This week in my CEP811 class we got the opportunity to learn about instructional design and how it relates to TPACK (Teaching Pedagogical and Content Knowledge) and excellent instruction. We also were asked to create our own Massive Open Online Course, commonly referred to as “MOOC”. MOOCs are really unique in the sense that they free courses available to anyone in the world. Enrollment is unlimited and these courses can offer opportunity and access to an extremely broad populous. MOOCs offer an exceptional opportunity to get educated and learn new information by simply putting fourth the time and effort.
We examined a number of different resources to achieve our goal of creating one of these MOOC sites. First, we viewed Michigan State University professor, Dr. Yelon’s video on “The Secret of Instructional Design”. And examined the set-up of designing successful units. These successful units begin with the goal/objective in mind when designing the evaluation. It focuses on “real-world” performance and uses this objective to create the assessment and include content steps to meet the “big picture” objective. The acronym used by Instructional Designers is ADDIE standing for: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. This principle of designing units also falls in line with the principles described in Understanding by Design’s “Backwards Design” model of instruction. The strategy of focusing on aligning assessments with the objective and planning your day-to-day lessons based around that “big picture” objective. Utilizing assignments and activities that scaffold the assessment, which is a direct description of the unit objectives and essential questions.
Instructional Design Photo by ADDIE.
To examine the MOOC process in action and understand more about this concept, we visited and explored “Peer to Peer University”, P2PU. At P2PU, we explored different courses available online, free of charge. There are a number of different courses available and the instruction is delivered entirely online. Courses vary in subject matter, from web design to learning a musical instrument to history of Germany, but all consist of the characteristics listed above. This is a great, non-stressful, way to learn something that interests you.
Navigating the website was very easy and user friendly. The widespread knowledge and collaborative sharing space make it a growing community. At the website, I went to the course titled “How do I make a P2PU Course”. This course was so easy to navigate and offered great advice for creating a course. The content was extremely helpful and the layout made sense in the way the information was presented. It served as not only great information for creating a course, but also as a model to design your course after.
Another model we looked at that demonstrated this concept in action was the University of Saskatchewan course on Learning Technologies. They call their model “TOOC” and the set-up of this course is extremely open. Anyone can enter the course and collaborate with others in the course. This course uses an “open blogging” concept on wordpress.com and encourages participants to use, remix and share information regularly. Registration in this course is not required for almost 90% of the content. The only part of the course that is reserved for Univ. of Sask. Students the “live-sessions”, using “google hangouts”. All readings, blogs, discussions, assignments, and videos were available free of charge.
The basic take-away from all of these resources is to plan your lessons and units with clear objectives in mind. The goal is to write assessments that allow students to demonstrate the objective. The questions that are laid out in the MOOC (P2PU), UbD, and Instructional Designers are:
- Who is my audience and why are they interested in my course?
- What are they going to “do” or “make” (create) to demonstrate the learning objective?
- Provide feedback and collaboration to improve and share the different ways of achieving the objective.
- #3 tends to be the biggest one that educators forget to include in units and exclude when they are pressed for time. In my opinion, this is a huge mistake. In my experience as a teacher, the objectives are much more meaningful to the learner if they have a chance to share and collaborate their “creative work” with their peers. This is why MOOCs and the “open” learning community offers such a great solution to this issue.
Below is a MOOC template that describes the course.
Comments and suggestions are always welcome!
Introduction:
I will make my “Ultra-Micro MOOC” combining aspects from from P2PU, Dr. Yelon’s video on “Instructional Design”, “Backwards Design” from Understanding by Design, and the “Introduction to Learning Technologies” TOOC website, to make course about savings and investing. The final goal of this project is an investment portfolio that you can use to take to a financial advisor/stockbroker, and explain your risk tolerance and financial goals. The template allows you to scaffold understanding of investment and plug in your own goals into your savings plan.
In my “How to invest your money” seminar course, students will learn basic vocabulary and concepts about saving & investing, risk & reward, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and how to retire rich by completing an investment portfolio and comparing investment choices with their peers.
Course Topic:
Students will learn investment vocabulary and key concepts when it comes to savings. Students will apply knowledge of scarcity, choice, cost v. benefit, and risk and reward to budget and save their money. Students will learn how to buy anything they want totally debt free by saving in the proper investment in the proper amount of time.
Course Title & Photo:
“How to Invest Your Money like an Economist”
The title indicates that the knowledge learned in this seminar will show you where to invest your money to achieve your goals without incurring massive amounts of debt. The “Live like No One Else” part refers to the rising credit card debt in America: According to NerdWallet.com, the average household credit card debt is $15,252.
Who is coming to your course? What will attract them? Why would they want to participate in this experience?
This course is for anyone who wants to learn more about investing for big expensive items, including retirement. This course is for anyone who wants to buy expensive items debt free and avoid using credit cards to achieve their financial status. This course is for those interested in how money works and how our economy grows and shrinks overtime. This course will take some individual work, but the end result will pay off and they will end up investing in the proper ways to benefit their needs and personality. This course is for anyone who is willing and able to put fourth time to learn about the economy, stock market, and savings. (I use this course in my high school economics class as an end of the year project for students to apply the content to real-life economics).
What do you want learners to be able to do when they are done? (Connect your thoughts here to the learning theories you explored last week and the design principles you learned this week.) How long is your course experience?
Upon completion of this course, students will create an investment portfolio that is “use-able” to take to a financial advisor. This portfolio will include: the correct terminology, your risk tolerance, three “Big Expensive Items” (B.E.I.s) with research of the cost, your time frame you hope to achieve your goal, and the amount of money you are planning on setting aside each month to achieve the financial goal. This course is planned with UbD (“Backwards Design”) in mind because the day-to-day lessons and activities are all in place to scaffold understanding to meet the final objective of creating an investment portfolio.
This project also will utilize “experimental learning theory” because it is an individual journey and the more you time and effort you put into it, the more successful you will be in the project and consequently the more financial options you will have in the future. Students will have to study the market and investing options low to high risk options: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, savings account, real-estate, IRAs or 401Ks, etc. Depending on the students goals and risk temperament, and desired time frame of achieving the goal, one investment type may be better fit than another. It is important to look at, adjust, and try different options of saving before you complete the investment plan for your B.E.I.
What will peers make?
Peers will make an investment portfolio to complete the objective. This is the final goal of the project and will achieve the desired outcome. Completion of this project will show mastery of the concepts of investment. The investment portfolio will include: research on 3 BEIs (Big Expensive Items: this can be different amounts for different people: I would say over $1000 dollars, but that is just me) that you want to own, their availability and current cost. Portfolio will also include: Desired timeframe for saving, total money needed before inflation, then calculated after inflation with timeframe (just assume the natural rate of inflation 3%), then match the savings goal with the type of investment you will need to achieve it in your time. (TIP: use the market averages to determine your RETURN on Investment). This project will be completed in a folder that you can easily take with you to see a financial advisor and then you will know what to ask for and you will receive what you need based on your goals.
EXAMPLE of GOAL: Mr. L Investment Goal (Retirement)
How do activities hang together as a course?
My course will be set up to encourage participation and individuality. My course will have activities that lead and build upon each other. The course is set up in a four-week layout. Each week is designed for you to understand the next week and lead to execution of the main “real-world” objective. My evaluation and assessment is the “Investment Portfolio” where you will apply the content learned throughout the course. This is the model described in “Instructional Design” because you are interacting with the content using methods with the objective and evaluation in mind from the beginning. One common principle this unit contains is the idea of collaborative learning and assessing. In TPACK, Instructional Design, and experimental learning, it is vital for students to have a voice and interact with the content and each other. The seminar will build in steps to collaborate with peers by categorizing BEIs and investment types for discussion forums. (If you are saving for retirement, you may communicate with others to see what investment worked well for them and when you should start saving). TPACK will be included in the design of the course by providing flexibility and freedom to use the technology to share resources and strategies of saving.
How will peers help each other in the course?
Peers will be encouraged to comment on others work and share their investment strategies. Peers will have a number of categories to discuss. Peers will be able to discuss saving and investing habits with others that have similar goals. Also, they can be subcategorized to discuss and learn from those with similar “risk tolerance” as they have. And finally, peers may look at the timeframe of others and share (“steal”) ideas and thoughts. Peers may post their investment plans and showcase them on a blog. They may comment in a “general” section for basic questions or help or they can comment in a more specific subset about their status.
What is the design architecture for your course. How will each week’s modules be organized and why have you designed it in this way?
I will design the course in weekly modules consisting of four weeks that will build upon knowledge to achieve the final project. It will be more manageable for students and make sense scaffolding knowledge in four chunks.
WEEK #1: Basic Understanding of types of Savings
In this stage, scholars will define different types of investments and savings terminology. It is important to understand these terms and know how to use them in your project and in your life. When visiting a financial advisor, you have to go in with knowledge of terms such as: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, savings accounts, corporate bonds, Roth-IRAs, 401Ks, diversification, liquidity, etc. Knowledge of the above, will help you and the financial planner achieve your goals smoothly.
*Students must also brainstorm THREE Big Expensive Items (BEIs) and research the cost of each. (**BEIs are that require savings: general rule: $1000 and over)
WEEK #2: Risk v. Reward, Savings Timeframe, Inflation & Investing Articles
In this stage, scholars will determine their risk tolerance and “realistic” budgets. Peers must think about what they can actually afford to invest and with that number in mind plan for the desired timeframe for obtaining their BEI. (When they will start saving and when they hope to purchase the item). Peers will also learn about inflation and apply the natural rate of inflation (3%) multiplied with the current price of their BEI and the total number of years saving to determine how much money they will need to have by the desired time. Finally, peers will choose an investment article that provides information on when and how to invest your income.
WEEK #3: Research Investment Types
In this stage, scholars will research different investment types and try to match the investment type with their desired savings goal. Peers are suggested to use the averages to find out the potential return upon investment. When planning for this stage it is encouraged to use the discussion forums to talk about strategy with other peers and determine if you are on the right track to meet your objective. Scholars must research actual investment types to decide whether it is a “low-risk” or “high-risk” investment option.
WEEK #4: Create your investment portfolio
In this final stage, scholars will create the finished product and apply what they have learned in this comprehensive investment portfolio. Scholars are encouraged to post their portfolios on their blog and comment/provide feedback with others. This portfolio should be a practical tool to bring with you to financial advisor meetings to plan out a strategy to purchase your BEI. Peers are encouraged to share their success stories and finished product by tweeting out their project using the hashtag #InvestmentPeers
*Scholars can present their strategy in digitally in the form of graphs, charts, paragraphs, tables, or a different way of their choosing.
REFERENCES:
A University for the Web. Built by an open community.. (n.d.). P2PU. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from https://p2pu.org/en/
Culatta, R. (n.d.). Experiential Learning (Carl Rogers). Experiential Learning. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/experiental-learning.html
Understanding by Design. (n.d.). Google Books. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?id=N2EfKlyUN4QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=backward+design&source=bl&ots=gmcDp7VO1v&sig=buNdUrqOhtK8k3Y3fWEtOq9H6JM&hl=en&ei=TPqhTOSPNcP2nAe-kNmIBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEgQ6AEwCA#v=twopage&q&f=true
Yelon, S. L. (2001). Goal-Directed Instructional Design: A Practical Guide to Instructional Planning for Teachers and Trainers. Michigan State University: Self-published, Not in electronic format.
Braunschweig, Dave. ADDIE Instructional Design Model (February 26th 2014) [Web Photo] retrieved from Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Addie.png
Deplo. Steve. [web-photo] retrieved from: Creative commons on Flickr: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4093/5437288053_624c075aa3.jpg
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