Promising Practices in Online Curriculum and Course Design

A Showcase of Exemplary Models from

IDEAL-NM

Your PresentersSandy Johnson

Sandy has a M.S in TechnologyEducation and a M.A. in Administration. She currently works for IDEAL as a lead course developer, lead eTeacher, instructional designer, and mentor.

Amy Jaramillo

Amy earned her M.Ed. in 2002 in technology and curriculum. She currently is a regional student support coordinator for IDEAL-NM as well as a course designer and lead eTeacher.

What is iNACOL?iNACOL is a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership

association based in the Washington, DC area with over 3,400 members. Members represent a diverse cross-section of K-12 education from school districts, charter schools, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, research institutions, corporate entities and other content & technology providers.

iNacol Ratings5 – Exemplary: a model of best practice4 – Accomplished: excellent implementation3 – Promising: good implementation2 – Incomplete: additional work needed1 – Confusing: not a good example

Curriculum and Course DesignStatement of Quality from iNacol

“A quality online program will have a well thought-out approach to its curriculum and course design whether it develops its own courses and/or licenses curriculum from other educational providers.”

Quality #1: Course has clearly stated and attainable educational goals.

Course introduction contains assignment goals as well as learning objectives.

Quality #2: Course is clear and coherent in its organization.

•navigation cues

•clearly labeled folders

• assignment numbers that match gradebook headings

Quality #2 Continued…

Quality #3: Course Utilizes quality instructional materials and technology to enable and enrich student learning.

Animation from Environmental Science, Semester 1

Unit 3, Lesson 1

Quality #4: Course provides for high degree of interaction.

•Course Announcements

•Collaboration tools

•Messages

•Discussion Boards

Quality # 5: Course demonstrates rigorous course content.All courses contain

A final examResearch papers and projectsA variety of assessmentsReadings from multiple sources

Quality #6: Embeds critical thinking, problem solving, analysis and synthesis abilities in learning.

This course requires students to apply a problem-solving strategy to a real-world problem. Learnings from previous lessons are synthesized to evaluate the problem and determine a viable solution.

Quality #7: Course meets requirements of appropriate state or national standards.

Every course contains an alignment matrix showing how units address NM Content Standards .

Quality #8: Course meets requirements of accessibility.Softchalk software is used to present

material. It allows longer descriptions for screen readers to assist the visually impaired.

Bb has screen reader capabilityLessons include audio or videoIEP and SAT requirements are meet by

teachers

Quality #9: Course meets requirements of copyright and fair use.All images are open source, in the public

domain, copyright free and are cited.Subscriptions to NROC and Discovery

Education content are usedSoftchalk contains supplemental resources

including subscription and documentation of resources from Merlot, MIT, Teacher Tube, and an online encyclopedia

Quality #10: Course is designed to accommodate different learning styles.A variety of multimedia projects and lessons are

created to address the various learning styles.

Auditory: WimbaVoice, PowerPoint Presentations, video

Visual: Video, PowerPoint Presentations

Tactile: Softchalk interactive lessons, web-based interactive lessons

Quality #11: Course is designed with consideration for time and place limitations of students.Softchalk lessons are “printable”

Documents in courses are easily downloaded for printing

Check out some courses!You may log in as a sample student at

http://ideal.blackboard.com

Username: sample.studentPassword: idealnm