The first rule of Professional Learning is Know Your Audience. The second is Begin with the end in mind. My personal rule is leave them better than you found them...whatever the situation my be.
With this in mind, I jumped into my first ever experience creating a course using a Learning Management System. I chose Canvas for several reasons and I'm happy I did! Please watch this usability and reflection video to learn how my course has evolved with a little help from my friends!
A foundation and planning phase occured prior to this. Please click these buttons to see the history behind my project:
Reflection:
Usability testers:
I was fortunate to have several peers, who currently work in school districts, give me constructive feedback, my manager at work, and several colleagues who will be leading this course. I now realize having someone not involved in schools, or not as tech saavy, to test would also have been helpful.
What impact did your platform (LMS, Google Docs, or other digital sharing) have on the testing and results?
I chose Canvas so learners had to have a Canvas account to access the course. I'm also using Google formats to share information & collaborate, so I had to ensure all settings allowed easy access for all.
What were the lessons you learned from the usability testing feedback?
Courses created on Free for Teacher accounts are not public, but can be with the help of the excellent customer service team.
Even if the Course is public, there may still be parts that need to be published or enabled to be viewed.
Creating modules that flow similarly each week made a difference
Using consistent wording across the course improved the experience
Change videos to real world experiences and less, "sage on the stage" videos.
What have you done to your design to address the usability issues revealed in the testing? What have you added or taken away?
I consulted classmates who advised me to contact customer service to have my course made public.
I researched why some sections showed Access Denied and corrected those settings.
I learned how to make my modules flow similarly. To make the course more asthetically pleasing, I learned how to embed videos vs. just adding a hyperlink.
I made phrasing consistent across the course.
I swapped videos that showed "experts" talking for videos of real-world educators actually doing the tasks.
How has this process improved your course and your learner's experience?
Without testing, I would have had many frustrated users unable to access the course or parts of the course. I know there is still room for great improvement, which I feel I can do with help from our marketing and C&I teams.
How has the testing impacted your alignment of outcomes activities and assessment?
I wanted all teachers to be able to use Waterford data to inform and improve instruction. The knowledge transfer can not happen if my course didn't allow access to locked pieces of the course. I also feel that the real-world video examples added a great deal to the discussion experience.
How will you address the infrastructure, system, and support needs and issues the learner may face?
The teachers I'll be guiding and supporting with have my contact information as well as access to our partner success & technical support teams. We will meet live one day a week as a group with opportunities to meet 1:1 or with a smaller group later in the week. Many of the teachers involved will have more experience with Canvas than I do at this point, so I will be able to lean into learners to assist as needed.
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