CSD 115
In the fall of 2012, I received the Online Learning Course Development grant to build CSD 115, Introduction to Communicative Disorders. This course, required for CSD majors and a general education offering, introduces the wide variety of speech, language, and hearing problems that interfere with successful communication, and their principal methods of treatment. This is the first online course to be offered within the CSD department. CSD 115 is currently in its 10th consecutive semester. It offers a plethora of media examples that introduce students to normal and disordered communication. A recent addition, was the use of a group messaging mobile app, “GroupMe” to hold study sessions. CSD 115 continually receives a strong positive response each semester for course design and integrated use of technology.
CSD 304
Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Mechanism (A&P) is a four credit hour course required for all CSD majors. It provides an introduction to the anatomical and physiological bases of normal and abnormal voice, speech, language, and hearing. I independently developed this course during spring and summer 2014, and successfully piloted it Spring 2015. Originally scheduled as a once per year course offering, its success moved CSD 304 to a twice per year offering and was successfully offered online for five consecutive semesters. Interactive labs were built into the course using a variety of methods, to be discussed. A notable improvement for this course was the use of an innovative and interactive e-text, which provides superior anatomical views, structure manipulation, and virtual dissection that is unparalleled in a campus course. Course feedback is positive, student performance is strong, and the extensive web-based lab opportunities greatly enhance student learning.
Course Syllabi and Instructional Planning
As my syllabi will demonstrate, my approach to building these courses was to first examine the learner objectives of each and then create a road map for how the learner would arrive at the end goal. Using a “chunking” approach, I grouped related content areas into Modules and created four sections within the course. Each Module progresses from an introduction of the material, numerous demonstrations and modeling of content, and finally application of the material. This pedagogy of “Introduce it! Model it! Apply it!” will be further discussed in the next section under “Instructional Design.” Please refer to both my syllabus for CSD 115, as well as my course schedule for CSD 304, for comments related to course objectives, assignments, policies, and educational activities.