(Photo taken in Willows Beach )
Three quater of our course are pasted, our ILR are done in most parts as well. There are some thought about it I would like to share with you!
I really like works we have done so far. Our whole program is design with flexibility at the first time, because we use WordPress (blog form) as our learning media, and all course materials are delivered by social media (Youtube video, google doc etc). learners could still go along the course as we original planned. In additional, one of our target learners is single parents with full-time job, if there is a pandemic arises (ex:Covid-19) and many employees must work from home, they would even have more time to participate activities in order to achieve learning outcomes. Similarly, other two target leaners would not be affacted in this situdation.
Most part of planned learning activities from our blueprint is to ask learners to create post and make comment to their peers, the program we design is compatible with open pedagogical approach and our original intention is to create “community engagement” and a resource of value required the engagement and direction of our learners. In other words, our program is not only aiming to teach how to simply use APA citation, but also require service from learners to the whole community. However there always barriers for students success, one of issue is part of students might not willing to participate the discussing activities, so we adjust all exercises optional and make one group activity mandatory. For completing the course students also need to make contribution to the community (provide useful resources), making a response for peer’s resources, and writing a 200-600 words response to the instructor about what they have learned in the class. These above are all counted as contribution to the course, which create motivation for students to involve in, thereby reducing the potential barrier of low participation.
When I see the definition of “curb cut”, the first thought pops in my head is that is very like we build a solid ladder for the learners in this course. The ladder symbolize the practices and activities leanrner need to complete from zero (surface of the street) to the success (surface of the sidewalk). without solid foundation and gentle slope, learners might have fall risk at anytime.