Design & Development of
Technology-Based Learning Systems

Course Syllabus • Fall 2007

Educational Technology Department • San Diego State University

Bernie Dodge, Professor of Educational Technology
Office: NE-288 Phone: 619.594.7401 e-mail: bdodge@mail.sdsu.edu

Course Description & Objectives

Theories, frameworks, and strategies for designing educational products and technology-based learning systems. Development, assessment, and implementation of proposals and specifications for technology-based learning and performance improvement.

Upon completing this course, you'll be able to:

Analyze a fuzzily-defined educational problem and identify attainable learning goals and objectives.
Match e-learning strategies to specific goals and objectives.
Develop and document learning objects in a variety of formats.
Orchestrate learning objects into larger systems to create systems at the lesson, unit and course level.
Apply scholarly and practitioner-developed knowledge to a wide range of problems.

More broadly, you will emerge from this course as a more effective and creative problem solver with a rich pool of technology-based solutions at your disposal. You'll be able to critique educational technology systems and justify your own efforts with evidence from the literature. You'll acquire a range of tools for conveying your ideas in detail to programmers, graphic artists and implementers.

Course Schedule

Week	Date	Topics	Tasks BEFORE Class
1	Aug 28	Course Overview and Introduction Case Study: Global Awareness	Just be there
2	Sept 4	Designing e-Learning	Read Horton Ch. 1 Post your problem analysis
3	Sept 11	Absorb- and Do-type activities	Read Horton Ch. 2 & 3
4	Sept 18	Connect-type activities	Read Horton Ch. 4 & 5
5	Sept 25	Tests	Read Horton Ch. 6 & 7
6	Oct 2	Topics & lessons
7	Oct 9	Learning object work session
8	Oct 16	Strategic decisions Design for the virtual classroom Briefings: SCORM (Lorah); NMC (Jane)	Read Horton Ch. 8 & 9
9	Oct 25	Class cancelled due to wildfires
10	Oct 30	A new model of learning Briefings: CDT (Cindy); Elaboration (Sabine)	Read Horton Ch. 12
11	Nov 6	Instructional design and engagement Briefings: ID2 (Pam); Telepresence (Vera) New tool: SlideShare
12	Nov 13	(Class starts at 7:15) Synergy and scenarios Briefings: Bots (Brian); EPSS (Craig)Design for engagement	Read Quinn Ch. 1 - 3
13	Nov 20	Virtual Class Session	Read Quinn Ch. 4 - 5
14	Nov 27	Unit development work session	Read Quinn Ch. 6
15	Dec 4	Unit development work session
16	Dec 11	Showcase	Due: Learning System Design Proposal

Readings

There are two textbooks for the course which you can order online:

Horton, W. (2006). e-Learning by Design. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Quinn, C. N. (2005). Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games. San Francisco, Pfeiffer.

Additional readings will be available through Electronic Course Reserves.

Grading

Your final grade will be determined by your performance in four course activities.

Blogging. First is your participation online between class sessions. We will all co-author a weblog throughout the course in which we share online resources and our reactions to them. You are expected to contribute at least one substantive blog per week to this effort, starting in Week 1 and extending through the semester.

Learning Object Design. In the spirit of learning by doing, you will develop several learning objects associated with the problem of increasing global awareness. For each object you will document the rationale for each aspect of the design.

Learning System Design. On a broader scale, you will carve out the design of a learning environment at the lesson or unit level and document it.

Briefings. To help inform the learning object and lesson designs, each of you will become an expert on a two theoretical approaches or design topics. These topics will be driven by the specific problems the class is grappling with as we develop our objects. You will prepare a briefing on the topic to be delivered to the class and will apply your expertise to all design proposals (both your own and those of the other groups.)

The four course activities will be weighted as follows:

Blog Contributions	20%
Learning Object Design	30%
Learning System Design	30%
Expert Briefing	20%

Please keep in mind the following definitions of grading standards from the SDSU Graduate Catalog:

A	Outstanding achievement; available only for the highest accomplishment.
B	Praiseworthy performance; definitely above average.
C	Average; awarded for satisfactory performance.

The Class Culture

The motto for this class, as with other doctoral courses, might be this: "We are all learners, we are all teachers, we are all busy!". Ideally, this course will take advantage of what you already know from previous courses and life experience and extend it further while using your time well. I'm eager to learn from you and with you as we move through the next 15 weeks and will alter this initial plan as needed.