Module 0: Overview

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • Describe what to expect in the course.
  • Identify the course focus and learning objectives.
  • Contemplate the reasons why you should participate in this course.
  • Extend this course experience through the use of social media.
  • Review data that illustrates basic education gaps globally and in the U.S.
  • Describe the instructional need we are targeting in our course projects.
  • Explain our focus on the U.S. College and Career Readiness Standards.
  • Identify the primary exams for high school equivalency in the U.S.
  • Differentiate the processes that comprise the basic design cycle we will be using in this course.
  • Examine information about research being conducted in this course.

Topics

Topics covered in this module include:

  • Course focus and learning objectives
  • What to expect in this course
  • Reasons why you should participate in this course
  • Extending the course conversation on Social Media
  • Education as a human right, and gaps in fulfilling that aim
  • The adult basic education instructional need we are targeting
  • Our focus for the course projects
  • Pathways for high school equivalency in the U.S.
  • College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS)
  • The basic design cycle
  • Research conducted during this course

Context Summary

This module offers an introduction to the course by describing the focus and learning objectives, as well what to expect during the next 6 weeks. We will contemplate the instructional need for adult basic education and pathways for high school equivalency for adult learners. In this project-based course, you will complete an instructional design project to support adult learners with low math and literacy skills seeking to acquire new knowledge and skills to pursue their life goals and career aspirations. Most of these adult learners have not completed high school, and are taking adult basic education courses as they prepare for careers, high school equivalency exams (i.e. the GED, HiSET, or TASC tests), or other adult basic education certifications.

The contextualized instruction you will evaluate targets the knowledge and skills needed to be life, career, or college ready, and focuses on authentic contexts, problems, and tasks the learners will encounter in real life. You are able to select the instructional materials you will evaluate from the roster of open educational resources created in our prior instructional design courses. This instruction aligns with the College and Career Readiness Standards Links to an external site. (CCRS) that are the basis of high school equivalency exams and other adult basic education programs. The materials incorporate instructor guidance, as well as all necessary content presentation, learner practice, and assessment materials. We will also review the basic design cycle and instructional design process we are taking in this course, and review how we will incorporate these processes within the course modules.

Relevance to Practice

This project-based course will immerse you into a real-world authentic developmental evaluation challenge. As a service-learning experience, you will engage in the instructional evaluation and redesign of open educational resources (OER) to provide instructional materials to support instructors and learners in adult basic education programs. The start of any instructional design project begins with a need. This need may arise from an opportunity or a problem that instruction can help to solve. In the case of our instructional design project, the need is support for adult basic education for instructors and learners. At the end of this module, we will consider the developmental evaluation processes we will use in this course, including how we will (1) analyze important aspects of the instructional need, (2) synthesize the information we have gathered to generate possible design solutions, (3) simulate our design conceptions, (4) evaluate our draft designs, and (5) make final design decisions.

Key Terms

  • Instructional Design and Evaluate
  • Adult Basic Education
  • Open Educational Resources (OER)
  • Service Learning

Module Design Credit