What are the processes necessary to create a lesson that students can access anytime, anywhere?

Introduction Task Module One Module Two Module Three Module Four

Introduction

A team of teachers in your school district have made the decision to provide the students access to internet research which is well-planned, safe, and available anytime, and anywhere. To meet each of these requirements, it is determined that each teacher would create a lesson which can be accessed via the internet.

You are creating your very first online lesson. You have many questions:

How do I do this? What types of activities would enhance the online learning experience? What have others created? What are the processes I should follow to help create a powerful lesson online?

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Task

Your task is to create an online research module in your curricular area. This task will require you to research how to begin creating an online lesson, determine activities or sites that will enhance the online learning experience, review what others have already done, learn the actual process of building the online lesson, and finally, to actually create your own online research module. What you will accomplish is a mode for students to access the internet for research in a guided, safe format, anytime, and anywhere. 

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Module 1

How do you build an online lesson? 

Building an Online Interactive Lesson requires some time to develop that lesson prior to entering it on the website. There are many alternatives for creating an online lesson, but Bernie Dodge and Jamie McKenzie provide two of the best examples. 

Module Maker is a site developed by Jamie McKenzie that walks you through the process of developing an online learning module such as I am using for this learning experience. http://questioning.org/module/module.html

WebQuest is another name given to research modules utilized by many throughout the world. Bernie Dodge, Professor of Educational Technology, San Diego State University, has written many articles and has a website dedicated to the process of creating webquests. <http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/bdodge.html>

To help focus on the building process, the following eight steps can be the foundation upon which to begin.

The eight steps to building an online lesson

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Module 2

What types of activities would enhance the online learning experience? 

A  research module requires not only written text, but a variety of activities that will promote the learning process. These activities can be in the form of communication, online resources, problem-solving activities, online tours, and much more. Your next step will be to view the link below to determine what types of activities you might consider including in your lesson.

Projects

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Module 3

What have others created? 

View other sites which contain webquests and online learning modules. Start developing ideas for your lesson by critiquing others.

Ryan Phillip’s Research Module on Research Modules:

http://www.tie.net/train/ryan/lesson1.html

 Research Module Process by Marcia Torgrude and Ryan Phillips:

http://www.slimbuttes.com/researchmodules/index.html

Thinkquest

http://www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html

Webquests

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html

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Module 4

What are the processes I should follow to help create a powerful lesson online?

The process of building a webquest involves the following steps:

  1. Introduction
  2. Task
  3. Process
  4. Resources
  5. Evaluation
  6. Conclusion

To learn about the building blocks of a WebQuest –

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/webquest/buildingblocks.html

Begin building your lesson. If you build a basic template to use with each of your lessons, the process becomes very simple.

FrontPage is a common program used for this process, but there are many alternatives to use. 

Post your online module on the web if you have that access or ask your webmaster to post your lesson on the school's website for your students to access. 

Congratulations! You have truly experienced the internet for research for yourself and for your students. 

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