The Syllabus

Recommendations Most Likely to Implement (Ko and Rossen)

Even though I won't be teaching a college course, I still plan to include the following recommendations for the training I am planning for new Human Resource Analysts at my agency. It began as an orientation but has since morphed into something a bit larger and more comprehensive.

Expectations for Class Participation (Quality and Quantity) and Explanations of Successful Completion Criteria
Each course in our learning management system must be verified either with an assessment or manually by a course provider. Because each of my courses will have multiple requirements and I don't want people to complete an assessment without completing the activities, I'll be manually verifying completion based on criteria explained in a rubric. Class participation will be included in specific terms.

Information to Manage Student Expectations and Set the Stage
I think that I will include this information both on the main course website and in an introductory video.

Schedule by Weeks, Including Specific Dates
I'm glad the authors recommended including specific dates. I'm not sure I would have thought of that on my own. It will be particularly helpful since it's likely that people may run across the web page where I'll post the course information and think they can join...after the course has ended. I also like the recommendation to give students 2-3 days to complete assignments. I'll probably give them a little more time.

Course Title, Instructor, Contact Information, Office Hours, Course Description and Objectives
This is a given.

Date Last Revised
This is a good idea as well and thankfully it's built into our intranet template so I won't have to do it manually.

Tech Support Contact
Although the instructors will be our subject matter experts, I'll be the tech support...

Recommendations Least Likely to Implement
I really like the way the interactive syllabus also explains the geography through its design. This means that I won't need to explain this in paragraph form. I'll probably still include a video showing and explaining where everything is located on the webpage, how to navigate and how they'll know where to do each activity.

Different Between the Text Approach and the Interactive Syllabus

These are the primary differences that I noticed between the two approaches:

1. The interactive syllabus is a web page not a static document. Resources, videos, discussion forums and test are all linked directly in the page.
2. You don't need to explain geography because the design makes this intuitive.
3. Class information (expectations, contact information, objectives, course description) are located in a different section of the website. The focus of the interactive syllabus are the assignments, listed by week.

Week 4: Materials, HTML and Prezi

Useful Design Elements from Chapter 3
As I build my training modules, I'll be incorporating peer review, case studies, discussions and brief presentations. Our agency intranet will serve as the hub and will include embedded YouTube videos and other required reading. I will use our ProBoards discussion forum for the discussions, peer review and case studies. We will probably use our Polycom videoconferencing system for the "in-person" sessions and possibly AnyMeeting, only if it makes sense. I hope that I'll be creative enough to design a useful project that requires collaboration so I can use Google Docs. It's such a great tool that I try to find reasons to introduce people to its power and effectiveness for document collaboration.

HTML
Although I am quite familiar with HTML (It's part of my job and I used to have a web design small business), I use Dreamweaver and it doesn't require extensive knowledge of HTML. I'll use Dreamweaver to post the syllabus and resources on our intranet.

Prezi
I am so glad to see, from my classmates' posts (1 and 2), that I am not the only one who gets slightly dizzy watching Prezi presentations. They can definitely spice up a linear presentation but I don't think linear is bad and too much spice ruins a dish. Screens of bullet points should be avoided; showing instead of telling should be encouraged. Spinning and zooming isn't the answer...in my humble opinion :)

Edited to Add: Lisa posted this comment, "Prezi doesn’t have to be used with lots of turning and zooming. You can use it to make a horizontal or vertical chart with different items, or anything else that’s a simple presentation."

I like this idea. In particular, I think it would make sense to review a diagram of some sort where you could start from a wide angle to see the big picture and then drill down to each section and review the details. I haven't searched the internet enough to see someone do this, but I'm sure they have. At some point, I'll take some time to play with it and see how this particular application would work.

Pedagogy and Course Design

I thought today was Wednesday so that officially makes today's post late. Thank goodness I'm not getting graded for this course. So without further delay...my assignment.

Pedagogical Objectives for the New HR Analyst Online Orientation Modules:

New Human Resource Analysts will...

1. Connect with their colleagues by sharing experiences, obtaining feedback and providing feedback.
2. Practice problem solving in a safe environment
3. Complete simulated work processes to demonstrate the ability to correctly apply policies and follow procedures

Ways in which the Beginner's Questionnaire might help me achieve these objectives
My score was 14 so I'm close to the middle.

Encouraging interest in the material
I selected large group discussions as a way to encourage interest in the material. However, because the "material" is guided by the job description for our employees, this might not be as much of a challenge. Although, most people enjoy some aspects of their job more than others. I hope to craft meaningful activities that require the analysts to communicate with their colleagues on our online forum. Hearing others' perspectives and experiences might encourage interest.

Relaying content
Although I am not a fan of lecturing, I do plan to develop several very short, maybe 5 minute videos that review highlights of the content and key considerations. I will provide the majority of the remaining content since it's standard and based on policies and procedures.

Creating knowledge
Simulated work processes and problem solving should assist the analysts in creating their own knowledge.

Role of assessments
When it comes to job training, knowledge means absolutely nothing if you can't perform on the job. I'm not positive how I plan to assess the attainment of the competencies that we've identified. I will probably use a rubric. This next group of new analysts will probably only include 4 people so assessing their skills won't be incredibly time consuming. I'll need to design the simulated work processes carefully so I don't create too much work for myself when I have to assess them.

Ways in which the POT Getting Started Chart will help me achieve these objectives:
My self-assessment followed the branches on the right half of the chart. I'll be using a combination of lecture and discussion and organize the modules like a syllabus with everything linked from the main schedule. Our intranet will be the home base and all of the assignments will be completed in the online discussion forum and during several face to face (via videoconferencing) sessions.

How the Seven Principles might help me achieve my pedagogical objectives:
The Seven Principles is a reminder that I'll need to monitor the discussion forum and alert the subject matter experts when they need to provide prompt and meaningful feedback and I'll also need to encourage our more seasoned analysts to join in and share their ideas.

I'll need to craft assignments that require the analysts to use active learning techniques: "talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to" their jobs.

Regarding time on task, I've already decided that I'm going to spread each module over the course of at least 2 weeks. This orientation is likely to be quite different from any other in which they may have participated previously and they could possibly dread the increased time commitment. I decided to design it as more of a course than a one day stream of presentations so that the analysts actually have time to participate in meaningful, relevant learning activities, develop skills, practice following procedures and connect with their colleagues. Ill be sure to explain this thoroughly in the beginning, to both our analysts and our staff who will assist in facilitating these modules.

That's all I have for week 3...onto Week 4.