1-4 E-Learning Practicum

Since we are talking about beginnings, let us prepare for the end of the certificate following the advice of the adage: “Begin with the end in mind.” Your experience in this E-learning Certificate culminates with the final course, ELID 540 E-Learning Practicum. In the practicum course, you’ll further develop and refine your chosen project by applying all the approaches and strategies learned in the certificate program. You will also have the opportunity to develop an online portfolio. We strongly encourage you to polish and save your assignments for use in this online portfolio that you can show prospective employers. You’ll be supported by one of the instructional team members, who will act as your mentor, as you build your project and portfolio.

The Project for This Course and This Program

In this course, ELID 510, you’ll begin work on a practicum project that (if you take all 4 of the certificate courses) you will continue to develop for the duration of the program. By the end of week 6, you’ll submit a preliminary design document that you’ll refine in subsequent courses. Remember, these are preliminary ideas only—you are free to change or refine your project as you proceed through this course, as well as the other courses in the program. Be sure to narrow your focus to a project that is reasonable to complete before June.

We have intentionally defined requirements for the practicum project in fairly general terms; we feel it’s important to allow you leeway to plan in a way that meets the needs of your specific project and aligns with your interests. However, following are some thoughts on the types of projects that might be appropriate.

Projects Designed for Business or Non-Profit Environments

If you work in business or for a nonprofit organization, your project might be related to the design of a discrete course or module, or it might be an element of a larger training program. The materials might be designed for use by individuals working on their own, or by groups working together. They might be delivered 100% asynchronously, include synchronous elements, or be supported by printed or digital materials. In any case, a project that is principally intended for a corporate training program will likely be linked to organizational goals, and/or offered as part an employee performance development plan. This could up the ante in terms of identifiable outcomes, performance measures that result from a learner’s work, and close links between the materials developed and specific organizational objectives.

Projects Designed for Higher Education

If you work at a university, community college, technical college, or other post-secondary educational institution, your project might focus on a course to be delivered in whole or in part via e-learning. You may focus on designing an an overall plan for the course that identifies the types of strategies and tools to be used, or you may choose to design e-learning instruction for selected units/modules in a longer course. Some participants choose to do some of each, designing the overall plan and developing one “sample module” to illustrate. A variety of approaches might be involved, including web-based lessons, discussion forums, projects, assignments, scenarios, games, tests/quizzes, video, synchronous activities, etc. You’ll also want to check with your institution to see what types of tools and platforms are available.

You might consider adapting a course that has traditionally been offered in a face-to-face environment to an online, or partly online (hybrid/blended), format. This process requires much more than simply posting course notes on a website. In higher education, it is critical to think through how the e-learning segments of a course mesh with the parts of the course or program that are offered using more traditional methods. If the intent is to introduce e-learning into an environment where it has not previously been a common instructional approach, there are also likely political, organizational, technical, and funding issues to address.

Projects Designed for K-12 Environments

If you work in a public or private K-12 school, your project might be to design one or more courses (or modules) to be offered via the Internet. Alternately, you might focus on developing supplemental materials, projects, or activities for children who are not enrolled in regular school programs, such as those who are home schooled, children not attending school regularly because of illness, incarceration, or other challenges, or children needing special attention because of disabilities, giftedness, or recent transfer from districts with radically differing standards. In any of these situations, the way the e-learning materials integrate and mesh with the regular school curriculum and its standards and expectations will be a critical question. There may also be important points to consider in explaining this approach to parents or guardians.

Scope of Your Project—Full Course or Module?

If you decide to focus your attention on a single unit, such as a lesson or module, you’ll likely be able to create a full design plan for the materials and develop most of the segments. You might choose to focus on the specifics of the design, the particulars of the tasks or assignments you will ask learners to address, strategies for improving learner motivation, and methods for assessing their learning.

If, however, you decide to focus on an entire program or set of courses, because of time constraints, your focus will need to be on overall outline/design rather than the development of specific course materials. You might fully develop one small unit to show how the other parts of the program would be handled, and then just outline the remaining sections.

You may, if you wish, choose to pay more attention to the overall development of the course(s), module(s), or unit(s) involved—who will design and produce them, how the budget will be handled, how courses will be introduced and supported within the context of your organization, and so on.

One of the greatest challenge faced by those who have participated in this ELID certificate program in the past has been to narrow their scope down to a reasonable size. Remember that much of your time during this program will be spent reading, discussing topics with fellow students, and submitting assignments—in addition to working on your project.

Program-level Timeframe

You’ll work on your capstone project at different times throughout the program, and complete it during the practicum course. At the conclusion of the practicum, you’ll submit your project and deliver a short presentation in a synchronous online meeting to showcase elements of your work and highlight what you’ve learned while working on the project. It’s best if you can decide early in the program on a topic; however, we recognize that circumstances may not allow an easy or quick decision. Therefore, you shouldn’t feel too uneasy if you need to change the focus of your project at some point (preferably early!) in the program.