[David Read]

Please add any comments about the first unit, particularly in the following areas:

1. Navigation and design: how easy was it to navigate the course and content?
2. Content: how useful is the content to your teaching/working situation?
3. Timing: was it possible to work through all the content in the estimated 4-5 hours?
4. Difficulty: was the material suitably scaffolded or did you feel it was too challenging?

[PANAGIOTA TZANNI]

Excellent activities David! Really enjoyed designing a different kind of slides!

[Bernadette Kelly]

I really enjoyed this first unit and the task was very engaging.  I noticed when I looked at the other presentations in my group that my slides  are much less comprehensive than theirs – no guidance on form, just use – and it was aimed at a much lower level.  Is this an issue?

 

I’m aware that I’ve gone against the redundancy principle by adding a word for word reading of the 2 passive sentences, but that audio is more for modelling pronunciation and intonation than for imparting ‘content’ at this level. Also for me to try out the tech

[Allison Dresner]

Great first session enough theoretical principles and basis to get us thinking as a designer.

[sue robbins]

I’ve been paying attention to the navigation and design (taking notes!) – and like the clarity of it.

The content is useful – I was familiar with the Garner & Alley article but it’s good to have some time to think more about how to apply the principles. Any additional readings about principles of course design happily received (so far I am basing everything I do on Salmon’s 5 Stage Model for lack of knowledge of alternatives). Happy for a greater level of challenge.

I’ve only just gone back and introduced myself in the initial forum – so apologies for missing that. How do I make sure I don’t appear as ‘anonymous’ in the forum (and when commenting on other’s Google slides)?

 

[David Lincoln]

I enjoyed reading the theoretical principle which were very engaging and found the site easy to follow.   Navigating through the site was straightforward.  It felt satisfying clicking the complete button and also seeing the completion bar as I finished a section.

[Paula Villegas Verdu]

I also loved the first unit and can’t wait for unit 2 to be available!

Navigation: really user friendly :)
Content: really useful
Timing: yes!
Difficulty: it was well scaffolded. I particularly appreciate the extra resources, thank you!

Just a tiny thing (and this may be a browser issue, I am using firefox and maybe I shouldn’t?) but I couldn’t see the ‘improved’ slides from the ‘apply’ section. It is ok as I could compare my answers with the suggested answers but I thought I’ll mention it anyway

[Georgina Lloyd]

I enjoyed the unit and thought it was well-designed and very easy to use

When I was designing my slides I was suddenly struck by the thought that ‘I’m not going to present this!’. I think in the past I have always designed slides with my voice in my head of what I will be saying to the audience as I show them the slides. With asynchronous slides, they just have the slides and this is quite hard for me to get my head around! So very useful exercise thank you!

[Thomas Leach]

This is has been a great introductory week and I feel like I’ve already learned a lot. I’m really impressed with the whole set up of the course. I’m looking forward continuing and excited to see what I’ll learn next.

[David Read]

Thanks @ptzanni @berniek @spottypoppy @suerobbins @david-l @paula_villegas @georgie_l @thomasleach for your kind comments..your cheques are in the post (what a wonderfully outdated idiom that is now)

@paula_villegas, strange one that, not sure why that happened. Were you able to see the initial slides? I can’t think of any reason why the improved versions didn’t show. What happened when you clicked the improved version switch? Did it show anything, such as a blank space or error message? Did anyone else have any problems seeing the improved version when the switch was flicked across? Maybe try another browser (Chrome?) to see if that changes anything.

@berniek, I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage whether you have the same level of detail on your slides, this might only be a snapshot of a longer set of slides anyhow and maybe form would be introduced later. As long as you’re trying to hit those key principles in the content you have created, that’s the most important thing.

@suerobbins Salmon’s 5 Stage Model is an excellent starting point for course design, you may have noticed our course tries to follow those steps (Unit 0 – dealing with access/technology, Unit 1 – socialisation etc).  We’ll also try to add in some more readings/resources at the end of the unit about course design. We’re a little wary about overloading you all with information, one of the key takeaways from the pilot version of the course we ran was that we needed to introduce things a little slower/more gently, but if we add them as extra resources, hopefully you won’t feel under any obligation to read them if you don’t have the time.

Oh, and as for not being anonymous when commenting on Google Slides, make sure you are logged into a google account (gmail) at the same time, as it will then pull in your account name in the comments. Same goes for the Padlet introductions, if you have a Padlet account, log in with that before making any comments and your name will appear next to your comment.

[Paula Villegas Verdu]

Thanks @david, yeah the original slides look fine it was the ‘improved one’ that just appeared blank ( no square, no nada) it seems to be fine with Chrome so maybe it was just firefox being odd?

[Julie Ibdali]

I really enjoyed the first unit, the article about the 6 principles was a good introduction to the course.  The timing and navigation for this unit was very good.  I did find the final task a little challenging probably because I’m not very confident with techy stuff, but I’m hoping that this will improve.  My slides are very simple, I hope this is OK.

[Caitlin Coyle]

1. Navigation and design: how easy was it to navigate the course and content?

Yes, straightforward I think

2. Content: how useful is the content to your teaching/working situation?

Very useful to focus on asynchronous content creation.

3. Timing: was it possible to work through all the content in the estimated 4-5 hours?

Think so, I did it over a couple of days though.

4. Difficulty: was the material suitably scaffolded or did you feel it was too challenging?

Yes, I think so. The last activity might have been a bit ‘in at the deep end’, but I think learning by doing, trial and error is necessary. Speaking of trial and error I have just uploaded my slides but as I am quite new to Google Slides I hope the audio files are accessible to all and not just me. Maybe I’ll find out soon enough.

[Rachel Beresford]

Really enjoying the course so far. It is easy to navigate, and the content is useful and interesting. Think the timing is about right, although it has taken me a bit longer as it has been a busy week, so had to snatch bits of time here and there rather than being able to concentrate on it for longer periods of time. The activities were really well-scaffolded. Agree with Caitlin’s comments about the final activity!

[Evelyn Conneely]

I’ve really enjoyed unit 1. The course and content was very easy to access and it’s really useful to be applying the input to creating (async) slides right away. Timing was ok working through the tasks over the course of the week and the challenge was about right. Looking forward to unit 2!

[Jemima Perry]

See text added to below

[Jemima Perry]

I found the article a really useful starting point for thinking about the principles of effective instructional design. I think I needed a bit more guidance about what to include in the slides we made ourselves – I thought we were just supposed to give the information that was on the original slide but looking at other participants slides and tutor comments I realise I needed to include more.

Also, more of a question really, but in terms of images I’m a bit confused about what would constitute an instructional rather than decorative image. I can see how diagrams of processes being described are instructional but I often include images which I’m not sure about e.g. the city in the text we’re reading about, or two people having a discussion who could be the people in the listening text we’re going to listen to (as they might in textbooks) These kinds of images don’t really instruct but might they help to contextualise?

[Aline André]

I enjoyed this unit 1. It was really nice to read about the topic and try to apply it.

Navigation and design: user friendly

Content:  very useful

Timing: Yes

Difficulty: well scaffolded. It’s just I am outside my comfort zone,  I don’t enjoy preparing presentations.

[Juliet Parfitt]

That’s an interesting point @jemima about the use of images. I agree that some images help us to set the context, so are more useful than being purely decorative, and avatars are not specifically instructional, but do add a level of personalisation that could then promote learning. An image is useful when it helps us to understand the material. However, as you mentioned, something like a diagram of a process would be higher up that scale.

[Natallia Novikava]

I’m still catching up but I’ve been really enjoying the course so far.

Navigation and design: straightforward and very easy to navigate. I was able to see the improved version of the slides,  no issues for me there (using Chrome)
Content: very useful, I enjoyed starting with some theoretical background and then moving towards more practical aspects
Timing: I still have to go back to the practical task, post mine and comment on the others’ contributions but it sounds like a realistic time estimate.
Difficulty: I’m not familiar with Google slides but it was fairly easy to work out things (I still have to create my own presentation though)

 

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