Wrap Up

This is my final posting for the ED PSYCH 6430 course. Semester is already over, but I figured one more wrap-up post wouldn’t hurt. Overall this has been a very interesting semester. Going into this course, and this program in general, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This course in particular has been very useful in giving an overview of the field of ID and its applications in the marketplace.

I will admit that at times the material was pretty dry, I don’t think I could spend my life getting into the inner workings and philosophies of instructional design as Dick, Carey, & Carey have made a career out of. However, the content has taught me to pay closer attention to design in general, and instructional design in particular. I’ve also gained a new appreciation for close analysis and task breakdown — something that will definitely be useful to me in the future.

It was interesting to see how some of the design and process ideas from this class mirrored what I have so often encountered in the software world. I suppose a lot of formal processes share common problems and patterns in their development.

Well, that is it for now. I’ll revisit ID in later courses and am sure that I will be applying lessons learned here in some capacity before long.

iTunes U

I’ve just discovered iTunes U on the iTunes store, and intrigued and hopeful about it. I have downloaded and or purchased lectures and talks before on iTunes, but the prospect of a larger clearinghouse for audio/video lessons is great. At first glance, it looks to be a lot of “intro to” and “101″ stuff, but definitely a start.

This makes me think of MIT’s Open Courseware, where they publish notes, powerpoints and lectures from a variety of their courses. Being able to here lectures from professors at a collection of schools on a wide variety of topics is really an amazing application of the web. Hopefully we can get a wide range of free materials out there. I wonder if anyone is at work on an index/search service to organize and present materials from different sources.