Once you have the sequence of objectives and have clustered them, you will plan your activities- preinstructional activities, assessment, and follow-through activities. As you do this, you will also want to make decisions about student groupings. Dick, Carey, and Carey (2005) suggest that you plan activities by using a narrative using the following outline. It is also helpful to then place the narrative in a storyboard or course planning chart that clearly demonstrates how the objectives and assessments and activities are aligned.

Download the example planning chart here.

1. Preinstructional/Orientation Activities
   1. Motivation: Explain how you will gain and maintain learners' attention and maintain it throughout instruction.
   2. Objectives: Explain how you will inform the learners about the objectives (e.g. what they will be able to do) and explain their relevance and importance.
   3. Orientation to Learning: Explain how you will sets the stage for the instruction, outlines expectations, and facilitates the learners' understanding of how to proceed through the unit of instruction.
   4. Student Groupings: Explain how you will group students for the preinstructional activities (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, whole group).

2. Key to Successful Distance Education Course Design: Plan for Student Partcipation Equally important to the role of the instructor is the role of student communication. Ensure that you plan ample opportunities for student participation and collaboration. The Instructional Design Tip Site published by Blackboard suggests planning the following: Weekly Discussion Questions or Problem Sets. Require each student to post one answer to the assignment and also to reply/comment on at least one other student's answer. Group Assignments. Divide students into small groups and assign a collaborative project, paper, or presentation. Online Journals. Require students to keep an online journal of their learning experiences and reflect on both the content and online experience. Make this available for all students to view and comment on. Online Fieldtrips. Provide the opportunities/assignments for students to perform research online, visit related sites, and report experiences to the rest of the class. Online Guest Speakers. Arrange for a subject matter expert to answer student questions in a chat or discussion board. Open Forum. Provide a chat or open discussion area for students to communicate without the constraints of an assignment. This will promote friendly relationships.

   Assessments
   1. Pretest : Identify whether or not you will implement a pretest, explain what you will test for, and how you will use the results you
   2. Practice Assessments: Identify and explain any practice or rehearsal assessments you plan to implement. Identify where they will be located and how they will inform the instruction.
   3. Posttest / Final Assessment: Explain when and where the posttest will be administered.
   4. Student Groupings: Student Groupings: Explain how you will group students for the assessment activity (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, whole group).

*** Only one assessment item is required to assess each objective or cluster of objectives; however, multiple assessments are also acceptable. See Horton text on tests for some assessment ideas.

3. Follow-Through / Summary and Close Activities
   1. Describe memory aids, factors to be employed to facilitate performance transfer, review plans, or summarizations that will be developed to facilitate retention of information and skills.
   2. Student Groupings: Student Groupings: Explain how you will group students for the follow - through activity (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, whole group).

***Note that the actual information you will present is not listed here.

The next step is to plan the content presentations and student participation sections for each objective or cluster of objectives. Again, Dick, Carey, and Carey (2005) suggest that you plan by using a narrative using the following outline (All descriptions should be congruent with the objectives):

1. Content Presentation
   1. Content: Describe the content that will be presented for each objective. .
   2. Examples: Identify and describe examples and non examples.
   3. Student Groupings: Explain how you will group students (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, whole group).
2. Student Participation
   1. Practice: Describe practice exercises that will be employed. .
   2. Feedback: Describe how feedback on practice will be given.
   3. Student Groupings: Student Groupings: Explain how you will group students (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, whole group).

Finally, you need to take time to review your sequence and clusters of objectives, preinstructional activities, assessment, content presentation, student participation,

and student groupings and, then, media selections, which will be covered in the next module. Using all of this information and considering your overall timeframe, you assign objectives to lessons or time periods. When developing a course that extend over a significant period of time (semester long planning), it is acceptable to spread objectives and corresponding preinstructional activities, assessments, etc. over a period of time. For example, the first lesson may obtain preinstructional activities, while the last lesson may contain the assessment and/or follow-through activities. Since you are designing a lesson or workshop this step should be short. Also note that the lessons may not include or include a modified version of the elements of the instructional strategy discussed.

In addition to assigning objectives to lessons or time periods, you need to estimate the time that each element planned with take. Take for example your module "To Do" Lists. This is to ensure that what is planned is reasonable for the timeframe allotted for the learners in which it is planned.

Final Note: As you develop your instructional strategy remember that you should not write out your entire lesson, but think through the entire lesson before you develop it. This section is clear and concise.