Test

SCC

Final Design Journal

It is finished!

What a relief. I have had such a great time going through this process. Most people don't enjoy doing work like this, but I really enjoy the challenge and reward that comes form a feeling of accomplishment. Over the past 9 months I have learned a few important messages. They are as follows in no particular order.

1- Don't fall in love with a particular design principle or piece of instruction.
What do I mean? It seemed that as I would design something I would think that it was the coolest or best way to teach something, but when evaluation time came it was just these principles or instructions that the students either did not like or were unable to follow. This was hard to watch happen, and hard to swallow when it came time to delete or completely change something I had so much invested in, but overall my ability to change to help the learner helped create a more fluid and comprehensible piece of instruction.

2- Don't spend an inordinate amount of time on the little things. Focus on the actual instruction more than the site design or " neat technology". I spent hour upon hour trying to design "cool" Flash animations to give a neat introduction to each unit. These are nice and cool, but the final group of learners did not even notice the actual content embedded into these animations. So in the end, they were noting besides nice moving pictures.

3- The ADDIE design model takes a lot of time at the beginning, but produces useful easy to implement content in the end. I could not believe how much time I spent analyzing the learner and the learning context. I seemed to being doing way too much front end work and felt as though I had nothing to show for it. This was true in a way, but so wrong when it really came down to it. This work helped me to design instruction right the first time and prevented most of the confusion that would have come at implementation and evaluation time. The instruction was designed solidly, learners were able to follow along and score well on the exams. This was the reward for the front end work.

4- I used to create crap. Before this program I had created a lot of online content for my science classes. Most of this was just taken exactly from what I had done in class, just posted to the web. The design process especially the implementation and evaluation steps have helped me learn that you really can't do this. Instruction has to be completely redesigned for distance delivery. The learners that I had help me along the way reinforced this time after time as they struggled to understand the content that I tried to adapt to the web. It did not take long to learn this lesson. Instruction had to be completely redesigned, not just adapted.

There were many more lessons learned, some small, some big. The ultimate lesson was one of self realization that good instruction takes time, a defined set of objectives, and lots of patience. As mentioned before I really enjoyed this process, each step lead to some frustration, but ultimately understanding and increased knowledge.

Thanks to all who helped me in learning these lessons, Kristen, Kelli , Daniel, Casey, Kelli, Emily, Jana, Kayla, Kelli O, and James. All were very helpful in their evaluation of this project.

A special thanks to Sandie for her guidance and patience. And finaly a huge thanks to my wife for her constant editing especially spelling and for her unbelievable patience with me through this process.

It is finished!

Evaluaiton Time

For the final evaluation of the project I hired four students to take the class for credit, meaning that they would have to complete the entire class including exams. These four worked through the project at my house over spring break. It took them the better part of three day holiday to complete the course. These learners were chosen for their diversity in age and intelligence for lack of better words. One is a senior with a 4.0 cumulative average, one was a sophomore with a 4.0 average, one was a sophomore with a 2.7 average, and one was an eight grader with a 3.4 average.
Three of the four were able to complete the class and pass all the exams with high scores. The sophomore with the lower GPA failed one of the tests, but was able to still earn credit with over 80% in the class. I took thier scores and their ability to complete the assignment as a positive sign for the project.

After the student completed the course they were asked to complete a survey. The results can be found at the following ink.


http://www.behsscience.com/masterport/survey.cfm.swf

This summative evaluation along with the formative evaluations used throughout the design process have lead to many design changes, and a better final product.

All learners had positive feedback. This was very rewarding. This process has not been an easy process, but has been a fun and rewarding one.

Spring Updates

It has been quite a while since I updated this design journal. With the onslaught of spring and the excitement of finishing this project I have neglected to update the viewers of my progress.

I am very close to being done. As of today I should have all my learner testing of the individual units complete. The design and testing have taken a great deal of time, but the fruits of my labor are finally ready to harvest. Once all the content is online I have lined up a few students to take the entire class from start to finish. They will be the true test of the material as they are from differing science backgrounds and will not have me at their side to guide them in any way. I anticipate some kinks, but that is what final testing is for. Once they have completed their review I will call the project complete and publish it completely.

This project has been quite eye opening. I have really had to focus on the learner more than I thought that I would have to. This may not seem like news to anyone else, but it was a wake up call to me about my actual classroom instruction. I have really stepped back and had to look carefully at the things that I do in class that ensure learning. I strongly feel this program has made me a better distance teacher, and a better classroom teacher.


Tom

January 14 2006

Progress on my project has come quickly over the Christmas break and so far this year. I have been able to create the majority of the content for the two remaining units, and am currently working on the labs while tying up the loose end in the content before I have learners test it. This should happen in the next couple of week or so. I plan to have this project complete by the end of February so I can focus on my portfolio and any other final projects for this program.

Project home-

http://www.behsscience.com/masters.html


Tom

December 1

This entire week has been spent tying up loose ends. I have completed the exams for the two units that I am submitting for grading, complete with changes based on student comments.

I spent a huge amount of time trying to make my site more appealing to the eye. I have created a background, and a new page layout. I still have to change the links at the top of the page, but that will have to wait till next semester. I have added more interactive Flash animations and have started development of some materials for next semester.

According to my test audience I have created around 15 hours of instruction so far. I hope that I have not done too much. The rest of the time this year will be spent finishing up my final paper, and wrapping up any more loose ends.

Tom

November 17

These two weeks have been spent developing online resources for the speed unit and the never ending process of testing the materials. I have been trying to decide on a more professional looking template. I have spent a lot of time researching CSS and other design tools. I will be phasing in a more professional look over the next couple of weeks.

The majority of the speed unit is actually using outside resources for the instruction. The students will download an assignment template and fill it in as they complete the activities. There are thousands of websites that teach about kinematics, and I thought that it would be best to incorporate a few of there sites with bigger budgets into my class. It has been a time intensive process researching sites and writing a activities that engage the students. I have recorded a couple more LoggerPro tutorials and will edit and post them this week.

I think that I am progressing well, and am looking forward to the holidays for a little break,

Tom

November 3 (ten shopping days till my birthday)

This week was spent creating online assessment for my two units. I used UTIPS for this service. Two of my preview students have taken the tests and have done well so far. They have provided me with feedback on the format of the test, and helped me fix basic errors.

I also spent a lot of time working on the online presentations for the speed unit. This is very time intensive, but more fun than creating the content. I also made a tutorial to help learners attach files to their emails. I did not think that this was necessary, but some of my trial students have not known how to attach a document in an email.

Tom