ETEC 648 Final Project

Course Description title:  Adobe Photoshop elements online training course

Course website is available on www.ahmedfallatah.com 

Course description: Adobe Photoshop elements is a photo editing software. It is little brother of Photoshop CC. it contains lots of powerful image-manipulation tools, excellent output options, printing, online, photo books. The course will be three weeks long, two lessons per week. The reason for that is Adobe provide one month free trial version so student who cannot buy a version they can use a trial version for this course.

Course audience

The course is designed for audiences who are   high school and university students,   graphic design, media, art students, people who work in the field of press and journalism, and people who are interesting in photography and design. All trainees must have basic computer skills and permanent access to the internet. They must be 15 years old or older.

Media and technology description

Text file: instructor will provide textual information as a resource for this course.. These file could be in pdf or world format, it could be read from computer monitor or printed paper. Textual information support one way communication. According to media richness theory textual information is not that very rich medium, but it consider a main reading recourse that is needed to transit information. 

Email: in this course email will be the main communication tool between all participants of the course whether instructor-students communication or student- student communication. Email supports two way communication and feedback response. Due to the popularity of the email, it will be used to send announcements, updated news, and grades to the entire class. Using email ensure timely information transition whether to individual participant or to the entire class. Because the different and rich service that Google provides, participants will be asked to sign up for Google email account.

Google hangout: Google hangout is a free video chat service from Google that enables both one-on-one chats and group chats. Google Hangouts can be accessed via laptop and desktop computers as well as with smart phone devices. In addition to video chatting, Google Hangouts users can share documents, images and videos with other users. Google hangout one of the richest media because it has the availability of instant feedback, the capacity to transmit cues such as facial expression thought video chat, tone of voice, and the personal focus of the medium.

During this course Hangout will be used two times; first to conduct a course orientation which will be the first online meeting. Second, it will be used to present and discus the trainee’ final assignment . Google hangout has a feature that allows screen sharing, this will allows each trainee share his or her screen to present the final project.

Good Start

I conducted set of good start activities to meet the following objectives:

1.   Get the trainees involve in the course.

2.   Present the course introduction.

3.   Get trainees knows each other’s.

4.   Explain the course syllabus and policies.

5.   Present Adobe Photoshop Element introduction, and explain Photoshop Element Workplace.

Good start activities:

I did the following activates to begin this course

1.   I send welcome email.

2.   I request filling up Trainee profile.

3.   We conducted an online Course orientation via Google Hangout.

4.   Online Course orientation took place On November 27^th.  

5.   Three day after the orientation I send a survey to the trainee to get feedback about our start. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BCFR7XB

This are the document I used to deliver Good Start

      Course Syllabus :  http://www.ahmedfallatah.com/photoshop%20webpages/syllabus1.htm  

      Welcome Email :  http://www.ahmedfallatah.com/photoshop%20webpages/Welcome%20Email.htm

      Trainee profile :  http://www.ahmedfallatah.com/photoshop%20webpages/Trainee%20profile.htm

Online Discussion

This activities took place between November 28^th and finish on midnight November 30^th.

Course Goals/Objectives

These are the course objectives, in this activities we focus on objective 3.4.

At the end of this course trainees will be able to : 

1.    Getting and Organizing Photos.

2.    Printing, Sharing, and Exporting photos.

3.    Adjusting Color in Images.

4.    Fixing Exposure Problems.

5.    Repairing and Retouching Images

6.    Working with Text.

7.    Combining Multiple Images.

8.    Working on editing Techniques.

This online discussion activity is designed to meet 2 objectives: first is to motivate student to look up for online sources and material to enhance their learning, second is to meet some of the course objectives. For these activities we will work on objectives number 3 and 4 which are Adjusting Color in Images, Fixing Exposure Problems. In these activities trainees will improve their critical thinking and solving problem skills. And they will experience common Adobe Photoshop application and color systems that applied in Photoshop Element and they will learn basic photo corrections.

Discussion Handout

This week we are going to conduct an online discussion, the discussion is comprised with work activates. The discussion will focus on objectives number 3 and 4 which are Adjusting Color in Images, Fixing Exposure Problems. In addition to that we will respond to each other post which will increase our critical thinking.

Discussion instruction

1.   Review this video to get an idea about the technology that we will use in this activity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mROaSCpifCY

2.   A discussion will last for 3 days.

3.   Discussion activity will begin on November 28^th and finish on midnight November 30^th.

4.   Your first post must be your answer to the given questions.

5.   Make sure to identify yourself by writing your name before any post.

6.   Include in your post graphics, photos, videos and, links.

7.   You are supposed to response to at least two classmates post.

Guidelines and policies for the discussion.

§  Use respectful and appropriate language in your responses.

§  You are expected to respond to each other post and give your opinion about your classmate post.

§  Use email to send a private message.

§  Inappropriate post or responses are not acceptable that might lead to a grade decline.

      Respond to the following question:

1.         What are Adobe Photoshop color modes?

2.         What are the common Photo problems that can be fixed by Adobe Phosphor Element?

3.         Specify two Photos that have photo problems

4.         Provide online resource link to your answer including video tutorial.

5.         Include in your post graphics and photos.

     We used Google document to conduct the online discussion

     Discussion Transcript: 

      http://www.ahmedfallatah.com/photoshop%20webpages/discussion.pdff.pdf 

     Rubric for online discussion

	3	2	1
Quality of Post	Appropriate posts and comments thoughtful and Reflective of good effort.	Appropriate posts and comments thoughtful and Reflective of acceptable  effort	Responds, but with minimum effort.
Relevance Of Post	Posts topics that fully related To discussion topic  prompts further discussion of topic.	Posts topics that are mostly related to discussion content	Posts topics that do not relate to the discussion
Engagement with others	Shows significant  effort to engage with others Responds.	Shows attention to other posts in the discussion.	Offers little Interaction with other posts.
Language	There is no misspelled word or grammatical error in the postings.	There are few misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	There are many misspellings and/or grammatical errors
Discussion  instruction	The posts completely follow  instructions and time requirements	The majority of the posts completely follow  instructions and time requirements	The majority of the posts completely follow  instructions and time requirements

    Online discussion evaluation and feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BTM5X7B

    Lessons learned from the delivery/evaluation experience:

1.  I think instructor better depend on a reliable LMS/CMS and do not use different technology that are not designed for course management.

2.  Google Docs does not have the feature that makes it a good technology to deliver an online discussion.

3.  Google Hangout has a good feature to deliver and online meeting or class.

4.  It is difficult to come up with an appropriate time for all participants to conduct an online meeting especially if they are in different time zone. One of the trainee is in Saudi Arabia, it was difficult to find an appropriate time for all of us.

5.  Instructor must clearly identify and explain the technology that supposed to be used in the course at the beginning of the course.

6.  If the course is not part of  program curriculum or paid course, students will not be highly motivated to participate effectively in the course activities.  

ETEC 674 , Final Project

working in progress 

Strategic planning outline

As I stated in a previous post in my final project I will develop an outline for an online course in strategic planning. I have chosen this topic because I am familiar with it, a attended so many course and workshop in this subject and I was a member of strategic planning team in my job. This course will explore key aspects of building a high performance organization through strategic planning.

The course will last for four weeks to cover the following topics: Value of Planning, Types of plans, Defining of Strategic Planning, Strategic Planning models, and Strategic Planning steps, and others

The course will be fully online based on self-motivation. Participant need to use their won project or organization as example to complete assignments.

Many technologies will be used to conduct the activities and materials effectively, such as course website. Communications tools such as email, hangout to conduct an online meeting.  

ETEC 674, Session 9, Discussion

Online discussions are an important part of many online classes and an important part of general Internet communication. Use what you have learned from the text and your own investigation to respond to the following items.

1. Identify three different technologies that support discussions in online classes. Describe each technology in terms of its ability to support worthwhile and rewarding discussions.

1. Forum: a forum is an asynchronous electronic discussion that allows participants can participate at any time or locations they want. The forum has a facilitator, the facilitator reviews the post before it published and consults with the student who posted to make sure the post related to the topic, and the post is appropriate to discussion policies. Students can participate in a discussion in easy way, they only need to click on the forum topic itself to active a text box in which a response may be typed. This kind of discussion supports thoughtful responds because students usually take more time writing that allows them think more carefully and looking into different resource before thy post their threat.

2. Chat: a chat is synchronous electronic discussion. It has a topic. In chat. All participants or students must participate in the chat session in the same time. It is called as well areal time chat. Unlike in forum, in chat activities students do not have a long time to think about their post and look into resource to construct their posts, they need to respond immediately to their peers or instructor posts. The chat has a moderator. The prime responsibility of the moderators is to control who has the wright to post his or her post in certain time.

3. Facebook Group: Facebook group is a real time discussion board with notifications.  The factors which make Facebook such a popular tool for social media can also make it a highly effective means of fostering interaction among instructor-student and student-student. In Facebook student can create Facebook documents inside the group. And thy can post link. Video, photos and other stuff. What is make the Facebook an active technology to hold discussion activities is that you can set the Facebook to send you a notification massage if a new post has made. And Facebook has smartphone applications that make it available anywhere any time which support a quick and active respond.   

http://isuwriting.com/2013/01/04/facebook-groups-the-real-time-discussion-board-with-notifications/#more-1737

2. Describe an eLearning context (type of class, students, and specific content) where you would advocate the use of an online discussion. Identify the technology you would use to facilitate the discussion.

Type of class: I am conducting right now discussion activities for an online training course about Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Student: The discussion activity is designed for trainees who are   high school and university students,   graphic design, media, art students, people who work in the field of press and journalism, and people who are interesting in photography and design.

Content : content of discussion Mostly will be about the color system and common photo problems that can fixed by Adobe Photoshop Elements.

In this discussion activities I would prefer to use discussion technology that supported by LMS/CMS such as Blackboard that supported by educational organization. However in these activities I am planning to use Google Doc to support conduct this activity  

3. Describe how you would plan for the discussion described in question 2. For example, how would you prepare students for the discussion, structure associated presentations, plan other activities that students be doing along with the discussion, and how you would ensure that the student workload was balanced and appropriate.

I preparation for discussion activities i will firs need to make sure that all student are familiar with the technology that will be used to hold the discussion. I will prepare students by conducting an online session to explain the technology and ask student to create their one count on Google. I will set and establish the discussion policies and explain them to student in the orientation session. To encourage students’ participation and critical thinking I will create open ended questions and give the student to post unlimited number of resource, links, videos, and photos.

4. Develop a set of guidelines or policies that you would give to students to help them engage successfully in the discussion.

These are an example of guidelines and policies that I would give to student to participate in the discussion.

§  A discussion can last for 3 days.

§  Include in your post graphics, photos, videos and, links.

§  Use respectful and appropriate language in your responses.

§  You are expected to respond to each other

§  Use email to send a private message.

5. Describe and/or develop a system for assessing student participation and learning in the discussion.

These are rubrics that a developed to assess students participation and learning in the discussion activities.

	3	2	1
Quality of Post	Appropriate posts and comments thoughtful and Reflective of good effort.	Appropriate posts and comments thoughtful and Reflective of acceptable  effort	Responds, but with minimum effort.
Relevance Of Post	Posts topics that fully related To discussion topic  prompts further discussion of topic.	Posts topics that are mostly related to discussion content	Posts topics that do not relate to the discussion
Engagement with others	Shows significant  effort to engage with others Responds.	Shows attention to other posts in the discussion.	Offers little Interaction with other posts.
Language	There is no misspelled word or grammatical error in the postings.	There are few misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	There are many misspellings and/or grammatical errors
Discussion  instruction	The posts completely follow  instructions and time requirements	The majority of the posts completely follow  instructions and time requirements	The majority of the posts completely follow  instructions and time requirements

6. How would you prepare the instructor for participating in the discussion?

Instructors must be aware of his role in the discussion activities. Even if he or she will not engage in the activities he or she must monitors the activities and guide it to the goals. Instructors can question student or give them feedback on their response if he feels the discussion is going somewhere. Before that student must be familiar with the instructor role and what they expect from him.