Embracing New Tools Through CDP

Instructors have left the sandbox.

During this session of the Course Design Practicum, 21 instructors completed the program.

While some will be taking the tools and methods they’ve learned directly into University of Louisiana at Lafayette online and hybrid courses this fall, many will be updating their face-to-face courses.

“What we demonstrate in CDP is just good course design,” said Instructional Designer Angie Lee during the showcase. “It’s not only for online and hybrid courses.”

Dr. Charles Duncan has been teaching in various capacities for 40 years but said he wants to build additional skills before teaching his own course online.

Enrolling in CDP, he said, offered a chance to explore new technology and how to bring additional courses online within the School of Kinesiology. 

“What I plan to do is implement some of the technology I'm learning in the CDP course into my in-person course. For example, Voicethread. When I have to be away from class, that offers a viable alternative to make sure students can continue and get the same information,” he said. “Then we’ll see from there.”

He said the course also gave him a new appreciation for the time investment to produce quality online courses as well as the availability of the Instructional Support Team.

Carla Vidrine, an instructor within the College of Nursing, has been teaching online as a clinical instructor, alongside professors, for three years. Although she isn’t yet teaching her own online course, she said she enrolled in CDP to gain a better understanding of the Learning Management System, Moodle, and the EduTools supported by the Office of Distance Learning.

“I hear from other faculty members and get emails from the Office of Distance Learning about new tools and different experiences, and I wanted to check those out so I can grow as an instructor,” she said.

“I particularly enjoyed how the CDP instructors taught us to interact with students and how to enhance student-to-student interaction. It’s difficult to make students feel like they’re in a real classroom, in real time, but there are tricks and tools to recreate that environment.”

While the Instructional Support Team offers professional development throughout the year on teaching with EduTools, CDP is the only course in which all of the tools are demonstrated in depth.

CDP participants build these elements into their own Moodle sandbox course designs with other participants serving as practice “students.”

“I really appreciate that whenever a tool was introduced to us, it wasn’t presented as ‘read about it,’” Vidrine said. “If instructors wanted to show us what a Voicethread is, we read about it, watched a presentation, and then used the tool to leave a comment.

"It was very interactive, very hands on."

Jim Foret has been teaching at UL Lafayette since 2005 but has only recently been certified in order to teach his plant science class online beginning Spring 2020.

He said although he had concerns about engaging students online, he’s hopeful about the capabilities of tools like Moodle forums and Voicethread.

“Using Voicethread, I’m going to break information into different slides and then lecture on the small groups of slides, ask questions, and get them to respond. That’s going to be a cool thing for me,” he said.

“I’m also thinking about using the forums. You can ask a question, have them respond and evaluate others’ responses.”

Jumping into online learning, said Foret, has made every day a new mystery to solve.

“It’s stretching me; I feel like an elastic band,” he said. “It’s not bad to be stretched. I feel alive when I’m challenged like that.”

For information about how to become a ULearn Certified Online Teach or Course Designer, visit our Faculty Certification page or email us at distancelearning@louisiana.edu.