This lesson focuses on how to develop course activities to meet your stated objectives.
After completing this lesson, learners will be able to:
Now that you have identified your course and lesson objectives, it's time to create activities to meet these objectives.
How will you know whether or not students know facts, understand concepts, have acquired or improved skills, or have developed awareness? Your selection of assignments and tests will influence your students' motivation (Achacoso & Svinicki, 2004).
Quality teaching requires developing understanding of the complex relationships between technology, content, and pedagogy, and using this understanding to develop effective teaching strategies (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
Before you start creating course activities, it is important for you to take inventory of available resources for the instructor and the students. Creating activities that require resources that are out of reach for the instructor and/or students will result in frustration and confusion. Taking inventory of the required resources will also allow you to provide students with this important information at the beginning of the course.
What resources are available to you? Instructor resources include:
What resources are available to your students? Student resources include:
A course mapping matrix might help you organize course activities around stated objectives. Creating a course mapping matrix is not difficult. You can simply create a table with objectives listed in one column and the activities listed in the top row. Check the appropriate table cell where the activities address objectives. A small sample of course mapping matrix is listed below:
| Course Objectives Students will be able to: |
Personas Activity | XHTML Quiz | Discussion: Copyright Role Play |
Peer Review: Web Prototype |
Assignment: Web Developer Toolbar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Describe target users for Website |
X
|
|
|
|
|
| Critique Web sites for usability. |
|
|
|
X
|
|
| Write valid xhtml code. |
|
X
|
|
|
X
|
| Create Section 508 compliant Web pages. |
|
|
|
|
X
|
| Evaluate Web design for target audience. |
|
|
|
X
|
|
| Evaluate potential copyright and Fair Use issues. |
|
|
X
|
|
|
As you consider the types of activities to include in your course, you might want to browse a list of the variety of activities available (presented in alphabetical order):
You should use a variety of methods to assess students' work in order to accommodate different learning styles and provide a rich and interactive learning environment. Your selection of assessment methods should address the type of learning you want students to achieve in the course. Plagiarism and cheating can be decreased by using creative and project-based assignments. If you still have difficulty developing activities for your course after consulting the Bloom's Taxonomy table in the "Writing Lesson Objectives" lesson, reviewing the list of activities, and using the Course Mapping Matrix, consult with your instructional designer/technology for some ideas on how to address your learning objectives with interesting and stimulating activities.
Now that you have an idea of the types of activities you want to include in your course, the next lesson, "Best Practices for Assignments", will focus on best practices for implementing some of these tools.
Portions of this lesson were adapted from Liz Stover's Best Practices for Distance Learning.
Achacoso, M. V., & Svinicki, M.D. (2004). Alternative strategies for evaluating student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Koehler, M.J. & Mishra, P. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
Content ©2012. Some Rights Reserved.
Date last modified: January 3, 2012.
Liz Stover, Cape Fear Community College
