User Assumptions
This unit of instruction was designed for college students taking Pre -Algebra at a small, two-year college. The majority of the students are between the ages of 18-24, although a few of them are older students that have returned to school after an extended period of time. A good number of the students have low confidence in their math skills. Many of the students will have learned the material in previous math classes, but either they do not remember it well, or they didn’t understand it the first time around.
Unit Design
This unit of instruction was designed around Chapter 5 of Pre Algebra: Harvest Your Math Skills 3rd Edition (Alder & German, 2010), the course text for Pre-Algebra classes at Snow College. The four lessons in the unit come from the four sections in this chapter. As I designed this unit and the lessons in it, I attempted to create graphics and activities that would engage the students and help them remember the information better.
Graphic Description
I used a number of different graphics in this unit. The following list is a description of the graphics and the design process used to create them. These graphics went through several revisions as I received feedback from my peers and instructor and as I attempted to follow the design rules that I learned. All graphics were designed using Adobe Fireworks.
Definitions Image Map
This graphic was designed as a gateway to the different definitions used in the unit. I used a radiating design with a core as shown in Duarte (2008, p. 52) to show the relationship between the center expression and the words surrounding it. I also color coded the graphic to relate the words to each part of the center expression (Lohr, 2008, pp. 265-264). The font used is sans serif to make it easier to read online (Lohr, 2008, pp. 225-228) and it matches the font used in the other graphics and throughout the website. This graphic is meant to be used in lesson one to help achieve Objective a: Define the different parts of an algebraic expression and label them.
Definition Graphics
For this unit I designed a group of definition graphics to be used in lesson one to help achieve Objective a: Define the different parts of an algebraic expression and label them. These graphicsare meant to help learners remember and better understand the definitions of several words as used in algebra (Clark & Mayer, 2003, p. 58). I used red to make the most important words and elements stand out. I used shapes to group and chunk information (Lohr, 2008). The shapes and colors match the shapes and colors in the other graphics for this unit, and each definition has the same layout(Shank, 2011). I used text as well as images to help reinforce the learning of the definitions (Clark & Mayer, 2003, p. 56). The graphics include some cartoonish figures to help illustrate each definition. Using cartoonish pictures will encourage positive emotions and creative thinking according to Norman (2004, p. 19). I matched the borders of each graphic with the color coding I used in the definitions image map (Lohr, 2008).
Like Terms Graphic
The combining like terms graphic is meant to be used in lesson 2 to help demonstrate the process of combining like terms and show the difference between like terms and not like terms (Objectives a and b). Again I used shapes to group and chunk information (Lohr, 2008, pp. 251-253). I also used shape and layout to help organize the flow of the graphic (Duarte, 2008). The colors and shapes match the colors and shapes in the other graphics, using repetition (Shank, 2011). I used contrasting colors to help the most important words stand out in the graphic (Shank, 2011) (Lohr, 2008).
Distribution Graphic
This graphic illustrates the process of distribution. As in the other graphics, I used color to contrast and make the important elements stand out (Shank, 2011) (Lohr, 2008). I repeated the colors and shapes of previous graphics to help tie them all together (Shank, 2011) and to help group and chunk the information (Lohr, 2008). This graphic is meant to be used with lesson 3 to reinforce the process of distribution for the students (Clark & Mayer, 2003), and help achieve Objectives a and b.
Words to Symbols Graphic
This graphic is used in lesson 4 to help students organize the information in the lesson and achieve Objectives a and b. A table format is used in this graphic to help group the information (Duarte, 2008). Instead of using traditional bullets I used icons to represent the mathematical operation that each word represents (Malamed, 2011). Again, the colors and shapes match the other graphics for this unit (Shank, 2011). I used graphic symbols for each mathematical operation to help remind the learners of which operation the words refer to.
Works Cited
Alder, C., & German, T. (2010). Pre Algebra: Harvest your math skills (3rd ed.). Provo, UT: Alphagraphics.
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2003). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology. O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Lohr, L. L. (2008). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Malamed, C. (2011). 6 Alternatives to Bullet Lists. Retrieved April 29, 2012, from The eLearning Coach:
Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Shank, P. (2011). Beginning instructiona authoring: Why C.R.A.P. is exactly what's needed (part 1). Learning Solutions Magazine.