Lesson

One: Laying Your e-Course Groundwork

Welcome to your e-Course on how to write an e-Course! I assume youre here because you have a fabulous idea for an e-Course of your own. Im pleased to join with you to guide you through the process. Goals for This e-Course: You will write a solid, effective first lesson of your e-course. You will construct the assignments that go with the first lesson of your e-course. You will have a clear understanding regarding how to go forward in writing the remainder of your e-course. Goals for Lesson One: Do the pre-work required for writing an e-Course Organize your thoughts Outline the e-Course e-Course Groundwork Notebook paper and pen OR a word processing window Reference materials youd like to use with your students If youre working on notebook paper: Tape TASK ONE: Gather all materials needed Approximate Time Required for Lesson One: 1-2 hours (Page Break) How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com Materials Needed for Lesson One:

 You may be an e-course expert, having taken many yourself, or you may be new to this world. So that we begin with shared understanding, lets define what an e-course is, and, as importantly, what it is not.

What an e-course is:

A class or subject like the kind you took in school. Think of a math class. At the beginning of the year you learned to add, then later you learned to multiply. Your teacher, of course, knew more about math than adding and multiplying, however, s/he taught you only what you needed to know to accomplish the goals of the course. A series of mini-lessons with goals and assignments. In your math class on day one you were introduced to the + sign. The next day you learned what the sign could do and you practiced with your teacher. The following day your teacher assigned you to try adding on your own. By day three, your teacher had taken you through three lessons. Thats what a typical e-course is. It is a short series of lessons landmarked with tasks, or assignments, for the learner to complete. Its through assignments that ask the student to apply the knowledge youre teaching that learning is solidified.

What an e-course isnt:

An essay or series of essays. You learned in math by doing. Thats what an e-course is too. An instructor provides information and scaffolding so that the student can apply learning on their own. A teacher teaches, then gives students tasks to complete using what theyve just learned. (Page Break)

Identifying Your Learners

How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 You have understanding surrounding a topic that others would also like to understand. As you approach your e-course, its vital to be aware of the knowledge that your students already posses in regards to your topic. The base knowledge of your students may be very basic; or they may be coming to you with misconceptions and/or biases; or they may know quite a bit about your topic; or they may teach your topic themselves. Before embarking on this teaching journey, you have to identify your students. This step is crucial because it will help you filter the information you plan to teach. If your students are novices, youll necessarily need to set aside many of the more complex concepts you love. If your students are more experienced, youll need to move quickly through any background information in order to meet your students at their level. TASK TWO: 1. Fill in rows 1 and 2 on e-Course Groundwork. Be clear and specific. If you need to come back and change anything later, you can. Example:
How to write Those who Some with Audience Some with Some with Some with

Topic

an e-Course wish to write a successful e-Course on a specific topic basic writing experience and confidence very little formal writing experience nor confidence formal teaching experience very little formal teaching experience

If you find that identifying your audience is hard, it may be because you feel that one specific audience may limit the information youd like to share. For example, perhaps I feel that Id like to include instruction in this course regarding specific educational protocols, but that a more entry-level student may not be interested in, or ready for, this information. Its good to be aware of this and account for it. Consider starting a list of potential e- courses youd like to teach in the future. This will give you a place to put the more complex topics youd like to explore with students; save it for a future course. Teach entry-level concepts to entry-level students. Reserve more heady elements of your expertise for a course directed to those students. (Page Break) How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 The next step is imperative for your success as an e-course instructor. We must acknowledge that organization is absolutely essential in writing an e-course. A teacher may have knowledge, however if it isnt presented in an orderly, clear manner, learning will not take place. Imagine your home and then imagine a brand-new restaurant on the other side of town. You may want to go to the restaurant, however if city planners constructed roads that go in circles, are too narrow or unsafe for cars/bikes/people to pass through, and if the restaurant doesn't have bike racks or a parking lot, chances are that you wont go to try out this new menu. Having a destination isnt enough. Its essential that you, as the teacher, lay roads that are wide, straight, open, and clearly marked so that your students can easily travel to the destination. The two greatest factors in the success of your e-course will be your organization and your knowledge. With the import of organization in mind, the next step may seem daunting, but if we break it into pieces and do it together, its not a big deal, yet its invaluable in helping you to organize where youll go next. TASK THREE: (Read these directions all the way through before beginning.) 1. Set a timer for five (5) minutes.

2. On your notebook paper or your e-Course Groundwork document (if youre typing into it), youre going to generate a list of all of the elements of your topic that youd like to teach to the audience indicated in your e-Course Groundwork document. Be as specific as you can and allow your list to be as long as it needs to be. How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 Hints: Dont worry about spelling/grammar. Dont worry about the order of the contents on your list. Write in fragments instead of complete sentences. Think about the background knowledge with which your audience is coming. Once you begin writing, dont let your pen/fingers stop. If your ideas run dry, write, More ideas are coming. Write it 10 times if you have to. Eventually more specific ideas will come. If you follow this protocol, youll generate a fairly complete list. You may find it helpful to use bullet points or a numbered list. Example: (The brainstorm section here contains only a short snippet of my full brainstorm. The full brainstorm ended up being 1 pages in length.)
How to write an e-Course Those who wish to write a successful e-Course on a specific topic TASK Some with basic writing experience and confidence TWO Audience Some with very little formal writing experience nor confidence Some with formal teaching experience Some with very little formal teaching experience 1. Brainstorm 2. Anticipate their questions 3. List big topics and break them down into smaller pieces 4. Teaching someone with zero expertise on something youve had years to understand 5. Scaffold every teaching a. Give them something to do TASK Brainstorm 6. Not an essay THREE 7. Lesson chunks are determined by skills. One skill = one lesson 8. Make examples understandable by people from many backgrounds and experiences 9. Activate schema a. Prepare for learning b. Present the learning c. Reinforce the learning

Topic

Ill see you in five minutes. J (Page Break) How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

Welcome back! How did it go? I wish I could hear your answer J How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 Now youre ready to filter into individual lessons the information youd like to teach. TASK FOUR: (If you created your brainstorming list on notebook paper . . . ) 1. Cut (yes, with scissors) your list into strips, each idea you wrote being on its own strip. 2. On another piece of paper write Lesson One, Lesson Two, etc. up to Lesson Eight. (It may not be that you end up needing eight lessons. Thats okay. At this point youre giving yourself options. Well whittle your e-course to the appropriate number of lessons later.) 3. Next to or under each lesson label, write the tentative title of this specific lesson. For example: In this e-course I wrote, Lesson One: Groundwork. Youll be able to change these titles as you need/want to. 4. Cut the lesson labels into strips. 5. Rub the little red spots on your fingers from your scissors if you need to. J 6. On the floor or on a large, clear table spread out your lesson labels. 7. Take each brainstorming strip and place it under a lesson label. Hints: Allow the lessons to grow in complexity, meaning, place the most basic information under Lesson One and the most complex information under Lesson Eight. Place like-information together. For example, if youre teaching about plant care, place all information about watering containers together. Take your time. How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 (If you created your brainstorming list on e-Course Groundwork . . . ) 1. Open a new word processing window. Arrange the windows on your computer so that you can see both your new document and your brainstorm.

2. Save your new document as Lesson Organization. 3. On Lesson Organization create a table with eight boxes. Label each box, Lesson One, Lesson Two, etc. up to Lesson Eight. (It may not be that you end up needing eight lessons. Thats okay. At this point youre giving yourself options. Well whittle your e-course to the appropriate number of lessons later.) 4. Next to or under each lesson label, write the tentative title of this specific lesson. For example: In this e-course I wrote, Lesson One: Groundwork. (Youll be able to change these titles as you need/want to.) 5. Drag each individual brainstorming bullet over to your table and place it under the appropriate lesson label. 6. When youre done, copy and paste your lesson organization table into your e-Course Groundwork document. Hints: If you want to keep your brainstorming list and create your lesson organization, you may need to copy and paste instead of drag. Allow the lessons to grow in complexity, meaning, place the most basic information under Lesson One and the most complex information under Lesson Eight. Place like-information together. For example, if youre teaching about plant care, place all information about watering containers together. Take your time. (Page Break) How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 Youve now got a rough outline for tentative lessons. We need to make your lesson titles and the information in that lesson more concrete and permanent. We also may need to slim down the number of lessons in your e-course from eight to a more appropriate number. Go down the following task list in order. Do as many of these tasks as you need to. In writing the e-course youre taking, I did them all. Allow yourself to be meticulous here. Take your time. TASK FIVE: 1. Read through the items in each list and move any that you need to. 2. Re-label the lesson titles. 3. Add additional lesson content that youve thought of since doing your brainstorm. 4. If you have two consecutive lessons with few items each, consider combining them into one lesson. 5. If you have a lesson with a lot more items in it than the others, consider breaking it into two lessons. Create a new lesson label with title as needed and slide the appropriate content into position. 6. Take your number of lessons from eight to whatever number is more appropriate. 7. Go though each list and order the contents logically. So, take the most basic information and put it at the top of the list. Structure the list so that it grows more complex as it descends. If youre teaching a process or skill, order your content according to what your student will do first, second, etc. As you do this, remove anything content you decide you dont need or that is redundant. 8. *** If your lists are on the floor or table, either run a long strip of tape from the lesson label to the last strip of content, or paperclip your list in order with the lesson label on top. This will help keep your list in order. Youll be referring to this list again later. (Page Break) How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 How did it go? I hope that you have organized, fairly completed lists and that youre beginning to see the first glimmers of your e-course taking shape. Before youre ready to begin drafting your first lesson, there are a few more things to be done. As a career educator, Ive spent many years in classrooms. During this time Ive learned first-hand that what educational researchers say is true, students need to know both the objective (what theyll learn) and purpose (why theyll learn it) of a lesson before they begin. If you allow students to see the end from the beginning, your learning rate will be much higher than if you go with the just-trust-me approach. Objectives If you think about the e-course youre taking now, we began on page one with Goals for This e-Course and Goals for Lesson One. These goals are the objectives. Presenting you with the goals/objectives before we began allowed you, the learner, to see exactly where we would be going. It showed you what to expect. When you read those objectives, you most likely had an emotional and logical reaction as you acknowledged either, Yes, this is what I want to learn, or This may not be what Im looking for. Either way, it allowed you to understand the direction and to become an active learner. Purpose At each point along the way youve been completing tasks, or steps in the process of writing an e-course. Before each task I explained why the particular assignment was important and what it accomplished. These explanations are the purposes. It allows the learner to see the tasks as important in their learning. It shows them that their time and efforts will take them closer to the objectives, or goals, they are moving toward. Presenting the purpose to your students erases the possibility of the dreaded busy work label. Ugh. The next step for you in writing your e-course is to define the objectives for each lesson youve outlined. The easiest way to do this is to complete the sentence, By the end of this lesson students will be able to . . . . Notice that the sentence says students will be able How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 to, which implies a new skill. Youre teaching knowledge. What do you want your students to be able to do with their new knowledge? There is not a set number of objectives that are appropriate for any given lesson. Most lessons that Ive worked with have objectives ranging in number from about 3-7. TASK SIX: (If youre working with notebook paper . . . ) 1. Record the lesson title and objectives for each lesson on e-Course Groundwork in the areas indicated. (If youre working with a computer . . . ) 1. Either record the lesson title and objectives for each one on your e-Course Groundwork document in the areas indicated, or add your objectives to your table. Be sure to begin your objectives with Students will be able to . . . . You should already have your lesson titles in place on your table. (Page Break)

How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 You are laying a solid foundation for an outstanding e-course. The groundwork youre placing will create success in your classroom. The last thing to do is to return to the lists youve created one more time. This time, go with the supplementary materials you want to reference, the stories you want to tell, the analogies you want to share, etc. You wont be creating a comprehensive listyoull always be able to add to or take from it later. TASK SEVEN: (If youre working with notebook paper . . . ) 1. On individual strips of paper write individual supplementary materials. 2. On the same strip record the source from which your information comes. 3. Include a page number or file name so that you can easily locate it later. 4. Tape the strip to the side of the content/objective with which youd like to use it. (If youre working with a computer . . . ) 1. Either record the supplementary materials next to your lesson add your supplementary materials to your table. 2. Record the source from which your information comes. 3. Include a page number or file name so that you can easily locate the supplementary material later when youre writing the lesson.

How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com

 Hints: Youre writing to an audience of very diverse backgrounds and experience. Use stories and analogies to which a large majority of people will relate. Steer clear of anything politically, religiously, or sexually basedeven in jest. Keep supplementary materials g-rated. Having sources for your information will give you validity, as well as protect you from copyright infringement. If you use a quote, statistic, fact, etc. provide a citation. Common knowledge does not need to be cited. (Examples of common knowledge: the barometer drops before a storm; self-talk can drastically affect emotions; joints can be affected by high-impact exercise.) Congratulations! Youve laid the groundwork for a fabulous e-course!

Keep all of the documents youve created in this lesson. Well pick up with them in the next lesson as you create the first lesson of your e-course. End lesson one How to Write an e-Course: Lesson One Laying Your e-Course Groundwork www.ihaonlinecampus.com