Introduction

Learning activities are basically assignments -  things you have students do in or out of class to facilitate learning.  For example, you might interrupt your lecture and ask students to explain a concept to a partner.  You might also give a traditional writing assignment or have students work in a group to create a presentation or product.  The main point is to get students active.  Learning activities augment lectures, online presentations, and reading assignments by getting the students to process information.  The processing can be simple (e.g. memorization) or complex (e.g. synthesis or comparison or reflection).

In this assignment, you will create a learning activity for your online students.  You should spend about an hour viewing the overview presentation and browsing examples and 1-3 hours creating the learning activity.

Your learning activity should include scaffolding (introduction and instructions) and use the Web as a resource or tool. Examples:

• Students use Hot Potatoes or StudyStack to create an online game.
• Students compare and contrast ideas in Web sites you link to in your learning activity.
• Students use Blogger to create an online journal (see example).
• Students create presentations and post them on Blackboard.
• Students work in a group to do a case study and use the Web to communicate.

What to Do

1. View my Overview of Learning Activities. Spend some time browsing the reference links, especially Bernie Dodge's Design Patterns and Tom March's overview of Activity Formats. Mary Vieira's Visual Taskonomy is another quick way to get ideas.
   
2. Review some examples from other ED 214 students.  If you were a students looking at these activities, would you clearly understand what to do?  What level of thinking would it require?
3. Skim parts of Engaging the Online Learner that look interesting and relevant.  This book is packed with ideas for learning activities.
   
4. Jot down a few student learning outcomes. These don't have to be a part of what students will see, but will help you focus as you create the learning activity.  Here are some examples:
   1. The student will be able to identify 3 behavior changes to improve his/her health.
   2. The student will be able to explain key components of a given religion.
   3. The student will be able to create a learning activity for an online class.
   4. The student will be able to write a program to create user accounts on a server.
   5. Given an audio clip, the student will be able to identify its composer and style.
      
5. Design a learning activity that addresses the student learning outcome.  At this point, keep it general.
   
6. Consider scaffolding for the learning activity. What instructions do you need to provide?  Should you explain the purpose and relevance of the assignment in an introduction?  Does the student need to begin by reading or viewing a presentation? What will the student turn in?  Do students need coaching on process or using technology?
   
7. Put it all together in a Word document or Web page.

Submitting work

• Submit your file to Blackboard and post it on your Blackboard or WebCT course.

Grading - 50 points