To begin this review I want to simply say thank you for putting a great deal of time and energy into the development of this learning resource. After taking some time to work through your learning resource, it is clear to me that you have designed your course in a very thoughtful and well-organized manner. In order to clearly articulate my thoughts, I have structured my review of your work into several sections – a general overview of my experience using your learning resource, the outstanding aspects of your learning resource in my opinion, and the areas where I believe your learning resource could be improved. I followed along with the criteria provided by our Professor, Colin Madland, in order to pinpoint any areas of concern. Additionally, I have provided you with my personal experience, as a student, using your resource for the first time. I hope that this review is helpful in the further development of your learning resource, and please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any further questions regarding my review.
As a 25-year-old, able-bodied, university-educated native English speaker, I did have a general understanding of Parallel Structures (Parallelism) prior to using your learning resource. However, my knowledge of this concept was topical at first, as I understood in theory how to utilize Parallelism within my everyday sentence structures; however, I would not be able to identify Parallelism or define it if asked. Your learning resource provided me with an opportunity to learn the foundational aspects of this grammar concept in a clear, concise, and easy to follow manner. Because of the simplicity and organization of your learning design, as well as the ease with which I was able to navigate your website and resources, I personally enjoyed learning about this topic and was able to complete all required learning and assessments within a reasonable timeframe. I would like to encourage you to continue developing your learning resource, potentially as a means of teaching Parallelism in a more in-depth way, or at an advanced level for students once they have completed your introductory course, as it has already proved to be extremely helpful for me as a student. I might suggest that you elaborate upon your course even further in the months or years to come – possibly by teaching additional grammar concepts. I feel as though you really have done an outstanding job just teaching Parallelism on its own and I see significant potential for your learning design going forward.
You did an excellent job of providing students with an overview of your learning resource. The information you provided on your homepage regarding how to navigate through the website was easy to follow and proved to be very helpful when I first landed on your site. I often struggle to understand online course layouts when they appear to be cluttered or overwhelming. Therefore, I wanted to note that I found it particularly helpful that you chose to keep the information clear and concise on your landing page and outlined all important links (like the course outline, the about section, and where to find your lesson) in a bracketed clickable text. I think the ease of navigation throughout your entire website will ensure many more students are able to succeed in your course. Great Job!
I think your decision and rationale for choosing Direct Instruction in this learning resource was spot on. Especially when teaching this multi-layered grammar concept, it is essential for educators to break down the concept into smaller pieces and only allow students to move forward once they have a comprehensive understanding of what is being taught. Your assessments allow Direct Instruction to really take hold in this course. From simply identifying Parallelism in the non-graded quiz, to writing a blog post that uses Parallelism, and them responding to and identifying where classmates utilize Parallelism, your assessments clearly encourage students to follow a Direct Instruction approach to their learning.
As an educator, I acknowledge that it can be challenging to plan lessons and develop course timelines as the proficiency of our students in regards to our subject material can vary greatly across demographics. This can become a very notable struggle for learning designers when developing a course that accommodates students from a wide variety of backgrounds with diverse learning needs, such as yours. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I was unable to find any information regarding how long each activity should take students to complete and when they should be moving onto the next assessment. Might I suggest that you include this information for students? Because your course is highly specialized in one particular English grammar concept, you may want to consider the English language proficiency of each student when developing this timeline. This will ensure that your learning design supports all student needs by allowing students to work through the course at a pace that is proportional to their proficiency. In my opinion, this will lead to greater learning success for students within your course.
On another note, might I suggest that you provide students with a more robust grading rubric that potentially includes a plan for when and how students can expect to receive feedback from teachers? While this is not necessary to adjust, just simply a note I made in response to my experience in your course, I feel as though it would be extremely helpful for students to know when and how to expect feedback as an indicator of their performance. When building a learning design heavily centered around Direct Instruction, I worry that students will not know if it is appropriate to move onto the next assessment unless performance feedback is received!
To continue on, your course outline was clear and displayed all the necessary information. I feel as though your learning outcomes were well-articulated, and are achievable by students who are working through your course. I really appreciate how your learning outcomes and assessments encourage interactive learning not only between students and the material but also between students and their peers. Your unique approach encourages students to interact with their classmates writing samples, and in my opinion, will serve as an incredibly effective way for students to not only learn the core subject material but will also to foster curiosity and encourage some inquiry-based learning.
I think as educators and learning designers, we can sometimes become swept up in the logistics of our course designs, and this can often make our courses feel quite rigid in their approach to learning. However, I just want to mention that your course seems to have effortlessly found a way to combine both Direct Instruction and Inquiry-Based learning in a wonderfully harmonious way. Even though your main learning design is Direct Instruction, your assessments also provide students with an opportunity to write about their passions and share in the interests of their peers. I feel as though this will ultimately lead to some great (even if unplanned for!) Inquiry-Based learning.
Moreover, I really appreciate how you focused on the importance of designing your course for students of diverse learning needs and backgrounds. As you mentioned “international language students for example, might find themselves struggling when learning an additional language” and I completely agree that this is a very likely scenario when teaching a demographic of English language learners. Might I suggest that should time permit, you may consider additional barriers that this demographic may face when working through your course? For example, if your course is available to students located outside of Canada (perhaps international students who typically reside in Canada may be looking for additional ways to further their studies while stuck outside of Canada during the current global pandemic), there may be cultural barriers such as lack of access to internet or technology due to government policy, socioeconomic status, lack of family support or access to a safe learning environment. You might also consider social, psychological, physiological barriers that may affect a student’s ability to learn such as support from peers, student’s confidence levels, any physical disabilities, etc.
On another note, perhaps you may consider refining the specifics of your learner demographic. Although I think it is helpful that you expressed that your course is designed for students in college or university, I believe it may be more helpful for potential students to understand what you mean by the terms “highly educated” and “English language learners”. For example, should students already be fully proficient in the English language, or only partially proficient? Should students be entering university or finished university? Additionally, how will your course administrators determine if students are proficient in the English language? As we have already touched on, proficiency in subject material can vary greatly between demographics. A 13-year-old high school student may have a higher proficiency in the English language than a university-educated male in his late 50s. Therefore I think it may be helpful for students to have more detailed enrolment criteria, pre-requisite exam, or a self-assessment tool for students to use in order to determine if this course is right for them.
Overall I think you did an outstanding job on this learning design, and I have very little to critique or suggest you adjust. I learned a great deal about Parallelism within a relatively short period of time just by working through your course this afternoon. I highly suggest that you continue developing this learning design in the months and years to come as I feel as though it is one of the clearest and most organized English grammar learning designs that I have ever come across. I anticipate that this learning design has the potential to be utilized by native English speakers in high schools across North America, just as easily as it could be used by English language learners across the globe should the potential barriers I mentioned above be addressed. As previously noted it may be helpful to consider refining the specifics of your learner demographic and possibly creating some sort of assessment to gauge if this course is appropriate for students, before they register. Overall great job, this is a stellar learning design and I hope you continue to build upon it in years to come!