New Month/New Course - Major Project!

 I finished up the previous course and now I'm on to my next BIG ADVENTURE - Computer Mediated Learning!  R-547 is WAY out of my comfort zone - I'm learning to CODE!  And at the end of the course, I'll have a basic website that I can use to teach and evaluate learners a new topic.  It's right up my alley, and terrifying all at once.  

 

 

This is week 2, and we're getting deeper into the HTML.   

So far in this course I've learned... 

    *HTML is hard for me to grasp - I don't think that way, but I'm enjoying the "stretch" so far.  

 

    *Computers are amazing inventions - the things that they can do automatically is overwhelming.  

 

    *The early code -ers (is that a word?) are remarkable.  How did someone even think to begin programming a computer?  And look at how much we use and take advantage of daily.  

 

    *IU Tech Support is my favorite, and I need to send them a fruit basket.  In fact, I'm looking forward to another jam session with them tonight to trouble shoot my next HTML crisis that I know is coming!  

 

Aside from learning to code, I'm working on my Major Project and starting to get deeper into what I want it to do.  I know I want it to feel easy and enjoyable - I want learners to gain confidence as they move through the module, so I'll start with some questions that are a slam dunk and then move on to more involved content.   

I want my learners to create tools that they can use as they develop their customer service strategies and have a base line to fall back on when business seems slow.  Finding out how to allow them to submit these seems challenging, but when I look at what I can do already, I'm sure I can handle it (with a little help from my IT friends!)  

I'm spending some time thinking about the alignment of objectives, and I'm starting a new training session at work with new trainees - each training cycle previously, we've jumped in and just went for it, rather than clearly identifying these goals (beyond "know all of the things") and I think that I can convince the others that we really need to identify objectives that are measurable this cycle.  We know this is the best practice, but keeping in the framework will make sure we stay focused.   

Looking at different training modules to evaluate, I also think that using pop up q and a options or polls is important - I know that I’m guilty of letting a training video run and then just taking the quiz – the pop up options prevent that and will hopefully engage the learner better than some of the trainings I’ve been a part of in the past. Using consistent layouts is important as well as having a color scheme that is attractive without being distracting. I tend to like images near text in tutorials – more interesting to see and recall information, so I will work on incorporating those as well, though images seem to be an HTML challenge for me. All about the stretch, right?  

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