Tuesday, December 3, 2013

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 27th.  
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  


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

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 28th and finish on midnight November 30th.
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: 
     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.