Youxin's+Course+Description+and+Analysis

Module 1:
**Module 1: Youxin's Analysis of My Online Course ** **The Reason why I chose this course **As a non-native English speaker, we usually feel a sense of embarrassment that we can communicate with native English speaker fluently in English, but feel difficulty in knowing the connotation, experiencing the same feeling and the laughing point behind each expression, idiom, or jargon.The primary task for us, especially international students who study abroad for many years, is try our best to acquaint the background of culture, familiar with the idiomatic expressions, gain a comprehensive understanding of the language.I know this course is a 'super easier' one for anyone whose mother tongue is English, however, it is not a plain home cooking for those non-native speaker, like me. We have been learned English for more than 10 years which doesn't means we can express ourselves as the way an native-English speaker do. All those considerations contributed to my decision to highlight such keywords, like free English online course, on Google search. **Course Description **The course I have chosen to critique is an online English language course for advanced students (non-native English) who wish to build confidence and improve skills in English language learning. The course was divided into three areas: grammar, functions and vocabulary. Under each column, several modules were deployed by different focuses. The goal of the workshop was to develop effective and informative English language learning strategies for academic and professional contexts. It is valuable for those who intend to teach or lecture in English and includes English language assignments. **Course analysis ** This course could be modified by adding practical English language learning experiences in the context of real-world problems. It was obvious to see that an armchair strategist achieved nothing without a smell of powder. There wasn't a activation exercise in this online course. However, the vocabulary part, to some extent, played the role of activation. In this part, learners reviewed what have learn in the whole module through some games. These games could help learners recall existing knowledge and skills as foundation for new skills. Actually, the shortcoming of this online course was lack of integration for learners reflect on discuss, and defend their newly acquired skill.
 * ====**Demonstration: **The course in this website provided a systematic menu which guide you how to use those tool settings. A brief introduction listed on the top of the web page of each module to help you get a short insight for what will learn. The content were informative along with good examples. ====
 * ====**Application: **Each session demonstrated different emphasis. For example, Grammar part focused on basic grammar rules, language structures. Function part represented language rules through different purposes. Vocabulary part demonstrated the idiom with various emphasis, such as idiom of color. With the assistance of those tool bars, learners could save more time and chose what they desired to learn. Learners can use those newly acquired skill to solve problems that they encountered in their daily work and academic study. ====
 * ====**Problem Centered: **====
 * ====**Activation: **====
 * ====**Integration: **====

Welcome to critique on my online course analysis:




Module 2:
**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Module 2: Youxin's Analysis of The Online Course **

**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Requirement of the Assignment: **

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">For the course selected in Module 1 examine this course to see if you can identify each of the instructional strategies – information-about, part-of, kind-of, how-to, and what-happens. Did these instructional strategies include the prescribed instructional events? If some of the prescribed instructional events are missing see if you can design some of these missing instructional events. If some of the instructional strategies are not included in this course see if you can prescribe the inclusion of the missing instructional strategies.

**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Analysis of the online course: **

**//<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Information-about: //**

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Firstly, the information-about skill involved "the __name__ of the information, the __facts__ associated with the name, and any __graphic information__ associated with the name". With regards to this English language online course, the information-about component worked very well for giving the learner a clear navigation and a detailed description of the content at the very beginning of each module though asking learners to click the related graphic pictures on the web page. As a new beginner of this online course, it was a time-saving and effective way to get the main idea of each module straightforward.

**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> //Part-of:// **

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Secondly, the part-of skill involved "an __illustration__ of the whole object or system, a __location indicator__ for each part, a __name__ for each part and __information__ associated with each part". Usually, part-of skill not functioned as the leading role but a supportive role, as well as information-about strategy. In this course, the part-of skill does not included all the required properties as stated in the chapters. However, from my perspective, the post-test activity of this online course really help learners review all the teaching content and consolidate their foundations. Each exercise was different from the previous one in the last module so as to fulfill the goal of the teaching on the one hand, on the other hand, the interesting instructional design of the process attracted learners' attention to join the post-test and offer an opportunity to review what have learned for each time.

**//<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kind-of: //**

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Thirdly, the kind-of skill involved "the __name__ of the category, a __definition__, which is a list of discriminating properties and their values that determine class membership, a set of __examples__ from the class of objects, symbols, or events being taught including a portrayal or description showing the values on the discriminating properties". According to this English language learning online class, the instructional designer paid attention on the kind-of component skill because of it played a supportive role based on the principles of instructional strategies. Under each section, like Grammar or Function, a definition was given at the top of that web page so as to express a brief but a systematic introduction of the concept which are going to teach to the learners.

**//<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">How-to: //**

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Last but not least, the how-to skill involved "an object or situation to be modified by the procedure (the __task__), the __name__ of the procedure, a list of the __steps__ or activities for executing the procedure, the __sequence__ for executing the steps, a __demonstration__ of the task illustrating the individual activities or steps required, the __consequence__ of each step, and the __consequence__ of the completing the whole procedure". This online course provided a platform for learner to act on their environment in another way which called "Vocabulary". This is my favorite section in the whole process of that course because the course designer mixed the words with some funny places together to facilitate learners to memorize those words as a special way, not just posted those single English words separately which may looked like boring.

**//<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">What-happens: //**

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Finally, the what-happen skill involved "a specific situation to which a __process__ applies (a __problem__), the __name__ of the process, a set of __conditions__ that should lead to the consequence, and a __consequence__ resulting from the conditions. It seemed that there was no what-happen skill in this course.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">If I were the instructional designer of this course, I would like to add a what-happen component to offer the learner a authentic English language context to modify their own environment or to comprehend their environment. As we all known that, the best way to master a language is learning and speaking that language in a pure native-speaking language environment. If the conditions are prepared, then a good consequence maybe follows.

**<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Welcome to critique on my online course analysis: **

**<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Sean's critique of Youxin's course analysis: ****<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-align: left;">[|Sean’s Critique of Youxin’s Module 2.doc] **



**<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Module 3: Youxin's Analysis of The Online Course **

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does the course you selected in Module 1 involve problem solving? If it does, can you identify the content elements of the problem? If it does not, can you identify a problem for which this course teaches component skills? ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Unfortunately, the course I selected in Module 1 does not involve problem-solving. I do think this course would be a preliminary ESL lesson in teaching learners four component skills: how-to, information-about, part-of, and kind-of. It seems that the instructional designer of this online course intended to divide the content of lesson into three parts: before class, in class and after class. Throughout the course, the course information is presented by adopting a traditional instructional strategy—//Topic-centered instructional strategy// which teaches each component skill in turn//.// Grammar section of each module begins with an introduction to a branch of English language grammar. After grammar-learning, the learners can click the navigation button at the right side which means moves on to a function session. In this section, a how-to component skill is introduced. Then, learners can go to the vocabulary section to apply what have learned in grammar part to after-class exercises.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">For the problem you select, try to identify the content elements required by the problem you selected. Try to identify the prescribed instructional events required by the problem you selected. ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Content elements: l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step (how-to): Take grammar section as an example, this tutorial gives out the definition of Conditionals at the beginning,, then describes the ways of considering the conditional, gives some instance of conditional for learner to understand, states the grammar of the conditional, and how to moderating conditions at the end. l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Condition (what-happen): Actually, there is no condition element in this course. l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Properties: This element used to define a given instance. Based on this course, it has a property to offer the learner more conveniences. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Prescribed instructional events: <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">"Tell-C, Show-C, Tell-S, Show-S" ---Those are kind-of and how-to components.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">With the knowledge of instructional design goes further and further, I found this online course I chose for analysis was really "terrible bad" example. At the very beginning, I do think a bad online course example is a good thing for me to revise it with the guide of course textbook and Dr. Merrill's class. However, I feel a little frustrated now because it made me believed that there is no need to spent time to modify this "terrible" course design. I have to admitted that it was my fault to made that hasty decision at the initial stage of course-content choosing. I am planning to find another ESL online course so as to continue my individual analysis work.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Can you identify a progression of problems for the problem included in the course or for the problem you suggested for the course? Can you identify the component skills required by all of the problems in the progression? **  l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">create a more systematic and multiple navigation bars for learner to easily access each part of the lesson l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">more brief but definite learning goals in each module to help learners understand what they would learn l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">more exercises in the context of real-world l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">more various forms of activities (video, audio, pictures, PPT slide shows) and sections l <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">targeted learners of this online course should be more specific

====**LeeAnna's Critique of Youxin's Module 3:** Having looked at the online ESL course that Youxin selected, I agree it does seem to lack problem solving opportunities. While there is some Information-about it is explained in long paragraphs in English which might be challenging for ESL learners. There is some Part-of, Kind-of, and some How-to, but less What-if. However, this is an elementary ESL course, so I would not expect the learners to be able to imagine what they would say given different scenarios as they would be expected to if the What-if component were included.====

Sean's critique of Youxin's Module 3 Analysis: We can learn from bad courses as well as from good ones. I think here, Youxin has actually picked a good course to learn from. At first, it seemed to look good. But, as Youxin became more sophisticated with the concept of instructional design, she started to see that the structure was actually quite flimsy and not problem-centered at all. A question has arisen in my mind: Is a course that is not problem-centered OK? If the course has as it's goal the improvement of vocabulary, does it have to have a problem to center on? Maybe this is a course like that. But, if the course is meant to be one that makes a non-speaker of English proficient in this language, then a problem would be appropriate. Such a problem might be to successfully shop in an English-speaking store and buy some specific items, asking the clerk all sorts of questions and giving all sorts of descriptions.

Module 4:
** Module 4: Youxin's Analysis of the Online Course **

==**Examine the course you selected for Module 1. How did this course use multimedia to implement their instructional strategies? Did this course avoid irrelevant multimedia? Did this course use multimedia to effectively implement instructional events?**== ====To some extent, the course I selected for Module 1 use multimedia, not too much, to implement the instructional strategies. It avoided irrelevant multimedia so that effectively implement instructional events from my understanding.====

**Did this course use multimedia to indicate the format of the materials; to provide efficient navigation; and to provide for learner interaction with the content and instructional events?**
====As Dr. Merrill said in his textbook, the progress of learning is an active activity, rather than a textbook. In this online course, the designer used text to bullet the key points without an appropriate audio to elaborate there key points of the instructional events.====

The good things we can find in this online course are described as follows:

 * ====There is a navigation button (//next// & //previous//) for learners to control, so that learners can replay the display. Learner control of instructional content provided the mechanism for learners to preview material yet to be studied and to review material already studied.====
 * ====The designer adopted an effective use of graphics to provide a visual representation of the information on different instructional events.====
 * ====In this course, there is a format which provided a content menu for learner that allows them to access any of the related section.====
 * ====Use different style of fonts (headings, bold, italics) for helping learners differentiate among the elements of an instructional event.====
 * ====Use of pop-up message and bullet-points techniques to help learners grasp the key points of various instructional events.====

The limitations I found on this online course:

 * ====Without an attractive color, merely black and white of the background screen====
 * ====No space and technique (media, whiteboard, discussion panel, etc.) for learners to provide feedbacks ask questions or change ideas on this online course.====
 * ====Distracting animation====
 * ====Within few modules, it has too much text.====
 * ====Irrelevant color and information on screen====

Sean’s Comments for Youxin’s Module 4:

I liked the breakdown into good things and limitations. The limitations are the things I’d like to avoid in any course I design. The learner’s eye and mind have to be guided; the course designer has to keep that in mind as the course is prepared.

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