Purpose

This project asks you to critically examine and consider strategies to support digital equity and perspectives in open and distributed learning contexts. It is completed as a group with your Learning Pod.

Process

We recommend that you create a new site on opened.ca, with each of your pod members added as administrators, specifically for this project. You will submit this assignment by sharing the link to your completed project (e.g. a WordPress link).

You should also include links on this new site to each of your individual sites and links from your individual sites to this pod project site.

This project has three parts:

  1. Identification of a learner persona (written text)
  2. A chart, table, or visual that examines the persona and their current learning struggles and barriers from multiple perspectives (written text or embedded image)
  3. One “Pitch Proposal” that describes how open and online learning can be leveraged to best support your persona’s learning. Justify your description to your instructor and peers. This pitch portion of the assignment can be demonstrated using text or a brief (approximately 5-minute) video.

More details on each of the three parts (see this post for additional guidance and tips)

1. Persona

What is the learning persona of the student?

  • a ‘persona’ is an assumed, fictional identity of a character. For the purposes of this assignment, your learning pod should imagine the characteristics of a fictional learner. The persona can be based on a mixture of different actual people, but you should never identify an individual.
2. Chart

Create a chart, table, or visual that compares and contrasts face-to-face, open, and distributed learning designs to support equity and multiple perspectives in distributed and open learning contexts.

Some questions to consider in your chart (you are welcome to expand upon or add in additional considerations):

  • How would you describe this student’s ideal learning context?
  • In your opinion, what are the barriers to learning that are preventing safe, flexible, and supportive learning experiences and environments for this student?
  • What equity, social justice, and/or cultural considerations are preventing safe, flexible, effective, and supportive learning experiences and environments for this student?
3. Pitch Proposal

Using the chart information, you will create a “pitch proposal” to support your identified persona in distributed and open learning environments. Create a pitch to describe how you would support your specific student persona.

Your pitch should integrate current academic research (include resources mentioned in the course and resources you find yourself) with evidence from current practices to summarize why your proposal would support your student in ways that might have been challenging previously.

Answer the following question in your pitch proposal:

How can distributed and/or open learning break barriers and bridge flexibility, choice, voice, and success for your identified persona?

If you choose a Video

Create an approximately 5-minute video which integrates current research and practice to support learners in open and distributed learning.

You may use whichever video platform you are comfortable with. This includes recording a Zoom meeting, creating and hosting using UVic’s Echo360 license,  experimenting with Flipgrid, using YouTube, Vimeo, or another tool you’ve used before or want to try. Please note that the FIPPA compliant options are the Zoom recording, Echo360, and creating a video with an external tool and embedding the file on one of your WordPress pages. Share this video by embedding it or linking to it from your pod’s WordPress page.

If you choose Text

Create a 500-800 word summary which integrates current research and practice to support learners in open and distributed learning. Include this text on your pod’s WordPress page

References

Please use links for any in-text citations and include a reference list in APA 7 format on your site (you may use another format if you are more accustomed to that in your discipline, as long as you are consistent).

If you choose to create a video and cannot easily include the references within the video, please cite your sources in the video and provide the reference list on your pod’s WordPress page.

How will it be assessed?

I will use a single-point rubric (learn more about single point rubrics here: Meet the Single-Point Rubric, Single-Point Rubrics: Exceeding Expectations).

Your pod should review this rubric closely and ask yourselves if your project meets the criteria described in the middle column.

Areas of Strength What would make this assignment excellent? Areas for Growth
Persona

Realistic and effective description of a learner. Provides details on enough aspects of the learner (e.g., background, skills, obstacles, learning goals) to make them a realistic whole person. The aspects described align with considerations for distributed and open learning.
  F     D     C     C+     B-     B     B+     A-    A    A+
Chart

Considers and compares sufficient characteristics (i.e. barriers and challenges) of face-to-face, distributed (synchronous and/or asynchronous), and open learning related to the described persona to be able to make a convincing pitch in part 3 of the assignment. If a characteristic is mentioned in your pitch, it should be represented in the chart.

Recognizes key nuances between distributed and open learning as they relate to the specific learner.

If the audience did not know/understand the difference between distributed and open, they would by the end of reviewing this chart.
F     D     C     C+     B-     B     B+     A-    A    A+
Pitch

Presents a coherent argument in favour of one model (i.e. does not “sit on the fence”).

Evidence from both research and practice is used to support the pitch. The pitch and evidence directly connect to the student persona.

Access and equity concerns related to the persona are addressed.

Organized to help the audience to efficiently understand the pitch (i.e. paragraphs, headings, a framework/structure (e.g., access, timing, amount, platform, learning path from Major, 2015)).

Evidence is correctly referenced (i.e. APA 7).
F     D     C     C+     B-     B     B+     A-    A    A+
Overall Pod Grade

You can also access a document version of the rubric here.

Individual Grades

Not all students will be able to contribute and demonstrate their achievement of the course learning outcomes equally. Due to this, each of you will complete an individual peer evaluation forms, which will be used to help determine your individual grades on this project. This form is available and submitted on Brightspace.

 

Reach out on Mattermost if you have any questions!