LTGR Ep. #70 - “Iterative Design”
In this show, Susan and Dan talk about "Iterative Design", and help Dan’s brother think through how to approach course design. They are joined by special guest Jane Bozarth.
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Show Notes:
What is Iterative Design? We’re helping Dan’s brother, Dave, think through how to approach course design.
Susan starts with a textbook search and the big question of what the learner should know or be able to do 5 years down the road. Susan tends to be a minimalist.
Textbooks do shape the course. Try to see your course in the context of the program or where they go next. That will help you determine what you need to teach.
Dan has been thinking about chunking content and has a sense online instructors have a better sense of this.
Albert Camus: “Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.” Online instructors can relate! Susan likes to use movies to explain processes.
Susan thinks content experts put too much in, and thinks there should be repositories for additional resources. She uses delicio.us for this.
Susan was recently in a workshop given by Jane Bozarth, author of E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring and Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging E-Learning with PowerPoint. “Design is done when there’s nothing left to take out.” Jane explains this (by way of Skype). She also looks for the 2 or 3 things the person must be able to do after training.
All in all, Dave has some ideas of where to start. Listeners, what other advice would you share? Continue the discussion by posting at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada).
December 29th, 2009 at 11:49 am
I appreciatd your comment about just getting the first iteration out there, and then improving in the subsequent editions. That reduced some of my guilt over the initial version of a course I taught a few years ago, and a sense of “disloyalty?” to those first students if I substantially changed/improved the course the next time.
It was also confirmation that is was OK to use a text that I fell in love with as I was initially planning the course.
Especially with an initial course I sometimes feel as though I am plowing ground, breaking up surfaces that are hardened and resistant to new ideas. In this kind of course the “content” is less important than the questioning and exposure to alternatives. My goal is not so much to create content experts as help learners see how larger the field is than the row they already know. Maybe that is where the term “survey course” came from.