Case 4: New Jersey v.T.L.O. (1985)

Question: Was the search of T.L.O.’s purse illegal? Use an extra sheet of paper if you need

more space.

Post your decision, explanation of your group’s majority opinion and explanation of your group’s minority opinion.

Case 3: Wallace v. Jafree (1985)

Questions: Did the Alabama law violate the First Amendment clause that prohibits the government

from establishing a religion? Did the law violate the child’s First Amendment right to freedom of

religion? Use an extra sheet of paper if you need more space.

Post your decision, explanation of your group’s majority opinion, and explanation of your group’s minority opinion:

Case 2: Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)

Question: Did the principal violate the students’ First Amendment right to freedom of press by censoring

their newspaper? Use an extra sheet of paper if you need more space.

Post your decision, explanation of your group’s majority opinion, and explanation of your group’s minority opinion.

Case 1 Tinker v. DesMoines

Question: Were the students’ First Amendment rights violated when they were suspended for

wearing armbands? Use an extra sheet of paper if you need more space.

Post, your decision, explanation of your group’s majority opinion, explanation of your group’s minority opinion:

The importance of quality assurance in an online learning course

Quality assurance is becoming more and more important in education. The rising cost of education is increasing the demand for results. Quality assurance seems to be one of the best ways to guarantee these results. Quality assurance checks are important in all courses but they are critical in an online course. According the Creighton University office of online learning, quality assurance in Creighton's distance learning program is a "multi-faceted process involving faculty, staff, students, administrators, and external stakeholders." Creighton's quality assurance is cyclical meaning it is ongoing, it begins with the data gathering process, then the data is analyzed, findings are reported to stakeholders and a data driven action plan is created and implemented and the process of data gathering begins again. This annual process allows for regular quality assurance checks and guarantees that Creighton's distance learning program is always improving. It seems most quality assurance programs share the same basic skeleton they always begin by gathering the data, the analysis process can differ but it always seems to result in some sort of action, the process is then repeated to evaluate the impact of the action plan. A quality assurance process like Creighton's allows a distance learning program to prove it is effective and thus worth the investment.  

Implementation of Content and Media in Online Courses

Implementation of content and media is one of the most important aspects of online course design. An instructional design team can find amazing learning objects but if they are not used correctly the desired learning outcomes may never be accomplished. In my opinion the main job of an instructional design team is to organize the learning objects in a manner that facilitates the construction of knowledge. As Clark and Mayer (2008) suggest their is a science or methodology to e-learning. This science is what distinguishes online instructional design from an informational website. In the case of an informational website, learning is completely up to the user, it is not assessed and it does not necessarily result in a predetermined learning outcome. However, in an online course there are desired learning outcomes, users are usually assessed summatively and formatively, and content/media is presented in a way that is intended to aid in the construction of knowledge. It is the job of the instructional design team to ensure that an online course is designed to help the user develop new knowledge or skills. In my opinion if an instructional design team does not pay close attention to the science of e-learning and online instruction then their online course will not be effective. The science of e-learning as described by Clark and Mayer (2008) is the basis of online instruction and it is the distinguishing characteristic between a computer programer and an instructional designer.

 Clark, R.C. & Mayer, R.E. (2008) e-Learning and the science of Instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning third edition. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

The role of assessment in online learning

Assessment is one of the most important aspects of instructional design. However, in my opinion  teachers often fail to develop effective assessments. In my teacher education program I was taught that assessments were a critical part of instructional design but I was not taught how to use assessments to drive my pedagogical practices. Throughout my early career I struggled to find the best ways to assess student learning. I have used a variety of summative and formative assessments in my classroom, from sitting through multiple presentations on the same subject to grading the same weak responses using a poorly written rubric. Sometimes I even found my self questioning a students final grade because I believe I did not assess their learning correctly. One thing I do know is that if any teacher wants to accurately assess a students learning, then they first make sure the assessments aligns to the strategies used to learn the content. I learned this lesson the hard way. When I first began teaching I used constructivist learning strategies aligned to my schools social studies curriculum; while my summative assessments showed students were meeting their learning objectives my formative assessment did not always reveal the same results. As I reflected on these discrepancies I quickly realized my multiple choice and extended response assessments were not aligned to the constructivist strategies used in class and thus failed to truly assess what students learned.

Not only does my anecdote help to illustrate the importance of assessment, it also shows why assessment is key to a good online education. As noted in the presentation online learning is students centered and therefore uses a constructivist approach to learning. Therefore it is crucial that the designers of online learning courses have a good understanding of how to use summative and formative assessments. For an online course designer the right summative assessments can improve a students performance on a formative assessment. An effective formative assessment is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of any online learning.

Based on the presentation, my experiences at RMCAD, and the brief research I have done it seems the best online assessments allow students to demonstrate learning by applying new skills and knowledge in real world or authentic scenarios. These types of assessments allow learners to synthesize skills and knowledge learned while applying them in a professional manner. In my opinion these types of assessments are the hallmark of a well designed online course. Without a well thought out assessment an online lesson is no different than an online newspaper, who knows if the user is walking away with any new knowledge. Assessment is an easy way to see if an online course is designed correctly.