Minicourse Features & LMS Declaration
Features for 'Early Skills' (ފަށާ ހުނަރު) minicourse
Based on the design outlined in my IDD, learners can expect the following features from my 'Early Skills' (ފަށާ ހުނަރު) minicourse:
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Interactive digital books with audio narration and clickable hotspots.
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Engaging puppet videos (like Hamii's lessons).
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Virtual live classrooms, hosted by their favorite puppets and a teacher.
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Self-assessment tools.
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Blogs or journals.
There are many other features I want to experiment with, but to keep things manageable, I think I'll start with the basics for this project.
LMS of Choice
After exploring various options, I have chosen Canvas Free for Teachers for my minicourse. While I was initially drawn to Google Classroom for its simple UI and straightforward onboarding, I was disappointed to find its support for formatting Right-to-Left (RTL) languages like Dhivehi was difficult.
Canvas, despite having a slightly steeper learning curve, is my choice because it supports my minicourse by:
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Allowing Rich Text Formatting, which is essential for working with the Dhivehi script.
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Enabling modular page creation and menu customization, providing a clean and intuitive navigation structure for K-5 learners. Although UI could be improved for K-5.
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Facilitating simple assignment and quiz creation, with the potential for deeper, more complex interactions.
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Providing a quick toggle between student and instructor views, which will be invaluable for course development and testing.
LMS Training Resources
To support me in building my course on Canvas, I will utilize the following two training resources, which I found particularly helpful and current:
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Virtual Teaching Pro: This YouTube channel, which I found through my research, offers a dedicated series of tutorials, including this seven-step approach to setting up a Canvas course, which is very helpful to get your head around the whole interface. Although some of the content is a bit dated, it provides a solid foundational approach.
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Mandy's Digital Classroom: I also found this channel, which is very dedicated to Canvas and features recent, well-arranged tutorials. The existence of an active and supportive community creating external resources like this was a key factor in my decision, as it ensures I will have guidance outside of the platform's official training.