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.