By the end of this week, your full initial development must be completed. Were you able to finish according to your timeline? Why or why not? What technology challenges have you faced? What “people” challenges have you faced? How have you sought to overcome these difficulties? What have you learned about completing a major project within a professional deadline? What will you do differently next time?What were your strengths as a designer? What do you need to improve?

I believe I’m on schedule in developing my course and I’m finishing up with the final touches of my course. The technology challenged that I faced was that at the beginning of this assignment I was not able to include the assigned TA not sure why her email was not being accepted. But this issue was resolved and I was able to add her to have access to my course. So far the people challenges that I’ve encounter are receiving feedback from my assign classmate. I did not get the first feedback hopefully this second time I will be able to get it from my classmate. I do think that feedback is important it helps us to understand what we are doing right and wrong in order to make any necessary adjustments. I think that when completing major projects you always have problems that you encounter along the way. It is not something that you can prevent but as you go along it helps you to better understand and improve as you go along. I believe that next time I can go ahead and read ahead to manage my time but during summer it is always difficult to try and complete everything on time. Not just because of work or school but also because of personal businesses that you may have and or simply you want to focus on yourself for a couple of days to recharge and finish strong. I believe my strengths as a designer are that I’m familiar with CANVAS because I use it for work and I’m also familiar with the simulators that will be use in this course. This helps me to find ways to incorporate them to my course however, we always have things that work and don’t work. So this is something that we need to keep in mind and find other solutions when creating a course. I do hope to improve in creating courses and making sure I’m using the right material to teach my students.

Reflection 1

Problem Based Learning: An Instructional Model And Its Constructivist Framework, article states that lessons should be meaningful, and the instructor should act as coach/liaison. By stepping away from the learner and allowing the learner to use their former knowledge/experiences students will be engaged and use that prior knowledge to build new knowledge. Another point that the authors state is If the learners apply themselves even though they do not get a passing grade they are still learning. Instructors should move away from the procedural teaching, because it’s important for students to begin with a problem, allow the learner to discuss the problem, then the learner will eventually be engaged, and finally the learner will resolve it. The authors state that students should become self-directed learners. 

In Engaging Instructional Design And Instructor Role In Online Learning Environment, the authors emphasize the importance of increasing students’ participation and engagement in online courses. The role of the instructor is to understand and find ways of improving online engagement to increase students’ participation in online courses (Arghode, Brieger, & Wang, 2018). One important finding is that students’ physical and mental energy is essential for classroom participation and engagement. The theoretical framework behind this study is Learner Engagement Theory which emphasizes the need for students’ to be actively involve through meaningful learning in order to be interested in the task, retain that information, and transfer that learned information (Arghode, Brieger, & Wang, 2018). According to Arghode, Brieger, & Wang (2018) students must feel a sense of belonging with the instructor and peers for student engagement to take place and increase students’ participation. Another important finding is that the instructor must be present by providing feedback, by providing an engaging pedagogy, and by having an engaging curriculum for the student to be enthusiastic about learning and be actively involved in the classroom (Arghode, Brieger, & Wang, 2018). As well as for the instructor to design the course for learner engagement such as providing meaningful tasks, safe environment for students to express themselves, and instructor’s availability.

The peer article that I selected was, An Instructional Design Framework For Fostering Student Engagement In Online Learning Environments. This article identifies key components of how to design and develop online courses to engage students. This article focuses on how instructional designers and instructors could benefit from these key components to have a better approach and increase online student engagement. 

Overall, the three articles identify important components that are useful for instructional designers and instructors. As well as the importance of actively engaging students in meaningful tasks that are authentic to real-world problems for learners to become self-directed learners. 

Arghode, V., Brieger, E., & Wang, J. (2018). Engaging instructional design and instructor role in online learning environment. European Journal of Training and Development, 42(7), 366-380. http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1108/EJTD-12-2017-0110

Czerkawski, B.C., Lyman, E.W. An instructional design framework for fostering student engagement in online learning environments. TechTrends 60, 532–539 (2016). https://doi-org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1007/s11528-016-0110-z

Savery, J., & Duffy, T. (1995). Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology, 35(5), 31-38. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44428296

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