Reflection 11: Pause

Hit Pause.

That is this week's theme.

Work responsibilities collided with course design.

This semester I am teaching 4 courses, and this week I have graded papers, created narrated grading videos, met with advisees, attended training in using Recruiter software, been awarded 2 programs to direct in addition to my current program, arranged internship visits, and made a list of possible recruitment activities for 2016-2017.

I also did a little work on course design, but not as much as I had hoped....

The segment on Simulations now has  an introduction and a content page, with the content page including a description of the three types of simulations (live, virtual, and constructive) and video examples of each. Locating those videos was more time-consuming than I realized.

I also realized I needed a page explaining how simulations an drive motivation and improve performance, so I have begun working on that content. I have some outline notes addressing how businesses and educators are currently using simulations and am creating a reading list and examples allowing students to watch videos explaining how to use simulations....But, even better....I have begun a list of actual simulations  from which students will be able to choose and download and actually give some a try!   This part really excites me as I have found some free downloads for VirtualU, SimCity, Gazillion, and Pandemic, to name a few. The plan is to give students a variety of choices and ask them to select one that might relate to their current work area and one that does not, but sounds interesting to them.....then have them share their experiences, likes, dislikes, and such.

My plan for the future includes more non-course design tasks (locate syllabi for new programs, in particular) and to continue to work on this Simulations unit, finishing up these pages. My process is to finish a page completely, adding notes to remaining pages as I run across items of use elsewhere on this topic, then, once the page is finished completely with graphics, videos, etc, only then will I publish and begin working in earnest on the next component.

I really enjoy this part of instructional design :-)