For my e-learning environment I went on a bit of a journey deciding what the subject matter is going to be. My original idea (and why I plumped for the module) tied in with a 10-week course I wrote for a previous assignment. This course was an introduction to post-processing in the film/TV industry and had a very strong blended approach to the syllabus. My concept was to implement some of the more unique elements in what was (in my humble opinion) quite a novel approach.
However, to properly do what I wanted would require access to several proper VLE development tools, perhaps even some app development. It was getting to the point where it would become more of a development exercise than something focusing on the strengths of e-learning. As it turns out I couldn't do it anyway, as we have to use a specific tool to build our sites and it really wasn't up to the job - more on that in a later post.
Instead, I started looking through my teaching materials from some ten years of tutoring hoping to find a subject that would make sense in a VLE, but that wouldn't require me to spend excessive time creating teaching materials instead of concentrating on the learning experience. I flip-flopped on that multiple times, going through several different subjects from film production to memetics. I had to discount a lot of the subjects that involved use of creative apps such as Photoshop, as my materials were really only suited to delivery using the traditional model and I just didn't have the time to go through it all and update it.
In the end I chose front-end web development as the subject, based on a couple of reasons. For one, the subject matter was the same as the method of delivery (i.e. web pages) so it seemed like a good fit in a self-aware, meta sort of way. Secondly, though I hadn't taught the subject directly for a while I had previously been through the whole syllabus and updated it into what I considered a better, more engaging module. While the content is still a little outdated (the technology moves very quickly) the approach I'd taken seemed to fit well with the concept of blended learning.
So there's my choice. My e-learning site will cover front-end web scripting, namely how to write HTML and CSS to create websites. The module originally also went on to cover JavaScript in semester two, but I think the first semester's content should be fine to demonstrate the concept and implementation.
However, to properly do what I wanted would require access to several proper VLE development tools, perhaps even some app development. It was getting to the point where it would become more of a development exercise than something focusing on the strengths of e-learning. As it turns out I couldn't do it anyway, as we have to use a specific tool to build our sites and it really wasn't up to the job - more on that in a later post.
Instead, I started looking through my teaching materials from some ten years of tutoring hoping to find a subject that would make sense in a VLE, but that wouldn't require me to spend excessive time creating teaching materials instead of concentrating on the learning experience. I flip-flopped on that multiple times, going through several different subjects from film production to memetics. I had to discount a lot of the subjects that involved use of creative apps such as Photoshop, as my materials were really only suited to delivery using the traditional model and I just didn't have the time to go through it all and update it.
In the end I chose front-end web development as the subject, based on a couple of reasons. For one, the subject matter was the same as the method of delivery (i.e. web pages) so it seemed like a good fit in a self-aware, meta sort of way. Secondly, though I hadn't taught the subject directly for a while I had previously been through the whole syllabus and updated it into what I considered a better, more engaging module. While the content is still a little outdated (the technology moves very quickly) the approach I'd taken seemed to fit well with the concept of blended learning.
So there's my choice. My e-learning site will cover front-end web scripting, namely how to write HTML and CSS to create websites. The module originally also went on to cover JavaScript in semester two, but I think the first semester's content should be fine to demonstrate the concept and implementation.
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