Overview
As participants in an online community of inquiry, students will cover general leadership theory, issues in contemporary education leadership, leadership in distance, distributed, and online education and special topics on leadership, as they relate to educational technology, innovation and change. Students will be required to bring issues, problems and cases to the class for analysis, evaluation, and strategy development.
The course is paced and supported by asynchronous and synchronous meetings and conferencing. Moodle will be used as the online learning platform. The platform will allow for social, emotional, cognitive and teaching/learning presence to emerge in an online community of inquiry. Course material will be divided into segments and provided electronically according to weekly coverage and activities.
Required readings will be chosen by the instructor from a list of appropriate materials for the course. Other readings will be chosen by the participants within the course, as they relate to leadership issues and cases chosen for study by the group.
Adobe Connect will be used for course launch, guest speaker presentations, student case debates and presentations, and course closure.
Learning activities will include reading, asynchronous discussion, synchronous presentation, discussion and debate, case study and presentation, watching video, listening to and discussing topics with guest speakers and assignment creation.
Learning outcomes
The course is designed to support the following goals:
- Present, critique and apply general leadership theory.
- Demonstrate knowledge regarding multiple leadership theories.
- Identify a critical case in educational leadership.
- Apply leadership theory to current education issues and needs.
- Present arguments outlining the current role of distance, distributed, and online education in the larger education context.
- Use design-based methods to strategize and problem-solve in distance education using leadership interventions.
- Review and consider project management techniques as a leadership function.
- Reflect on, evaluate, and demonstrate personal leadership competencies.
Evaluation
Participation in forums, case development and debate, presentation, group work and written assignments will make up the roster of coursework for performance evaluation. Evaluation rubrics will be created and presented to students with assignments. Well-developed written and oral presentation, demonstration of higher order thinking, argument creation and use of evidence and engagement in forums will be expected.
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignment 1 - Leadership theory: Assessment, comparison and application | 25% |
| Assignment 2 - Leadership issues in distance education - group case studies | 40% |
| Assignment 3 - Personal reflections | 20% |
| Course participation | 15% |
| Total | 100% |
Materials
All learning resources are provided online.