After a semester full of reflection, design, feedback, and a few late-night Canvas meltdowns… it only felt right to wrap up EC&I 834 in the most me way possible—a podcast!
In this 7-minute episode, I share my learning journey through the course: from wondering whether HyFlex was a yoga move to designing an asynchronous Workplace 20 course that’s flexible, interactive, and student-centred. You’ll hear about my favourite tools (looking at you, Lucid Spark and Canvas), my most “aha!” moments, a few fails, and everything in between. Spoiler: I may have gone from level 50 to 1000 as an educator.
Listen here :
Stick around to the end of the episode for a fun poll and a few laughs. Thanks to Katia and all my amazing classmates—you inspired this journey every step of the way.
Let me know what you think, and tell me which part(s) you’d like to hear more about in a future episode or post!
In this episode of the Beyond the Classroom Podcast, I explore how blended and online learning can be more than just a delivery method. They can be opportunities to build meaningful connection, increase accessibility, and support student agency. Drawing from class discussions, the presentation by Alan Levine, and my own research and experimentation, and strategies I’m excited to share strategies I have learned about that you can try in your own online class! Whether you’re fully online, fully in-person, or somewhere in between, this episode is about designing with people, not just platforms, in mind.
Wahooooo…….this course has truly been a transformative journey for me. It’s changed how I view teaching in digital spaces, not just as a means of content delivery but as a rich, student-centered experience that empowers learning beyond physical classrooms. I had quite a lot of takeaways, as some have been mentioned in my video.
In addition, another vital thing that stuck with me, especially during our first course interaction, was this post about a student who needed the help of the lecturer taking them in an online course, only for him to search for the lecturer’s name and find the obituary. That case study really brought up the question of instructors’ presence in an online class. Just as teachers create presence in a physical class, it is also important that the same strong presence is created in an online class. This must be done intentionally and through several ways like regular communication, personalized messages, video check-ins, timely feedback, and visible activity within the course shell.
The classroom discussions, particularly from colleagues in K-12 settings, really gave me a better idea of what teaching in Canadian schools looks like.
This is my 4th time doing a Summary of Learning video and I’ve come to accept that extreme corniness is my brand. A special thank you to Matt for allowing me to show his course, Rhett for his appearance (unbeknownst to him. Don’t copyright strike my video please), and of course my wonderful fiancé Jamie who continues to record and encourage my goofy ideas. Without further ado please enjoy Extreme Makeover Course Edition!
As the semester draws to a close, I find myself reflecting deeply on the journey of creating my “Flexible Learning for Student Athletes – Workplace 20” prototype. This project has been far more than just an academic exercise; it’s been a personal exploration into the intersection of education, technology, and the unique needs of a remarkable group of students: student-athletes.
Course Prototype Overview: A Holistic Approach to Workplace Math Readiness
The Online Workplace 20 course was conceived with the understanding that student-athletes juggle an immense array of responsibilities. They are not just students; they are athletes, often training and competing at high levels, which leaves them with limited time in the classroom and energy to catch up. My goal was to create a flexible, accessible, and engaging online learning environment that would empower them with the essential workplace mathematics skills they need, without adding undue stress to their already demanding lives.
The prototype’s core modules are designed to address key Workplace Math 20 outcomes but with a specific lens on the student-athlete experience. These modules include:
The course utilizes a blend of asynchronous and synchronous learning activities. Asynchronous materials, such as video lectures and interactive quizzes, allow students to learn at their own pace. Synchronous elements, like virtual workshops and online discussion forums, foster a sense of community and provide opportunities for real-time interaction and support. I wanted to build a learning community and not just a course.
Course Profile: Laying the Foundation
The foundation of this project was laid in my initial course profile, which you can revisit here: Flexible Learning for Student Athletes: A Workplace 20 Course Profile. This profile outlined the course’s objectives, target audience, and key learning outcomes, providing a roadmap for the development process. It was essential to have a clear understanding of the needs of my student athletes before I began to develop the course.
Creation Process Overview: A Journey of Iteration and Refinement
The creation process was a dynamic and iterative journey, marked by continuous learning and adaptation. Here’s a more detailed look at the key stages:
Throughout this process, I learned the importance of flexibility, adaptability, and a learner-centered approach.
Course Walkthrough: A Visual Exploration
To provide a comprehensive overview of the Online Workplace 20 prototype, I’ve created a detailed walkthrough video. You can access it here: Course Walkthrough Video. This 10-15 minute screencast will guide you through the course’s key features, functionalities, and learning activities. I hope this gives you a clear vision of the course.
This semester has been a transformative experience. I’ve gained valuable insights into online course design, learner-centered pedagogy, and the unique needs of student athletes. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have created this prototype, and I’m excited to see how it can positively impact the lives of student athletes. I plan on integrating this in this coming Fall (2025-2026 school year). Thank you for following my journey while I learn more about this new LMS.
As Rhett and I work in course design for a living, we thought that this course would simply be another normal task! We wanted to be wrong in that thought, and thankfully, we were as this was no normal development! When deciding the topic our course was going to be on we talked about picking our own topic not related to our jobs or alternatively, developing a course related to our jobs! When evaluating our options, and with the thought that we wanted this experience to be different from our regular day to day, we *almost* settled on making up our own topic. Suddenly, a German language course was approved for development and we were told it was going to have a blended delivery. Despite being involved in many online course developments, neither of us have been involved in developing a blended course before. This was the perfect opportunity for us to apply what we learn in the class, and after gaining permission from Michael, the instructor, our decision was made and we began working on our course profile!
For a video walkthrough of our course you can watch the following video or follow this link
Course creation process:
Choosing the LMS was easy, we settled on Moodle simply because it is what the U of R uses, so it was decided for us! We then started meeting with Micheal to talk the game plan. After our introductory meetings, we quickly had to decide our pedagogical approach. Many considerations were made and we landed on taking a flipped classroom approach to this course. This approach meant we had to be very intentional in how we deliver the learning material to students so that they come to the synchronous sessions prepared with basic understanding and any questions they may have! We knew just the tool for this: H5P!
Building interactivity:
Over the years we have become pretty familiar with the basics of H5P and knew we wanted to utilize them in this course. Language learning really only works with practice, practice, and more practice, and so that’s what we tried to create. Every H5P is provided as optional practice to the students. The main types we used are Dialog Cards and Dictation. Every unit introduces an abundance of new words and phrases that run the risk of being easily forgotten. By providing students a space to endlessly listen to, translate, and spell out the words in German they are much more likely to not fall behind. Another H5P we used quite commonly was Drag the words. In our last class about accessibility we learned from Katia how inaccessible drag and drop activities can be, and this had us re-thinking what we do. Thankfully, the smart folks over at H5P have thought of this drawback and have enabled these activities to work with point-and-click. This means participants click on the draggable object, then click where they want to put it, without needing to hold the mouse button down! After we discovered this, we let out a big sigh of relief.
The textbook being used for this course has plenty of exercises meant to serve the same purpose as the H5Ps we’ve created. In Michael’s videos he goes through all of the exercises for each unit, but we wanted to allow students to practice them outside of the videos as well. So for almost every exercise we’ve created an H5P equivalent directly in the course. Immediately after watching the video students can scroll down and try the exercises for themselves. Not only will this serve as beneficial practice, but it also allows them to get immediate feedback on their answers so they can see where they need to improve. Other exercises that don’t work well as H5Ps, or that require a partner, will be saved for the weekly Zoom meeting, or alternatively students can use our newly added “Connections forum” to reach out to their classmates for potential partner study.
Summative assessment:
Now, we haven’t discussed graded materials yet with Michael, so for the prototype we had to come up with these things on our own. With so much time needed to be spent practicing we didn’t want to overwhelm the students so we’ve tried to keep the assignments and quizzes brief. The assignments all focus on one key takeaway from each unit and are meant to take no longer than an hour. They feature a mix of both written assignments, and video assignments. While some students may not be keen on recording themselves it is meant for their benefit. One of the aspects of learning a language is being able to speak it. Overcoming their fear of this type of assignment early will help them gain the confidence they’ll need when these types of questions come up during a midterm or final exam.
The quizzes feature a maximum of three questions, most of which are based on the H5P interactives found throughout the unit. Minor changes have been made where possible so that the interactives maintain their purpose as practice tools instead of merely becoming answer keys for the quizzes. Most of the quizzes also feature one question that requires video recording. Just like the video assignments this is meant to prepare them for higher stakes spoken elements in both midterms and the final exam.
Feedback: when everything changed
Admittedly, this heading is misleading. We are grateful for the opportunity to have had our colleagues explore our prototype and provide valuable feedback. This was much appreciated as we rarely get the opportunity to receive feedback from participants before a course is delivered! We received many great suggestions, some we could act on, and some we could not. One of the bigger improvements we made was improving the “community” aspect in our class by creating a location for students to exchange contact information and form study groups! Additionally, we also made improvements to applicable H5Ps by adding more feedback built into the tools when the students answer right or wrong. We plan to add more feedback once we get input from Michael. For a bigger picture on all the changes we made based on feedback, check out our blog post!
TL;DR
Below is a quick summary of the key components in our course.
So whats next?
As we close out this class, we still have a lot of work ahead for 6 additional modules to be ready by the upcoming fall semester. We are very grateful for all that we learned and the wonderful feedback that we have received along the way in this process! We are going to continue developing with all of this in mind, still focusing on our goal that this will be the best course development that we have been involved in!
As I wrap up the development of my online, asynchronous Science 9 unit, I want to take a moment to reflect on the process, the feedback I received, and the final version of my course. This prototype has evolved over the semester based on class discussions, research, experimentation, and feedback from my peers. I’m excited to share the final product!
If you would like to see the evolution of my course profiles, see the following links:
Course Overview
My Science 9 online unit is designed for asynchronous learning while maintaining engagement and interactivity. Throughout the course, students engage with a mix of digital tools, including Padlet discussions, PhET simulations, and H5P interactive content. While the course is designed to be primarily online, hard copies of most materials are available for students who need them.
The Creation Process
Throughout the semester, I explored different ways to create meaningful interactions in an asynchronous setting. Initially, I planned to use Flipgrid, but with its transition to Flip only available on Microsoft Teams, I found that the platform no longer met my needs. Instead, I opted for Padlet, which allows for both video and text-based interactions, making the course more accessible.
Additionally, feedback played a huge role in refining my course. One of the biggest changes I made from feedback was to include clear navigation on my Google Classroom. This was addressed by adding a “START HERE” section that include the course layout and a “how-to” guide for student accessibility. Another implemented feedback change was to increase engagement by starting a module with a meme, Tiktok, etc. Check out this blog post for more on how I implemented peer feedback.
Course Walkthrough
To see how everything comes together, check out my course walkthrough video. This screencast provides an overview of the course layout, interactive elements, and key features designed to support student success.
Let me know what you think – feedback is always welcome!
-Woohoo…. Designing a course module is not as easy as it looks. But anyways, I am grateful for this class and the additional learning experience I have gathered. When we were asked to design a course profile, my mind wandered away a bit on what I could possibly design to fit the present context I find myself in. After much deliberation, I decided to choose something I realized might be adaptable to health education.
I created a course in Medical Terminology and subsequently designed two modules. Medical Terminology is the basis for efficient communication in the healthcare sector. Understanding medical terminology is particularly crucial for anyone interested in the medical field, either as a medical professional, administrative staff, or other health-related careers. In designing my course prototype and profile as required in this class (EC&I 834), I decided to create an online medical terminology course with the aim of providing an interesting, accessible, and flexible learning approach to diverse learners who might be interested in the course. A summary of my course prototype is presented in this blog post, highlighting important design decisions, difficulties, and potential future directions. Nevertheless, I have included my course profile, as it provides a clearer picture of the course format, target population, and every other piece of information needed.
When designing the course prototype, a lot of things had to be considered so as to enhance the teaching and learning process. Based on the discussion we had in class, I understood the fact that our prototype should contain a look and feel of how we want the course to be. I thought in my mind at first that I wasn’t ready for this…you know, thinking of interactivity, assessment, and compatibility of whatever you are using or doing with the LMS you intend using. Alas!!! I managed, even though the prototype wasn’t perfect.
Elearning development/prototypes in elearning course development (Bacha Chatia)
The course follows a fully online, asynchronous format, allowing students to learn at their own pace. This decision was driven by the need to accommodate students from different time zones, work schedules, and life commitments. The course is hosted on a Google Classroom and incorporates interactive multimedia resources such as video lectures, self-paced quizzes, and discussion forums. To ensure accessibility, I integrated visual aids and animations to illustrate complex terms as well as flashcards and interactive games to reinforce learning in an engaging way. I feel this approach will enhance students motivation and also foster a sense of accomplishment as students master key concepts as documented in my course overview.
Developing the course prototype presented some challenges. The first one was ensuring accessibility for learners with low bandwidth or limited access to devices, which requires optimizing resources for mobile compatibility and providing downloadable materials. I think I was finally able to address this by providing presentation slides that students can easily download for offline use. Another challenge I think I encountered was supporting EAL students, which required the inclusion of more visual and auditory learning aids, as well as ensuring complex medical terms were broken down into digestible explanations. I really can not tell if I have done justice to this. However, I believe turning the subtitle button and captions of the video on, as well as reducing the speed of the video as students listen or watch, will go a long way in helping EAL students. Based on the feedback from the initial review of my prototype, I have tried to balance students’ self-paced learning with engagement. I have tried to integrate peer discussion prompts as a way to keep students accountable for their learning outside the scheduled live sessions. Here is a link to the course LMS, and below is a walkthrough on what it looks like.
As mentioned earlier, the development of this course prototype might not be perfect. However, I am glad with the process and lessons learned as I look forward to exploring more ways of designing courses with particular features that support equity and inclusivity in the learning process.
