Martin Mullan

SCISPort Target Setting and Enrichment Diary:
Using Google Sites, Google Drive, YouTube and Blogger

Table of Contents

Reflective Synthesis Paper

It would be reasonably straight forward to describe an instructional designer as a systems analyst; there are many similarities in the tasks they do. I have created several systems in the schools I have been employed and the process has followed the ADDIE model on each occasion. I said straight forward but I have decided to take a different route: an instructional designer is the player manager of any competitive sports team.

I play Ultimate Frisbee and I am the captain, coach and manager of a team. Each year/season is a new iteration of the ADDIE model, when it comes to identify our goals for the year and how we, as a team, will go about achieving our goals. My team is currently ranked 6th in the country; our goal each year is to maintain, or improve our ranking. This may sound simple, but my team is made up of professional types with families, who cannot commit to training regularly.  It is very important that I make the best use of our training time together and target tournaments that will allow us to field our best squad.

The analysis of the player resources available to me throughout they year is the first step: who can I use, when, and what positions are they proficient in. Not only do I analyze my own players, but I analyze the other teams’ players and their strategies. The information I acquire from the analysis allows me to design a strategy that will work against the other teams and be within the capabilities of my players. To coincide with the strategy, training sessions are designed in order to maximize the skills of the player resources I have available; the analysis and design of the strategy usually identifies a player resource that we need to "acquire" and this is when we try to recruit a tall, fast, basketball player who can help our defense! In my ID role, I try to make use of the resources that are already available to streamline the development, but there are times I need to build something new or buy in a new resource.

The development of the team strategy and individual skills occurs during the training sessions with a constant eye on evaluating each player's capabilities and the strategy. Managing the player dynamics to ensure the best combinations are working together is a vital part of team chemistry; having all the most skilled players on the field at once does not necessarily lead to the best outcomes, and it doesn't help develop the other players as the team progresses toward its goal. In my ID role, I have had to carefully manage and lead the SMEs toward collaborating with each other successfully.

Testing of the new strategies and player resources are implemented at friendly matches and small tournaments which would be considered enabling objectives. These friendlies allow me to evaluate and iteratively analyze the players and strategies I have designed and developed; I also get to see the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents and how they react to our strategies. Friendly matches are an opportunity for captains to evaluate their performance and I use these opportunities to get evaluations from the captains of the teams we play, they are subject matter experts after all!  In my ID/Learning Technology coordinator role, I have attended various conferences and aim to see how other schools have designed and implemented similar projects.

The ranking tournament is the final release of the product that has been developed over the year. All the resources have been built, tested, and fit together effectively to meet the needs of the shareholders involved i.e. the players themselves. How the team does in each round of the tournament requires fast iterations of the ADDIE model in order to adjust our strategies and players in order to meet the challenges of each team we face. In reality, the ADDIE model is being used during every game as I attempt to counteract problems on-the-fly, just as teacher would do if something unexpected occurred during a lesson. Each class is another “team” to face and each brings its own challenges.

“I found out that if you are going to win games, you had better be ready to adapt.”  William Scott Bowman, retired National Hockey League head coach.

The final evaluation of the team's performance after the tournament allows the whole team to review how they performed and whether they did what they were "designed" to do. The strategies used can be evaluated by how well the team performed in the tournament; improving our rank or defeating teams we normally don't is evaluated to have been a success for the team.  The success of the team is due to the processes employed by the instructional designer!

"Fast, cheap, good: pick two", this quote from Larson & Lockee (2013, p227) rings true for me not only in the process of this final project but also in my Ultimate team. Fast, cheap and good aren't the words I'd use for my team, more like "skills, experience, numbers: pick two." In regard to this project, scope was always going to be an issue and as a result the development of the video resources was done fast and cheap! I wanted to use Adobe Captivate 7 and waited for a copy of this software as I have used the previous versions of it. It was my intention to to use the new YouTube export features to create and upload to my YouTube channel; unfortunately, the resolution of the videos produced was too low and I had to use Screencast-o-matic instead. I purchased the pro version to gain better editing quality but time had already run out; clearly, an analysis of the production software should have been carried out too to avoid wasting time.

My past experience with instructional design has mostly been in relation to developing schemes of work that my colleagues and I will use to teach. After completing this course, I see that I have been following my design model that would be described as linear. I have felt in the past that I don’t have the time to constantly look backwards; my colleagues don’t have time for this either, but this leaves me to do the evaluations as I go along. Evaluations from the teacher SMEs only occurs when they are preparing to teach, or after they have taught; these summative evaluations without the formative causes the completed instruction to not be as well crafted as it could be, or as well differentiated if the students of the other teachers need this. The diagram above is the model I submitted early in the course. While I realised then that I was building it in a linear format that didn’t permit backward looking evaluation out of time constraints, I have come to realise that projects that I do not have a complete stake in, like the one I am currently building for the Target Setting and Enrichment Diary, require the SMEs and other stakeholders to review the ongoing progress of the project and possibly alter the whole design if a new element of the analysis appears; this has occurred twice in my project already! As a result of my new learning and appreciation of instructional design and the ADDIE model, I have re-evaluated my model and re-designed it; I believe it now more fully represents what I do in small classroom based projects where I am the key SME, and larger projects where there are multiple stakeholders and SMEs:

Part 1. Topic

1A. Rationale

Write about why you chose the topic that you did, being sure to answer the question, “What need does this meet?”

At the school I work, the Target Setting process for Key Stage 3 and 4 students is performed on paper or MS Word Doc. With our move toward one-to-one, an opportunity has arisen to meet the needs of the Pastoral Head of Key Stage 4 and the needs of the Key Stage 5 students by implementing a more effective target setting process that fully involves the students, their teachers and parents, and that generates a journal of the students’ behaviour in reaching their targets.

Currently, the students are expected to complete a MS Word document that is retained by their Form Tutor, which lists three academic areas the students feel they need to improve. The students, after discussing with the teacher, write down actions they intend to take to meet their target. The Form Tutor files this document or saves it to the school’s server; it is reviewed by the Form Tutor and student at the end of each term. The students do not look at the Target Setting document between their meeting with their Form Tutor and are only in contact with the process at the times when the Form Tutor makes available.

In stark contrast to this system and behaviour, the Key Stage 5 students are expected to evidence and evaluate all of their behaviour, both in and out of class, in order to meet the requirements of the AQA Baccalaureate Qualification. For the majority of students, this is the first time they have been asked to behave in this manner and they are unprepared and ill-equipped.

For some time I have listened to the complaints of the students who are not used to these foreign expectations of evidencing what they do and of critically evaluating their behaviour and performances. Likewise, I have heard the desperation of the Pastoral Head of Key Stage 4 as she has wanted to implement a technological system that would meet the needs of the students.

As a technology integrator at my school, I am in a position to build these systems but I am constrained by what is physically possible and what I am permitted to do by the Senior Leadership Team. Finally, with the advent of Google Apps For Education, I can begin to move forward in designing a system that will be simple for the students to use and simple for the Form Tutors and IT Support to manage. As a techie geek, I personally am interested in the scripting capabilities of the Google Apps and have used this project to further investigate the possibility of automatically generating the GSites and GDrive folders that will be used in the portfolios.

When the Target Setting and Enrichment Portfolios are released to the Key Stage 4 students, they will be able to use their mobile devices to photograph and video their work in class and during their extra-curricular activities. With the use of Apps such as Blogger and GDrive they will be able to upload the evidence and enter text and comments to their evidence. These portfolios can be shared with the academic teachers the students are taught by, and with their parents so that the parents can be involved in the process.

From a teaching perspective, I want the marking that I do to mean something. I have trialled Blogger, GSites and GDrive with my students and have used them to successfully hold a conversation with my students through the commenting features; if a student doesn’t read my comments and respond to them, there is no point in marking as they aren’t thinking about the improvements. I would expect my students to not only use the Portfolio to evidence their best work, but also use it as a digital “schoolbag” that holds all of their work.

1B. Learning Goal(s)

Year 10 and 11 students who will be taking the AQA Baccalaureate Qualification in Year 12 will compose reflective entries that demonstrate thoughts about and progress toward academic and extracurricular goals.

Students will be able to:

1. Discuss the attributes of quality reflective writing and the merits of this kind of writing for helping one set and track goals.

2. Articulate the elements of a rubric that might be used to help judge the quality of a reflective entry.

3. Set realistic targets for their future performances both in academics and extracurricular activities and compose reflective entries that describe behaviors necessary to meet a goal.

4. Document actions that help meet a given goal by providing evidence of those actions.

The scope of this project is beyond the requirements of the Final ID Project for 503, therefore I will focus on the elements of the project that I as a Subject Matter Expert will play a part i.e. Objective 4. The SMEs for objectives 1, 2 and 3 will have already completed their parts of the instruction; the final instruction for the students will be to guide them in creating and maintaining their online Portfolio.

1C. Learning Objective(s) and Sub-Objectives

4 - Students will be able to document actions that help meet a given goal by providing evidence of those actions.

4.1.1 - Log in to Gmail and create a Blogger/Edublog account. Alter the privacy settings and invite parents and relevant teachers to read their first post.

(Using a screencast as a guide, students will create their blog and set the appropriate privacy settings to restrict who can access and comment on their blog. Students will provide their peers with the address to test the privacy settings are functioning)

4.1.2 - Use SMART Phones/Digital cameras to take images and video relevant to original post. Upload to Google Drive and YouTube

(Given a set of instructions/screencast and using their own devices or the school’s, students will photograph written work, or video their activities, and upload these to their Google Drive account or YouTube channel, setting the appropriate privacy and sharing settings; peers will test the privacy settings and sharing settings)

4.1.3 - Edit original post and embed images and video. Demonstrate how other Web2 style websites can have their content embedded into Blogger and their Google Site Portfolio e.g. Google Docs, SoundCloud, SpiderScribe, VoiceThread, etc.

(Using a laptop/PC and given instructions/screencast, students will embed their evidence into their first target setting blog post/Google Site to support their journey. Success will be measured by the student having their peers/mentor/teacher comment on the blog post)

Part 2. Analyses

2A. Needs Analysis

i. Stakeholder(s): Who are the primary stakeholders? As in, who are the people most directly impacted when the instruction is carried off? ii. Data: Describe the data that has helped inform your design plan iii. Constraints and Resources: Describe any constraints that might impact addressing the need, or resources that can help meet it.

Year 10 and Year 11 students. These students will be expected to learn how to use Blogger, GDrive and their GSite Portfolio and interact with it. Instruction will be developed to: (1) allow the students to access the new system, (2) model the best practices associated with the goals of the system.

Form Tutor (FT/s) and “Buddies”. There are 5 FTs in each of Year 10 and Year 11 i.e. 10 FTs in total. Each FT has up to 24 students in their class. Instruction will be developed to give all the FTs the experience and skills they need to manage and interact with the new system. The “Buddies” are those members of staff who hold positions of responsibility and are not FTs. Their role is to support the FTs and act as “Buddies” in order to give the FTs time to work one-to-one with individuals in their Form Group. The “Buddies” have the same expectation upon them to know and understand the system as the FTs.

Assistant Key Stage Leader (AKSL/s). There are 2 AKSLs; 1 for Year 10 and 1 for Year 11. The AKSLs are the Line Managers of the FTs. They line manage the FTs which includes ensuring they meet their contractual obligations, as such the AKSLs must be capable of modelling the systems the FTs are expected to use.

Key Stage Leader (KSL/s). Year 10 and Year 11 are the two year groups that make up Key Stage 4(KS4). The KSL for KS4 is the Line Manager of the Year 10 and Year 11 AKSLs . The KSL is responsible for the behaviors of the AKSLs which includes ensuring they meet their contractual obligations, as such the KSL must be capable of modelling the systems the FTs are expected to use.

Assistant Principal Pastoral(AP-P). The AP-P is the Line Manager of the KSL. The AP-P  is responsible for the behaviors of the KSLs which includes ensuring they meet their contractual obligations, as such the AP-P must be capable of modelling the systems the FTs are expected to use.

(Secondary Stakeholders)

Systems Administrator(SA) and IT Support. The Systems Administrator will be required to support the implementation of the system. New profiles and accounts will need to be managed by the Systems Administrator and their team. Understanding of the instructional system will be required to allow successful support to be carried out.

Faculty Staff. The Faculty are expected to support students with their targets. They need to be aware of the requirements of the students and be able to guide them in producing the materials that best reflect the outcomes the students are expected to produce.

2B. Learner Analysis

i. To the greatest extent possible, describe the group of learners who will participate in any instructional intervention. Be sure to provide as much relevant detail as possible.

ii. What data source(s) have informed your knowledge about the learners (or what are the planned instruments for learning more about them)?

Students: SCIS is a non-selective International secondary school with a Curriculum Support Unit for students with Special Educational Needs. The Student Information Management System (SIMS) is used to record all information about students and can be data-mined to retrieve: (1) English and Reading age scores from the CEM(Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) CABT(Computer Adaptive Baseline Tests) for Year 6, Year 9 and Year 10, will indicate English writing levels and progression, (2) Progress Reports(PRs) for English and ICT throughout students’ time at SCIS, (3) End of Year exam scores for English and ICT compared with PRs will indicate motivation throughout the year, (4) Achievement and Behaviour Incidents regarding class and homework, (5) Students with English as an Additional Language(EAL).

Number of students with Behaviour Incidents relating to homework, work ethic and organisation over the last academic year (These values do not represent multiple offenses by individuals):

Due to the varied nature of the students both in language and cognitive ability, providing the students with a personal learning experience where they can follow demonstrations at their own pace seems most appropriate. Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2005) (Clark & Mayer, 2008) will be adhered to in the production of the of the demonstration videos with particular attention to lowering intrinsic load and enhancing germane load.

Attitudes to the Target Setting process and the use of Web2.0 technologies will be retrieved directly from students using a Google Form prior to the instruction.

For the objective of this project the Google Form will be constructed to gauge the level of IT skill and exposure to Google Apps rather than retrieve data regarding the attitudes of the students toward Target Setting: Student IT use survey

Form Tutors and other Faculty primary stakeholders: Every year the staff are required to complete a self-assessment on their skills in the Core Requirement software used by the school. This data can be used to infer their skill level with a new technological solution. Attendance to inhouse training events will infer attitudes to learning new about new technologies and how the teachers prefer to learn. Currently, SCIS has a library of screen-captured demonstrations on the use of the school’s current technology; a questionnaire asking for the teacher’s preferences for face-to-face training, self-directed use of demonstration videos, “Help Sheets” and “Quick-Click Help Sheets”, will indicate to what level the instruction is required and  how many face-to-face In Service Training sessions the school will need to run.

While the majority of teachers are satisfactorily skilled in the use of the Core software the school uses, The Google Apps For Education suite of tools is new to the school. In particular, Blogger and GSites require practice to use to a level that an individual might be comfortable instructing without a job aid of some kind. Due to this learning curve, the skills required by the teachers and students will be demonstrated through the use of screencast videos. To make the GSite creation simpler, a template will be created that will be copied for each teacher and student; a help page with links to the YouTube video demos will be embedded into the template so that access to support is easily available.

2C. Context Analysis

Describe and analyze the performance context

Students will use the skills acquired during Key Stage 4 (KS4) in their AQA Baccalaureate Enrichment Diaries during Key Stage 5 (KS5). The Enrichment Diary is an online system provided by AQA that the students log into to record the activities they do toward the certificate. Students must provide evidence of the activities they have done; “Assets”, such as images, video, scanned files, etc. can be uploaded to the system. Students provide a reflective written entry that expresses what they felt and learned during the experience. Students are expected to “log” the length of time they spent on the activities.

i. Define the learning context and compare it to the performance context

Students will use a Google Site that is modelled on the AQA Baccalaureate Enrichment Diary website. It will allow the students to upload their Assets to appropriate folders held within their Google Drive. They will use Blogger or Google Docs to write their reflective diary entries and link their images or YouTube video Assets to a Google Doc or blog posts.

The Enrichment Diary has a Gantt chart style representation of how often and how long students have participated in an activity: this function could be replaced with a Google Calendar. The students could manually update the calendar or an automated solution could be used to update the calendar for them from their inputs to a Google Form/Spreadsheet.

ii. Analyze the culture and climate of both the performance and learning contexts

SCIS is a British school with a vision and mission that aims to provide the best British education in an international setting. In this regard, SCIS is committed to developing students that are capable of performing against students in Britain who have a different way of viewing education. Of the 34% of Malaysian students, 40% of these are Chinese; the parents of these students tend to view education in a formal manner that is focussed on their child’s exam performance at A Level. The Higher Education team at SCIS spend a great deal of time preparing students for university and helping them complete their personal statements and university applications. Students who have successfully achieved their university entry requirements at very competitive universities have done so based on the extra-curricular activities they have taken part in and the skills they have acquired from completing the AQA Baccalaureate.

A large minority of students do not have a belief that the AQA Baccalaureate is of value: 40% of students surveyed about whether they would choose to do the course if given the choice said no.

Other responses to questions regarding the value of the course produce varied responses:

The students that do not see the value in the process of reflective writing and evidencing their activities are those that have not had the forethought to consider their options in the future or chose a topic they weren’t interested in to research for their Extended Project. Through a lack of experience in the lower years of their schooling, they have not needed to provide evidence for continuing into the next year, this is suddenly thrust upon them at A level and they lack the skills to manage the responsibility. Through developing a learning context that matches the performance context of the requirements at A Level, with assessment, reporting and repercussions that match those at A Level, the students will be better prepared. Recently at SCIS, the culture of allowing students to move unhindered into the year above has begun to be more stringent. Students are placed on a type of academic probation between Year 10 and 11 for those that are underperforming in several academic subjects. If the Target Setting process is to be valued, students and parents must be educated in its ultimate necessity with regards to university entry and be placed under the same probation for non-performance in the Target Setting and Enrichment process.

iii. Determine the assumptions about learning held by all key stakeholders

Multiple learning theories are used by the faculty at SCIS. Lessons or groups of lessons begin with Cognitivist strategies to identify what the students know and understand about a topic. These Assessment For Learning (AfL) techniques inform the teachers of the pace and level of content they can proceed with. Lessons typically end with more formative assessment techniques that inform the teacher as to the assimilation of the new content with the prior knowledge.

Social Constructivist strategies are widespread in the classrooms of SCIS. Group activities such as “snow-balling”, “ambassadors” and “marketplace” are used to bring novice and expert learners together. Peer teaching is evident with learners interpreting the instructors meaning for others in their group.

Instructivist approaches are used as time constraints and low learner autonomy demand that teachers deliver some content in this manner. The skills of successful group work and autonomy are developed so as less instruction and more enquiry based learning can take place.

Connectivist learning happens regularly with students given the opportunity to practice what they have learned/constructed in real contexts. Problem and enquiry based learning is increasing but is dependent on the constraints mentioned above.

Behaviourist strategies are applied with the awarding of positive Achievement points that are reported to parents via the school’s virtual learning environment (VLE); achievement points are tallied into the House totals and contribute toward end of term and year awards. Behaviour points are recorded internally when students do not act in accordance with the school or teachers’ expectations; these points are referred to when meetings with parents are required in an effort to align the students’ behaviour with published expectations.

There is a strong belief in the use of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy with students encourage to perform within the Higher Order Thinking Skills of analyze, evaluate and create. [Teacher Stakeholder survey]

iv. Analyze the contextual relationships and compile recommendations

The performance context of successfully completing the AQA Baccalaureate can be replicated for Year 10 and 11 students. The learning context will be the experience of completing an Enrichment Diary with links to academic performance and target setting facilitated and monitored by the teachers. Students will be provided considerable support initially but eventually given similar autonomy to evidence their journey and actions toward meeting their targets as the AQA Baccalaureate students.

Resources similar to the AQA Baccalaureate instructional resources should be provided for the students to access via the VLE to allow them to perform independently. Tutor sessions should be planned early in Year 10 to set up the system and instruct the students as to the WHY, HOW and WHAT of the Target Setting and Enrichment process. Year 13 students who have completed their Enrichment diary should be assigned as mentors to the Year 10 and 11 tutor groups; this will allow the younger learners the opportunity to hear of the requirements and benefits of the AQA Baccalaureate and help to align these to the Year 10 and 11 system.

Currently, only academic performance and progression is reported to parents at SCIS. Student and parent “buy in” should be made a priority; SCIS must alter the culture surrounding “soft skills” if behaviours like reflective thinking and writing, researching, and evidencing one’s progress toward a goal are to be given higher priority with students and parents. Successful completion of the Year 10 and 11 process should be a prerequisite for entering the next Year within the school; knowing that there are “real” consequences to success and failure will both intrinsically and extrinsically motivate the students to perform.

2D. Content Analysis

Subject Matter Experts

AQA Enrichment Coordinator: provides access to the AQA Online Enrichment Diary with exemplars and past work from alumni students. Resources for the construction of reflective writing and how to use the Enrichment Diary website.

SCIS Enrichment Coordinator: has the overview of whole school Enrichment program and the vision associated with the Enrichment project and its future scope -

Key Stage Leader (KSL)/English: the initiator of the project, the KSL has an abundance of resources from teaching English that are appropriate to the task of reflective writing. The KSL will collaborate with the AQA Enrichment Coordinator to alter and align the AQA resources to be suitable for the Year 10 and 11 students. The KSL will provide the current target setting sheets and the learning objectives associated with their use.

Head of Higher Education: provides access to the Higher Education VLE portal with resources for the writing of personal statements, preparation for interviews and guidance for the completion of university applications forms.

Head of ICT: provides insight into the skills of the students and the technologies they have been instructed on. The Head of ICT will also support the development of the SCISport GSite and provide instruction and support for the students during their ICT lessons on the appropriate use of Blogs and privacy.

The SCISport Help/Tutorials menu and pages acts as the Flowchart for how the students should navigate through the instruction. The pages are numbered in the order in which they should be attempted, however the students may work in whichever order they choose based on their own competency level. Each page has tasks built into them along with links to the necessary video instruction:

Help/Tutorial Menu

GDrive Tutorial Tasks and Video links

[My role] Learning Technology Officer: provides rubrics based on the work of Andrew Churches (Retrieved from: https://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/blogging+rubric.pd) on assessing blog posts and commenting. The Learning Technology Officer will develop the SCIS-port GSite template that will be copied by the teachers and students along with any resources required to instruct the students on the development of their site.

As the Learning Technology Officer at SCIS, part of my role is to identify the best technologies for the needs of the system. As the resident Google Apps For Education expert at SCIS, and having attended three GAFE conferences researching the use of eportfolios using the GAFE suite, I am the best qualified individual at SCIS to construct the system.

With regard to the development of digital resources, in my role I have developed an online library of screencast demos using Adobe Captivate; this skill will be transferred to the development of the instructional demos the students and teachers use to learn how to use GSites, Blogger, GDrive and YouTube.

My science students currently use a blog and comment on each other’s posts; students gain points for quality posts in my gamified social markbook. My experience with the use of blogs and what constitutes appropriate and quality posts will be used to improve the students’ proficiency in posting and commenting.

Part 3. Instructional Content

3A. Strategy Narrative

Chapter 8 of Streamlined ID (Larson & Lockee, 2013) describes three approaches to instruction: Instructivist, Constructivist, and Connectivist. Be sure to describe the rationale that justifies your choice and highlight the aspects of the design that typify the particular strategy chosen (This section is thoughtful and detailed. It is more than a couple of simple sentences but not more than about 1⁄2 of a page).

An Instructivist approach will be the main strategy used during the lessons on learning how to use the software, however some Constructivist strategies will be used to foster knowledge creation and understanding. Specific outcomes will be stated for the students to achieve in each of the three 1 hour lessons. The students will be told what knowledge and skills they will be required to master in order to build their portfolio sites, blogs, and how to embed their digital evidence. Based on the students’ responses to the Student IT use survey, prior knowledge will be taken into account in order to identify those students with the most experience and skill; these students will be given a peer coaching role.

Due to lesson time constraints and a need for efficiency, supplantive strategies will be used to impart the knowledge and skills required to master the software. The more important aspect of the whole project for the students is the analysis and identification of appropriate content for their portfolios and in those lessons, generative strategies will be used.

The structure of the sessions will be based around the students watching short instructional demonstrations of how to construct and edit a Google Site, Blog, and to create and upload media to their sites via YouTube, Google Drive, etc. The students will work in groups of three to support each other in their construction. With the peer support and assessment provided by their teammates, the students will construct and test sites, blogs and online media that is private and shared only with the appropriate people within the SCIS GAFE domain.

Control of the lesson will be primarily in the hands of the instructor, however the use of instructional demonstrations allows the students to work at their own pace. The instructor will be free to assist those students who have self assessed as being less “tech savvy”, or are requiring assistance on the day.

The students’ success will be assessed be the degree to which they have reached the stated outcomes. A self and peer assessment of the privacy settings will be required and used to inform the instructor as to whether students need more support on setting the privacy correctly; these assessments will be presented within each student’s portfolio site with assessment comments by the peers. This evidence will also be used to support digital citizenship and online safety.

3B. Learning materials

SCISport Website:

The complete SCISport site template has been created as part of this project, however the scope of the site is beyond the requirements of this project. The YouTube video learning materials associated with this project are viewable under the Help tab.

3C. Motivation Plan

Use the guide found toward the end of this document to create the motivation plan.

3D. Delivery Mechanism(s)

Please describe how the instruction is to be delivered. If you plan to use a technology tool (ex., a wiki or an iPad app or whatever) to help learners achieve the instructional objectives or goals, you MUST explain WHY the chosen tool is necessary. You would do this not for each objective, but for each separate technology tool you plan to use.

Note: The “internet” is not one tool – so if you are using multiple websites, provide a list of them and explain their use within the instruction.

Tool Justification

3E. Assessment Materials

Create materials that would help a teacher/trainer recognize whether or not the learner(s) have met the instructional objectives. Be SURE to connect the assessments to your stated objectives!

No specific assessment materials are required. The students will demonstrate if they have met the desired learning goal and acquire a complete/incomplete assessment form their peer assessor or the instructor:

4 - Students will be able to document actions that help meet a given goal by providing evidence of those actions.

4.1.1 - Log in to Gmail and create a Blogger/Edublog account. Alter the privacy settings and invite parents and relevant teachers to read their first post.

(Using a screencast as a guide, students will create their blog and set the appropriate privacy settings to restrict who can access and comment on their blog. Students will provide their peers/instructor/Form Tutor with the address to test the privacy settings are functioning)

4.1.2 - Use SMART Phones/Digital cameras to take images and video relevant to original post. Upload to Google Drive and YouTube

(Given a set of instructions/screencast and using their own devices or the school’s, students will photograph written work, or video their activities, and upload these to their Google Drive account or YouTube channel, setting the appropriate privacy and sharing settings; peers will test the privacy settings and sharing settings)

4.1.3 - Edit original post and embed images and video. Demonstrate how other Web2 style websites can have their content embedded into Blogger and their Google Site Portfolio e.g. Google Docs, SoundCloud, SpiderScribe, VoiceThread, etc.

(Using a laptop/PC and given instructions/screencast, students will embed their evidence into their first target setting blog post/Google Site to support their journey. Success will be measured by the student having their peers/mentor/teacher comment on the blog post)

The peer/mentor/Form Tutor/Instructor will use the “commenting” features built into each application to provide their assessment for the learner as a record of their assessment. Each student will evidence their skills by taking a screenshot of the settings they select and inserting the image into their portfolio under each task in the Help/Tutorial section.

As you have seen from your reading, there are four types of formative evaluation. You are required to write a brief plan for how you will carry out three types.

4A. Expert Review

The current Head of ICT at SCIS, Mr Ed Monds, will act as SME and expert reviewer. Ed has 25 years teaching experience in the ICT field and holds a MSc ICT in Education. Ed has experience in developing instruction for the use of Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash for the various age groups in the the secondary school; his knowledge of teaching students how to build websites makes him the best choice as reviewer.

Ed will be requested complete his review within 1 week starting January 6th, 2014. His feedback will be used to enhance the instruction in preparation for the one-to-one trials commencing on January 20th. The small group trial will commence on January 27th with the completed evaluation on February 3rd. The Field Test will begin on February 10th with the final evaluation being completed on March 10th.

Using a 5 point Likert scale and comments, the SME will provide feedback on whether:

• the instruction meets the Goals/objectives,
• the design and functionality of the SCISport learning context is sufficiently similar to the performance context of the AQA Enrichment diary,
• the pre-test Student IT use survey provides the best analysis of the students’ experience,
• the instruction is chunked appropriately,
• the organisation of the instruction flows appropriately in order for the students to build their portfolio,
• the layout and presentation of the GSite instruction meets Multimedia Design Principles (Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2008)),
• the pace of the YouTube demos is appropriate and uses an appropriately “conversational” style,
• the opportunities for self and peer assessment are appropriate.

4B. One-to-One Evaluation

Four Year 10 students, two boys and two girls, will be selected from the cohort. These students will be chosen based on their ability and confidence to express themselves to their teachers, and their skills of evaluation. The experience of these students when using the instruction will be used to identify any overarching problems within the instruction.

In reference to Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Evaluation model on page 11 of Streamlined ID (Larson & Lockee, 2013), a Level 1 Learner Reaction evaluation will seek to find out how the students react to the delivery method of the learning experience. Since the instruction is designed to be completed in a peer assisted and assessed model, the One-to-One Evaluation cannot directly assess these elements of the instruction, but should give an indication as to how the instruction “feels” to the students.

Questions will be built on a 5 point Likert scale, allowing the students to gauge their reaction to:

• the layout of the instruction,
• the ease of reading,
• the quality of the video and sound in the YouTube videos,
• how easy the videos were to follow.

A Level 2 Learning Evaluation will seek to identify if the students completed the tasks they were trying to achieve and how well the instruction guided them in this process.

Questions will be built on a 5 point Likert scale, allowing the students to assess how well they were able to independently i.e. without instructor assistance:

• edit the Google Site,
• set up their Blog and set the correct privacy policy,
• upload an image to GDrive,
• upload a video to YouTube and set the correct privacy policy.

Further Level 2 Likert scale questions will seek to identify how well the instruction assisted the students in completing the tasks. Students will be asked to comment on their reasons for selecting the grading they chose in order for the designer to improve any weak elements or replicate any particularly strong elements.

4C. Small Group Evaluation

In order to test the revisions made as a result of the Level 1 and 2 evaluations in the One-to-One evaluation stage, three group evaluations will be performed with volunteer students from a single Registration Class. These students will be friends and would likely work together in a group if given any group task to complete; they are comfortable working with each other and giving each other peer assessed comments. The groups will be made up of a pair, a group of three and a group of four: as an instructor, I wish to see which dynamic works best.

The same Level 1 and 2 questions from the One-to-One evaluation will be asked of the students in order to evaluate if the revisions made have had a positive effect.

Further Level 2 questions will be designed on a 5 point Likert scale to identify if the students were capable of setting the sharing settings for their Google Site, GDrive, YouTube videos and Blog to restrict or allow their peers to view their work.

As part of a Level 3 evaluation, the students will be asked to evidence elements of their work within the Google Site ePortfolio, GDrive and YouTube and write a reflective blog entry within seven days. The students will then complete a second evaluation to identify how well they remembered the processes to complete the tasks or if they needed to review the videos again. Questions will be designed to identify if the students had any trouble using the system and if they met with any motivational issues while evidencing their work and writing their reflective blog post. Comments and suggestions for improvement will be sought in order to improve and enhance the system.

4D. Field trial (Implementation)

A field trial of a full tutor group will be conducted in order to evaluate the changes made from the small group evaluation and to identify any problems that may occur during the administration of the instruction by Form Tutors. If any technical issues arise, this evaluation should identify them.

This class of students will be given the same Level 1 and 2 questions to complete, along with the same Level 3 evaluation questions to complete after one week. After four weeks of gathering evidence and having the Form Tutor review the collections and blog entries, the students will be given the same questions in order to review their motivation toward the process and whether they value the process or not.

To evaluate if the instruction has had an affect on the behaviour and motivation of the cohort as a whole, their AQA Enrichment Diary scores in Year 12 will be compared to the previous cohorts. If the instruction has been successful, a null hypothesis that states that the instruction will have no significant effect can be rejected assuming that a significant improvement is found and that it is due to the treatment caused by this project.

References

AQA. (2007). Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) Level 3. Retrieved from http://store.aqa.org.uk/over/pdf/AQA-9990-EPQ-W-SP.PDF

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2008). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Extended Project. (n.d.). In AQA. Retrieved from http://www.aqa.org.uk/programmes/aqa-baccalaureate/extended-project

Enrichment Activities. (n.d.). In AQA. Retrieved from http://www.aqa.org.uk/programmes/aqa-baccalaureate/enrichment-activities

Larson, M.B. & Lockee, B.B. (2013). Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide to Instructional Design.  Oxon, UK:Routledge.

Mayer, R. E. (2005). Cognitive theory of multimedia learning. The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning, 31-48.

UCAS. (n.d.). In Your Personal Statement. Retrieved from

http://www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/undergraduate/filling-your-application/your-personal-statement