Signature Assignment
For week 8 of the LDT300x course, we needed to complete a signature assignment. Check out mine below!
Learning Gap
Many prospective or current university students have little prior knowledge or experience in writing academic essays. This lack of knowledge is especially apparent among English language learners, many of whom have never needed to write an academic essay in the English language and some have never written an essay in their primary language. The format and structure of an academic essay is not commonly taught in high schools in non-English speaking countries; however, many students whose primary language is not English desire to study in English either in their home countries or abroad. Many universities that offer degrees in the English language require the students to write an entrance exam, and most university courses conducted in English require students to write an essay at some point. By offering the course online, the course can reach the greatest number of students in various locations around the world. Some students might live in a town or area that does not have English language tutoring or English classes to enroll in or the student might not be able to afford tutoring or classes with a private tutor or language school and this course will offer an affordable alternative. University professors, high-school teachers, and private tutors can also utilize the course in their own teaching or recommend the course to their students if they notice a need for improvement.
Instructional Strategy
Throughout the LDT300x course, we have been creating various digital media to be used for our future course in 400x. The idea behind the digital media is that learners would utilize them throughout the course modules either as main course material in the form of core content or required material or as supplementary material and suggested readings, with some elements available to print off as take-home resources. The goal was to provide material in as many different forms as possible so support the learners' various modes of learning, while also making the media accessible to all students.
Regarding interaction with the whole of the course material, in addition to the video and screencast provided below, the learners will use various interactive exercises such as flashcards, quizzes, compare and contrast exercises, logical sequencing tasks and discussion boards to develop their knowledge of essay writing essentials.
Digital Content Development
Week 2: Digital Document 1: “Three Elements of body Paragraphs,” Infographic. CC-BY.
This resource connects to the learning objective Identify different elements of five-paragraph essays” and to section 1.D What are Body Paragraphs?. It can serve as either a summary resource or additional instructional resource for body paragraphs as well as a reference resource for the students as they create their own essays both for the current course and for their future academic work. The resource can also be used as a theme for a discussion board
Week 3: Digital Document 2: “Essay Writing Basics Promotional Banner,” Banner. CC BY-SA 4.0
This digital document was designed to be used as promotional material and it could be used on the home page of the course website, on other pages describing the course itself, in advertisements on social media or integrated into other promotional material. When the course itself is created, one possible alteration would be to add the course URL to the banner.
Week 4: Instructional Video: “Essay Writing Basics: Five-Paragraph Essays Course Introduction”. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This video is meant to be used in section/module 1 as the course introduction video. It connects to the terminal objective and serves as the students’ first contact with the course and instructor to introduce the students to course and its key features.
Week 5: Screencast video: Essay Writing Basics – Outline Video 1
Licensed with YouTube’s Standard license
This video connects to Learning objective 4: Outline a five-paragraph essay and is meant to section 4: Essay Outline. This video is meant to be shown as an example of a working outline and to display some of the elements of essay outline structure. I chose to make the original document in Word and use Screencastify for recording. The video was then posted to YouTube.
Week 6: Audio File for “Three Elements of Body Paragraphs” Infographic
Creative Commons License: CC BY
This audio and its associated transcript were made in order to make the infographic for course section 1 accessible to those who require an audio format or who need a text-based pdf instead of the infographic to be able to read the text on a screen reader. It connects to the learning objective: 1. Identify different elements of five-paragraph essays
Week 7: Interactive Module “What is an Introduction?”
Creative Commons License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
The lesson/module supports the objective “Identify different elements of five-paragraph essays” by instructing the learners about one aspect of essays: introduction paragraphs. This module was created for course section 1.B What is an introduction? The learner will progress through the lesson by either reading or listening to the core material, interacting with the flashcards to increase their understanding of thesis statements, and by completing the quiz to solidify their understanding.
Or copy and paste this link into your browser: https://rise.articulate.com/share/AFx8KmYkJ8kZyNmpGlz6mPOIsFqITheX
OER Materials
OER 1 – “Four Rules of Thumb for Essay Writing,” CC0 (Public Domain),
https://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=773403938
This resource supports the fifth section of the course by providing a topic for the discussion board as well as a source of reference for the students as they complete their final essays for submission. The material is succinct and a useful resource for the students both as a reminder of previous course content, but also as a reference tool as they continue in their respective academic journeys
OER 2 – “Working Thesis Statement” CC BY:Attribution
https://quillbot.com/courses/introduction-to-college-composition-b/chapter/text-working-thesis-statement/
This resource supports the second section of the course “2.B What are elements of effective thesis statements?” by providing a more detailed explanation of thesis statements. Students will use this resource as additional reading for greater understanding of the aspects of thesis statements. The resource already includes a graphic visualization for thesis statements. In addition to being part of the main course readings, learners will be able to reference this page when completing their activities and assignments and also later when they write essays outside of the course.
OER Checklist/Rubric Template
This is the third and final version of my OER checklist/rubric template
Completed IDD
Here is a pdf copy of my finished IDD
