Skip to main content

USMx: LDT300x Instructional Design: Digital Media, New Tools and Technology

UMUC IDT 300x course logo

IDT300x Instructional Design and Technology: Digital Media, New Tools, and Technology

Course Syllabus
March 12, 2019 – May 6, 2019

About the Course

Instructional designers today have a tremendous number of tools and resources available to them to create highly engaging courses. Social media, digital video, and freely available online instructional resources and applications connect and engage people in new, and exciting ways.  When creating online learning experiences, instructional designers integrate and infuse these digital tools and digital content in ways that engage and connect learners to course content.

In this course, you will explore the design, development, and integration of digital media to enhance the learning experience, how to evaluate multimedia projects, and investigate the changing world of copyright and licensing and its influence on Open Educational Resources.

Course Facilitators
  • Doug Brtek, Ed.D.
    Dr. Brtek over 15 years of experience of online course design, development, and evaluation across the corporate learning and development and higher education fields.
  • Ms. Denise Dicks.
    Denise has extensive experience of learning design principles through her experience in the corporate learning and development field. Denise completed her Master’s degree in Education in 2018.
Prerequisites

The first two courses in the Instructional Design and Technology MicroMaster's program, Instructional Design and Technology: Learning Theories and Instructional Design: Instructional Design Models, are highly recommended to take prior to this course although not required.  All course materials are presented in English.

Schedule

The course will begin on March 12, 2019, and run for 8 weeks. Each week, new content will be released. Weekly knowledge checks and discussions will be released along with course content. The course ends May 6, 2019, UTC. You will have until that day (11:59 PM UTC) to complete all learning activities. Verification Upgrade Deadline is approximately one month after the course begins – April 9, 2019.

Students should plan to spend between 4-6 hours each week to fully complete each of the following weekly modules. 

        • Week 1: Digital Media Use, OER and Creative Commons
        • Week 2: Technology Tools & Digital Text
        • Week 3: Digital Images & Editing
        • Week 4: Instructional Design Strategy; Video, Video Editing Tools & Accessibility Requirements
        • Week 5: Instructional Design Strategy: Screecasting & Animation
        • Week 6: Audio for E-learning
        • Week 7: Author Tools: Interactive Learning
        • Week 8: Portfolio Design & Signature Assignment Submission
Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will learn:

  • How to design and use digital instructional materials to enhance online teaching and learning
  • Curriculum design techniques to develop technology-enhanced learning experiences
Topics Covered in Each Weekly Module
  • Week 1: Digital Media Use, OER and Creative Commons
    In this first module, we begin with the foundational understanding and use of digital media used for today’s learners.   This week we’ll explore types of digital media, Open Educational Resources (OER) and licensing: copyright and Creative Commons
  • Week 2: Technology Tools & Digital Text
    In module two, we will take a deeper look at some more specific digital technology tools used to create engaging text based media.  We’ll look at applying visual design principles to create engaging and effective handouts, digital books, infographics and other text based media.
  • Week 3: Digital Images & Editing
    There are several different types of images, png to gif to jpg, what to use? Where? Why?  This week we will investigate digital images, image editing, and publishing based on different intended uses.  
  • Week 4: Instructional Design Strategy; Video, Video Editing Tools &
    This module and the module in week 5 will focus exclusively on digital video.    Instructional design is as much about telling a story as it is creating an impactful learning opportunity.  If you are going to infuse technology in your learning, you better know how to properly storyboard it, develop it, include accessibility tools, and publish your video.  Week 4 is about storyboarding, video tools, and accessibility. 
  • Week 5: Accessibility Requirements & Instructional Design Strategy: Screecasting & Animations
    This module is an extension of Week 4 introduction on video by including conversations around accessibility and an additional video strategy, screencasting, and creating video animations.
  •  Week 6: Audio for E-learning
    There are many types of learners. Some do well with kinesthetic, hands-on assignments, while others need visual aids to retain information. Some learn best through the arts, while others need a more logical approach. Audio learning adds so many important elements to the overall learning experience and use of digital media tools.  In this module, you will explore some examples of effective digital media for creating audio files for teaching and learning. 
  • Week 7: Author Tools: Interactive Learning
    Module seven will focus on the digital media use associated with author tools for developing interactive e-learning.  In this module, you will explore different technologies used in the development interactive modules.   
  • Week 8: Portfolio Design & Signature Assignment SubmissionAs you have noticed with each module in this course, each one has become more technical than the previous and the final module will continue this pattern in your exploration of video editing tools.  In this final week you will have an opportunity to update your MicroMaster’s program and complete your final signature assignment.
Grading Policy

Each week, new content will be released. You will be able to view all material and take any knowledge checks at any time after the content is released. In order to be awarded a certificate, you will need to have completed all learning activities by 11:59 PM UTC on May 6, 2019, when the course closes.

Certification

If you have not selected the course certification option, the verification upgrade deadline is one month after the course begins – April 9, 2019.   Verified students must meet the 80% cut-off to earn a certificate. Grades are calculated as explained below.

Overall Grade

Grades for verified learners will be based on: Weekly activities (10%), Knowledge Checks (30%), the Signature Assignment (50%) and updating your portfolio (10%).

    • Weekly Activities

During the course you will design and develop projects to demonstrate understanding of course content.  Many of the projects are developed weekly allowing for feedback and updates to improve content acquisition.  Monitoring of these activities will be available through self-reports in Weeks 4 and 8. These are graded components and worth 10% of your grade.

    • Knowledge Checks

Knowledge Checks have been developed to reinforce your understanding of specific content throughout the course.  These are graded components and worth 30% of your grade.

  • Signature Assignment

The Signature Assignment for this course combines all the concepts you have explored in the program. During the signature assignment, you will be required to apply information and concepts covered in this course. Please see the Signature Assignment handout for a complete breakdown of the assignment requirements. Completion of the signature assignment is required for all candidates enrolled in the MicroMasters certificate program. This is a graded component and worth 50% of your grade.

  • Signature Assignment Design Tip: Review IDT 400x Course Evaluation and Capstone Project Course

For those of you continuing on to the final course in the MicroMasters program, IDT 400x Course Evaluation and Capstone Project Course, you should review the course syllabus and the requirements for the final Capstone project.  In the final Capstone Project, you will be creating an online course.  You can use content developed in IDT 300x to support your final capstone project.  Therefore, you might want to think long term a choose a topic to develop content for in this course that might apply to your fully developed online course. Of course you do not have to, this is only a suggestion.  Prior IDT 400x syllabus and capstone project requirements listed in the Course Handouts section.

  • Portfolio Update

In IDT 100x Instructional Design: Learning Theories you created a portfolio shell and have been adding content throughout the program.  Update your portfolio with your newly designed digital content from this course along with your rational for how it supports content development.  You can create a separate page for your content, create multiple pages, or have a new site, that is up to you.  Your content must be published and available online.  You will post the URL for your content by the end of Week 8.  If you have yet to take 100x, there is a module in the Course Orientation to help you design and publish an online portfolio site.

  • Discussions

Some of the weekly modules have discussion questions or discussion postings associated with the weekly activity.  Discussion responses will not be graded, but active participation in discussions provides us with an incredible resource of viewpoints, and we want to take full advantage of this diversity in our discussions. Course facilitators and the course TA will not reply to every discussion post. They will monitor the discussions, highlighting important posts and clarifying concepts as needed.   The instructors will be following the same schedule for due dates of discussions, as follows:

  • If there is a discussion post for the week, your initial posting should be completed by 11:59 PM UTC the Wednesday of the week.  
  • Follow-up discussions and postings, if required, should be completed by 11:59 PM UTC the Sunday of the week.  

Please consider the following when you post:

Guidelines

  • Active participation is critical.  We are all learning together and you will get out of the discussions what you put into them.
  • Assume the best intentions from your classmates.  If in doubt, please contact your course facilitator or course instructor about specific concerns.
  • Posts should be written in your own words. If you include a quote or reference, when possible also provide a citation (book, URL, etc).
  • Before posting, search the Discussion for similar questions or comments.
  • Use evidence instead of personal attacks when you respond to a post with which you disagree.  You can choose to support good posts and ideas if you click on the green plus button to upvote a post.

Logistics

  • Please limit your posts/responses to a maximum of 400 words (by request of edX).
  • A blue star on a post means a member of the course staff has endorsed it.
  •  If you see an inappropriate post, flag it instead of adding your own commentary.

If you are new to APA guidelines, Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a wonderful overview of how to use APA guidelines to cite resources: http://owl.english.purdue.edu.  Attribute: The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL).

_____

Certificates

For those of you working to obtain MicroMasters certificate, you need to complete all activities and discussions for the 8 weeks of the course and complete all required colleague follow postings. Additionally, you will need to design, develop, and publish your signature assignment and post it to the course by the end of Week 8. Reminder, that there is one required discussion post and follow up requirement during Week 8 for verified students.

Online students who have upgraded to verified and achieved a passing grade in Instructional Design and Technology: Course Evaluation and Capstone Project will earn a Verified Certificate. These verified certificates indicate that you have successfully completed the course but will include a specific grade. Many students add their certificates to resumes, CVs, or LinkedIn profiles to demonstrate mastery of a given subject area to potential employers. Certificates are issued by edX under the name of UMUC and are delivered through your dashboard on edx.org.

The Verified Certificate costs $199 to administer and requires you to complete the ID Verification process. That means that you must verify your identity with a webcam and a government-issued photo ID. Click Upgrade to Verified under the course name on your edX dashboard to complete this process.

If you are interested in earning a UMUC MicroMasters Credential in Instructional Design and Technology, you must successfully pass and receive a Verified Certificate in each of the 4 courses in the Instructional Design and Technology Micromasters program:

  • IDT100x Instructional Design and Technology: Learning Theories
  • IDT200x Instructional Design Models
  • IDT300x Instructional Design: Digital Media, New Tools and Technology
  • IDT400x Instructional Design: Course Evaluation and Capstone Project

We urge you to consider the Verified Certificate option. You have limited time to become a Verified Certificate student. See the edX FAQ for more details on certificates.

Instructional Design and Technology: Course Evaluation and Capstone Project is part of the UMUC Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters program. The UMUC Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters Program is a graduate level series of courses designed to provide you with the in-depth knowledge and skills needed to be an instructional designer. This four course online sequence is equivalent to two courses worth of work from UMUC's Learning Design and Technology program for a total cost of $796.

By earning the MicroMasters credential you will develop the knowledge and skills identified in the “what you’ll learn” bullets on the program landing page and within each course. Build on your MicroMasters Credential by applying to the Learning Design and Technology program at UMUC. 

Take Your Credential To The Next Level

Learners who successfully earn the MicroMasters Credential are eligible to apply to UMUC's Learning Design and Technology program for graduate level credential options. The MicroMasters Credential will count for 12 credits in the Learning Design program, the Learning Design and Digital Pedagogy course (6 Credits, LDT 610) and Learning Design, Media, and Emerging Technologies course (6 Credits, LDT 620).

For more information and to enroll in other courses in the UMUC Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters programs, visit link to edx.org.