Prompt 5 – Part 1: Peer Review of POD 4

I reviewed Pod 4’s resource on Spicy Chinese Food Culture. I appreciate the clear and concise concepts when creating the learning design. In addition, I believe that the topic is easy to follow and engaging for the viewers to participate.

A few key points I would like to point out are: 

1. All the resources used are an excellent choice because it comes with closed captions, making it easy to follow and accessible to all types of learners, such as hard-of-hearing. Perhaps you might want to include the inclusion of hard-of-hearing learners as part of your design for “diverse learners” because even reading/looking through Instagram works in their favour as well. But I also appreciate how your design also benefits your directed audience for ELL learners, for I agree, imageries will enhance understanding for all learners.
2. In terms of interaction design, I believe that the usage of discussion forums is beneficial, especially during the pandemic. I find that directing a topic discussion for the learners will be beneficial in terms of the students know what you are looking for, such as the intended learning outcomes, as opposed to leaving it an open forum. When reviewing your group project interaction, I noticed that it could be groups of 1-4; my question is, how will these groups be created and mediated.
3. The variety of learning technology makes it useful to provide diverse learning styles. The usage of social media, group projects using google docs, WordPress are all accessible resources that most, if not, all students can access. As mentioned in the first point, the visuals aid in understanding. The idea that online self-paced learning is beneficial for individuals who have a busy schedule such as work and family. With your learning design being heavily based on technology, have you considered the barriers that may come along? Such as wifi connection, inability to use technology, different time zone/schedule, or even those who struggle with online learning.
4. The Assessment factor of your design is organized and understandable. Implementing a grade could increase the viewers’ interest due to the expectation that comes along, as opposed to an “incomplete/complete’ tactic that students are just present for participation marks and not being active with their learning. One thing to note, however, is the amount of workload that is expected. Especially with this course being self-paced, some individuals may take longer to go through a lesson/topic. Not only will students have to learn on their own, but they will have to keep up with their group members in order to complete the project, which could potentially defeat the purpose of a self-paced course. With your aim towards single parents who work, this could cause stress in regards to keeping up with more individuals other than the child being cared for as a single parent. My suggestion would be to exclude the Group project because of the stated reason.

Overall, I believe this a terrific draft of your learning design, and I look forward to seeing the final result. 

Be sure to check out POD 4’s learning design of Spicy Chinese Food Culture at Aini’s Blog, Ruijie’s Blog, Yiran’s Blog, and/or Yuqi’s Blog for more information!