Instructing on the Internet has been a passion of mine since the 1990’s when I first discovered the world wide web.
I have designed Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for educators and online course modules for Certificate and Diploma courses. My particular expertise is enabling learners to take charge of their own learning. Self-Paced learning has long been a preferred method of learning for adults and I have focussed on that concept as I designed the content, activities and assessments.
My experiences have included participation in many different types of online learning and I have determined which aspects of these should be incorporated in my own learning designs. I know how important the instructional design is to successful learning.
I have been a teacher, connected educator, instructional designer and e-mentor for other educators who have been exploring e-learning over the last decade. Design is an essential feature in all these jobs, and the right design will:
- change behaviour
- improve skills
- solve problems
Club Officer Training Online (COTO)
My most recent project is designing and developing an online course for Club Officers in Toastmasters. Training sessions are usually scheduled twice a year to help support those who are new in the club officer roles. Most sessions are scheduled for face-to-face workshops for Areas and Divisions of Toastmasters International. Not all Toastmasters are able to attend such sessions. There is a need for an online course to overcome the problems of:
- difficulty in travelling to face-to-face training sessions
- accessing ongoing training opportunities just-in-time
- collating all resources for training in the one place
The COTO course is being developed in a Moodle Learning Management System, one that I am most familiar with. MoodleCloud, a free hosting system has been chosen. The course will be open to any Toastmaster as either a Guest or an Enrolled Student. Guests will be able to access the static content and activities, but not engage in discussion forums or webinar. Enrolled Students will have the added benefit of learning collaboratively in any time discussion forums and participating in real time webinars.
The project has been designed as an HPL, High Performance Leadership, project for my journey in Toastmasters. It has the following required elements:
- Vision – club officer training opportunities online
- Mission – provide a relevant and timely training course with sequenced learning modules for trial in 2016
- Guidance Committee – advisory team
- Action Team – piloting team
The current development of the course content is being shared in a shared online project management site (Trello) and is on track.
Below is the initial Concept Design image for the COTO learning modules:
Ancestral Writing in Progress 