/Chrome account.

  • Organize your Symbaloo/Chrome PLE to support your learning: 

    • You can add various "tiles," or "apps/extensions to support your learning.

  • Create a new "Webmix" tab for Symbaloo or page for Chrome.

  • Call the tab PLE (Personal Learning Environment)

• Add ETC645 tiles/apps to your PLE tab.

  • These four are relevant widgets/tiles/apps to be added. (For Chrome App, you can add apps, or Extensions)

    • Gmail

    • Diigo

    • Google Calendar

      • For Symbaloo: ETC645 Google Calendar for Symbaloo.

    • Twitter (Optional)

• Add 3 additional titles/apps to support your formal, informal, or life-long learning.

  • Previous students favorite tiles (If you are not familiar some of tools, you can create an account to get familiar with them. We will discuss some of these tools in lesson discussions. Not all Web 2.0 tools have titles/apps available for Symbaloo/Chrome.)

    • Twitter search

    • You can view ETC645 announcements & classmates tweets about ETC645. 

    • Google Drive

    • Flipgrid

    • Canvas

    • Quality Matter

    • EduCause

    • Edutopia

    • Dropbox

    • Prezi

    • VoiceThread

    • Evernote

    • Evernote Web Clipper

    • Zotero

    • Boomerang for Gmail

    • Other E-mail accounts

    • Blackboard Learn

    • Facebook

    • LinkedIn

    • Google Map

    • Pinterest

    • Blogger

    • Facebook

    • Arizona Department of Education

    • New York Times

    • USA Today

    • Wall Street Journal

    • Challenging Assignment Section: Optional

      • PLE on Mobile Device

      • If you own mobile devices, you can use mobile apps on devices.

      • Symbaloo mobile apps (iOS & Google Play, Windows), or Chrome for mobile.

      • Social Tagging

        • Tag a few online learning resources with ETC645 by including the tag ETC645 in your Diigo bookmarks AND share with ETC645 Diigo Group.

        • See ETC645 Diigo Group to make sure your bookmarks appear in the group.

Part C: PLE/PLN Analysis

• Instructions

  • Use the the template to complete your assignment.

    • View: ETC 645 Assignment 1: PLE/PLN Template

    • Download: ETC 645 Assignment 1: PLE/PLN Template

  • Use Google Docs to compose your PLE/PLN Analysis.

  • Follow the assignment submission instructions stated above to share with the instructor. Remember to share your assignment with me at ct68@nau.edu

• Respond to the questions thoroughly in the template.

• Notes

  • Be thorough on your descriptive reflections.  Justify your reflections professionally.  Apply references to support your justification if needed.

  • After finishing this assignment, students could apply their PLE/PLN tab as their personal learning environments to manage their learning tools in addition to visiting Canvas. Frequently, previous students set their PLE/PLN page as their home page for their browser. When they access their computer, they have an overview on all their personal, professional, and learning activities.

  • If you use PLE/PLN for other ETC courses, you can use the same PLE/PLN to manage your tiles/Apps etc.