This online course is an updated version of an old printed Plant Health Care manual with quizzes in the back that had to be mailed in for grading.

 

My first step was to go through the Tree Care Academy Plant Health Care Technician manual and a pdf from a newer apprenticeship program, and gather all learning objectives and assessment questions. I started by sorting which assessment questions were associated with which learning objectives. Then organized which learning objectives belonged in each chapter.

 

Next, I had SME’s look at the learning objectives and tell me if any important subjects were missing from the list. There were some things missing, such as pesticide use, and we added learning objectives for those.

 

This is when I put in a request for any images or videos the SME’s may already have, and some things I would like to have videos of.

 

Then I began creating a storyboard from the info that I had available to me, making sure each learning objective was covered and every assessment question answered with the content. This is also where I planned what the assignments for the course would be.

 

Once I had the information laid out, I began creating my design sheets. I do this in Microsoft Word. This is where I decide what will be on each page. I put all of the text and images here and get the “readability statistics” from Word. I take a screenshot of this to keep at the bottom of the page. Most of TCIA’s courses are intentionally at a 9-10th grade level. This one, however, is a 12th grade level. I use the comment tool in Word to add details such as font/header sizes, layout plans, interactivity plans, and videos I want to make.

 

Once I built the course in Brightspace and had the award, gradebooks, etc, set up, I reviewed my course. Once I was satisfied with how it looks and functions, I had another designer and an SME (or 2) review my work as well and give me feedback before I make the course live.

 

This course was made with a tight deadline, if I had all the time in the world, I would love to have added interactive knowledge checks throughout and more videos. As our courses are on a 3 year revision cycle, these are some changes I have noted to revisit at that time.

 

There is a learner survey in the course, so I can gather feedback before doing revisions, as well as reports I can pull for the quizzes, so I can see which questions and subjects learners are struggling with the most.