Welcome to the finale of the semester-long process of my course creation! I put a lot of hard work and time into each of my blog posts, most of which are linked below, and in the course itself, so I hope you enjoy the culmination of my process and final product.

Overview of course:

In my final assessment of my course and course-related posts, I have included some important edits/updates to my original overview of the course and my course profile.

Course shell/framework:

prototype TEACHER calendar
(where modules are clearly labelled)

prototype STUDENT calendar

Module 1:

Module #1 REVISED

Module 2:

Module #2

Creation process:

The perpetual creation process for this course prototype was, for lack of a better term, a range of things.  

It was gradual in that not only was I learning new things each week but the course I was developing was also growing/changing as I worked on it each week. Being given the opportunity to explore tools allowed me to discover Parlay, which I then incorporated into my prototype. This also expanded to more and more aspects of consideration with our weekly discussions of components I had never deliberated over but are now core considerations of mine when planning for a blended course in the future. In my revision process near the end of this project, I added more time for students to work on assignments/content. I deliberately scaled back on content and added time because I rediscovered how valuable time is; being back in the student perspective, I appreciated being given time to work on the prototype rather than the project being in addition to normal week-to-week expectations.  

It was meticulous because I spent a lot of dedicated time on the details of this course. This is my typical approach when planning a course, but I found myself going over details with a fine-tooth comb to make sure all the pieces worked together, for clarity for my peers, creating strong structure (13.9.1), etc. Having the advantage of peer feedback allowed me to zoom out a bit from my own work and reexamine key pieces that needed tweaking, which can be seen in my revision of my original module 1 and my overall course shell in terms of student interaction pieces. The peer feedback was also helpful in the creation process regarding Bates’ suggestion of being able to work with a team on course design (13.2) because it isn’t often that teachers get the opportunity or time to design or even collaborate on course content.   

Most importantly, the creation process was a steep yet rewarding learning curve. Creating a unit is nothing new to me, but there are multiple factors in this particular prototype that are new to me (I know Bates says in 13.7 we should be masters at the tech we use, but I think I “mastered” what I’m using for my purpose). I knew EC&I 834 in general was going to be a learning curve for me, but creating this prototype was the opportunity for me to fully invest in discovering and experimenting for the biggest professional growth return/capital – anything worth doing is going to be difficult (and time consuming). My greatest (and most rewarding) learning curve was learning some tricks on Canva in a very short amount of time to create a supplemental video for students because I knew it was the right thing to do for students in context of the course. I also ended up using Canva for my final walkthrough video (and then screen recorded with Screencastify) because I felt I was getting the hang of it and wanted to continue experimenting. The creation process for my walkthrough video was tedious (to say the least), but I am really proud of the final product. My original motivation for doing this was Wesch’s What Teachers can learn from YouTubers about Engaging Students Online , but I flipped the base of his message; for a fully online class his engaging videos make sense, but for my course which is already F2F I wanted to remove myself from the supplemental video (face and voice included) in order to avoid, like screen fatigue of an online course, me fatigue.  

Ultimately, I got really invested in the creation of this prototype. Unit/course creation is such a personally creative process for teachers, which I love. Also, the practicality of (in the near future) being able to implement a unit I worked so hard on over the past couple months positively adds to the motivation of the aforementioned factors. 

Walkthrough: