“Designing Significant Learning Experiences”

ONLINE COURSE about:

“DESIGNING COURSES FOR SIGNIFICANT LEARNING”

AN INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this introduction is to to provide information that will help you decide whether you want to enroll in this online course about designing courses for significant learning.

This webpage contains comments on the following topics:

  • Some reflective questions to ask yourself
  • Information about this Program of Study
    • Value of what you will learn
    • Specific characteristics of “Integrated Course Design”
    • Program activities
  • Cost - Certificates Issued
  • Instructions for Enrolling

Here we go.

You: Some Reflective Questions

These are some questions you may want to think about, as you decide whether you want to enroll in this course.

  • How much have you previously studied the topics of how to design learning experiences for others?
    • Formally? Informally?
    • Do you feel your teaching experiences sometimes present you with challenges for which you wish you had better solutions, or better ways of thinking about teaching?
  • To what degree is teaching a significant activity in your life?
    • Notice: the question asks about teaching “in your life,” not just in your career. Many people teach in other aspects of their life: as parents, in church settings, in civic organizations, etc.
    • The assumption behind this program is that these ideas are applicable in designing any kind of instruction, “from kindergarten to elderhostel”.
  • Is it important, or does it add value, for you to have certification regarding your knowledge and ability to design high quality instruction?
    • One option for this program allows people to receive certification for completing the program of study and for having the competence to design courses for significant student learning.

The Program of Study

Now that you have reflected on your potential need for learning more about integrated course design, let me provide some information about this particular set of materials for meeting that need. This will include ideas, first, on the value of understanding instructional design and then the characteristics of this particular set of ideas on instructional design.

I. The Value of Learning How to Design Learning Experiences for Others

Anyone who tries to lead someone else through a learning experience, in whatever setting, needs to do some thinking ahead of time and plan how they want that learning experience to happen. This is true whether you are teaching in an educational institution such as a public school or university, or home schooling, or leading a workshop in your business organization, or teaching children in your religious organization.

In all these situations, you want the learners to learn something of value and you have to deal with both the setting and the particular characteristics that the learners bring to the learning situation. Figuring out what you want the learner(s) to learn and how you are going to get that to happen, that is the design process.

There are numerous models that instructional designers have created to help people design learning experiences. Although there are differences among them, they all share some common characteristics: you need to decide what you want students to learn, develop some learning activities, etc.

The model of Integrated Course Design that will be studied here share most of these common characteristics, but it does has some distinctive features.

II. The Specific Characteristics of INTEGRATED COURSE DESIGN

One of the things many people like about this model instructional design is that it starts with a visual model that is relatively easy to understand, yet it unpacks in a way that allows it to deal with the real complexities of teaching. Here is the basic model:

In essence this model goes like this:

  • You start the design process by gathering information about the “Situational Factors”, e.g., class size, students’ initial knowledge or feelings about the course, etc.
  • You use this information (the vertical arrows) to make the three big decisions in the course:
    • What do you want students to learn? (= Your Learning Goals)
    • What will they need to do, to learn that? (= the Teaching & Learning Activities)
    • What will they need to do, for you and them to know whether they have achieved the learning goals? (= the Feedback & Assessment Activities)
  • How will you integrate the Learning Goals, Teaching & Learning Activities, and the Feedback and Assessment Activities?

Second, this model offers three special features for the design process. This model is:

  • Systematic, i.e., there are certain questions that have to be answered when designing a course, and there is a certain sequence in which they need to be answered.
  • Integrative, i.e., this design process ensures that the learning goals, the learning activities, and the assessment activities all reflect and support each other.
  • Learning-centered: Your course will be learning-centered because you start the design process by asking what learning you want students to achieve, and your answer to this question determines your response to the other design decisions.

Third, it goes beyond just indicating what needs to be done when you design instruments; it also provides criteria for knowing whether you are designing your courses well.

III. Program Activities

If you decide to take this course, here is what you will be doing.

13 Units: The whole course has 13 units, each dealing with particular aspects of Integrated Course Design. Each unit builds on what has come before it and prepares you for what comes next. Here is the sequence of units:

  • Unit 1 – Three Basic Perspectives on Designing Courses
  • Unit 2 – Your Dreams for Student Learning?
  • Unit 3 – Getting Started: The Big Purpose of Your Course and the Structure of the Content
  • Unit 4 – Situational Factors
  • Unit 5 – Learning Goals
  • Unit 6 – Feedback and Assessment Activities
  • Unit 7 – Learning Activities
  • Unit 8 – Integrating Your Course
  • Unit 9 – Creating the Grading System
  • Unit 10 – Identifying Possible Problems
  • Unit 11 – Communicating Your Design to Students
  • Unit 12 – Evaluating Your Teaching
  • Unit 13 – Continuing to Learn about Teaching & Learning

What will you have when you finish this program of study? When you finish this set of 13 units, you will have two “take away’s”:

  1. one course completely designed, and
  2. an understanding of the principles of good course design that will enable you to design any course in the future for significant learning.

Resources: We have incorporated several kinds of resources to help you learn about Integrated Course Design.

  1. Book: You will receive an electronic copy of Fink’s book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences.
  2. Web-based material: This website will provide you with both text and short video clips that explain and elaborate upon various concepts.
  3. Dialogue with other learners: Even though this course has been constructed so that you can start and finish whenever you want, you will still be able to dialogue with other people who are taking the course at the same time.
  4. Exercises: Each of the units has exercises for you to do, that will help you develop the skills you need, to design courses for significant learning.
  5. Production: As you work through the units, you will be asked to identify a particular form of instruction that you want to design (example, a course or workshop that you plan to teach or that you want to re-design). Then you will design this instruction, step by step, as you work through the units.
  6. Yourself: You are also an important resource for this program of study. From time to time, you will also be asked to think about your beliefs and aspirations as a teacher. Keep a record of these; they are important to your growth and development as a teacher.

Time Needed

  • We estimate that participants will need to spend 2 to 4 hours each week on this course, depending on how well they can read and write in English.
  • The course will be paced, meaning 1 to 2 weeks will be allocated to complete each unit. Hence the whole course will take approximately 4 months to finish.
  • However, people may finish faster if they are able.

General Operation of the Course

People who enroll will be put into a cohort with 4 to 7 other participants. This group will go through the course together, reading each other’s work and getting feedback from the other participants.

Each group will also be led by a Feedback Facilitator, i.e., a person with expert knowledge of Integrated Course Design. This person will keep the group moving through the course and give their own feedback on each person’s work.

IV. Cost and Certificates Issued

Cost:

  • The tuition for this online course will vary, depending on where the participant comes from.
  • Different prices have been set to reflect variations in the average income of college teachers in different regions of the world.

4 Levels of Fees: Cost of Course: (in US$)

I. Advanced Economies $475

= US, Canada, W. Europe, Japan, British Commonwealth countries, oil-rich Middle East countries

II. Emerging Economies 300

= Latin America, E. Europe, SE Asia, non-oil-rich Middle East/North Africa

III. High Population-Density Regions 150

= S. Asia, China

IV. Sub-Saharan Africa 75

Two Certificates

There are two Certificates you can earn in association with this course.

  • Certificate of Completion: When you complete the whole course (13 content units), you will be issued a “Certificate of Completion” by the University of Oklahoma, to acknowledge your achievement.
  • Certificate of Performance: After you complete the course and IF you want to, you can submit your course design to Dr. Dee Fink for review. If it meets the 9 Standards of Excellence for Integrated Course Design, you will also be issued a “Certificate of Performance.” This Certificate indicates that you not only know about course design but that you can also “do it.”
    • If you do this, you then have the additional option of having your course design published as an example of good course design. These are shown on the “Designing Significant Learning Experiences” website: www.designlearning.org/examples-of-design/examples/

IF – after reading this Introduction, you decide you would like to enroll in this online course, here is what you need to do:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ENROLLING

Procedures:

We need 3 pieces of information to get you registered for this course:

  1. Your FULL name
  2. Your birthdate
  3. Your email address

You can include this information with your payment (see below), or you can email it to Dee Fink: dfink40@gmail.com

After we have this information and your payment, we will send you (a) the instructions and (b) the ID number you will need to log into the course.

METHODS OF PAYMENT:

You have three ways that you can pay for this course, and the procedures for each of these are shown below:

  1. PayPal (see below)
  2. Pay with a credit card by calling Dee Fink & Associates: 405-364-6464 (in the US)
  3. Pay with a check or Purchase Order (P/O) by mailing it to Dee Fink & Associates.

As indicated above (and below), there are 4 levels of tuition, depending on where you are from. We have set these prices to reflect the different levels of salaries for teachers in different parts of the world.

Advanced Economies

  • US, Canada, W. Europe, Japan, British Commonwealth countries, oil-rich Middle East countries

Emerging Economies

  • Latin America, E. Europe, SE Asia, non-oil-rich Middle East/North Africa

High Population-Density Regions

  • S. Asia [Pakistan, India, Bangladesh], China

Sub-Saharan Africa

USD $475.00 / Participant

USD $300.00 / Participant

USD $150.00 / Participant

USD $75.00 / Participant
Select your geographic region:

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