Learning Objectives
By the end of Part 1 of this module, you should be able to:
- Describe what to expect in the course.
- Identify the course focus and learning objectives.
- Contemplate the reasons why you should participate in this course.
- Extend this course experience through use of social media.
- Review data that illustrates basic education gaps globally and in the U.S.
- Describe the instructional need we are targeting in our course projects.
- Explain our focus on the U.S. College and Career Readiness Standards.
- Identify the primary exams for high school equivalency in the U.S.
- Differentiate the processes that comprise the basic design cycle we will be using in this course.
- Examine information about research being conducted in this course.
Topics
Topics covered in Part 1 of this module include:
- Course focus and learning objectives
- What to expect in this course
- Reasons why you should participate in this course
- Extending the course conversation on Social Media
- Education as a human right, and gaps in fulfilling that aim
- The adult basic education instructional need we are targeting
- Our focus for the course projects
- Pathways for high school equivalency in the U.S.
- College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS)
- The basic design cycle
- Research conducted during this course
Context Summary
Part 1 of this module offers an introduction to the course. This section sets the stage for the course by describing the focus and learning objectives, as well what to expect during the next 12 weeks. We will contemplate the instructional need for adult basic education and pathways for high school equivalency for adult learners. In this project-based course, you will complete an instructional design project for adult educators and their learners. The instruction you design will align with the College and Career Readiness Standards (Links to an external site.) (CCRS) that are the basis of high school equivalency exams and other adult basic education programs. You are able to select the topic of the instruction from the subject areas of English Language Arts / Literacy or Math. The materials you design and develop will incorporate an instructor guide, as well as all necessary content presentation, learner practice, and assessment materials for 15-30 minutes of instruction on the standard and topic you have chosen. We will also review the basic design cycle and instructional design process we are taking in this course, and review how we will incorporate these processes within the course modules.
Relevance to Practice
This project-based course will immerse you into a real-world authentic instructional design challenge. As a service-learning experience, you will engage in the instructional design and development of open educational resources (OER) to provide instructional materials to support instructors and learners in adult basic education programs. The start of any instructional design project begins with a need. This need may arise from an opportunity or a problem that instruction can help to solve. In the case of our instructional design project, the need is support for adult basic education for instructors and learners. In this part of the module, we will consider the instructional design processes we will use in this course, including how we will (1) analyze important aspects of the instructional need, (2) synthesize the information we have gathered to generate possible design solutions, (3) simulate our design conceptions, (4) evaluate our draft designs, and (5) make final design decisions.
Key Terms
- Instructional Design
- Adult Basic Education
- Open Educational Resources (OER)
- Service Learning
Module Design Credit
- Jennifer Maddrell, Design & Development