There are no required courses needed to take this course, but it is strongly suggested that you have completed an introductory course in psychology or educational psychology such as Athabasca University’s PSYC 289, PSYC 290, or EDPY 200.
Other useful courses in educational psychology that focus on educational technology include Athabasca University’s EDPY 476 and EDPY 479.
Some teaching experience (e.g., classroom teaching, tutoring, coaching) is helpful but is not necessary. Students should be comfortable using various computing technologies, both hardware and software, and be willing to locate, install, and learn how to use new ones as required.
Overview
In Educational Psychology 480: Learning with Technology, you will examine how technology can be used in grade school and post-secondary instruction. Specifically, you will learn about how students can use technology to engage in meaningful learning. The main goal of the course is for you to develop your understanding of educational technology through the completion of a course project. This project will be based on an authentic educational context and learning problem of your choice. You will aim to solve this learning problem by designing three lessons that make appropriate use of technologies for learning. You will also be required to report on one of these lesson designs.
This course is most suitable for students in a baccalaureate program in Education (B.Ed.). However, psychology students who have completed coursework in educational psychology may also benefit from this course.
Outline
EDPY 480 comprises the following five units:
Unit 1: Meaningful Learning, Authentic Learning, and Transfer
Unit 2: Learning in Different Subject Areas
Unit 3: Learning with Technology
Unit 4: Lesson Development
Unit 5: Lesson Design Rationale
Objectives
There are six overall learning objectives for this course:
Develop an understanding of meaningful learning, authentic learning, and transfer.
Define a learning problem that you wish to address in your project.
Discuss how modern technologies influence learning and instruction.
Explore some technologies that can be used in instruction, especially those that students can use to learn with.
Develop rationales for instructional designs and selection of appropriate technologies.
Design lessons to address a learning problem of your choice using different technologies.
These objectives may appear in more than one unit. Each course objective is broken down into more specific sub-objectives, which clarify the larger objective.
Evaluation
To receive creditfor EDPY 480, you must complete all of the assignments and achieve an overall grade of D (50 percent). The weighting of the assignments is as follows:
Activity
Weight
Assignment 1: Discussion Forum Post: Reflection & Summary
5%
Assignment 2: Concept Map & Learning Problem
5%
Assignment 3: Project Proposal
5%
Assignment 4: Lesson 1 [Project]
20%
Assignment 5: Lesson 2 [Project]
20%
Assignment 6: Lesson 3 [Project]
20%
Assignment 7: Lesson 4 [Project]
25%
Total
100%
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Mayer, R. E. (2011). Applying the Science of Learning. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon (Pearson). (eText)
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.