About the course
This course prepares students for the digital environment. Using a hands- on approach, students will further develop information and communication technology skills through the use of common business software applications. The concept and operation of e-business will be explored, and students will design and create an e-business website. The skills developed in this course will prepare students for success in the workplace and/or postsecondary studies.
Information and Communication Technology: Multimedia Solutions
Course Credit
1
Course Price
$ 550.00
Course Developer
My Learning Oasis
Prerequisite(s) (Text)
BTA3O
Course Code
Department Head & Contact Information
BTX4C
Manisha Sharma (manisha@mylearningoasis.com)
Course Type
College
Grade Level
Grade 12
Course Development Date
June 10th, 2021
Course Outline
The Electronic Business Environment
In this unit students will evaluate the working environment and setting that best reflect the values of the company. For instance, a company that is strong on “teamness” may not favor individual offices for its employees, barring individuals who will be dealing with ultra-sensitive documents. To this end, students will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of various computer networks that may be best suited. These may include, but not limited to, the star and ring networks. They will assess the hardware and software needs for each of the networks, do a brief cost analysis, and evaluate the impact that each will have on the company then make a recommendation.
Expected Hours of Instructions: 30 hours
Applications Software
This unit will begin with a brainstorming exercise to determine all the different things that are typical and atypical in an office and which of these are done using softwares. Such office/business items that require specialized software are, but not limited to, report generation, data collection, professional word processing, mail creating, spreadsheet services, pdf converters, document mergers, presentation services, graphics generation, cropping, sound, animation, webpage development, e-news, and more. They will then brainstorm softwares, free and licensed, that can accomplish each task. They will be introduced to the various types of multimedia file formats like JPEG, WAV, GIF, AVI, and others. They will explore how to add/enhance a document to incorporate special features like sound and videos and how to create training slides and videos. They will also explore how to use these softwares to create in-house advertising for the company and to upload and download the company’s and its employees’ portfolios.
Expected Hours of Instructions: 15 hours
Electronic Communications
In this unit students will explore different Internet tools used in research such as search engines, reliable web sources, and more. They will evaluate and rank each for reliability, accuracy, dependability, accountability, and legality. They will be introduced to Internet law and ethics that govern best practices when downloading or using material posted online. An emphasis will be on respecting copyright laws and always giving proper citations. Students will examine different forms of citations so that they may choose which best suits them and recognize them in Internet document citations. Students will explore techniques to use and amalgamate/synthesize information from multiple sources to meet different audiences. They will explore ways to send, electronically, blended messages to multicultural communities.
Expected Hours of Instructions: 25 hours
Project Management
In this unit, students will explore various softwares that can facilitate a collaborative approach to project-management and “teamness” as a whole. For this to be effective, students have to be offete with the facets that are necessary for team-building. Some of those will be addressed like respect for each other and their cultures, race, background, opinions, customs, traditions, and more. They will explore ways to respectfully disagree with someone’s opinion. They will examine ways on how to enhance “teamness”. They will then delve into electronic tools to enable these ideas and facilitate the discussions. Such tools may be ZOOM, Microsoft Teams, Google Space, and many more.
Expected Hours of Instructions: 35 hours
Project assessment and final exam
Students will present their plan to the class (15%) and will take a final exam (15%). Depending on how robust the projects become, the total project assessment may be 30%, in which case it will also be the exam.
Expected Hours of Instructions: 5 hours
Total 110 Hours
Resources
The course material (class notes and necessary handouts) will be provided by the teacher.
The students will be required to have:
● Access to a library or the Internet to do research
● Access well as electronic devices for note taking and communication for those taking the class online
Overall Curriculum Expectations
A. The Electronic Business Environment
A1. assess workplace settings from an information and communication technology perspective;
A2 analyse the impact of information and communication technology on the business
environment;
A3 assess the importance of adhering to ethical standards when conducting business
electronically.
B Applications Software
B1 use appropriate software to create integrated customized documents that meet professional
business standards;
B2 demonstrate effective use of multimedia software;
B3 use appropriate software to perform a variety of business tasks.
C Electronic Communications
C1 use a variety of electronic resources to retrieve, evaluate, and communicate information;
C2 demonstrate an understanding of the importance of keeping an updated digital portfolio that
accurately reflects their information and communications skills and competencies;
C3 demonstrate an understanding of e-commerce solutions.
D Project Management
D1 demonstrate an understanding of a team-based approach to project management;
D2 demonstrate the use of electronic tools to manage a multimedia team project;
D3 use a team-based approach to create a multimedia product.
Special Accommodations
Only Some students are able, with accommodations, to be part of a regular course curriculum and to demonstrate independent learning. These accommodations allow access to the course without any dilution of the knowledge and skills the student is expected to demonstrate. These required accommodations to facilitate the student’s learning will be identified in his or her IEP (see IEP Standards, 2000, page 11*).
It is likely that IEP for many or all courses will reflect the same accommodations. The instructions and accommodations are geared to meet the diverse needs of learners. The three types of accommodations that are going to be used are:
i) Instructional accommodations - changes in teaching/learning strategies facilitated by different styles of presentation; methods of Organization; the use of technology and multimedia.
ii) Environmental accommodations - Certain classroom settings and preferential seating may benefit these students.
iii) Assessment: assessment procedures that enable the student to demonstrate his or her learning, such as Multiple Intelligence Theory, giving more time to complete tasks (see page 29 of the IEP Resource Guide, 2004, for more examples).
For students who require accommodations for only the mathematics courses, the assessment and evaluation of their achievement will be based on the appropriate course curriculum expectations and the achievement levels outlined in this document. The IEP box on the students’ Provincial Report Cards will not be checked, and no information on the provision of accommodations will be included.
* Taken from: Ministry of Education, Ontario. Extracted from The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Business Studies, 2006; (Pg 21-22) Date of extraction: Sunday, March 14, 2021
Program Considerations For English Language Learners
Students from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. For many of these students, English is not their spoken language. They may be coming from highly sophisticated educational systems, while others may have come from regions where access to formal schooling was limited. These students offer a rich addition to the classroom experience by way of their background knowledge and experience. All teachers will assist with their English- language development. In mathematics the teachers will include appropriate adaptations and strategies in their instructions and assessments to facilitate the success of the English language learners in their classrooms. Some of these strategies and adaptations are: modification of some or all of the course expectations so that they are challenging but attainable for the learner at his or her present level of English proficiency, given the necessary support from the teacher.
Teaching/Learning Strategy
The key learning strategy at My Learning Oasis Elite Private School is Constructivism. This format facilitates learning by many techniques, most or all of which will be adopted in the classroom. The most dominant of these is group learning. The facilitator places students of different backgrounds in the same group so that they can feed off each other. Each may bring to the table a different reasoning strategy to facilitate problem-solving. Now, each student becomes a learner and a teacher at the same time, as he/she has to communicate his/her solution.
This builds the students' knowledge base and by default, increases their confidence to speak in a crowd, albeit a small group at the beginning. The famous educationalist, Vygotsky, proved that by placing students in a group they function at the upper level of their zone of proximal development, each one scaffolding the other. This strategy is further enhanced by the teacher asking leading questions as opposed to giving the answer outright, then allowing for group discussion. The students are encouraged to make connections between what they have learnt and their life experiences, then share with the group. The effect of this strategy is intrinsic motivation and learning.
Each student develops an expanded appreciation of the topic at hand by seeing how it applies in different settings around the world by way of listening to their group members. This Constructivist approach will be further accentuated by implementing “fish-bowling”. There are many ways to implement this technique. The one that will mostly be used will be by dividing up the larger problem (technical, mathematics, science, or otherwise) into smaller bits and have each student thoughtfully master one part. That student then teaches the group and facilitates a discussion reflection about the strategy (computational or otherwise) used in the solution.
Each student in turn does this. The above techniques enable students to reflect on the material learnt, make real life connections, and develop problem solving skills. One important by-product of the technique of Constructivism is that each student develops an appreciation of each other’s culture. This cultivates healthy people’s skill, which is not only important for the professional world but for life itself. Constructivism lends itself well to students whose first language is not the language of instruction and who is new to the class. While other strategies will be used for students having difficulty with the English Language, this technique will definitely be used to enhance their English skill.
Assessment And Evaluation
At My Learning Oasis, course facilitators do not wait for a quiz or exam to determine how well a student is doing. Here, evaluation is an on-going exercise. The pedagogical techniques (refer to Teaching and Learning Strategies) used at My learning Oasis are perhaps the best techniques suited for on-going assessment, hence, they being an integral part of our delivery methodologies. Concrete assessments are made through projects and assignments. However, the evaluation is based on “our flavor” of the Mastery Teaching technique. This ensures that the emphasis is on the quality of learning and NOT grading. Students' projects and homework will continuously be evaluated and re-evaluated with appropriate guidance to meet the school’s and Ministry’s expectations.
At My Learning Oasis, we will work with the students until the projects meet a minimum of a B-grade, unless in extreme circumstances where the willful negligence of the students force lower grades. While this is a lot more taxing on the facilitator, it does not matter because My Learning Oasis is a Learner-centered institution NOT a Grade-Centered nor a Teacher-Centered institution. Four categories of knowledge and skills are outlined in the achievement chart - knowledge and understanding, thinking, communication, and application. Student’s work is assessed and evaluated with respect to these categories, and that achievement of particular expectations is considered within the appropriate categories. A final grade will then be recorded for this course and if that grade is 50% or higher, a credit is granted to the student and recorded for this course. The final grade for this course will be determined as follows:
● For material evaluated throughout the course, seventy percent of the grade will be assigned. This portion of the grade should reflect the student's consistency in his/her level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration should be given to more recent evidence of achievement.
● Thirty percent of the grade will be based on a final evaluation, which is administered towards the end of the course
Final Exam 30%
Grading for all course work, projects, presentation, participation, interim quizzes and exams 70%
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