eJournal Entry 6: Selecting Instructional Media -- by Ami Stovall

Instructional Media

Selecting instructional material includes all the materials and raw means an instructor might use to apply instruction and facilitate students' success of prescribed instructional goals in a subject matter. For my supplemental course, I will connect the learners in the Introduction to Chemistry Problem Solving using the Metric & United States Common System (USCS) using a variety of instructional media such as the textbook for reference, handouts, marker board and markers, scientific/graphing calculator, computer, interactive video software, PowerPoint files, videos, screenshots and images, sample quizzes and exams with associated answer keys as well as synchronous and asynchronous interactive, guided inquiry presentations.

Instructional Materials used for course development and content delivery:

Type of Instructional Media	Use to facilitate learning
Audio	Podcast, microphone, audio-recordings
Audiovisual	YouTube, video, live streaming, PowerPoint presentations, multimedia
Digital / Interactive	Tablets, scientific / graphing calculators, computers, tablets, mobile phones, learning management systems and other learning software
Print	Textbook, handouts, study guides, notes, markerboard, markers
Visual	Markerboard, whiteboard, images, charts, tables, transparencies video recordings

I will include the use of my instructional materials via a course calendar / schedule that will guide the learners through the prescribed content. The delivery of these instructional materials will be setup within the course for the purpose of guiding the students through the subject matter content in smaller “chunks” that are organized and outlined within the course calendar with the purpose to optimize the time needed for the students to learn the content within the directed period of instructional time. The instructional materials will be used by the educator to facilitate the learning experience for the students while simplifying the teaching by the teacher. These instructional materials will be setup and facilitated in such a way that encourage the learners to learn using visual aids and audio-visual aids to help enhance the learners’ experiences as they proceed through the content in an organized and cumulative fashion as guided by the teacher as their facilitator to help students comprehend the subject matter content.

I will use these instructional materials and design them within the course content in such a way to be relevant to the learners as well as the subject matter being learned. In addition, I will ensure through the design and setup of these instructional materials that the students can navigate through the materials in a timely manner prescribed by the course guidelines. I will also ensure that the materials that are created to learn the subject matter for the learners is setup and design so to be appealing to the learners so that they will understand the materials. It will be enough to guide the learners through the content, but not be overwhelming to these learners. As the instructional designer, I want to make sure that the instructional materials that are being created for the course are balanced and enough so that the students can meet the necessary learning objectives set by the instructor.

eJournal Entry 5: Identifying Instructional Strategies – by Ami Stovall

Motivation

To make sure that the learners who take my course are motivated, I first need to be aware of some of the most common reasons that students take the required course that this supplemental course was designed and created for. A majority of learners who need this course are those who are nursing majors, pre-med, pre-dental, and pre-pharmacy majors, with those occasional engineering students. So, with that knowledge, I will make sure that this course has value to them and their career needs, by incorporating information that is relevant to their fields of study as it relates to the content within this course being designed.

In addition, as an instructional designer/educator, it is my job to ensure that the learners are motivated and attentive throughout the course, so I will add some learning activities that include arranging the class of students into base groups that will be used to facilitate cooperative learning. This is motivating for students as they will understand that they will all “sink or swim” together through some of the learning modules as they proceed through the course material. To setup these base groups, I will begin by creating a brief survey for the students to assess various learning strengths and weaknesses per student. Then I will arrange the groups in such a way that will pair for example, students with strong calculator skills with those who have little knowledge or experiences using graphing calculators, as well as those weak in math students with those students who have strong math skills etc. This way there will be benefits for all students through the learning process as they proceed through the course. This will serve to place strong students as mentors with those students who have limited skills in math etc. It will also benefit the stronger skilled students as well because as they mentor the other students within their base groups, this will reinforce the skills that they have learned and continue to learn moving through the material.

Prerequisites and Subskills

The supplemental course will connect the learners in the Introduction to Chemistry Problem Solving using the Metric & United States Common System (USCS). This course introduces the learners to Measurements, Significant Figures, Proper Use of a Scientific Calculator, the Metric System, and Problem Solving as these concepts relate to the Introduction of Chemistry core concepts as a freshman college-level course.

This course is designed to help learners become proficient in Chemistry Problem-Solving Using the Metric and United States Common Systems with the following order:

Learners will connect to the online Collaborate Ultra faculty lead interactive Tip Sessions twice a week where they will interact with the instructor lead guided inquiry activities on the topics listed in the modules below.

     1.     Module 1 – Measurements

     2.     Module 2 – Significant Figures

     3.     Module 3 – Proper Use of a Scientific Calculator

     4.     Module 4 – Metric System

     5.     Module 5 – United States Common System

Each module will have a folder title with concepts of module they will learn for that week. Within the folder, there will be recorded closed captioned videos of the online Collaborate Ultra faculty lead interactive Tip Sessions twice a week where they will interact with the instructor lead guided inquiry activities on the topics listed in the modules for those students to refer to again as well as those students who were unable to attend these original live sessions. In addition, these module folders contain files that the students can use for more practice, similar to TRY ITs, handouts, and other activities on the module topics. This provides spaced repetition which is important to learning.

Practice and Feedback

Once the students have completed the TRY ITs handouts and other activities on the module topics individually, then they will check their understanding using the included answer KEYS provided by the instructor. The students will be asked not to erase errors that they make. Instead, they will be asked to make corrections in a different color ink than the ink color they completed the work in. Finally, they will review later, where they will be able to reinforce their understanding of those concepts.

In addition, I will design quizzes and end-of-module assessments that will also be used to show and track their progress. They will also be assessed on the base group module activities and throughout those group activities, their assigned base group members will also give each other peer feedback on the work done within these groups.

eJournal Entry 4: Analyzing Instructional Goals -- by Ami Stovall

Analyzing Instructional Goals

The goal of my course is to facilitate opportunities for my students to develop an enduring understanding of Introduction to Chemistry Problem Solving using the Metric & United States Common System (USCS). This course that I am developing for a colleague of mine, Becki Williams, and myself will strive to encourage them to embrace learning something new that is also complex, in that “the work will teach you how to do it,” as stated by an Estonian proverb.

The instructional goals of this course include:

• Learner will understand what is expected of them as they begin to learn the metric and US Common systems.
• Learner will learn to use the scientific calculator efficiently with common calculations, with the expectation that you can correctly incorporate other functions.
• Learner will focus on developing an understanding of chemistry concepts rather than how to find the correct answer!
• Learner will learner to use the correct scientific calculator techniques.
• Learner will use repetition throughout these modules, which is important to learning.
• Learner will use information and concepts in these modules to ultimately be able to reinforce your understanding of these concepts as well as problem-solving.

Reflecting on the question posed by Ritchhart, Morrison, & Church: “What kinds of thinking do you value and want to promote in your classroom?”. Throughout my courses, I would like to promote effective problem-solving and critical thinking techniques with my students to be equipped to understand this process of learning and ultimately for them to use what they have learned through my courses to ultimately critically think and reinforce concepts they have learned in an effort to provide them with adequate lifelong foundation of those problem-solving skills learned with me, so they can build upon moving forward through future courses and lifelong critical thinking opportunities.

eJournal Entry 3: Analyzing Learners -- by Ami Stovall

Analyzing Learner Characteristics

Demographic Characteristics

For my eJournal Entry 3, I am charged with analyzing the learner characteristics as it relates to the design of my supplemental instructional course. The purpose of this process is to design and develop instructional materials that will meet a particular objective/need. As I mentioned in my eJournal Entry 2, I chose this topic because during my various teaching and learning experiences working with students who are taking introduction level high school/college-level chemistry courses, they are falling short with the problem-solving skills needed to fully comprehend the topic of content that is essential to know when moving on to various vital career paths such as nursing, premed, prepharmacy school, and others, which in turn, can be ultimately a huge problem. As a result, a fellow colleague and I felt that there was a need to create the above-mentioned supplemental instruction for those learners who aren’t fully grasping the required student learning outcomes in this area of the content. So, for my project, Introduction to Chemistry Problem Solving using the Metric & United States Common System (USCS), there are various things that I need to consider as I design and developed a help-session course for my target audience, the learners of the content.

As part of this process, I will look into the learners of my supplemental course as it relates to the course and location of the course that they are struggling in Dallas College: 2020-2021 Catalog - Course Descriptions for CHEM (dcccd.edu). For the initial, introductory to chemistry course, there is no prerequisite to enroll in this course, which is important as it relates to the individual learners who will have various levels of math skills, come from various age groups that may range from age 16, sophomore high school learners, to the emeritus senior adult learners. In addition, I need to learn more about these students whose current performance within the core curriculum introductory to chemistry level college I would like to improve upon. To accomplish this, there are a series of questions that I would like to explore on my learners that are asked of them via a student questionnaire including:

• Is this content interesting to them, or will it fulfill a requirement within their individual degree plan(s)?
• What are the learners' ability levels and educational background?
• What do learners know about this subject matter before entering my course?
• What do learners need to know before taking my supplemental course?
• What is the learner’s comfort level with graphing calculators and technology in general?
• What is the learner’s individual background knowledge, educational level, and abilities?
• What is the learner’s individual comfort level in math and science?
• What is the learner’s individual learning style?
• What is the learner’s preference regarding instructional delivery method (i.e. – face-to-face, online learning, or hybrid instruction)?
• What motivations do the learners have for taking this course?
• What predetermined ideas or beliefs about the subject matter do the learners have if any?
• What predetermined ideas or beliefs do the learners have about the way the course will be taught if any?
• What prerequisite knowledge do learners have prior to taking my supplemental course?

Of note, academically, the college district that I am creating my supplemental course for is Dallas College, which requires that students adhere to the Dallas College: 2020-2021 Catalog - Texas Success Initiative (TSI) Program (dcccd.edu) as well as the Academics | Texas Education Agency and the TEKS Guide by TEA | TEKS Guide for graduation requirements protocol. So, this is the initial foundation for the entry-level learner for this supplemental course.

Attitudes and beliefs about learners are important things to consider when designing instructional materials. An individual’s attitudes and beliefs are factors that may describe a person’s internal or external motivations for learning in general or even contribute to their attitudes about learning a specific subject even. These, in turn, may result in adversely affecting the learner’s learning process through a given subject matter, and contribute to the learner’s overall academic performance within a course. So, these are important factors that should be considered when designing and developing instructional materials for your specific learners. According to J. Daniel House, Edward J. Keely & Richard S. Hurst, results of a study, indicate that initial learner characteristics were significant predictors of student achievement in a general education course taken during the first year of college. These results provide evidence supporting the consideration of initial learner characteristics in the instructional design process.

Regarding the student learners for the course, I am designing and developing instructional materials, in working with previous students from the same introductory level chemistry course, the students come from wide and varied socioeconomic backgrounds, various levels of English speakers, and include various levels of learners that also include students with disabilities as well. In addition, from previous semesters working with students enrolled in similar level of college chemistry courses, the students often have a variety of math and calculator skills necessary to do well in that course. These are some learner characteristics that I can use to draw from when I proceed through the instructional design process of my supplemental course for learners who typically struggle within the above-mentioned introductory college level chemistry course. However, I will continue to assess the current students as well as students in future introductory chemistry courses to make sure that if and when these learner characteristics change, then I can adjust the design of my supplemental course to use with future students.

From there, exploring further the specific needs of the individual learners will assist me in developing instructional materials to fulfill that purpose. In going through this methodical systematic process with instructional design, I have learned that this is important in assuring that the material being developed and created will meet the specific target audience and fulfill a specific need/purpose through the learning process.

 

Site used:  Relationship between learner attitudes, prior achievement, and performance ...: EBSCOhost (tamuc.edu)

eJournal Entry 2: Performance Analysis & Needs Assessment -- by Ami Stovall

The System, Environment, and Organization

System & Organization

As I proceed through the instructional design and development process, I would begin from the “5 Why’s” that preceded this step, which was to determine the root cause of the problem, and thus, it introduces how I can get this course started. From my journal entry one, I should note for clarification that I was given the challenge to choose a different subject matter than the one I originally chose. So, moving forward in this process with my newly approved topic, for me to proceed with the course/training that I have chosen for my project, Introduction to Chemistry Problem Solving using the Metric & United States Common System (USCS), there are various things that I need to consider as I design and developed a help-session course for my target audience, the learners of the content.

Performance Analysis

I chose this topic because during my various teaching and learning experiences working with students who are taking introduction level high school/college level chemistry courses, they are falling short with the problem-solving skills needed to fully comprehend the topic of content that is essential to know when moving on to various vital career paths such as nursing, premed, prepharmacy school, and others. As a result, a fellow colleague and I felt that there was a need to create the above-mentioned supplemental instruction for those learners who aren’t fully grasping the required student learning outcomes in this area of the content.
 

One of the first steps in this process is to make sure that students who are in this supplemental course within the introductory level college chemistry course have met the required prerequisites of the chemistry course they are enrolled in within their designated academic institution. This is a supplemental course/training that I am designing, so, I will simply ensure that the learners of this course/training are able to obtain and retain the information of my lesson, but I will broadly align my design and development with Dallas College’s core curriculum initiatives for this.

It is important for me to look at the admission requirements of the participating school(s) that I will be aligning my supplemental instruction with, which are described in detail in the Requirements for Admission – Applying for College – Dallas College. Requirements vary based on the type of applicant such as international students, first-time students, and transfer students to name a few, which there are additional admission requirements identified within the main site above. Equally important are the pre-assessment activities followed by the required Steps for Taking the TSI Assessment – Texas Success Initiative (TSI) – Dallas College which also vary by applicant type that I mentioned briefly above. Once students have completed the Texas Success Initiative requirements, then they will see academic and financial aid advisers to further plan for the courses they will register for. As part of the academic advising process, where students will meet with an academic adviser who will discuss what degree plans are offered at Dallas College that the students would like to Choose From 100+ Degree or Certificate Programs at Dallas College. Sometimes, there are students who initially do not know what career path they would like to choose, so at Dallas College, assistance with this is also available to students to Explore Career or Study Options – Future Students – Dallas College. Once students have discussed degree plans with the academic adviser, they are almost ready to officially register for classes at Dallas College. As Dallas College focuses to work with students to help them succeed at that institution, students must become familiar with and follow the Core Curriculum – Dallas College, which is a series of courses based on the degree plan that each student chooses that students will use as a guide in a prescribed order of courses in succession that Dallas College has learned through its inception that students need to succeed while a student at Dallas College and moving forward. For additional information on the droves of degree plans and frequently asked questions, go to Dallas College: 2020-2021 Catalog - Core By Foundational Component Areas.

Moreover, in addition to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Dallas College is going through a major district consolidation and reorganization after over fifty years in business, in which there are foremost changes with the way that district operates and serves the people of Dallas County and its surrounding areas. This is affecting people’s jobs in many ways as some are being let go after many years of dedicated hard work. Other people’s jobs and job duties are changing in the ways that they perform. There are many other continuous changes and challenges that Dallas College is going through that is affecting everyone in a variety of ways.

Environment

At this time, in spring of 2021, we are in a worldwide pandemic, so the Instructional Protocol – Dallas College COVID-19 Playbook – Dallas College, and current modes of instruction are also considered and important to explore further where student learning is concerned and it relates to the supplemental course/training I am developing to align one of that district’s core courses (offered by many of their degrees), introduction of chemistry. As a result of the pandemic, Dallas College is just now beginning the process of returning to its campuses and locations for faculty, students, staff, and administrators, late this spring of 2021 as they have been 100% online remote learning for the past year with no other options for students or faculty to choose their intended mode of instruction. This has been very challenging for faculty, staff, administrators, and students alike, but thankfully for the evolution of the internet and world wide web, we all were able to continue learning and working through this pandemic. If there is a “silver lining” through this tough time, it is the face that teaching and learning was able to continue, when many other careers and workplaces were forced to shut down completely. The powers that be at Dallas College are now working through the huge undertaking of shifting again towards working out the logistics and everyone’s safety of returning to limited face-to-face instruction etc., that are further described and informative information of Returning to Campus and the Workplace – Dallas College COVID-19 Playbook – Dallas College. This is probably going to be a gradual process due to concerns of the health and safety of all people who physically teach, learn, work for, and do business with Dallas College, so I’m sure that additional information and details will follow for quite some time.

Another consideration is also the guidance, policies, and or procedures (if there is any) that is offered through the academic institution, in this case, Dallas College. At Dallas College, there are many resources that are offered to faculty who teach at one of the seven campuses. A great starting place to access these resources, please go to Getting Started Guides (sharepoint.com), which is a set of faculty resources made available through Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) - Home (sharepoint.com). The CETL department assists faculty at Dallas College in their teaching endeavors. Also, very beneficial, the CETL offers a Faculty Mentor Program (sharepoint.com) and other mentoring resources to aide faculty with teaching ventures. For additional information for faculty assistance offered through the CETL group, check out the About Us (sharepoint.com) site within the Dallas College. Note, the above three CELT links are accessible only through Dallas College single sign-on login credentials with those persons teaching, learning, working, or doing business with Dallas College exclusively.

Needs Assessment

Next, I will proceed with the needs assessment. I chose this topic because during my various teaching and learning experiences working with students who are taking introduction level high school/college level chemistry courses, they are falling short with the problem-solving skills needed to fully comprehend the topic of content that is essential to know when moving on to various vital career paths such as nursing, premed, prepharmacy school, and others, which in turn, can be ultimately a huge problem. As a result, a fellow colleague and I felt that there was a need to create the above-mentioned supplemental instruction for those learners who aren’t fully grasping the required student learning outcomes in this area of the content.

Based on the research I have done as it relates to Dallas College, the learning environments, current and years previously dating back to 1998, and the students who are enrolled in the introduction to chemistry courses, I have determined that it currently does not matter whether the students are learning remotely under current conditions, or even in previous years (dating back to 1998). There isn’t even a significant difference in the number of students who are falling short in this area (I have identified for my ID project…), based on mode of instruction whether the students are learning in face-to-face classrooms, hybrid classrooms, or now in 100% online remote learning as a good number of students each semester are still falling short on this area of the content information, which is knowledge and skills that is needed not only to satisfy the current learning objectives, but also cumulatively moving forward in future chemistry courses, as well as other math/science based courses as students proceed through their degree plan leading to their degree conferral as well as being a necessary and vital concept to fully understand as they proceed onto their chosen career paths. Furthermore, these are often career paths in the medical field where these individuals will have another person’s life in their hands, for example as they are figuring the amount of medication to administer to a patient that the doctor has prescribed based on the person’s weight.

eJournal Entry 1: The 5 Whys -- by Ami Stovall

Systematic Process of Identifying the Root Cause of a Problem – The 5 Whys -- by Ami Stovall

1.

For my instructional design project, I would like to design a new SharePoint site on our district’s online sites that will include informational resources and tools available to our faculty for learning more about creating accessible online content. This is a huge demand for our district at this time because late last year we were required to mandate online accessibility policies and regulations for all students, faculty, and administrators. This newly created Dallas College mandate was due to being one of many USA college and university lawsuits that were not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As a result, a new department was formed that I was one of three asked to set up and implement as of January 2020. Two months later, unbeknownst to anyone, this position very quickly became vital to everyone in our district as we were all forced to go to online learning due to COVID-19. The Accessibility Tech Support (ATS) team (of 3 and growing) is dedicated to assisting all Dallas College faculty and students in learning about its information and communication technology (ICT) resources ensuring that all content and communications online are accessible for everyone, including those individuals with various disabilities such as visual, and hearing, to name only a few. Creating an information and resource site that will be available to our users to learn more about online accessibility and how to use various digital tools to create online content and communications. This will be a huge benefit since everyone is still currently teaching and learning primarily online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This informational and instructional resource site will benefit users now but also moving forward into the future as new students and faculty come on board to teach and learn within Dallas College.

2.

This newly created Dallas College mandate was due to being one of many USA college and university lawsuits that were not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

3.

President George H. W. Bush signed into law “The Americans with Disabilities Act,” otherwise known as the ADA. This is a civil rights law that was enacted by Congress. This law prohibits discrimination based on the disability of persons. The purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act, among other reasons and benefits was to assist the United States of America to benefit from the knowledge, skills, and talents of people with disabilities. This, in turn, afforded the USA to encourage more productive lives of all people in America.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities who were in programs receiving federal financial assistance. In addition, it was the first civil rights law enacted in the United States of America created to protect people with disabilities, and it was the precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 mentioned above.

4.

The Americans with Disabilities Act law was modified eighteen years later, with these changes taking effect in January of 2009. This is referred to as the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008.

An amendment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 508 was enacted (in 1998) by the United States Congress that requires federal agencies to make electronic information and technology accessible to people with disabilities. The purpose of this amendment was to remove obstacles in information technology, which in turn makes available new opportunities for disabled people. In addition, it fosters the development of the design and creation of assistive technologies to help people with disabilities to have equal access as everyone else as well as giving them the tools and ability to achieve their goals in education and workplaces to name a couple of example environments for them to benefit from.

5.

Reflecting on this process, this technique did reveal new insights for my project. For starters, the amendment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 with subsequent amendments up through the year 2010 tells me that although or college district’s being sued and subsequently updated policy, regulations, and mandates were followed by an almost ten year “grace period” that our institution/business was granted and had ample time to implement new policies, regulations, and mandates way before they were forced to by the above-mentioned lawsuit. This is disheartening to learn and think of all the growing number of people with disabilities who have attempted to attend our colleges for at least the past ten years and their disabilities weren’t adequately accommodated, which would then allow them to have equal opportunities at learning as the rest of the student popular had and took for granted. It hearts me to admit this, but I am glad that our district (one of many colleges and universities) was sued to enforce these standards to include all people despite disability where it concerns electronic information, which has been abundance since the inception of the internet roughly in 1992, and the World Wide Web (WWW) became available to the general public roughly in 1995.

Learning this information collectively through my job and my graduate studies, as well as this journal entry assignment, the Systematic Process of Identifying the Root Cause of a Problem – The 5 Whys, it has not changed the scope, purpose, or focus of my project. Frankly, it is encouraging me even more to pursue this project with new insight and passion, so that faculty, staff, the administration will have the necessary technology resources and tools they need to ease their transition of creating, posting, publishing, and sharing content and communication digitally online that is accessible to all users, and specifically, those users who may have disabilities like visual and/or hearing, to name only two of the many types disabilities there are out there in people we associate with daily. Often people take for granted abilities they have like vision, hearing, walking, cognition, etc., but this project (I hope) will share new insight and empathy to those persons who may benefit from such laws I have mentioned above that are enacted to require and ensure that everyone has equal access, rights, and opportunities that others are afforded without the need for, the demand of, or creation of such laws that are designed to establish standards.