The design and objectives of my minicourse were influenced by the learning theories of andragogy, cognitivism, and constructivism.
Andragogy was the primary theory that informed the development of my course learning outcomes. The introductory portion of this course was designed to intrinsically motivate my target learners by emphasizing how the minicourse can help them save time and energy in carrying out daily classroom tasks. The course was also designed to easily integrate into normally occurring grade level planning meetings, saving learners more time. I also made it a point to let learners know how much time they will be committing to the minicourse.
Cognitivism guided my strategy in chunking course material so that each page of the module had content that was not overwhelming for learners to mentally process. I also provided visuals and videos at the right moments to help demonstrate procedures or to summarize concepts--further reducing cognitive load on the learner.
Constructivism influenced my design of several activities and assessments in my mini-course. For example, the incorporation of peer discussions surrounding the use of Hatch Insights™ in the classroom, and peer-to-peer feedback in the assessment of a small-group lesson plan created through Hatch Insights™. It leverages situational learning where learners actively create a small-group lesson plan they could apply in the real world of their classrooms, and reflect on their process at the same time.
I primarily followed the Understanding by Design (UbD) instructional design model in the development of this minicourse. I developed the course with the end in mind and focused on what deep understandings I want my learners to achieve. I provided learners with the bigger picture up front through the course home/welcome page as well as in the module introduction pages of how the course and its specific modules can directly support small-group instruction in their classroom. UbD fostered my attempt to align performance outcomes with authentic assessments that are integrated into the learning activities themselves--such as the creation of an actual small-group lesson plan using Hatch Insights™ that they could apply directly in their classrooms. In this way, I think that the design's careful attention to alignment across course outcomes, activities, and assessments has facilitated my ability to meet course learning objectives and address the needs of my audience--i.e., the busy Pre-K teacher. The course was designed so that the learners could clearly see how it has immediate application to their work setting.
The challenging part of applying UbD was in its phase of developing meaningful activities that would offer opportunities for students to reflect, refine, and deepening their understanding of utilizing Hatch Insights™ in instructional planning. I struggled at several points during course construction on assuring that learners develop higher-thinking skills that would go beyond simple rote learning of "Here are the steps to follow when generating a small-group activity on Hatch Insights™" to "How can I strategically use this software to inform my daily instruction?"
Here is the link to the Module 01 Introductory video. Closed captioning (CC) is an option provided in the video.