MY PROGRAM
Foundations of Learning Experience Design
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Foundations of Learning Design is an introductory course on the basics of learning design in which the learner will develop current core design concepts and practices in course design. It is a pre-requisite of the Advanced Learning Design course. This course provides an orientation to learning design for face-to-face (FTF), blended and online environments as both art and science. Design has the capacity to support or detract from learning and therefore the design process itself needs to be intentional and evidence-driven. This course involves participants in an exploration, evaluation, and critique of contemporary practices of learning design, and provides participants with opportunities to experiment with putting learning principles and high impact practices into action within a range of learning scenarios. Participants produce a course blueprint and build out a simple course shell in an in-demand Learning Management System.
COURSE SYLLABUS
ASSIGNMENTS
COURSE REFLECTION
Creating the final project in Canvas was a really valuable exercise for me as it helped me to plan and organize a course on a topic that I am passionate about, and because I was also able to immediately apply what I learned at work. I was recently put in charge of creating the courses that I manage in Canvas and then handing them off to faculty and I had almost no experience with this! Using Canvas at work and in class helped me to quickly build LMS design skills. I've now had experience with two different learning platforms and I feel more confident with using new LMSs. This will continue to be useful as I build courses around beer education and as I continue working at the Roux Institute. I will also make sure to add details on my project to my portfolio and to update Linkedin, as I think what I've learned will be useful for future job opportunities related to learning design.
I ended up creating a course that incorporates asynchronous and in person components, which is not something that I do frequently. This format was sometimes challenging and it helped me to think about how Canvas can be used to support all modes of learning. I tried to make the flow from asynchronous to in person back to asynchronous smooth. One way I did this was to keep a similar format for each session, no matter the mode. I also paid particular attention to scaffolding and to making sure that each session builds off of the previous one and that next steps for learners are clear. I tried to make the course very easy to navigate, as learners might not have any online learning experience and because beer education should be fun, there shouldn't be any frustrations due to extraneous cognitive load. All of this experience will be helpful for my side projects as well as for my full time job.
I enjoyed learning how my classmates are using what we've learned in class. Many of them have different positions than I do, so it was valuable to see new skills might be applied in different contexts and with different audiences. It was also interesting to see the many different job positions related to learning design. There are a lot of opportunities in this field and I find the many possibilities to be inspiring!