1. Design of individual pages.  Does each web page communicate your message effectively?  Does it look good? Does it serve the function it was intended to serve?

    2. Design of a site(organizational design). Is the site organized in such a way that users can easily navigate and make use of its materials?

    3. Design of a site (instructional design). Do the materials of an instructional site effectively address instructional needs of its users? Do the materials employ good instructional procedures and planning?

As we begin to plan the online curriculum projects that will become the major focus of your attention, we are forced to think about design at each of these levels.  The new reading assignment (Chapter 28) and the reading in the Yale Web Style Guide focus more on levels 1 and 2 (page and organizational design).  These are for the most part assignments to familiarize you with good design principles for those levels.  I am not asking you to formally discuss those readings this week, or perform any written assignment relating to these new readings-- just note for your own reference the points you see emphasized and that strike you as most important.

I am, however, asking that you begin to focus on the third level (overall instructional design) of your final instructional project.  This process will involve a review of some of the earlier readings.  Chapter 16 of Web-Based Instruction (Incorporating Instructional Design Principles with the World Wide Web) outlined 7 elements often common to instructional materials:

    Motivating the Learner
    Identifying What Is to Be Learned
    Reminding Learners of Past Knowledge
    Requiring Active Involvement
    Providing Guidance and Feedback
    Testing
    Providing Enrichment and Remediation

Your main assignment for this week will be to create a document that discusses (in a preliminary way) how you might address each of these 7 elements in regards to your final online curriculum project.  Your comments on each of these sections would probably be too long if they exceeded 1-2 paragraphs.  Please preface these 7 sections with a short description of the subject area or topic you are currently thinking of focusing upon.  Some of you may still be up in the air about a topic-- please make a preliminary choice now ( you will still be allowed to change at a later date if you desire). Note: Some of these sections may be more relevant to your project idea than others...adapt the extent of your responses to your own needs.

For example, in the "Motivating the Learner" section the phrases that catch my attention are on p. 136: "learners encounter a problem, contradictory information, or mystery to be resolved" and "establishing the relevance or value of what users are to learn".  In my response for this section, I might address what kind of challenge I might bring before a student to catch them up in the subject. Or I might attempt to lay out an argument as to how the subject matter is important to the student's real life.  Either of these would relate to strategies for motivating students.

I would suggest that you compose this document in a word processor and then copy and paste it into an email to me ( pdl@pluggers.esu8.k12.ne.us) when you are finished.

Chapter 23 of Web-Based Instruction contains an assortment of ideas that might be helpful in giving your thought processes a kick-start (particularly "Varieties of WBL Activities" and "Evaluating Students' Achievements", p. 197-201).  Like Chapter 16, this is a chapter that we have previously had as a reading assignment.
 

No discussion forum will be set up for this week.  In order to demonstrate an alternative format for electronic collaboration we will try relying exclusively on this listserve.  If any of you are not receiving the messages from the list, please let me know so that I can look into the problem.