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Course Description Quality Assessment

Course: Creating Educational MicroSims with Generative AI Assessment Date: 2025-11-25 Skill Version: Learning Graph Generator v0.02

Elements Found

Element Status Notes
Title ✓ Present "Creating Educational MicroSims with Generative AI"
Target Audience ✓ Present Teachers, Educators, and Instructional Designers
Prerequisites ✓ Present Basic programming knowledge (variables, control flow, loops)
Course Length ✓ Present 14-week undergraduate course, 3 credits
Main Topics ✓ Present 20+ distinct topic areas covered
Topics Excluded Partial Privacy/security mentioned as out-of-scope
Learning Outcomes Header ✓ Present "Upon successful completion..." format used
Remember Level Outcomes ✓ Present 4 specific outcomes
Understand Level Outcomes ✓ Present 5 specific outcomes
Apply Level Outcomes ✓ Present 5 specific outcomes
Analyze Level Outcomes ✓ Present 5 specific outcomes
Evaluate Level Outcomes ✓ Present 5 specific outcomes
Create Level Outcomes ✓ Present 5 specific outcomes including capstone
Descriptive Context ✓ Present Strong pedagogical framing

Topic Areas Identified

The course description covers these major topic areas:

  1. p5.js Fundamentals - setup(), draw(), global variables, canvas
  2. Generative AI Tools - ChatGPT, Claude, LLMs for code generation
  3. Bloom's 2001 Taxonomy - Six cognitive levels for learning objectives
  4. MicroSim Types - p5.js, Mermaid.js, Chart.js, maps, timelines, networks
  5. MicroSim Architecture - Drawing region, control region, standard layout
  6. Responsive Design - Container width adaptation, relative positioning
  7. Metadata Standards - Dublin Core, JSON schemas, quality scores
  8. Accessibility - describe() function, screen reader support
  9. User Interface Design - Sliders, buttons, interactive controls
  10. Packaging Standards - index.md, main.html, style.css, script.js
  11. Pedagogical Theory - Cognitive load, UDL, scaffolding, PRIMM
  12. Prompt Engineering - Effective prompts, iterative refinement, skills
  13. Testing and Quality - 100-point quality rubric
  14. Integration - iframe embedding, MkDocs, HTML slides
  15. Professional Topics - Licensing, collaboration, user testing, equity

Estimated Concept Count

Based on the breadth and depth of topics covered:

  • Foundation concepts: ~25 (programming basics, p5.js fundamentals)
  • Core MicroSim concepts: ~40 (types, architecture, layout)
  • AI/Genertic AI concepts: ~30 (prompting, refinement, tools)
  • Pedagogical concepts: ~35 (Bloom's, cognitive load, UDL, assessment)
  • Technical concepts: ~35 (responsive design, accessibility, metadata)
  • Professional concepts: ~20 (licensing, testing, collaboration)
  • Advanced/Capstone concepts: ~15 (portfolio, original design)

Total estimated: ~200 concepts (excellent alignment with target)

Comparison with Similar Courses

This course description is more comprehensive than typical:

  • Instructional Design courses: Usually 80-120 concepts
  • Web Development courses: Usually 100-150 concepts
  • AI/ML introductory courses: Usually 120-180 concepts

This course combines elements from all three domains, making 200 concepts appropriate.

Strengths

  1. Excellent Bloom's Taxonomy alignment - Learning objectives explicitly organized by all six cognitive levels
  2. Comprehensive topic coverage - Addresses both technical and pedagogical aspects
  3. Clear learning outcomes - 29 specific, measurable outcomes
  4. Strong capstone integration - Create-level outcomes include portfolio and original design
  5. Practical focus - Specific tools and technologies named
  6. Accessibility consideration - Explicitly addresses inclusive design

Areas for Potential Improvement

  1. Topics Excluded - Could explicitly list topics NOT covered (e.g., "This course does not cover: server-side programming, database integration, mobile app development")
  2. Assessment rubrics - While quality scoring is mentioned, detailed rubrics could be expanded

Quality Score Calculation

Element Max Points Score
Title 5 5
Target Audience 5 5
Prerequisites 5 5
Main Topics Covered 10 10
Topics Excluded 5 3
Learning Outcomes Header 5 5
Remember Level 10 10
Understand Level 10 10
Apply Level 10 10
Analyze Level 10 10
Evaluate Level 10 10
Create Level 10 10
Descriptive Context 5 5
TOTAL 100 98

Assessment Result

Quality Score: 98/100

This course description is excellent and well above the 70-point threshold required for learning graph generation. The description provides sufficient detail to generate 200 high-quality concepts with meaningful dependencies.

Recommendation

PROCEED with learning graph generation.

The course description is comprehensive, well-structured, and provides excellent coverage of both technical and pedagogical domains. The explicit Bloom's Taxonomy organization of learning objectives will facilitate accurate dependency mapping.