Considering studying for the H817 Masters course? See the assessment criteria and level of questions you’ll need to get past in order to pass this module.

Tutor-marked assignment TMA01

Length: 1500 words

H817 learning outcomes addressed

  • Understanding what constitutes openness and innovation in technology enhanced learning.
  • An appreciation of the key factors for evaluating innovation, which builds towards an understanding of the issues involved in the adoption of technology-based approaches.
  • Critically appraise the impact of innovations in a wide range of contexts.
  • Produce short scholarly written texts that articulate your ideas and arguments for using innovative technologies in a sound pedagogical manner.
  • Articulate the impact of technology enhanced innovation in your chosen contexts.
  • Demonstrate sensitivity towards the issues of usability, privacy and the social impact of innovative tools.

Assessment question

Imagine that you have been asked to produce a report about elearning innovation. The report has been requested by an education or training provider of your choice. Your report should provide an update on current developments and how they might be employed in the workplace.

Your report should include the following (please note that the maximum word counts are to assist with maintaining the balance within your report):

  1. A clear and concise introduction.
  2. definition of innovation in elearning. (100 words maximum).
  3. Three examples of innovation, which can be taken from module materials, discussions in your tutor group forum, or from your own experience or reading around this subject area. (400 words maximum).
  4. An explanation of why the chosen examples are innovative and how they might be used effectively in your organisation. (1000 words maximum).
  5. A clear and concise conclusion.
  6. Compile an accurate references list for your assignment. Please use the Harvard (author/date) system, which is the one used in the MAODE Programme. List your references at the end of your assignment, alphabetically by author, and by date within author, as explained in the referencing section of this Guide. Ensure you have properly cited each reference within your text.

 

Tutor-marked assignment TMA02

Length: 3000 words

H817 learning outcomes addressed

  • Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of open educational resources, open education, learning design and learning analytics through hands-on experience of these systems.
  • Choices that learners make about their own learning in their exploration of innovative technologies.
  • Critically evaluate differing arguments and explanations in the fields of learning analytics, learning design and open educational resources.
  • Develop your understanding of current innovative practice by actively examining a MOOC or other open educational resource.
  • Identify and explore the emergence of new practices with innovative technology.
  • An appreciation of the key factors for evaluating innovation, which builds towards an understanding of the issues involved in the adoption of technology-based approaches.
  • Produce short scholarly written texts that articulate your ideas and arguments for using innovative technologies in a sound pedagogical manner.
  • Articulate the impact of technology enhanced innovation in your chosen contexts.
  • Demonstrate sensitivity towards the issues of usability, privacy and the social impact of innovative tools.

Assessment question

Block 2 examines open education from a number of perspectives. The aim of this assignment is to provide a context for synthesising these views and drawing together the knowledge and experience you have acquired.

The format for the assignment is a report you are writing for senior management in an education or training context of your choice. They have heard about open education and want to develop a strategy regarding it. The institution in question can be drawn from your own experience, or you can invent one. It needs to be appropriate, so that the project headings set out below can be addressed in detail. The institution could be, for example, a university, a further education college, a commercial training provider, a publisher, a professional body or a community.

The senior management group you are preparing the report for has heard a lot about open education, but they have little experience of it. You have been charged with writing a briefing document about open education for them to consider. This should conclude with a recommendation for them to consider, but it is not a fully costed business proposal. This recommendation can be in favour of open courses, suggest a strategy for the production of OER, suggest engagement with other initiatives, propose a cautious approach or be any mixture you deem appropriate.

The proposal needs to follow the standard template, which has these sections. You should label each section with the headings listed below:

  • Executive summary: Brief, two paragraph summary of the report, not exceeding 500 words.
  • Background: Provide an overview of the area, the current research and developments in the subject area.
  • Policy: Describe your concluding recommendation in detail.
  • Benefits: Set out the key benefits open education could bring to the institution.
  • Risks: Set out the main risks (as you see them) of open education for the institution.
  • Resources: Outline any technology that is required, and any new roles and responsibilities that would be required for open education to be adopted in the institution.
  • References: Provide full references using the OU Harvard style of referencing for your report.

Tutor-marked assignment TMA03

Length: 2500 words

H817 learning outcomes addressed

  • Use a range of technologies to present your ideas and information to others.
  • Critically assess your own and peers’ work while understanding a collaborative learning design.
  • Participate in online networks and use your contributions and that of others to produce a coherent argument about current thinking in a given domain.
  • Critically reflect on your own practices of learning design.
  • Work collaboratively online to deliver a learning design product.
  • Produce short scholarly written texts that articulate your ideas and arguments for using innovative technologies in a sound pedagogical manner.
  • Articulate the impact of technology enhanced innovation in your chosen contexts.
  • Demonstrate sensitivity towards the issues of usability, privacy and the social impact of innovative tools.

Assessment question

Block 3 is designed as a group project, and the assessment will thus refer to the process and product of your work on the project. The formal assignment will consist of the following elements:

  1. The group project website (tutor-marked for whole group).
  2. Design narrative (up to 2500 words).

The group website should be based on the site template, as described in the module guidance, with pages added and removed as needed. It should include 15–20 pages, of approximately 300 words each, incorporating a variety of media as appropriate. The website should clearly present:

  • the context of your project
  • the challenge you addressed
  • your technical and pedagogical approaches
  • the artefacts you produced (e.g. activity plans, resources or tools)
  • the process by which these artefacts were devised
  • your evaluation of their quality and effectiveness.

You should not make any changes to the team website after the TMA submission deadline, even if you have an extension. The website provides the same mark for all team members so work must stop at the deadline. Your tutor has been asked to check that no changes have been made.

The design narrative should be a personal and accurate account of the group project experience. It should be based on the STARR model: Situation, Task, Actions, Results and Reflections. The main focus of the project is the design of learning. However, you will also want to comment on the group team work, such as overcoming time zone issues, effective communication and balancing contributions.

Your report should include the following sections, clearly labelled with the headings listed below:

  • Situation: Describe the key characteristics of your context.
  • Task: What was the main objective and educational aim that your group addressed? How was your group organised to satisfy this objective, and how did your individual beliefs, desires and intentions shape the project?
  • Actions: What actions did you undertake to address the challenge? What technical and pedagogical approaches did you take? What obstacles did you encounter and what effect did they have on the project?
  • Results: How did you achieve your aims and objectives? Were there any unexpected outcomes? Assess to what extent you achieved your objectives.
  • Reflections: Reflect on the whole design project experience and consider what lessons can be learned from it. Give a reflective account of your personal contribution to the project, supported by evidence such as forum postings.

The report should be supported with references to published sources, forum postings and other sources.

 

 

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Tutor-marked assignment TMA04

Length: 2500 words

H817 learning outcomes addressed

  • An appreciation of the key factors for evaluating innovation, which builds towards an understanding of the issues involved in the adoption of technology-based approaches.
  • Critically evaluate differing arguments and explanations in the fields of learning analytics, learning design and open educational resources.
  • Produce short scholarly written texts that articulate your ideas and arguments for using innovative technologies in a sound pedagogical manner.
  • Identify and explore the emergence of new practices with innovative technology.

Assessment question

Block 4 focuses on learning analytics. For this TMA you are required to discuss critically how learning analytics can be deployed to support learning.

The assignment is divided into three sections.

  1. Definition: Define learning analytics and identify the main practical implications of introducing them in your own context or in another (real or imagined) educational institution. Your answer should include a brief summary of relevant characteristics of your chosen context (for example, size of institution, educational level, access to technology and the internet).
  2. Justification: Set out and justify your view of the most important features of learning analytics and how these support learning most effectively in the context you have selected.
  3. Evaluation: Evaluate two examples of the use of learning analytics that you have encountered, in your work or in this block, on the basis of how well they support learning.

 

End-of-module assignment (EMA)

Length: 3100 words

The end-of-module project is the final assessment for H817 and takes the place of an examination for this module. It is marked out of 100 and carries 50 per cent of the overall module grade. In order to pass the module you must pass both this element and the continual assessment component.

The EMA is submitted at the end of the module. You are advised to look closely at the task and consider its requirements as you work through the module.

H817 learning outcomes addressed

  • Understanding what constitutes openness and innovation in technology enhanced learning.
  • Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of open educational resources, open education, learning design and learning analytics through hands-on experience of these systems.
  • Identify and explore the emergence of new practices with innovative technology.
  • Produce short scholarly written texts that articulate your ideas and arguments for using innovative technologies in a sound pedagogical manner.
  • Demonstrate sensitivity towards the issues of usability, privacy and the social impact of innovative tools.

Assessment question

In the module you have looked at innovations, open education, designing a learning activity and learning analytics.

For the final assessment there are two key elements:

  1. An evaluation of a key innovation in one of the areas of open education, learning design or learning analytics. The choice of the innovation is at your discretion, but the evaluation will follow a set template. (70 marks)
  2. dissemination strategy for your evaluation. To gain a readership for your work, how might you get others to find it and read it? Consider the tools you would use to create artefacts around your evaluation, which might help to raise awareness. This could include mailing lists, conferences and forums, but also online tools for video, document, audio or presentation sharing. Describe three artefacts that you would create to publicise and disseminate your report, providing a relevant example for each one. (30 marks)

Evaluation

The bulk of your EMA will be an evaluation of an innovation in one of the main topic areas of the module, namely open education, learning design or learning analytics.

You should choose an innovation that interests you and for which there is available research or evidence; for example you could choose MIT’s OpenCourseWare.

You need to write an evaluation of the initiative, which should comprise the following sections:

  • Overview: outline the innovation and its main contribution
  • Innovation: state why it was innovative
  • Background: outline the research and the work this innovation built upon
  • Outcomes and impact: what was produced and the impact it has had upon its particular field
  • Issues: highlight any problems or remaining issues around the innovation
  • Next steps: where does this innovation lead?
  • References: you should back up your evaluation with references. These may be drawn from a range of literature including journal articles, conference papers, blog posts, reports, etc. Use the Harvard style of referencing as set out in this Assignment Guide.

The length of each section will vary depending on your choice of innovation, but the overall length of your evaluation should not exceed 2500 words.

Assessment criteria

Marks will be allocated on the following basis:

  • Overview (10 marks)
  • Innovation (10 marks)
  • Background (15 marks)
  • Outcomes and impact (15 marks)
  • Issues (10 marks)
  • Next steps (5 marks)
  • References (5 marks)

Dissemination strategy

Having produced your evaluation you would then want to disseminate it. The aim of this is to highlight the key elements and also to attract attention to it. Imagine you are producing a report at the end of a research project and want to get people to read it (although, because you are submitting the evaluation report as an assignment, you won’t actually share it).

Describe three elements in your dissemination strategy. These can include items such as:

  • conference presentation
  • video
  • podcast
  • webinar
  • shared presentation
  • wiki
  • social media engagement
  • etc.

For each item, in no more than 200 words each, describe what it would be and what audience it would reach. Link to an example from someone else that demonstrates the type of artefact or approach.

Assessment criteria

Marks will be allocated on the following basis:

10 marks for each element, comprising:

  • Description of the element (5 marks)
  • Consideration of the audience (2 marks)
  • Suitable example (3 marks)