Learning in a digital age/LiDA Course specification - Microcourse 1

Note: Course specification is based on Kanban board for micro-course 1.

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.

1. Working micro-course title: Digital skills for online learning
   
2. Notional learning hours: 40 notional learning hours
3. Format: To be offered as cohort based open online learning course comprising approximately 25 hours and 15 hours for preparing the assessment. Course will be designed to support the open boundary delivery model where OERu learners can participate in parallel with full-fee registered students on campus.

Course aim

On successful completion of this course learners will be able to:

• Apply digital tools effectively to demonstrate learning literacies including advanced search strategies to identify and select relevant open access resources to research, produce, analyse and present information for tertiary education purposes.

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate digital skills for establishing and maintaining a personal learning environment on the open web.
• Develop an understanding of the breadth of digital and learning literacies for the 21st century.
• Apply effective search strategies for both search engines and repositories to find relevant open access resources.
• Develop skills for judging the legitimacy of open resources and applying frameworks for selecting appropriate resources to support learning.
• Develop and apply learning and academic literacies including note-taking, annotated bibliographies, paraphrasing and reflective learning skills.
• Demonstrate online skills for planning and writing an essay including how to prepare a bibliography and cite sources online for academic purposes and corresponding tools for maintaining a bibliography.

Micro course topics

(: Needs refinement to align with objectives)

• What are digital and learning literacies for the 21st century?
• Peer-to-peer learning and community service learning.
• Finding open access and OER (Using databases, repositories and search strategies)
• Selecting OER (Applicability, and CARS checklist - credibility, accuracy, reasonableness and support)
• Collecting, storing and sharing outputs of learning.
• Evaluating the relevance of resources

Brainstorm

• Photo a day reflection

Learning pathways

An overview of digital technologies and how they can be used to support learning

The purpose of this pathway is to provide learners with an overview of the key digital technologies that have had a significant impact on learning in the last thirty years and to enable them to reflect on their own use of digital technologies for their learning.

Learning outcomes

• Have a good understanding of the key digital technologies which have emerged in the last thirty years or so and how they can be used to support learning
• Reflect on you own use of digital technologies

Learning challenge

• Read the blog post - Reviewing the trajectories of digital technologies (http://e4innovation.com/?p=791)
• Pick three technologies and write a blog post summarising how they can be used to support learning, also reflect on the extent to which you use these digital technologies to support your learning
• Read at least two other blog posts by the your peers and leave comments
• Draw your own Personal Digital Network, showing what technologies you use on a regular basis and why, consider how your Personal Digital Network has changed in the last ten years. Write a blog post summarising this.

Introduction to digital literacies

The purpose is for you to discover that digital literacies are more than using a computer, mobile phone or Facebook

Learning outcomes

• Digital literacy and why it matters
• Describe the JISC's seven elements of digital literacies
• Conduct a self-assessment of digital literacies and establish a personal goal for improving digital literacies
• Establish and maintain a public course blog

Suggested resources

• the difference between digital skills and digital literacies

• Seven elements of digital literacies
• LLiDA framework of frameworks
• Creating a blog
• Write a blog post about your digital literacies and comment on two other blog posts

Learning challenges

1. Designated forum discussion on forums.oeru.org designed to assist learners in earning their first badges and corresponding trust levels on the Discourse platform. Topic TBD.
   • Suggested forum.oeru.org badges for this pathway: Autobiographer, First like, First mention, First quote, Read Guidelines and First share.

Proposed learning challenge

• Conduct self assessment of digital literacies and prepare a "declare yourself" blog post where learners introduce themselves and share what they would like to achieve on the course drawing on their self assessment. Learners are invited to complete PLN framework graphic (see for example here) Learners are encouraged to register their course blogs for the course feed.

Academic skills for learning success

The purpose is to enable you to develop a range of skills that are required for learning success through a series of challenges.

Learning outcomes

• Summarise the characteristics of an expository essay
• Choose a suitable academic topic of interest for preparing an expository essay.
• Review note-taking skills
• Prepare an annotated bibliography.
• Demonstrate APA citation and referencing skills.
• Digital tools for note taking and managing references.

Learning challenge

• Discussion forum to share selected topic for expository essay and justify why its an appropriate topic for academic study.
• Blog post demonstrating APA citation and referencing skills for an essay paragraph.

Suggested Resources

• Outline framework of an Expository Essay
• Example topics for an expository essay

Open resources for learning

The purpose is to enable you to find and select credible open resources to support your learning and in particular develop evaluation strategies to assess whether resources are authentic, credible and relevant for your learning.

Learning outcomes

1. Apply effective search strategies for both repositories and search engines
2. Demonstrate how to determine the license of a resource
3. Implement advanced search strategies
4. Apply CARS framework (credibility, accuracy, reasonableness and support) for selecting appropriate open resources.

Suggested resources

• Advanced search operators
• Advanced Google search tips
• Google advanced search
• Google scholar
• Evaluating Internet Resources, Georgetown University
• CARS Checklist
• Other?

Proposed learning challenge

• Choose a topic of learning and then source, evaluate and share open resources of relevance to that topic.
• Write a blog post summarising the process you went through and the strategies you used

LP5: Collecting, storing and sharing outputs of learning

The purpose is to enable you to develop reflective learning skills and to create and share outputs of learning on the open web

Note: The academic skills associated with citation, annotated bibliographies etc should be covered in Micro 3 on Digital scholarship. This pathway will focus on the skills associated with preparing a learning reflection.

Learning outcomes

• How to keep a reflective learning journal
• How to become a reflective learner
• How to become a networked learner sharing selected outputs of learning and connecting with peers.
• Guidelines for providing constructive feedback online

Suggested resources

• Example learning reflection activity
• Becoming a reflective learner Resource developed by TRU

Proposed learning challenge

• Publish a blog post demonstrating reflective learning and supporting fellow learners online by sharing feedback

Proposed Assignment for the micro-course

1. Criterion referenced: Achieving a minimum number of specified Discourse badges on forums.oeru.org and recommended trust level (TBD based on agreement of what would constitute "evidence" of implementing digital literacy skills in P2P learning environment.)
2. Criterion referenced: Learner choice submission of 30% of their best learning challenge outputs during the course.
3. Expository essay' demonstrating evidence of academic digital skills and evidence of finding, selecting and sharing open access and OER resources for learner selected topic.