Final Project: the Final Project Has Two Components

Ford, Nathan - 1

EDTC 6025 Project: A Complete Instructional Design Project with Emphasis on Evaluation

The Project Report

Introduction

Model Selected:
Dick and Carey's ISD Model

Reason for Model Selection:

My principal reason for choosing Dick and Carey's ISD Model over the ADDIE Model is the structure of the course selected for this project. The course, which is an adult (senior citizen) education course intended to teach fundamental computer skills, is a “rolling” course that covers 90 hours of instruction. This means that individual lessons, or instructional units, are taught in3-hour blocks twice a week. Once a lesson, or instructional unit,has been completed a new instructional unit begins in the subsequent week. All enrolled students are therefore required to achieve a satisfactory level of achievement each week leaving only enough time to progress through the ISD process one time per lesson (week). The pace of the course is relatively fast for the amount of material presented. This is complicated by the fact that all students must meet minimum expectations each week. Opportunities for backtracking and reviewing earlier material are limited.

Dick and Carey's ISD Model Steps: (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2005)

• Instructional goals:

Working within the confines of the course description, I developed instructional objectives that met with not only the needs of the students but the goals of the course. During this stage I asked the question: how can I serve the needs and goals of the students enrolled in this class and allow them to learn about online retail shopping and safety?

• Front end analysis:

For the front end analysis two analyses were preformed. The first was a Learner analysis. This was designed to tell how much and how quickly the students could handle information and also provide information to reflect what type of learners students were. Secondly, a needs analysis was preformed giving information on learner objectives and how they might best be met.

• Performance objectives:

Performance objectives were developed after the front end analysis. Originally the only objective was for students to learn about retail sites and how they can use it. Eventually the objective of learning about internet safety was added because of the learner demand for it. It was the most requested topic during the analysis. Finally a skills test was added to add an objective that could be used to measured student success.

• Develop instruction:

During the development of instruction, a lesson was planned out to meet the 3-hour time frame. Also the midpoint skills exam was conceived and worked in to the timeframe. A draft of a PowerPoint was created but not used in the end because it was considered unsuitable for the learners.

• Summative Analysis:

For the summative analysis a midpoint skills test was given to students to see if they could perform the skill that had been presented during the lecture. Test and results are available in the evaluation section. Also a pre and post attitude assessment was given to see how comfortable students were feeling about shopping online and security of credit cards. Overall the attitude of feeling that students could find items online improved. However students' feeling on spending money was mostly unchanged by the end of class.

• Formative analysis:

Formative analysis was an a Expert Judgment Phase determine whether this instructional unit should continue and to see which parts of the instruction were not successful and should be removed.

Instructional Context:

The instruction would take place in the Pitt County Council on Aging computer laboratory. This will provide learners with access to computers during, as well as after, scheduled classroom time. Any notes that learners take during the lesson will be available. Also the book "Internet for Seniors in Easy Steps: Windows 7 Edition" is also available for students working in the classroom; students had the option to purchase the text.

Instructional Objectives:

This project will addressthe following learning objectives:

• Senior Citizens in the basic computer class are expected to learn how to interact with at least 4 retail websites (amazon.com, walmart.com, bestbuy.com, ebay.com)
• Be able to recognize if a website is secure for on-line shopping.
• Students will learn how to determine whether a non-retail website (such as bank websites or e-mail) is secure,
• Students should gain a confidence needed to interact independently and safely with on-line retailers.

Learner Characteristics:

The learners for this lesson will be 65 years of age or older and enrolled in the 90 hour computer literacy course. Learners are expected to be competent with basic keyboard skills, basic functions of Windows7 operating system works and participated in the first 12 hours of the internet portion of the course. Based on the learner analysis learners will be mainly auditory learners. This learner group requires a great amount of repetition and an overall slower pace for instruction. For more information see Learner Analysis below.

Instructional Parameters:

• Location:

The instruction should take place in the Pitt County Council onAging computer laboratory. This will provide learners with access outside of class to the computers.

• Lesson timeline:

The lesson will take place over a 3 hour time period from 1-4 on Thursday July 21, 2011. The lesson will include two 15 minute breaks at the top of each hour.

Front-end analyses

• Learner Analysis:

Before creating the instruction for this lesson the learners had to be defined. To do this the Dick and Carey instructional design model was used. This method was created in the late 1978 by Walter Dick and Lou Carey in their book The Systematic Design of Instruction.(Brown and Green, 2009). Using this method a Learner Analysis was preformed. The following is the nine-step process and the results of each step:

• Entry behaviors

Every participant has been enrolled in 70 hours of classroom activity including keyboarding, basic computers and internet basics. Without this prior knowledge and involvement students are not allowed to participate in this lesson.

• Prior knowledge of the topic

Learners have shown competence with basic keyboard skills (20 wpm) or have completed the 30 hour typing prerequisite. Learners have also demonstrated their knowledge of how the Windows 7 operating system works by having completed the 30 hour computer literacy section of the course. In addition, learnershave participated in the first 12 hours of the internet portion of the course.

• Attitudes toward the content and the potential delivery system

Subject matter has been asked about several times during earlier class sessions by students. When ask what topics students wanted to cover

• Academic motivation

Motivation for students is high. With a waiting list of up to 3 years for this class the ones who are enrolled are grateful for the opportunity and ready to learn. Learners are eager and open to learning the subject matter.

• Educational and ability levels

Ability level of students at the start of the course was minimal. However before participating in this lesson students had reached a working knowledge of computers and there parts.

• General learning preferences

The preference of this group due to the age group is repetition. Also slow verbal learning with a moderate hands on approach as well.

• Attitudes towards the organization giving the instruction

Instruction is being held at the Council of Ageing (CoA). The CoA is a nonprofit service and advocacy organization that improves the lives of all older adults in the community. Due to this the CoA and its activities are held in high regard. There is a 3 year long waiting period to get in to this class. This makes attitude towards the class and organization positive.

• Group characteristics

There is a strong hierarchy that will have to be dealt with. Two of the students know more than the rest. This pushes them to try and help the other students which end up delaying the instruction and distracting the other students.

Needs Analysis

A needs analysis was also preformed to help to gather information for designing and creating an effective service that addresses a group’s needs and “wants.” For this project, the Needs Analysis was conducted through the use of a survey administered at the beginning of the class. The survey was intended to establish the motivation and objectives of students for learning how to search retail sources online and how to evaluate individual sites for security. The Needs Assessment was important in developing relevant and effective learning objectives. "By assessing target audience needs, you can determine a focus and direction for investments made in products or training, and extend the reach and impact of environmental programming." (NOAA)

What were student wants?

Students expressed a desire to know how retail sites worked online. Students wanted to know how to access and navigate through an online retail store. Students wanted to be confident going to multiple stores and not being limited to one. Students expressed an interest in how shipping worked for online retailers.

What were their concerns?

Students expressed many fears about use of retail sites and there security. The major concern was revealing personal information and credit card numbers. This fear would have to be understood and solved to be able to successfully accomplish any of the other instructional objectives. Another underlying fear that held several students back was that they were too old to learn this information or that information would be too complicated or too much information to handle. This has been a fear that has been expressed since the beginning of the course. However this fear has been slowly subsiding during the course of the class.

Why did they want to be able to make online purchases?

Students wanted to be able to complete and online purchase. However students were more interested in knowing what information they would have to give out to be able to shop online and how giving out that information would affect them.

Had any of them previously had experience with this?

2 Students had prior experience. These two students had ordered off online retailsites before. 6 other students had been to retail sites before but were not acquainted with the working of these sites. 2 students were completely unfamiliar with online retail sites these two students also have the least amount of computer experience within the class.

Were they concerned over financial security and revealing Credit Card information?

This was the greatest concern of students and would have to be the largest part of instruction. However to meet this concern another lesson outside of this one would have to be designed and taught for students to understand security fully students would have to understand viruses and malware.

Instructional Strategy

• Justification for instructional strategy choice:

Variousinstructional strategies were considered for this unit of instruction. The first to be considered was the minimalist instruction. Initially, this strategy seemed like the preferred choice because students were all older adults and most wanted rapid technique/skill training that would enable them to access online retail outlets as quickly as possible. However after closer consideration of the learner analysis, many students had limited knowledge of the inherent risks associated with making online purchases. Early instructor direction/intervention would be needed. If minimalist instruction were to be used, students would likely make mistakes, become frustrated early, and could unwittingly reveal confidential information over unsecure websites. My assessment of the learner analysis was that the older student make-up of this class would benefit from repetition and stability during instruction.

Another approach considered was the ADDIE Model. While this model fit the instructional objectives well,I found one major problem with the model. During the ADDIE process, the instructor repeats each step until that step is satisfactorily accomplished by each student. For this unit of instruction, achieving that goal was not possible. A single unit of classroom instruction was scheduled. There were no options to go back and repeat instruction.

While some key elements of the ADDIE model were used, the Dick, Carey and Carey model was chosen as the best fit considering the time constraints and the needs analysis of the learners. In addition, I elected to incorporate the motivational principles of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs into this instructional unit. The step-by-step process of associated with this model proved to be helpful in allowing student to keep up with deadlines.

In the end, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs proved invaluable in motivating students. Being able to meet individual needs on several different levels was critical for keeping students’ attention for the 3-hour block of instruction. Students'needs were met on a mental andemotional level. Emotional heath was addressed by providing tips that would allow the learner to feel approval and recognition when the advice was applied successfully. The instructor provided validation to help enforce this by adding positive comments even when objectives were not met. Many older students feel that learning new, technologically challenging material is difficult or impossible. When an older student is enabled to learnnew material and further their understanding of those subjects, mental alertness and motivation is heightened. In addition, the instruction addressed the ability of individuals to overcome the “fear” of interacting with a computer and gain confidence in taking on new or “uncharted” territory.

Instruction: Design and Development

The instruction objectives for this class were to teach a group of ten senior citizens how to use the internet to access and use retail websites. Also how to know if a website was secure and finally gaining confidence to be able to know if it is safe to shop online. This instruction was designed to cater to senior citizens learning ability. I chose to peruse less instruction objectives then if I were teaching a group of industry professionals. The lesson focused on repetition and hands on learning. Each student had their own computer to use and participate with the rest of the class. The class was one 3 hour block with ten minute breaks at the top of the hour so not to overwhelm students with information. The type of instruction was decided to be a lecture with instructor demonstration. A PowerPoint was considered however based upon the learner analysis results a more hands on method was determined to be the most prudent. Further examples of the instruction have been provided in the extra audio clip included with this project.

• Instructor Role:

During the instruction the teacher prepared and presented a 3 hour lecture about online retail stores and internet security. During the lecture the instructor was also responsible for presenting the material that was being lectured with a projector. A major responsibility of the instructor during class turned out to be moderating the students making sure that they stayed on task and were achieving each goal as it was presented. The instructor also fielded any questions that came up during the class.

• Student Role:

During instruction students were required to listen to the instructor and take notes. These notes needed to be detailed enough to repeat the class instruction at home with no help from the instructor. Students were also required to follow along with the instructor and not deviate from the presented instruction. Students went to each retail website searching for certain items to add to their carts. Students were presented with several webpages and expected to tell as a group if the website was secure or not. Finally the students were task after class to go home and repeat the process to see if they were successful.

• Instruction Materials Used:

For Students:

• 10 - Dell Computer workstations with Internet connection
• Windows 7 Operating System
• Internet Explorer
• Notepad and pencil/pen

For Instructor:

• Dell Laptop with Windows 7 with internet connection.
• Projector
• Lesson Outline
• Attendance Roster

• Motivational Strategies employed for Students:

The instructional design process was based on the Dick, Carey and Carey Model for this project. However Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was also used to guide the motivation for students. The Emotional Heath need was met by providing tips that would allow the learner to feel approval and recognition when the advice was applied successfully. Mental health was also addressed with understanding and exploring new areas of life based on the fact that the target audience was aolder and felt like they did could not learn any new technologies. Spiritual Health was also addressed in the instruction (Brown & Green, 2006). The instruction addressed the ability to realize one’s potential to overcome the fears of computers and new technologies and grow to see that they are able to learn and grow.