User:Jrradney/DS4OER Project/Design Blueprint

Design Blueprint

Metadata

• Level: 4th year Bachelor Degree Level
• Discipline(s): Communications, Media Studies, Ethnography
• Notional learning hours 120 hours
• Credits none presently
• Credential(s): none presently
• Hashtag: DS4OER

Intended target audience

This course is designed for existing or future communications majors. The intended target audience for this course includes:

• Students in their final year of undergraduate studies,
• Graduate students in humanities,
• Lecturers working in community colleges, polytechnics, and universities,
• Communicators working education or corporate sectors,
• Educators interested in the use of social media in the classroom.

Prerequisite knowledge

• This course has been designed for advanced undergraduates in communications and media studies and graduate students in the humanities. Students without a minimum of 90 undergraduate credits (i.e. lacking fourth-year undergraduate standing in university studies) should not attempt the course. Students need to be prepared to discuss advanced communication and media topics with their peers and course instructors in order to complete the course.
• An internet connection and basic web browsing skills are required, along with the ability to create a blog and microblog account (instructions and self-study tutorials provided). Students also need to be familiar with the use of common social media tools (some examples would be such things as Facebook and Twitter) before attempting the course.

Course aims

1. To understand operations and influences of social media upon individuals and groups.
2. To acquire and practice skills in planning and negotiating the influence and operation of social media upon oneself.

Outcomes

1. Identify and use major social media tools;
2. Recognize and use various tools for social, recreational, educational, and business purposes;
3. Recognize and negotiate identities within mediated and non-mediated environments;
4. Document emergent practices in the mediated world; and
5. Propose new uses for existing tools in the areas of recreation, education, and business/professional practice.

Development and delivery approach

This is an advanced seminar requiring participants to read and review considerable materials outside of group sessions, to contribute to online discussion threads, and to attend synchronous online sessions as they complete the course tasks.

Where possible, the course will be assembled from existing OERs and implement a "pedagogy of discovery" where learners are encouraged to find their own resources to support their learning.

The course promotes a learn-by-doing approach. It will comprise a series of learning pathways designed to achieve the stated learning outcomes incorporating learning challenges for each pathway where learners practice and refine their skills. Integrated activities for peer-learning interaction (microblogs, blog posts and discussion forum posts) are embedded in the course design.

The course presumes moderate computer literacy using standard open-source applications, Internet navigation, and the ability to register accounts for open web services. Digital and social media literacy skills relevant to an exploration of online communities will be embedded in the course with corresponding self-study support tutorials to promote capability development in these areas.

Assessment strategy

There is one assignment for this course comprising two elements:

• Publishing a survey and analysis of an online community (Weight: 50%. Learners will be assessed on the accuracy and depth of their observations, as well as the insight of their analysis and understanding.)
• Learning reflection including evidence of cooperation (Weight 50%. Learners will be required to maintain a regular schedule of open reflections concerning their learning in the course, as well as to link to evidence of their collaboration and interaction with others.)

The learning challenges in the course will be designed as building blocks for the final assessments. Using an open model, learners will be able to refine and improve their contributions based on peer feedback and remixing ideas published by fellow learners before final assignment submission.

Interaction strategies

Student-content interactions

• Where possible, each learning pathway will incorporate a short video signpost, which will be used to provide students with an orientation or stimulus for each of the major topics.
• Learners will work through a series of learning pathways designed for independent study, along with periodic community (synchronous) sessions to enhance peer learning.
• Each learning pathway will incorporate one or more learning challenges. Products and reflections associated with completion of these pathways will be shared with others periodically.
• These learning challenges function as building blocks for the final course assessments.

Student-student interactions

• Students will be able to interact via a number of technologies which will be aggregated:
  • Microblog activities and posts;
  • Discussion forum posts;
  • Personal blog posts and comments;
  • Second Life, Google Hangouts-On-Air, WizIQ, or other similar mediated tools for live group interaction.

Student-support interactions

• Students will be encouraged to use a the peer-support question and answer forum for addressing support questions.
• Self-study help tutorials will be provided for the main technologies used in the course.