My reviews and the peer reviews on my work

In this post I put my reviews on the works of my colleagues and their reviews on my work:

My  review on the week 1 of Abeer's reflections

https://learnerlogbookllb.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/week1/comment-page-1/#comment-3

  No doubt,  this reflection spot the light directly to the main points in three courses. The reader finds it easy and smoothly to understand each course features and the methodology of the instructors. The writer explained specific part with focus on its impact on the learner journey that was provided by the instructors such as the search through the E-library and the methods of citation according APA format.

    I appreciate these reflections for three courses in a simple way and deeper meaning to highlight for the impact of the instructors strategies. 

    Thanks Abeer for this useful glance.

My review on  week 2 reflections of Abeer:

https://learnerlogbookllb.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/week-2/comment-page-1/#comment-2

           This reflection consists of comparison between three courses the learner studies. The idea to talk about each course from both sides, advantages and disadvantages,  is a clear and useful. I noticed that the first course PID was discussed in brief. The second course, ADCL, was described by explaining the style of the instructor and the strategies which were integrated. I think there is exaggerated by the learner when she said that one of the traditional  strategy used by the instructor  is innovative!

“The ID of this course depended on using innovative instructional methods by asking the audience themselves to search and discover the information about the topic”.

Instead of that it's suitable to say that brainstorming is an innovative strategy. Indeed, the learner focused on partial of the instructors strategies without explaining if they use new tools of technology and how? And what kinds of activities they were taking. In the learner discussion of the third course she said that the instructors depend on the lecture pattern instead of allowing students to be he learner-centered learning. That cause the boredom  for the learners and there is no engagement in the learning process.

Finally, It is a good idea to integrate Gagne’s nine events here, but it would be more useful if the learner describes each phase widely with examples of the three courses.

Abeer's review on my blog posts of three week's reflections:

https://learnerlogbookllb.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/peer-review/

     In this page, I’ll review Gubran’s blog of reflections. This page will include: Strengths of the peer’s reflection, Weaknesses, and Suggestions for further improvement.

Strengths of the peer’s reflection:

1.      The author used a clear language with well- organized points and good explanation which was relevance in comparing the courses instructional design. He supported the explanation by providing examples.

2.      He used what is written in the criteria to compare between the courses.

3.      He applied Gagne’s nine events of instruction Model in the comparison of the ID.

4.      He detailed the analysis of the course content which make it understandable for the reader.

Weaknesses:

·         He didn’t mention what was unclear in instructional design that the instructor used.

·         He didn’t write about the learning effectiveness about each course.

Suggestions for further improvement:

-          It is better to talk briefly about the lesson’s activities and tasks which were compared to support the Gagne’s nine events of instruction Model stages or any other model. It will be more clear for the reader to understand what does the author mean.

-          Thinking critically by providing effective improvements and offering suggestions for unclear points and weak areas in the instructional design of the lessons.

-          Evaluating the instructional design in general for the courses, which areas need to redesign, what is needed to add, which points should be removed, and how the designer integrate the technology with the ID to be more beneficial for effective learning.

          My peer review on the reflections of Shaikh week 3 reflections

   https://shaikha200100696id.blogspot.ae/2017/01/week-3-reflections-learning-and.html?showComment=1485931147936#c5597354655722246541

                I read this post recently, I found it useful and smoothly to follow. The learner compared two courses she had studied by applying Gagne's nine events as an instructional design model. This model allows the learner to establish a good manner of comparison. She compares the two courses by each step of Gagne's model inappropriate way and briefly phrases. It was preferred to add the opinion of the leader after each step of comparison to explain what the right and wrong in applying the model by the instructors.

For examples, she mentioned that the instructor of ADCL course gave them feedback, but she did not describe the level and the impact of this feedback and how the learners interact with this issue.

At last, the learner added an important point as a suggestion for improving the teaching and learning processes.

Thanks Shaikha for this a beneficial reflections.

Jubran Saif ALGumaei

learner at HBMSU

Week 3 reflections

            As mentioned earlier in the post of the week 2 I focused on partial parts of the two courses that was chosen to be compared through this assignment. In this post, I will shed the light on the other aspects with more details. At the end of this post, Gagne’s model will apply on comparison of two courses.

            Initially, analyzing the learner characteristic is a significant step in the instructional design. This step will help the instructor to choose an appropriate style, strategies, and activities of learning to improve skills of the learners. A good instructor who digs a strong abilities of his learners and cultivates it to the high level. Not only that, but he inspires his learners to know how to learn with innovative strategies.

Regarding the comparison of two courses, there is no a single best way of instructional design. This depends on several factors such as, the audience, content, technology, and an environment.

Although there are varieties of learning strategies, but the instructors did not apply it through the course. To be more precise, the two instructors  of A and B courses did not train the learners to solve problem in effective ways of connecting the content with the current situation. Here, when the learner is put in the shoes of the problem this will give him real training to invent new solutions.  Another strategy like, case study, scenario- based, and Learning through Exploration and Discovery (LEAD) are beneficial for the learners to use in an effective way to transfer the theory into practice.

Integrating new technologies in teaching and  learning processes is being inevitable  decision. Although several instructors utilize technology in preparing and presenting the content, but there are solid practices in this aspect. To illustrate, the two instructors of courses A and B depended on presenting the content by PPT format in their all lectures. Whereas, there are distinct programs and tools that has a strong feature than PPT and no instructors used it such as Prezi, the attractive zooming tool. In the same manner, using YouTube by the instructors is obvious as a tool that helps the learner to understand the course content. Also, it used to support  a critical thinking when the instructor of the course (B) integrating in the lecture activities. However, social media network was not integrated in both courses, especially in teaching methods. Needless to say that social media play a significant role in different part in our lives. Hence, integrating other tools like Twitter, Facebook, tumbler, and Instagram in teaching and learning process will make the students’ journey more useful.

    Evaluation  is considered one of the important  phases of the instructional design. We can not image any instructional design plan without this phase. The two instructors used a different way of evaluating the learners, it is included, write an assignment, group project, quizzes, and criticize the articles. That’s not mean it is all happened in the same course. To explain, two courses rely on individual assignment like writing about  (2000)  words  as a criticizing an article or group projects to support collaborative  learning between learners. The course A utilized the quiz in weekly activities and the mind maps in summarizing the session contents for each week. Although this way is beneficial for the learners, but also it is traditional to use in higher education specially with the massive invitation to apply the innovation in all fields.  Both instructors used a rubric for the assignments. However, the instructors of course A used a clear rubric that included criteria for each part of the assignment. Indeed, this is appropriate for new learners keep all them on the same page on doing the required content. In contrast, the course by the rubric of assignment is like an outline without specific criteria. This manner allows learners to do the project depending on their planning and an organizing. Moreover, it gaves them a wide space to utilize what they study in innovative pattern.

A powerful and useful assessment required a clear practice for feedback. The impact of  an effective feedback will help learners to know their weakness and strengths and it is his chance to treat the weakness to avoid it in the future. The instructors of course A provided learners with a helpful feedback on specific parts and with more details. On the other hand, the instructors of the course B wrote feedback in general way without more details.

            As shown above, it is clear that each instructors applied a different strategies, tools, and methods when delivering the instruction. They have similarity in some parts and differences in another one. In any way,  This diverse grant the learners an opportunity to improve their skills and gain new knowledge in appropriate ways. A good thing with the two instructors that they motivated their learners to face the challenge and enjoy their learning journey.

            To sum up, I will suggest some ideas to improve the teaching and learning processes that pertinent two courses.

- Integrating social media in the instructional design in an effective way to ensure that the learners know what its benefits for him when utilizing social media as a strong tool to support his learning.

- The instructors should pay attention to the methods of presenting the content. And look up to apply other applications, tools, and programs instead of  PPT.

- It is useful to utilize diverse strategies of learning to make the it a fun, and connect the learners with his real world through designing the activities to cultivate the learners' skills.

- Feedback strategies will be helpful if it focuses on the weakness of the learners and how to strengthen it.

Week 2 reflections

       This post will explain instructional design strategies used by the instructors of  two courses I had completed last semester. The first course (A) refers to research methods in E- education, and the second is Innovation and change management. TO begin, the instructor of the course A started the lecture by revision the prior session and connected it with the new content of the current lecture. He, also, asked about the learners and their health, academic status, and the challenges they face. The instructor of the course B had a strong relationship with the learners, so she talked for a long time with their concern, experiment, and if they had any question related to the content of pervious lecture. In general, both instructors aimed by this strategy to be familiar with the learners and motivate them to be engaged in the course session. Both instructors did not use ice breaker activities or a story. This required the instructor also to create a compelling introduction to make the hooked from the start of the session. The instructor of the course A presented the outline of the session and the outcomes. In contrast the instructor in course B, often, ignore this point and stared the lecture directly. I think an instructor should present the objectives of the session and let the learners to discuss what they want to know about the topic and how it relevant to their real world.

Regarding integrating the technology in lectures, the two instructors usually used the smart learning tools of the blackboard, but there are some differences between them in integrating the tools, and this point will be discussed in the next line. As such integrating technology is an important factor in instructional design and there are numerous tools that can designer use to facilitate the learning and make it useful. Both instructors used a PowerPoint presentation in each session. The design for both is appropriate for the learners. But the content on each slide is crowded (full)  in the course B. This fullness of information in the slides  makes the learners confuse about which he needs to know, should, and nice to know. In addition, it is useful if the instructors applied the K-W-L strategy. In some case, the instructor of the course B transferred the content from other resources to the session slides without any change.

 Both instructors used the tools that help learners in their learning, such as YouTube, resources, and other media (photo, maps). Needless to say, that each teacher and instructor have its own style. So, the instructors are different at this point. On the other hand, each instructor used several strategies in the lectures. For instance, Instructor of course A presented the content on PPT and explained the main topics, terms, and point. Then he asked about some parts and discuss in details with clear examples. The same is instructor B, but she read the content and then asked each learner to explain and support  an idea from real experience in their field. This strategy is suitable with the view numbers of learners and little content, not with high numbers of learners. In general, both instructors focus on discussion with the learners. At many times the aims is to connect the experience of the learners with the content of the course to transfer the theory into the real world. Important to say, that the instructor of the course (B) focused on critical thinking of the learners’ answer such as analyzing the part of content and connecting it with the authentic situation.  Again with the content, in the course A the content is designed sequentially. But, in the course B it was presented without clear fashion. Maybe this is related to the nature of the course content itself. However, it is beneficial for the learners to receive the content in an appropriate way.

            To improve the teaching and learning processes, I will suggest diverse methods  regarding the two instructors that maybe make the  innovative change and allow learners to gain a fruitful experiment.

- The instructors should pay attention to grab the learners’ concern at the beginning of the lecture. This is motivating them to know why they learn this topic.

- The instructors should use the different models and theories of learning to help learners in their journey.for examples, adult learning principles, Keller’s ARCS model of motivation, and the zone of proximal development (ZPD)  concept which was created by Vygotsky.

- The content should be reorganized according to the analysis of the learner characteristics, also to take into account the divers of learning style.

           To sum up, this table shows the difference between the two courses by applying Gagne’s nine events of  instruction:

Week 1 Reflections

            In the previous post, I had explained the definition of instructional design and its components. In this post, more details will be presented and discussed related to prior two courses that I completed in Fall 2016. The two courses  are named A and B instead of their  real name. In fact, The course A was more effective and relevant to our practice in the arena of education more than the course B. 

       As mentioned earlier, the main goal of ID is to make the learning process more efficient, effective and easy. Through my experiment with two courses, I found that the course A Instructor had worked to meet this goal. In contrast, the course B in many parts was ambiguous. To be more precise, instructional design objectives should be written clearly and include the condition of SMART model or the other model ABCDS, which is suggested by the instructor of the current course (ID course). However, in course A it is clear to know what the learner would be able to know, this point is missed or in some time written in general in the weekly plan paper in the course B. Another critical point to make the learning effective, it is necessary to explain the problem that needs to solve, because this will make the learner more enthusiastic to learn and then engage him in the activities during the lecture. In the course A the tools which were used to solve the problem is divers while it is limited in the course B. 

            The kinds of information is an important factor in instructional design. The ID designer should pay attention to the kinds of information and knowledge and the learners (audience). Three conditions should be in the information. Accurate, a complete, and appropriate to the learners. This mean, in another way, that from the first stage of instructional design to the evaluation stage an information is a critical factor in instructional design. This is the responsibility of the subject-matter expert when he prepared the content for the instructional design. For instance, in the course  (A) the instructor considered the content that is appropriate to the level of the learner and their skills. Through the course B, some time the content is not design to the level of the learner and their experience and it seems that it is designed for another field such as business. Although the content is not relevant to the field of learners, but the instructor in course B worked hard to adapt it to the education field and also support that by engaging the learners to share their experience related to the topic in order to transfer the theory to the practical aspect.

          If we apply this point of the ADDIE model, the first stage is analyzing  the learners need to choose the appropriate information. In addition, to understand what is already the learners know and what they need, should, and nice to know.

       The second phase is  Designing  learning objectives to adapt the information in suitable style. Then, developing the strategies, activities, and media to deliver the course content. The implementation phase focuses on ensuring that all the components are going in an effective way. The last stage is evaluated, it focuses on evaluating what, how, when, and why related to the instructional design.

Introduction to Instructional design

  The definition of Instructional design:     

   In the education field, especially when talking about creating curriculum or designing lesson plan, it is necessary to mention the term instructional design. So, what it is mean?

There are, as any term in pedagogy, several definitions of instructional design. After reading, understanding those definitions we can notice that it centered around specific words such as systematic, process, methods, learning, and students. For example,  I choose two definitions of ID by two educators to take the deep meaning of this term.

First definition, by Molenda:

Instructional design is the art and science of designing, producing, and using  with economy and elegance  solutions to instructional problems (Molenda).

The second, by Reigeluth:

The process of deciding which methods of instruction are best for bringing about desired changes in student knowledge and skills for a specific student population.(Reigeluth).

I define  ID as, the strategies of instruction that utilize to make the change in the behaviors, attitudes, and skills of the learner in a reliable fashion  and in appropriate style and ways.

Notice: instructional design, curriculum design, instructional technology, and instructional design system are often used interchangeably.

The importance of ID:

            The importance of  ID includes teachers, learners, and parents. For teachers, ID helps them to create more attractive environment to allow their students learn with high quality of  teaching methods and change the role of students to become students centered approach. It's also a significant factor in which lessons becoming more effective and meaningful.

The kinds of ID models:

There are numerous of the instructional design model. The most famous is ADDIE model, which consisting of five steps, analysis, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. 

There are also ASSURE model  which consists of six stages refer to each letter of the acronym .

Dick and Carey model:

 It's also known as a system approach model. It consists of ten steps in linear form, in contrast with ADDIE model. One feature of this model that the ten steps are connected and affected by others directly and indirectly.

Seven  premises about ID:
1- Attention to details.
2- identifying the instructional problem.
3- The plan is for instructional designer and planning team.
4- focusing on the level of satisfactory achievement.
5- Accuracy of information.
6-Focusing on the individual not the content.
7-no single best way to design instruction.

  

References:

Culatta, R. (2013). ADDIE model. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/models/addie.html

Forest, E. (2015, November 23). ASSURE: Instructional design model. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from Frameworks & Theories, http://educationaltechnology.net/assure-instructional-design-model/

The purpose of the blog

      The main purpose of creating this blog is to create, present, and analysis the content regrade the our course Instructional design under the supervision of the prof Abtar Singh, the dean of E- school at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University(HBMSU).

For three weeks the learner, who is the owner of this blog, should add, organize, and reflect the appropriate content that he had been learned in each week to create Learning Log Book ( LLB).

The instructor added this guide and the distribution of the scores for each week and part as follow:.

LLB Guide and points (out of 100 points)

1. Introduction -10 points

2. Week 1 Reflections - 15 points

3. Week 2 Reflections - 20 points

4. Week 3 Reflections - 25 points

5. Peer Review - 15 Points

6. Format (Language, logical flow, esthetical value and accessibility of blog) - 15 points