Final Reflection

My Advanced Instructional Design project is complete and has been submitted! I am relieved to be done a week ahead of the due date. Now, all I have left to do is complete the course evaluation surveys. Because I have learned that reflection is an important element to learning, I thought I would reflect on some aspects of the course and my experiences in it.

The Final Project– I was proud of my final project because I truly believe I will be able to implement this for the company. Originally, I had planned to reproduce the lessons I had taught in a video format. After taking the time to evaluate and critique these lessons, I made some small improvements that I believe will greatly affect the instruction.

Reflection Journal– I have always enjoyed blogging for classes, and the reflection journal was very similar. I think I would have preferred a blog or a subject on which to write instead of constantly talking about my experiences. The directions were also unclear as to how often we should be writing and what exactly we should be writing about.

Virtual Sessions– While the benefits of the virtual sessions included answering questions about the projects and short feedback, it was not worth three hours of my time. I would have preferred videos on the instruction and personal feedback from the professor (since that is where most of the feedback came from). I did not feel like students interacted, and a lot of time was spent fixing technical issues.

Working full time during the course– This was unlike every other course I have taken because I was working at least 45 hours each week. I did not feel as engaged as I may have been in other courses, because I did not allocate time to think about the ideas. What helped most was making a schedule and sticking to it. Because of my busy weekly schedule, I was also more motivated to finish work on the weekends. In the end, I kept to my schedule and was able to finish the materials early.

This course was an accurate summation of a lot of the work I have done in my Instructional Design courses. I also enjoyed working on a real-world project. While I would have liked to have finished one of the videos, I simply ran out of time and chose to perfect my class assignments instead. Going forward, I will be producing these videos for the company, as well as other educational videos. This class allowed me to spend much time on the design aspect of this process, and the ending videos will be much better for it.

Course Readings Pt. 2

Recently, I was looking online for videos to show in my class, and I found a series of videos from code.org, where celebrities use simple analogies to explain complex computer science concepts. I like how they are short videos (<2 minutes) and how they use analogies students can relate to. In this one, Bill Gates explains if/ then loops:

Now, on to the articles.

Enhancing Teaching and Student Activities

This article was different from many of the other articles and journals we have read for this class and the degree in general. Rather than a verbose, academic paper, the reading listed and explained small, incremental improvements teachers/ designers can make to their instruction. It was a useful list and reminded us that instructional improvement can be small yet effective. As for my instruction, I feel that it has been pretty successful. Because of this, I will not be making major changes, but rather small, incremental improvements for a large payoff.

Performance Assessment

I also combined these two readings on using rubrics for performance assessment.  Both begin by defining “rubric” as many other articles do:  it’s complicated. One thing that is clear is the components: a matrix with criteria or dimensions of quality. There are two types (holistic and analytical), and there are many resources available for finding or creating your own rubrics.. Despite this fuzziness, rubrics offer clarity on assignments for both students and teachers; however, my original opinion has not been changed, and I still feel as though rubrics kill creativity. Even with dimensions of quality, most students will use the rubric as a checklist rather than building an assignment that they feel is the best demonstration of their knowledge. Still, rubrics provide practicality and streamlined grading (especially with TA’s). They also provide communication between student and teacher. Because of this rigidness and creativity-killer, I don’t see a use for rubrics in my instruction, outside of this assignment.

The Power of Feedback

This article went over different types of feedback and what can make effective feedback in multiple settings. The article mentioned the four levels of feedback and how each solves a gap in the learners’ knowledge.  I appreciated how it went over the different types of feedback for different mediums, such as a teacher parent or book. While video was not explicitly mentioned, the feedback is very similar to a book. Feedback and assessment are also an area for improvement that came up through my feedback. By using incremental feedback in my instruction, students will be getting reinforcement or adjustment to their project. Like a book, my videos can also provide further information to clarify the concepts.

Contextual Teaching and Learning

Contextual learning answers the age old question, “When are we going to use this in the real world?”  by actually relating knowledge to its use in the real world. According to contextual learning theory, learners have not truly learned something until they have integrated it into their everyday lives. Traditional education expects students to make these connections on their own, but this practice is being re-examined. One element of contextual learning theory that makes it successful is that it draws upon the diversity of the classroom. This is important to me because of the lack of diversity in the tech world currently. I hope by incorporating the diversity of my students, they will see how computer science applies to many disciplines. I would like to pull examples and analysis from different, real world context.

Designing Learning Objects to Personalize Learning

I was interested in this article because it discusses online learning. As many Instructional Design articles before have mentioned, students are not taught how to learn. This is shown when students in online courses do not have the discipline or ability to finish it. In order to counteract this, the article suggests personalization of learning, from name-recognition to whole-person personalization for each student. In online video, especially those that will be used over and over again, personalization could be difficult. The technique I would be most likely to use is segmented personalization. The students are already segmented by their age, area, and interest in technology, by virtue of taking the course. By analyzing my current learners further, I could identify different segments, based on interests, and teach toward them with specific examples and analogies.

 

These readings provided many more ideas for my instruction revision. I was most intrigued by contextual learning because of its problem-centered, real-world approach to problem solving. I also found that I already do part of this in my instruction. Reading the research helped me to refine my technique. I was least intrigued by rubrics because I they do not reward creativity and originality, which is very important to my instruction. Having now read all of the readings and having received feedback, I am ready to make the final adjustments and edits to my instructional storyboard.

Reflection Journal: Getting Feedback

Another assignment for this class was to get feedback on our storyboard from someone outside of the class. I decided early on that someone with expertise in making online coding videos for small organizations with a Master’s in Instructional Design would be hard to find. I did the next best thing and got two opinions.

The first is from my client, Pam. Since I am making the videos for her, I want to make sure the project will serve her purpose. She also serves as a content expert, having run the company for the past few years. We worked closely before on Instructional Design projects when I was designing both of the classes I taught with the company. We corresponded over email.

Pam’s feedback was sparse but helpful. I originally sent her my storyboards with a general request for feedback. After not getting much feedback, I asked more specific questions about the content, flow, and timing. Overall, she approved the content, lessons, and the structure I had implemented in the storyboards. Her only concern is the timing. As the project becomes more concrete, I will hopefully assuage these concerns. In my final storyboard, I will also take a closer look at the time.

The second is from Yuri Pavlov, a fellow Instructional Design student. I asked Yuri to provide feedback because he is familiar with ID principles and also the requirements of this specific project. He also provides an outsiders opinion on content. This is helpful because my students will also be new to the material. If he cannot understand the material or the flow, I will be aware that my students may have the same reaction.

Yuri, versed in evaluation, provided more comprehensive feedback.Most of the comments were positive feedback. Yuri’s biggest concern was the assessment piece; many of the videos did not have an assessment. While completion of the app serves as an assessment in each lesson, that was not made clear by the storyboards. Going back, I will edit the assessment piece to make it clearer.

Both reviewers gave me useful feedback in different areas of the instruction. I am glad I sought feedback from diverse sources, rather than just one reviewer, or one type of reviewer. Both major concerns were valid, and I plan to make adjustments to my storyboard based on this feedback, as well as suggestions from classmates and readings.

Course Readings Pt. 1

Trying to enjoy summer and finish class readings like…

First Five Principles of Instruction and Learning

Merrill’s Five Instructional Principles has been a favorite of the IDD&E professors as long as I have been there (which, granted, is only a year).  Merrill’s principles lay out the most basic requirements to facilitate learning: problem-centered, activation, demonstration, application, and integration. All instructional models contain at least one, but not all, of these elements. This was a good article to start on because it outlines the basics of instructional improvement. In my instruction, I have focused on keeping learners engaged by solving real-world problems. Each concept has a related program, and students learn the concept in relation to that program.

 

Advanced Organizers

I have done concept maps in multiple classes, and I never found the experience particularly engaging or helpful. After reading this article, it made sense that I was not the ideal audience. Advanced Organizers work best for poorly organized info, inexperienced learners, and low-ability students. As a logical, systematic nerd, none of it applies to me. My instruction already includes much engagement and activation of concepts, so I do not think an advanced organizer would add any value.

 

Providing Concreteness, Activity, and Familiarity

This article went over three methods of presenting content: concrete, discovery, and inductive. Concrete methods demonstrate materials and are best used when students can reflect upon the material. In discovery methods, the instructor controls how much information is presented based on the ability of the learners and the confidence level of the teacher. Using an inductive method, the rule is only given after the learner understands the framework. In my classes, I tend to use a discovery method, where I gradually reveal the rules and allow students to discover them on their own. In the video, I hope to implement this in an organized fashion. First, I will present students with a challenge. Then, they can pause the video and attempt the challenge. If they get stuck, they can resume the video, where more information is revealed.

 

Fostering Learning Strategies: Mnemonic, Structure, and Generative Strategies

(I combined these two readings from the same book chapter). This chapter focused on specific learning strategies: mnemonic, structure and generative. Mnemonic strategies help students memorize material. While helpful, my instruction requires very little lower-level thinking. Mnemonic strategies has not been shown to help with the higher-level thinking coding requires. Structure strategies organize material and encourage learners to make mental connections among concepts. I have used this in my instruction to relate concepts from one class to the next. Some ideas, such as variables, if/then statements, and loops are used often in my class and coding in general.  Generative strategies help learners integrate the new material with existing knowledge, using summarizing and questioning strategies. While questions may be hard to regulate over a video format, summarizing activities are done in the conclusion of each lesson.  Most importantly, these strategies help build internal and external connections into the student’s world.

 

Authenticity, Self-Regulation, and Reflection in Learning

While this article seemed out of place, after reading many on learning strategies, I found it interesting. Having worked in higher-education environments, I agree that there are many, varied skills graduates need in order to be successful. While the suggestion to add real-world, contextual problems is a great way to present instruction, I don’t think it is a panacea for all the problems facing colleges and universities today. In my instruction, the concepts are framed around building a real life program. Students are also encouraged to adapt the programs to their interests and lives. They build apps that they want to use or play.

 

Overall, my instruction already implemented many of the learning strategies. Reading about them and the reasoning put much more meaning behind what I was already doing. I also got some ideas (such as the three types of discovery learning) for this project and future instruction. Although the articles were long, I found the varied topics interesting in their own way.

Virtual Session 3

Wow, it has been a busy week! Last Monday was the first day of my new job at the Kid’s Tech camp, which coincided with one of the busiest weeks of this class session. Coincidentally, I had misunderstood the directions and already completed my revised (to-be)instruction storyboard. All that was left to do was edit it, and complete the initial (as-is) storyboard. Not to mention a critique of Yuri’s storyboard (Thankfully, it already looked fantastic!) and the remaining readings/ self-checks.

 

We first began by reviewing the readings and reflecting on them in relation to our Instruction. It was a lot of information to review, so if I redesigned this class, I would probably break up the readings.

Article 1, 3

These two articles covered some of the basics of instruction. Merrill’s First Principles is a repetitive theme in many IDE courses. This is because it is an adaptable “checklist” of the elements/ characteristics of effective instruction. It relates to my instruction by keeping instruction “problem-centered,” or focused on a real-world situation. Merrill’s principles seem best used at either the Analysis or Evaluation stage (of ADDIE). The article on “Concreteness” could be useful at the design stage, as it dove deeper into different ways to present content: concrete, discovery, and inductive methods. I was interested in the three different discovery methods and adapted Guided Discovery in my instruction.

Article 6,7 

The “Authenticity” article was interesting and highlighted the challenges institutions of higher education face in preparing students for careers. Having worked in higher-education environments, I agree that there are many, varied skills graduates need in order to be successful.While the suggestion to add real-world, contextual problems is a great way to present instruction, I don’t think it is a panacea for all the problems facing colleges and universities today. The “Enhancing” article took a different approach and suggested small, incremental improvements teachers/ designers can make to their instruction. It was a useful list and reminded us that instructional improvement can be small yet effective.

Article 2

The “Advanced Organizers” article was confusing at first. The studies mentioned were sometimes contradictory, and the definition was almost too broad to be useful. I thought Advanced Organizer = Concept Map. For this reason, I found them useless in my instruction. When I realized that an Advanced Organizer was not a formal process, but rather a framework to prepare learners for what is coming, I realized I already used it. In my tech classes, I show the students an example program. This way, they know what they are going to make, what it will look like, and most importantly, that they have to pay attention to my instruction in order to make it.

 

Next, we reviewed more storyboards, primarily from students that had not attended our last session.

The quickest web design class I have ever seen- Jiyang presented an as-is storyboard for a CSS, HTML coding class she had previously taken. There was a lot of room for improvement as it was mostly lecture and an assessment. I suggested adding practice time, but chunking the information and allowing students to add there own flair are other strategies that I have found successful in coding classes I have both taught and taken.

Go Sports pt. 3- Lanear presented his instruction for collegiate athlete recruiting, which I have very little knowledge about. It seemed all of the instruction was lecture-based, which is obviously bad. Some interactive or group activities would increase engagement immensely. I am still confused as to the audience of his instruction as well.

Don’t cheat- Stephanie presented her project for the Academic honesty center. She is teaching the employee to follow her about a software she uses. The instruction was well thought out, with content presentation, practice, and even an assessment. My only criticism was that it seemed very large for just one person on one software. Then again, I left training for my entire job on a two-page word document. I am glad she will actually get to implement her project.

Watching everyone else present reinforced the ideas that small changes are easy to make economical, and can  make a large impact. Not every instructional design project has to reinvent the wheel (or freshman calculus). The best projects had a lot of thought put into them, and we could all easily understand the benefits if the instruction, regardless of context. This will be important as we move to the implementation stage.

 

Next steps…

First and foremost, I plan to catch-up on my reflection journal. So much of my classwork recently has been done in small chunks after camp. I plan to reflect on these experiences. As for my project, I am very happy with where I am. After getting feedback twice, I feel that my peers understand my instruction and its purpose. After a final check and some minor revisions, I will be ready to submit.

Virtual Session 2

Class Presentations

Go Sports- Louis presented his first storyboard on weightlifting at Northwestern for sports guys. I agree with Tiffany, that he could use more representative pictures for his story board. His plan for improvement seems pretty straight forward.

“Sew: A Needle Pulling Thread”- Christine presented her storyboard on a sewing class she teaches. What I found interesting was the similarities between her sewing audience and my tech classes. My kids come from all over the board on technology use/ skill, just as Christine’s students have a large gap in sewing abilities. I look forward to seeing her creative solution(s).

Go Sports pt.2- Briana presented her project for a Kid’s basketball camp in Philly. One way to improve the instruction that we discussed would be to increase engagement among the kids. I really liked Christine’s idea of using stickers (kids love stickers!) and incorporating technology/ videos may be fun for them too.

Last but not least- Oops! I realized a few minutes into the class that I had done the wrong assignment. When I should have storyboarded the original instruction, I storyboarded my videos. Still, it was great to hear some outsider opinions, and I hope to answer their questions in the final storyboard.

Overall, I saw my classmates progressing on their work. It was great to see how many different contexts for instruction and there were many creative solutions to the instructional issues. I would never have though about job aids prior to studying instructional design. Like Professor Koszalka mentioned, we’re building a toolbox.

Time to get out my sandpaper and perfect this instruction.

 

 

Reflection Journal: Client Meeting

Yesterday, I met with my client, Pam, also my boss at Tech4Kidz, where I had been teaching app development classes for the past year. We had become so used to these 9 a.m. Panera meetings, we even arrived at the same time. Knowing the gravitas of this project and that it would probably be our last meeting in person, I prepared an agenda with space for notes.

These are my notes. I thought about typing them out, but I decided to save a tree instead.

Overall, the meeting went well. I started by explaining the project and its requirements. From those parameters, Pam had a few projects on which I could have worked. Together we narrowed it down to the class I taught twice before, Beginner App Inventor. This was the project Pam had put the least amount of work into, and having taught it twice, I am extremely familiar with the material. Having worked with 20-some curious kids on these lessons, I am sure I have answered a majority of the questions that will come up during instruction.

After explaining my ideas for design, I was lucky we were on the same page, for the most part. We both agree that short videos, where I screen capture the software will be most helpful. I will also incorporate instruction on basic computer science concepts, just like class. One concern I know I will have to assuage is the screen capturing software. This was a consideration I had not previously thought about.

Now, I am definitely ready to draft the first storyboards. Pam has already agreed to review them (yay!). I will also be looking into different screen capturing software, weighing utility vs. cost vs. learning curve.

Later in the meeting Pam and I did an informal evaluation of the classes I taught most recently (beginner and advanced app inventor), so I had practice in that as well. Eventually we veered to topics like travel. Pam suggested I moved to Australia, which sounds like a pretty nice place to complete this virtual homework!