Development of Distributed Learning

Development of Distributed Learning

This model is used in the development of courses where the delivery is distributed outside of the traditional face to face classroom. For an explanation of the model, please go to

Mission

It is often asked but not always answered, how a particular course fits with the Mission statement of the university. In this section we are considering the overall course or any unique aspects of the course fit with the mission of AzusaPacificUniversity.

"AzusaPacificUniversity is an evangelical Christian community of disciples and scholars who seek to advance the work of God in the world through academic excellence in liberal arts and professional programs of higher education that encourage students to develop a Christian perspective of truth and life."

Faith and Learning

It is suggested that the course be looked at by using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The quadrilateral refers to the model of using four perspectives, Scripture, traditions, reason, and experience, to look at a life issue to determine what would be the Christian interpretation of scripture. Scripture was always held as the primary authority, but this needed to be balanced by looking at the traditional of church doctrine and theological perspectives, secondly by whether it fit with human reason. Finally, had there been anything in the individuals experience with God that would enlighten the current situation.

Scripture ..

Tradition …

Reason …

Experience …

Quality Indicators

Community

Interactivity

Learning Outcomes

Student Support

Assessment

eLearningPrinciples Worksheet

APU Mission F & L
Mission
Cornerstones
Quadrilateral
Scripture
Experience
Reason
Tradition
/ Quality Indicators
Community
Interactive
Learning Outcomes
Student Support
Assessment
/ Learning Theory
Attention:
Automaticity
Chunking
Language
Affect
Executive function

eLearningCourse SetupWorksheet

Course Objectives
Students will:
/ Learning Activities
/ eLearning Tools

eLearningAssessment Worksheet

Course Objectives
/ Assessment
/ Experiences
/ eLearning Tools

Points of Contact

It is important to build community into your courses. This means that there should be frequent communication between the faculty and the students and among the students. However, there are so many options within the online system you can also get overwhelmed by how many places you need to check for student questions, comments and assignments. Consider how many points of contact you have built into your course. Only build in as many points of contact as you are able to keep up with. The following are descriptions of each possible point of contact and how you may want to use it in your course. This is a list of all of the possible options, this is not to say that all of these are required for each course.

Threaded Discussions

Threaded Discussions are a good way to connect with students in the learning process. These discussions allow the instructor to post a question or prompt related to the unit topic or reading. The students then have the opportunity to respond to the prompt and other student’s comments. This “thread” continues to build as the instructor and students return to continue the discussion over the week. A Threaded discussion is called and “asynchronous” discussion, meaning the instructor and students do not need to be online at the same time to participate in this discussion. Whenever someone responds his/her response will be posted and the when you next login you will see the postings of the various student responses. These discussions should be a part of each session, unit or week as they are the best way to have class “discussions” on specific topics. You can also have multiple threaded discussions for different purposes. The following are suggested guide lines:

• If you create a discussion you must be part of it.

• Do not create more discussions in each unit than you can keep up with.

• A discussion under the course home page area is a good place to build a Frequently Asked Questions list for the course.

• The discussion must take place over a specified period of time. Specify when the discussion will open and keep it locked until that time (suggested one discussion per week open only for that week).

• Specify when the discussion will close but leave it open for review after that time. Do not accept postings or give credit for any postings after the cut off time for the week’s discussion.

• Threaded discussions must be part of the grading system for the class. Generally give points for posting to the topic and also for responding to other peoples’ posts. Without requiring multiple postings by each student for each discussion may cause your discussions to be limited by the end of the term.

Email

Email is an important way of staying in contact with your students and making the learning experience more personal. Be sure to establish an expectation of how quickly you are going to be able to respond; 24 or 48 hours and differences for week days and weekends.

You and your students can access email through the Email tab at the top of the course site. Simply click on "All Students" or the individual student's names and add them to the recipient list.

When students are automatically added to the course site based on their enrollment the email address listed in the registrar's office is the one all email will be sent from and to if sent from the course site.

It is recommended that you post an announcement in your course for the first two weeks and remind students to please login to the Online.apu.edu site and before clicking on their course link click on the tab "User Profile" to make sure that the email address listed is their current email. If it is not, students can change their email on that page.

Chat

The Chat area is always available. Students are free to use the chat function at any point by clicking on the "Chat" tab at the top of their course site. The chat room is similar to Instant Messaging in that students must be online at the same time in the chat room in order to be able to "chat." The chat has a whiteboard function where you can draw images or equations if helpful in your course, or you and your students can simply use the text function. The chat room will create a log so if you have assigned groups to use the chatroom you are able to go in later to review the log and see how their discussion progressed.

Journals

The journal area can be seen by the students and the faculty but cannot be seen by the other students. This can be a place for students to track reflective assignments during the course.

The student can click on the "Dropbox" tab and then the "Journal" button to add a new journal entry. They can then choose to share this entry with the professor or to keep it private for themselves--such as if they were using the area to take notes for the class.

Dropbox

The dropbox area of the course allows for a specific location where students can turn in their assignments. Assignments can be accessed by the instructor by clicking on the “Dropbox” tab along to the top of the page. Papers are listed under assignment baskets or by students names.

To create a dropbox for an assignment, click on the author tab and select the content item you wish to add a dropbox basket for. On the right side of the screen you’ll see a link to “Create Dropbox Basket.” When a student now views that content item he/she will see a link to be able to add an assignment to the dropbox. As the instructor you will not see this link on the page.

No notification will be sent when a student submits a paper to the dropbox. The instructor will need to log into the class and click on the dropbox for that assignment to view what has been turned in. All submissions will show the date and time that the student submitted the assignment. You can access and save the paper from the dropbox and after marking your comments on the paper you can submit the paper back to the student via the dropbox and place the final grade in the grade window for that paper. This grade will then dump into the gradebook. A student is only able to see his/her dropbox and not any other students’.

eLearningPoints of Contact Worksheet

Points of Contact
/ Experiences
/ eLearning Tools