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)