Instructional Design Project EME6414

This blog is an example of an online classroom assignment that would be anchored to a class blog maintained by the instructor:

 Assignment: Sustainable Housing on a Budget

Each student has been assigned a geographic location in the United States that will host a sustainable house.
- Research the type of house that would be best suited for the geographic location and each student design the house that they would like to build.
- Students will have $50,000 to budget for the resources needed to build a house for a family of 4. Take into consideration the resources that are local to the geographic area. What will have the smallest environmental footprint? Are there local resources that will withstand the harsh seasons experienced in each location?
- After the students have designed a house and found the resources that will be necessary to build it, research the costs of purchasing these resources, transportation and the total cost of building this house. Who will be hired? Will there be volunteer help (note, the entire house can not be built entirely with volunteer labor. Electrical and plumbing are a minimum.)

Researching Resources
Students will be using Scoop.it and Pinterest.com to create boards to curate ideas on the type of sustainable house the student would like to build. I have gone ahead and created a Topic on Scoop.it and a Board on Pinterest with some general ideas that students may feel free to work off of. Be sure to include visuals, youtube videos, papers, spreadsheets and many more resources to demonstrate an in depth knowledge and study of the house that students would like to construct. Please be aware of Map Engine by Google and use the resources available there. There are a variety of other resources available online including wikis, blogs and other social media tools, please feel free to use these to further enrich your project search. Students may even go so far as to link these pages to Scoop.it or Pinterest.

Final Presentation
The final presentation of this project will be done via Voicethread.com. Each student will be asked to put together a slide show accompanied by audio guidance that walks their classmates and instructor through the details of the sustainable home they are building. Each presentation needs to include but is not limited to:
1. Brief summary of the geographic location assigned;

• location, weather, resources

2. Type of house being built,

• why was the design chosen
• what resources are being used and why 

3. How is the house being built

• what time is being volunteered if any?

4. Budget

• write out a budget for the house; materials, labor, etc
• is the house within budget?
• what sacrifices had to be made to keep the house within budget?

5. Other things to consider

• how easily can this house be built for underprivileged families?
• how easily are the resources bought and transported
• are the resources used local?

Grading
Final projects will be graded on a point scale according to the standards and questions addressed above and will account for 70% of the final grade.
The remaining 30% of the final grade will be based on the student's use of their Scoop.it and Pinterest accounts.
Extra points may be awarded to students who choose to use other tools to assist in their researching efforts (a personal account must be made and obvious effort put forth, extra points are at the discretion of the instructor).