Brainstorm and Initial Course Analysis

Decide what the focus of your course will be. If possible, use a subject with which you are familiar. In the weeks to come, you will build a two-module course based on the topic you choose. Think of it as a short course that students will complete in a couple of weeks. You will be creating presentations, discussion prompts, learning activities, and quizzes, so you want a viable topic you are already very familiar with. If you have some ideas but are unsure, email your instructor to get input on the topic(s) you have in mind.

If you recall, throughout the Online Education Specialization, you've already designed various course elements and added them to your ongoing CourseSites course. You can use this material if you wish, as a starting point for the course you will design and build in the upcoming weeks.

In a Word document, answer the following questions:

What is the subject matter of the course?----Texas History

What is the goal/overall purpose of the course?

Who is your target audience for the course?---7th Grade

Will students need any prerequisite knowledge coming into the course? If so, what?

What types of activities could you foresee the students completing?

What types of instructional materials might you use?

What will your late work policy be?

What grading scale will you use?

Please keep in mind that what you are doing in this assignment is brainstorming, and that nothing is "set in stone." For example, you may come up with ideas here for the types of activities you'd have your students complete, but once you start designing the course you might find that the activities don't work well. As a result, you'll come up with activities that are more appropriate. That is part of the instructional design process.

Write Course Objectives

Write three to five course objectives and add them to the Word document you created. These are the three to five things that students will know or be able to do upon completing the course. In EDU602, you practiced writing objectives, so you can leverage what you used there or create new ones.

Important things to remember about objectives:

Objectives should be clear

Objectives should be measureable