Instructional Design

It's not an easy task to design an online material for instructional purposes. A designer needs to have specific knowledge and skills about the subject matter. However; Iam starting to design an online course in History and I have no such a skill or knowledge. Learning thinkers, especially, Behaviorists, like Skinner and Thorndike were using rats and cats in teaching these animals to get food in boxes. In either cases learning happened by trial and error. I will be designing an online course in History of Fulani and Culture for grade 12 High schools. The course aims to realize the following goals &objectives:
Goals:
By the end students will be able to:
* Demonstrate awareness and adherence to Fulani history and culture
* Prepare themselves to address future issues & cultural diversity
Objectives
Students will be able to:
* Understand historical events
* Derive lessons from the study of history
* Demonstrate an understanding of various cultures in the world through knowledge gained about their countries and other countires.
* compare
Also answering the following Essential Questions:-
* What is the essence of the history?
* What are the purposes of studying history?
* To what extent does the history reflect the development of society?
I will be following the California standards for History as well as, the steps of ADDIE models and Backward Design stages. Backward design is a great shift in instructional process as it starts to design the assessment before teaching a unit. Thus will help me to go towards a clear destination for the unit, consequently, I will be able to create the best road map to get there ,choose learning materials that I should teach , how I should be teaching such materials, and how I know my students¡¦ understanding. I will start to create assessing tools such as rubrics, quizzes, outdoor activities (field trips), formative and summative tests to measure observable outcomes. To this extent, I will be able to determine and prioritize what my students need to know and do and how. The course will be very flexible to allow integrating different technological tools to enhance students learning and engage them in challenging learning situation that instigates them to rethink, explore, explain, apply, share and evaluate knowledge. Students also will be able to evaluate themselves by doing projects, participating in PowerPoint presentation and involve in daily activities. They will collaboratively be assigned to work in small groups, individual and large groups basis in an attempt to meet their individual needs, furthermore, students will be individually motivated for extra credits to extra assignments. Thus, might help me to follow up their academic progress during the course for feedback and adjustment of the plan and instructional process according to their needs. Details follow in the Unit plan.