Using an Open Textbook and a Learning Management System in Trades Courses: A (Possible) Case Study

Phase 3 – Implementation: 3rd Month

Moira’s Tasks
(Weeks 9-12)		 “Must Have” Goal This Task Supports Supports Moira Used
#1 BUILT OUT THE ONLINE COURSE MODULES:
Moira fleshed out the framework she had created in the LMS during Weeks 5-8. She worked through each Module page she had created, and inserted information into each of the sections she had outlined.

  1. Time commitment
    In each Module, Moira included an estimate of how much time students would need to spend working through that week’s online materials and activities.
  2. Learning Objectives
  3. Readings
    Moira listed the Module’s required readings from the Open Textbook here. She linked the list item directly to the textbook file(s) she had uploaded to the LMS during Weeks 5-8.For some modules, Moira also had additional readings and web-based resources she wanted her students to read. She listed and linked to those readings here as well.
  4. Content
    Moira used this section in her weekly Modules to add any of her own additional notes (e.g. some of the notes she used to share with her students in her PowerPoint lectures.She left spaces to insert demonstration videos into this section.
  5. Activities
    Moira used this section to list any self-assessment quizzes associated with the Module. In the long-term, her plan is to convert all of her paper-based quizzes into automated quizzes in the LMS. At this point in the revisions, she was not sure if she would have time to convert ALL of them, but she still wanted her students to know that a quiz in some format is associated with the Module.
 LMS For this task, Moira used:

  1. LMS site (D2L at Moira’s college)
  2. Online Tutorials about using the LMS.
    [Specific to Moira’s college; locate the teaching & learning services at your institution for suggestions.]
#2 Followed accessibility standards for web content while setting up online content.

Based on the recommendations and advice Moira had collected through consultations with an instructional designer, her “buddy system” and with her college’s Disability Resource Centre, Moira understands that if she follows some web accessibility guidelines, she can do a lot to make the content on her course LMS site accessible to all of her students, including students with a disability.

 LMS BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit:
https://opentextbc.ca/accessibilitytoolkit/
#3 Created a “Helpful Resources” section on the homepage of the course site.

This section includes short descriptions and links to critical support services that were identified during the Planning stage,:

  1. Technical support (with the LMS):
    Phone number, email address and hours of operation
  2. Disability/Accessibility Services:
    Phone numbers, email addresses and hours of operation
  LMS For this task, Moira used:

  1. “Course Homepage” of LMS site
  2. Technical Support services & Disability Support services [Specific to Moira’s college; locate the teaching & learning services and the disability/accessibility support services at your institution for suggestions.]
#4 Set up a Gradebook in the LMS to more easily track student progress through self-assessment quizzes.

During her LMS training, Moira realized that even if she did not have time to create online quizzes to replace the paper-based self-assessments she currently uses, she could at least take advantage of the Gradebook tool to keep track of her students’ progress and opportunities to move on to hands-on time in the shop.

Moira was very keen to replace her own paper-based method of tracking this information, and setting up the Gradebook was something she was going to do when she created online quizzes anyway.

  LMS
(but was also originally listed as a “Nice to Have“)		 For this task, Moira used:

  1. LMS site (D2L at Moira’s college)
  2. The help of an instructional designer
    [Specific to Moira’s college; locate the teaching & learning services at your institution for suggestions]
#5 Added selected demonstration videos to the course content.

Moira selected several of the available demonstration videos (ancillary resources to the open textbook) and inserted them into the appropriate Modules.

  “Nice to have” Ancillary open-education resources: Videos
#6 Quizzes
(An “in-progress” task for Moira at this time)
 
Moira was happy to find that a sizeable question bank was one of the ancillary resources available with the open textbook she adopted. However, with only 3 months to work on her revisions, she ran out of time to review all of the questions and convert all of her self-assessment “quizzes” into an online format.
 
At this point, Moira has set up just a couple of quizzes in her site. Her current plan is to evaluate how her students approach the two online quizzes she has created, and whether or not giving them

  1. more flexibility in when they can complete them,
  2. immediate feedback on their responses, and
  3. multiple attempts to do well,

helps her students to become better prepared for their hands-on time in the shop.

Moira will also administer quizzes through paper hand-outs in class and continue to create more of the LMS-based self-assessment quizzes whenever she has time.

  “Nice to have” Ancillary open-education resources: Question bank
#7 Open-licensed images and photos
(An “out-of-scope” task for Moira at this time)
 
As she expected, Moira did not have enough time to search out openly-licensed images to replace the images she had been using (whose copyright permissions were not known to Moira).
 
Moira’s long-term goal is to search for more images online and download only those images that are openly-licensed. In the meantime, Moira has decided not upload any of her current images to the LMS course site unless she is certain she has copyright-clearance to do so.		  “Nice to have” For this task, Moira used:

NOTE from the CC Search service:
“CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license.

You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link…If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content.”
Moira’s recommendation at this point in the project:
Check-in with “buddy system” and instructional designer: “How am I doing now?”
#8 Moira has set aside most of the first face-to-face class to give students a hands-on orientation to the LMS course site and the open textbook  LMS; OT For this task, Moira used:

  1. Suggestions from her Informal “buddy” system of 2 colleagues with prior experience.
  2. LMS site (D2L at Moira’s college)
  3. Online Tutorials about using the LMS.
    [Specific to Moira’s college;     locate the teaching & learning services at your institution for suggestions]
And (FINALLY):
Moira highly recommends you take a moment at this point to celebrate all your efforts!
(You can resume planning for the next phase of your course revisions soon enough.)

Moira with balloons
Moira celebrates!

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OER Toolkit for Trades Instructors Copyright © 2017 by Camosun College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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