Project idea (09/01/05)

The project I am going to develp is a new students orientation to the Online M.Ed degree program in the department of Lifelong Education, Administration and Policy. Its purposes aim at providing newly registered students or potential students with an overview to their learning procedure, technological tools, supports and resoures for their incoming two years of online learning. I plan to use video and audio clips, Captivate flash and graphic webpages to set up an interactive learning environment so that the students can learn and explore the needed knowledge by themselves.

My project Client is Dr. Truluck, who is the coodinator of online M.Ed degree program of adult education in our department. Through talking with her by both emails and face to face meeting, she indicated she has to send a lot of emails to direct the new students in their first semest. Some students felt frustrated when they could not find needed information and relevant resources. It will be bennifical to design an online orientation for this program so that the new students can have the required skills and have a more inclusive "roadmap" before starting their courses. There seems a need for this orientation from both the teacher and the students.

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Project abstract (09/15/05)

Online M.Ed. Degree Program is a master program of adult education in the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration and Policy at UGA. Since established in 2001, this program has enrolled 5 cohort groups and over 100 working adults. All courses instruction and consultation are delivered through the Internet; this program allows the busy adult learners to study the knowledge of adult education on their own time, paces and locations. U.S News and World Reports(2002) ranks this degree program as one of the best E-learning program in the United states in the year of 2002.

The start for learning online is usually a hard time for the students. They send tons of email or phone calls to ask for relevant information or direction before the class begin. The guidance are limited to group emails and a simple text-based program webpage.

The purpose of this web-based orientation is to provide adult learners with the needed basic knowledge and skill to start up their online learning, such as the learning procedure, courses and requirements, and the WebCT tools. Through reading, viewing and trying the learning modules, the learners will be asked to complete a series of interactive questions to facilitating their online learning preparation.

Reference see news from U.S. News and World Reports:

http://www.uga.edu/news/newsbureau/releases/2002releases/0210/021018adultedu.html

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Goals, objectives, content & learners analysis(9/22/05)

The goal of this web-based instructional orientation is to equip the newly registered students to the online M.Ed program with the very needed information, knowledge and skills to start up their online learning. Through a self-directed learning process on the three instructional modules(Learning process, WebCT tools and Learning resources) and supports links, the adult learners will learn the steps and requirements of this degree study, how to use WebCT tools and what kinds of resources they can find to support their online learning in the following two years.

The objectives of this instruction: through a 30 minutes online orientation, the students will be able to:

The content of this instructional orientation includes the following units:

The technologies for developing this online orientation comprise of dreamweaver, video audio clip, fireworks, Captivate, and flash if necessary.

The target audiences of this orientation are the new registered students to this M.Ed program in the department of adult education. Every fall semester, there will be 20 about students enrolled into this program as a cohort group. They are all adult students who study at a part time basis through the internet. They are married, most of them have kids in their family, have a full time job in adult education or education related fields. Their age ranges from 25-60 years old. Their education background is at least having a bachelor degree, and they are going to pursue their advanced study for a master degree in adult education.

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Prototype,Sample screen & flowchart

(9/29/05)

I developed the prototype using Powerpoint today, see following for the two sampe pages. They are still very rough. I will work on them to develop the initial screen design. Click the link to see the whole document: Prototype and Sample screen.

Click following title to see the flowchart of my design.

Flowchart of Online Orientation project

Download a better PPT version

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design units (10/13/05)

WebCT tutorial

Module 1: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~wanghd/edit6200project/module1.swf

Module 2: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~wanghd/edit6200project/module2.swf

Module 3: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~wanghd/edit6200project/module3.swf

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Instructional Medium Rationale

(10/20/05)

This instruction is designed as Web-based self-directed learning. All the content will be put on into the Internet so the target adult learners can learn it by themselves at their convenient time and location. There is three major reasons for the medium selection:

1. The program is an online M.Ed program and all the courses instruction are through the Internet. Students will not come to the school until attending their graduate ceremony. So the orientation for this program has no other better choice but the online model;

2. The students are busy adult learners. They are studying this degree program at a part time manner, that is, they have a full time job and family to take care of. They select the online learning for its convenience. So the online orientation fit them very well.

3. There is a webpage describing the online master program under our department website, new students usually visit there to get the information for this program. But it is simple, and text based. The orientation tries to organize the information here and there, and structure them into an training lesson. So the coordinator can refer the new students to go to the orientation website to learn.

4. The online orientation is easy maintain and updated with new content adding in.

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Curriculum Integration

(10/20/05)

The training program is not a lesson and can not be used for any classroom instruction. The most likely way in using is that the coordinator recommends the new students by directing them a link- the Internet address to the orientation. Of course, it is open to everyone who is interested to know this program since it is online.

There is no well-shaped in-used curriculum available for this orientation. So I have to collect the information from the department website, course WebCT, program coordinator's correspondence with the previous students, and structure them into an integrate training program.

Through carefully think about the content, I decide the orientation should include three sessions:

1. A introduction by the coordinator: motivating the students to go through the orientation by providing some key information about the degree program.

2. A learning procedure session: telling students the major tasks in their learning and the resource.

3. WebCT tutorial session: teaching students how to use WebCT in some basic skills.

4. A Quiz session: Serving as reinforcement to what they have learned and inviting students to interact with the orientation.

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Accessibility requirement

(12/06/05)

I read the Dr, Rieber's email about the accessibility requirement and check the reference video and websites about the accessibility issue. I was impressed by the lady's explanations on why people need to consider accessibility issue: it is good, it is beneficial and it is required by law. I did think this is an important issue, however, I considered the principles quite late – at the last stage of my program development. So I have to go back and do some supplements in my project to meet the criteria. Here is some of major things I did for making my project more accessible to the handicap learners:

1. Adding all informational graphics, logos, pictures with the alternative text.

2. Adding a text transcript to the Welcome video clip so some learners can read the text to know the content of the video.

3. Implementing a Help page to explain the content and functions of the media, so the learners can know what will happen in each session and how to use the button to navigate.

4. For the three modules of WebCT tutorials, I did not use audio directions but use some text message box to explain and direct the steps. The reason is I am not a native speaker, if I include the matched audio direction, I need to hire somebody to help me with this. Limited by the budget and time, I just develop them within my control. I emailed my client about this issues, and she think it looks good enough with the audio part.

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Project Evaluation

(12/08/05)

Alpha test plan

See the plan document.

Beta Test plan

See the plan document.

Overall Evaluation Report:

See the report.

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