This is my peer review of pod 4’s interactive learning resource on Chinese Food Culture.
Source: ILR Draft
Overview:
At first glance, this course looks awesome! I love the creative topic, and just from reading through the course outline I already learned some new things about spiciness and Chinese food culture.
Strengths:
Flow: This course was super simplistic and easy to follow. I think the flow from topic to topic is excellent, and I liked how there was a brief commentary on what each lesson would entail/look like.
Activities: The activities were nice in that they are personable, and open ended. I also like how there are both collaborative and independent assignments/projects. This changes things up nicely, and replying to others posts opens up discussion in the course.
Resources: I really appreciate how many resources you included, and how there was a variety of formats. I think the inclusion of videos is awesome, as they change things up and allow for diversity when it comes to teaching styles. Also, I liked the idea to integrate social media into your course by including instagram.
Creativity: This is such a fun and creative topic, I think you all did a really great job designing this topic by breaking down the main topic into smaller ones.
Assessment Plan: The clarity of how students will be assessed is awesome. I like the straightforward assessment grading chart you have included.
Room for improvement:
Learning theory: In your learning theory rationale, you mentioned that learners may not have prior knowledge about Chinese food, explaining why you chose constructivist instead of behaviourist. However, I believe activating prior knowledge is a huge part of constructivism.
Presentation: I was confused about how this resource is supposed to be presented. I’m understanding it to be a take home sort of booklet, or is it a website? Maybe clarifying that would be awesome.
Age: From my understanding of your description of the learning context, this course is suitable for K-12 learners and up. However, I am wondering if this course is suitable for elementary level students. I’m unsure if an elementary level learner would be able to navigate, understand and complete the posts/project parts. I think this course would be great for high school and up, taking the 500-1000 word project into consideration.
Learning Outcomes: The second and third learning outcomes seem pretty much the same as I am reading it. You could potentially combine them or word it differently so they sound more like two separate learning outcomes.
I think you all have created an amazing draft that is clear, creative and has great content. I really appreciate how easy it was to follow, as sometimes designing a course can get super complicated. Thank you again for sharing and I can’t wait to see your final product!
