Online Design Plan Rough Draft – Week 6

Assignment 3 – EDDL 5141: Rough Draft Online Design Plan for Creating and Presenting English Speeches

Note: This is a rough draft of my online design plan. There are some areas that definitely need to be fleshed out more. If you have any suggestions, tips, or notice anything missing, feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Right now, I feel like I am going around in circles and going nowhere, so I am posting it, stepping away to get some fresh feedback and eyes on it. Thanks in advance.

Specific Education Context

This online module is focused on helping students develop their opinions in English and then presenting them in a video. The first week will focus on them developing their opinion on a set topic, discussing it, and then writing that opinion as a speech. In the second week, students record and post their own speech video, give one another feedback, and then revise their video a second time for a final mark. At the end of week two, they will write about their experience in their reflective journal. I will be primarily using the constructivism learning theory to guide and allow them to develop their own feelings and opinion on the topic (Ally, 2008).

Situational Factors

This two-week module has been designed for 24 Japanese students in grade 9, who are currently taking part in this English class to enhance their speaking ability with their current vocabulary. This course would be asynchronous, and there would be online office hours for students to join and ask the teacher questions once a week on Wednesday.

Students would be required to have a computer and webcam or a smartphone to record and publish their speech on YouTube and link it to Moodle’s discussion board for feedback from other students and the teacher.

There would be the expectation that every student in this course would improve their writing, speaking, and presenting skills from the school and its English department.

Students will discuss their opinions on the topic and then create and present a speech about it. The students’ speech creation and delivery would implement both convergent and divergent thinking because they will use creative thinking to come up with an idea and then focusing on that particular idea to create a speech (John Spencer, 2019). This course is focused on getting students comfortable speaking with their current vocabulary.

Many students are looking to increase their English ability, so they can go abroad for school and work. These students have been learning English since they were in grade 1 and have had an assistant language teacher every grade to help them. Many of these students are interested in English movies and pop culture, so they have a good attitude towards learning English and are determined to reach their goals. They expect to learn how to speak English with an American accent and improve their speaking ability. They have the preferred cognitive learning style because they have been primarily memorizing English words and phrases in previous modules.

The teacher is a native English speaker who has been teaching these students throughout the year and knows their ability and vocabulary. They have a passion for the English language and want the students to become more comfortable speaking and having a conversation in English. The teacher should either have a Bachelor of Education or English and/or a TESL program certificate so that they are familiar with teaching English. Their strengths should include the ability to speak slowly and clearly, give productive and positive feedback, and be an encouraging force for the students to take risks and challenge themselves when speaking English.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the two-week module, students will be able to:

• Identify their opinion on living abroad to learn English through the group discussions.
• Analyze their teacher’s example videos and understand why they are either good or bad.
• Write and present a speech based on their opinion in a video.
• Evaluate and revise their own video based on the teacher’s and other students’ feedback.
• Reflect on their experience and progress in their weekly reflective journals.

Online Assessment Strategy

Formative and Summative Assessment

This course will use both formative and summative assessment plans. Through using formative assessment, students will get feedback on their speech’s progress from both the other students and the teacher on the discussion boards (Fink, 2003). Formative assessment was chosen was because the course’s learning outcomes rely heavily on the students presenting, giving/receiving feedback in small groups, reflecting on that feedback, and analyzing their own video to improve it (Fink, 2003). If an experiment/draft assignment was worth a substantial percentage of the grade, it would discourage the students from taking creative risks. At the end of week two, there would be a summative assessment to give the students a grade for their speech which has been thoroughly improved thanks to the feedback from their peers and teacher.

Forward-Looking Assessment

The teacher would prepare the students for abroad program interviews where they will need to give their opinion on the following question: “Do you want to live abroad to learn English? Why or why not?”

This question is simple, but it is used a lot when students are applying for abroad programs that are in high demand. Once they start articulating why they want to go or why they do not want to go, they will have an easier time in the future during the interview process.

Criteria & Standards

Good Speech

• Keeps natural eye contact with the camera (their audience).
• Provide several clear and understandable reasons for their opinion.
• Speak with confidence.

Bad Speech

• Avoids eye contact with the camera.
• Too quiet or too loud.
• Gives one point for their opinion and is not very clear.

They do not have to be exceptionally good. They just need to try their best and be understandable.

Self-Assessment

The students are encouraged to take risks with their first video. After posting it, they will have the teacher and students comment on their video for further reflection. Based on this feedback, they will revise and improve their video for a final grade. Once they have done this, they will write in their weekly reflective journal and reflect on the experience.

“FIDeLity” Feedback

• Frequent: The teacher will comment on the student’s video when they are posted.
• Immediate: They will respond as soon as possible to the video to give them feedback so the student can reflect and change it.
• Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria and standards: They provided a good example of what they are looking for and a bad example of what actions and speech problems to avoid.
• Lovingly delivered: They will encourage with their feedback by giving the students tips and tricks to use in the future to make pronunciation or methods easier.

Learning and Activities

This online course will utilize active learning through the student doing, observing, and reflecting.

Getting information

Instructional Videos (YouTube)

• Develop their opinion and learn why it is important.
• Learn where to get information about other countries on the Internet.
• Understand that this is their opinion, they do not have to agree.
• Analyze the teacher’s good example and bad example, so they know what to do and what not to do.

Doing and Observations

Discussion board

• Share their opinions on Moodle’s discussion board either through video or written comments, whichever they feel more comfortable with, to get feedback from the peers and teacher.
• Comment and provide feedback on both the other students’ opinion posts and their speech videos.

YouTube/Video

• Use their current language ability to write and present a speech.

Reflective Dialogue

Weekly Reflective Journals

• Reflect and write about their experience and what they learned from other student’s speeches in their weekly reflective journal.

These learning activities were chosen is because they align with the focus of the learning outcomes and provide students with an active learning environment where they can use both constructivism and connectivism learning behaviours to enhance their ability.

Constructivism promotes learning that is constructed by the students, which include the social aspect of expressing and discussing their opinion with others (Ally, 2008; McLeod, 2003) They are basing their learning and knowledge on their experience and opinion of the topic to create a speech (Ally, 2008).

Connectivism also plays a role crucial role in the discussion as it connects students and allows them to give feedback to one another and share their thoughts (Ally, 2008).

The learning activities create an authentic learning environment for these students by giving them the experience to experiment with their current English ability to express their opinion, get feedback, and improve. It also has them reflect on their experience.

Integration

The online design plan is simple, consistent, and organized for the student to be able to understand what is expected of them. This is achieved by giving the students a clear connection between the learning outcomes, assessment, and activities, which creates a constructive alignment (De Bie & Brown, 2017). The teacher provides instructional and example videos, showing the student what to do and how to produce a good speech video. Through utilizing both formative and summative assessment, it gives the students a clear picture of how to proceed and improve from the teacher’s and the other students’ feedback. The teaching and learning activities involve getting information, doing and observations, and reflective dialogue which aligns with both the learning outcomes and assessments, providing the students with an experience that will nurture and guide them through this module.

Educational Technologies

Smartphones, tablets, computers, webcam, Moodle, discussion boards, and YouTube.

References

Dee Fink, L. (2003). A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning. Retrieved from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Ally, M. (2008). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In Anderson, T. (Ed.). The theory and practice of online learning (pp.15-44). Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University Press. Retrieved from “http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/01_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf”

De Bie, A. & Brown, K. (2017). Forward with FLEXibility. McMaster University.

Educational Origami. (n.d.). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved from https://teachonline.asu.edu/2016/05/integrating-technology-blooms-taxonomy/

John Spencer. (18 Feb, 2019). Convergent Thinking Versus Divergent Thinking [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmBf1fBRXms&ab_channel=JohnSpencer

McLeod, G. (2003) Learning theory and instructional design. Learning Matters: The journal of the Durham Technical Community College 2(1), 35-43. Retrieved from https://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/yearbooks/id/8404/rec/1