instructional design essentials, final post

1. A description of your environment: your teaching scenario, learners, purpose or end goal, and timeline. Are you teaching face-to-face or online? Is this a tutorial or a course? A one-shot library instruction session? Be specific. [from week 1]

My focus for this course is a first-year experience course, General Education Lifelong Learning, 101 (GEL 101). The librarians teach a two-week module during this 16-week course, and work with 4-6 sections of the course each semester. During this module, we teach the foundations of college research, using a linear research process as the context. The overall goal (which is very difficult to measure) is that students see themselves not only as students, but also as scholars - producers of knowledge. The research process we use is as follows:

1. Get Assignment, 
2. Choose Topic, 
3. Understand your Topic (incl. basic web searching, focusing topic and surveying the scholarly literature), 
4. Analyze your Topic (incl. draft thesis statement and collecting evidence), 
5. Draft/Outline Paper, 
6. Revise, 
7. Complete
8. Reflect and Evaluate 

The students move through this process over two weeks (sometimes, closer to three) and complete an infographic as their final project. We use student-centered, active learning techniques, and have incorporated different strategies from AVID, as well. The learning takes place in the classroom, and online.

2. Your learning outcomes. These should be based on the needs and expectations of your environment. Are these outcomes appropriate for your learners? [from week 2]

Students will demonstrate the disposition of a student-scholar by:

• Using an academic research process to create new information.
• Identifying suitable types of information sources for their specific purpose.
• Finding the information effectively and efficiently.
• Critically evaluating the information retrieved based on the context.
• Understanding the values of different communities and scholarly disciplines.

I see these as being overarching LOs with smaller goals within. For example, under "Identifying suitable types of information sources for their specific purpose" would be developing criteria for "suitable," and identifying scholarly literature for their discipline.

3. How will you assess your learners? What formative and summative assessments would best fit in your teaching scenario? Do they align with your outcomes? [from week 2]

• Presentation to their Community - Infographic:
• language appropriate for their community (e.g. lay terms v. technical terms)
• visual depictions of the problem and solution
• evidence that is valued by that community (e.g. personal narratives, local expert testimony)
• Presentation to the Decision/Policy Maker - Letter:
• writing appropriate for this audience (more formal)
• detailed descriptions of the problem and solution
• evidence that is valued by this community (e.g. research, data)

These assessments are intended to measure students' learning throughout the module, but there are smaller, interim assessments for each concept. For example, after learning about scholarly articles, they need to find one on their topic and bring it in to share with their group. 

4. Learning theories and other instructional approaches to implement. What learning theories best support your outcomes? How might you leverage these theories to develop content and assessments? [from week 3]

Why these work for constructivism (based on Cooperstein & Kocevar-Weidinger)

• Construct own meaning; ask, don't tell. By letting students determine what they want to learn, this can motivate them to participate and learn by doing. 
• Build on prior knowledge. Students are invited to think about how they've done things in the past in order to know how to proceed. This asks them to make the connection (dare I say transfer their own learning) between what they have done and what they think they will be doing.
• Social interaction. I am a collaborative thinking, and invite the students to do the same: two brains are better than one. While this can be frustrating to a few students, overwhelmingly, students are happy to work with a neighbor on a quick in-class activity.
• Authentic tasks. This is something that I have always worked consistently to do. In each of my examples above, the activities were developed to mimic/model what students are expected to do by their professors in their research assignments.

5. What tools will you use to deliver this content and have learners interact with your instruction? What might work best and why? [from week 4]

As mentioned in my post for week 4, these are selected technologies I use in my classes: Guide on the Side, Padlet, Poll Everywhere and Piktochart.

6. Reflect on what you have learned. What has been most useful? What do you feel you are still struggling with? How has this course changed how you approach instruction?

The most helpful was making the connection between the learning outcomes and the assessment. I needed to refocus my assessment efforts in a way that assessed students in a way that actually measured the learning outcome. While I've not completed my revision of my in-class assessments, I have the tools to do so.

I really need to think more about how the research process fits within the library module. Since that is the framework we use for the library module, it needs to facilitate the learning outcomes. Is this the best process to use to accomplish this? Is it too prescriptive, or too linear? My concern is also that it may not take into account the students' previous experience, and they own conception of the research process.

As I sat to work on this post and reviewed my work, I realize that I've bitten off more than I can chew for such as short time. Instead of focusing on the entire curriculum for our two-week module, I could have focused on one specific learning outcome and the activities and assessment to complete it. This course has given me the tools and motivation to do a larger revision of the library module over the summer.

7. Finally, did you find any of your coursemates' blogs particularly helpful? Link to any particularly useful posts or entire blogs from your peers. What have you learned from your peers?

I've gotten some great ideas from many blogs, but not one in particular. As I've mentioned in my posts, I have a very collaborative mind so the comments I got from everyone was quite helpful.

8. [Optional] Were you able to incorporate aspects of critical pedagogy into your instruction? What are you excited about in regards to this? What do you find most challenging? Or conversely, if you are not supportive of critical pedagogy: why?

One of the reasons I signed up for this course was to have the time to think more about integrating critical pedagogy into my practice. I had a few hiccups in the past couple weeks that took the time I'd set aside for this and didn't get as far as I'd liked. Using critical pedagogy is the next step in my development as a teacher. The first step for me is to be more mindful of the lives of my students, and not only honor their experiences, but incorporate that into my classes.

The most challenging aspect for me is uncovering the political, social and economic aspects of information. I feel like I have the most to grow in this area, especially in terms of my own understanding of the political, social and economic aspects.

I am excited to learn more about critical pedagogy (and practice) and integrate this more into my practice. If anyone has recommendations for additional readings, I'd love to hear them!

instructional design essentials, week 4

There are a few different technologies I use in my classes.

Guide on the Side: While I don't use this in my classes, per se, I often use this for self-directed learning done outside of the classroom. One example is a tutorial that takes students through the research process. This is used for an oral communication class that I flipped last year. Prior to using GOTS, the content in the tutorial was covered in class. Since the students now do this before they come to the library session, it allows us to spend the session doing higher level thinking activities. Students first watch the video lecture on the research process and then complete the GOTS tutorial:

• Watch this video: GEO Research Process
• Complete this tutorial

You'll also find use of Padlet in the tutorial. This allows students to do collaborative brainstorming.

While this is an example of a more developed lesson using GOTS, I've also used GOTS for a simpler tutorial for students to learn how to use our Discovery Search. However, this is an optional tutorial for students whereas the GEO Research Process one is required.

Poll Everywhere: This is a great website that allows students to text their response to a survey question. You see the results instantly and students (and faculty) are excited to be allowed to use their phones in class. I've used this for pre- and post-tests of difficult concepts, as well as a way to see where students are in their knowledge of research.

Piktochart: This is the website students use to create their infographic on their topic. Instead of writing a paper, this requires students to think about how they will visually display their thesis statement, background information, and supporting evidence. It's easy to use and has many templates and images to use.

To varying degrees all three technologies I use do align with the Horizon Report. Guide on the Side, Padlet and Poll Everywhere fit clearly in the trend towards Online, Hybrid and Collaborative Learning, but also fit with Students as Creators and Flipped Classrooms.

I have found these technologies to really enhance and motivate students' learning. I really like Padlet for collaborative work. It works best with a small classroom full of students, but they can do brainstorming in a way very similar to what we would do in a classroom. Poll Everywhere and the quiz in GOTS is helpful for assessment at varying points during instruction.

instructional design essentials, week 3

Constructivism

I've thought that I always used this theory, but as I was reminded that I only do about half. While I do give my students the opportunity to construct their own knowledge, it is usually after I've lectured them. My goal for the next year is to work more at putting control in the hands of the students.

One of the things I took away from the Cooperstein & Kocevar-Weidinger article is the "ask, don't tell" aspect of constructivism. There are a few ways I can incorporate this in my teaching:

1. Reading Scholarly Articles - I'm going to reverse the way I teach this lesson. In the past, I spend 10 minutes, or so, facilitating a discussion about what makes an article scholarly, followed by guided reading of two articles. Instead, I will put the students in pairs, and ask them to read the articles first, finding the answers to the following questions: 1) What did they study? 2) How did they study it? and 3) What did they learn? Once they have read the articles, then we can talk about the characteristics of the articles, and use what they already know about the articles.

2. The Research Process - during the 4-session library module, this is where I lecture the most. It's also the place I've struggled the most to make it more constructivist. However, I think there are a few ways to include active learning. First, rather than tell them about the research process, I'll ask them to brainstorm with a partner (or alone, if they choose) on how they conducted research in the past. Since these are incoming freshman, most of them explain that they would get their assignment, search the internet, then write their paper. With more prompting, I may be able to get them to explain how they were feeling, the decisions they made, and actions they took during their research. Secondly, as I work to integrate more reflection into my instruction, this is a great place for them to reflect. Instead of having them reflect after my lecture, I could ask them to think about how research in high school is different than what they're expected to do in college.

3. Student-Driven Research Agenda - I have done this in the past, but have stopped in favor of having more time to lecture (I can't believe I just admitted that!!!). This works best in courses where they visit the library with a specific assignment to complete. I've used this in all levels of courses, from freshman-level general education courses, to graduate level courses. While one might think that this wouldn't work for freshman, I was surprised at how well it worked.

1. Ask the students to review their assignment. They should keep notes on the guidelines for the sources to use, and any other information about the research portion of their assignment. 
2. Students should make a list of at least 2-3 items they may have trouble with the research, or any questions they have about completing the research, or the assignment in general. This is also connected to their experience doing research in the past. Where do they know they'll have trouble based on previous assignments?
3. Working with a partner, students will identify any common items on their lists, and try to answer each others questions. For example, a common question is "what database to use?" which may be answered quickly by their partner.
4. As a class, we work to create an agenda for the session that covers the questions that most students have. For a general research assignment, these have been some items we've covered:
1. How do I know something is scholarly?
2. Where do I look for articles?
3. Why can't I use internet sources?
4. How do I cite?
5. How can I come up with good keywords?
5. While I don't generally answer each question in detail, I have resources to refer them to for further assistance (e.g. citing sources). 

I have yet to be stumped or surprised by the questions I get. I come prepared to talk about theses, and can come up with an activity or lecture on the fly for other topics.

Why these work for constructivism
(based on Cooperstein & Kocevar-Weidinger)

• Construct own meaning; ask, don't tell. By letting students determine what they want to learn, this can motivate them to participate and learn by doing. 
• Build on prior knowledge. Students are invited to think about how they've done things in the past in order to know how to proceed. This asks them to make the connection (dare I say transfer their own learning) between what they have done and what they think they will be doing.
• Social interaction. I am a collaborative thinking, and invite the students to do the same: two brains are better than one. While this can be frustrating to a few students, overwhelmingly, students are happy to work with a neighbor on a quick in-class activity.
• Authentic tasks. This is something that I have always worked consistently to do. In each of my examples above, the activities were developed to mimic/model what students are expected to do by their professors in their research assignments.

instructional design essentials, week 2, part 2

I've been reading through my previous posts, and am not sure that I've made clear my intentions for this course.

I'm looking at an entire 2-week (Research Module) curriculum of foundational college research skills. I have module-level outcomes, and sub-outcomes that will help students reach those larger ones. If there is anything unclear about what I'm trying to accomplish, I'd love to hear your feedback.

It was easier for me to complete the worksheet of my Outcomes, Assessments and Activities, before I went through the integrating steps.

Worksheet for Designing a Course

1. Situational Factors 

This question has been a big one for me lately:

"Are there any disconnects between your beliefs and values, the student characteristics, the specific or general context, or the nature of the subject in relation to the way you propose to run the course?"

I don't think I can answer that here, but I have thought so much about my assumptions about my students, and how I teach from that and how it affects my students' learning. Some of the changes I've made in the recent past has tried to address that, but I'm not sure it has. If you are interested more in examining your own assumptions, I highly recommend taking the Teaching Perspectives Inventory.

As I designed the Community Problem assignment, it occurred to me that students may not want to be in control of their own learning, and won't engage with the assignment. To me, this is way to learn about identifying an information need, finding and evaluating appropriate sources, and then using that information that will engage the whole student, and respect their experience, knowledge and authority. However, for many students who are the products of public education, they may be so accustomed to the teacher-as-authority gig that they are reluctant to take control. I only have two weeks to build their trust, and we're going to have to jump right in. Hopefully, they'll go along with it.

2. Learning Goals and Feedback & Assessment 

These readings and exercises have been helpful in making connections between the LO and the assessment. I would often have an "understand" LO and ask the students to show me they could "apply" that concept. I'm confident that my LOs and assessments will be more aligned from here on out.

Self-reflection has always been a component in assessing my students' growth and learning, whether it's a one-shot or multi-shot.  From a basic 3-2-1 assessment asking them to recount what they learned, to a more detailed writing assignment about their learning experience. My concern is that I'm not asking the right questions to get them to reflect deeply on their experience. How do you encourage them to think deeply about their learning?

3. Learning Goals and Teaching/Learning Activities 

Throughout the two-week module the learning activities support the smaller assignments that will help students complete the larger assignment. For example, on day 3, we talk about the criteria for scholarly articles, review some reading strategies, and why these articles are valued so highly in academic research. This is done in a short lecture, which is followed by time where the students work in pairs to skim through some sample articles and answer the following questions:

• What do they study?
• How do they study it?
• What did they learn?

Once the students complete the reading, we review this as a class, and talk further about why science articles look differently than humanities or social sciences articles. This one activity helps build students' understanding of the concepts and will help them to accomplish the following SLOs:

• Identifying suitable types of information sources for their specific purpose.
• Critically evaluating the information retrieved based on the context.
• Understanding the values of different communities and scholarly disciplines.

4. Teaching/Learning Activities and Feedback & Assessment 

This is an area where I have the most room to improve. While I do give meaningful, empathetic feedback, my criteria and standards may not be clear from the beginning. Prior to my next teaching of the research module (late June-early July), I'm going to work through the assignment and develop some examples which will help me determine the criteria and standards. I also hope that these examples will help the more visual learners to have a better concept of what they're completing.

instructional design essentials, week 2, part 1

For last week's homework, I was looking at smaller pieces of the Research Module. These smaller pieces feed into a final assignment that students complete over the 2+ weeks. The assessment I've created below will be the final assignment for the Research Module. The outcomes I identified in the previous post will be scaffolded in order for students to succeed in their final assignment.

These are the outcomes I'm using for the research module:

Students will demonstrate the disposition of a student-scholar by:

• Using an academic research process to create new information.
• Identifying suitable types of information sources for their specific purpose.
• Finding the information effectively and efficiently.
• Critically evaluating the information retrieved based on the context.
• Understanding the values of different communities and scholarly disciplines.

Forward looking assessment

I really like the idea of a "problem posing" education so that's what I've been using as I think about this.

Students will identify a problem in their community and use different kinds of suitable evidence to create a solution. Students will then present their work to the members of their community and a decision/policy maker, tailoring their presentation for each. The presentation to their community will be more visual (an infographic) and use language and evidence that is valued by their community. The presentation to the decision or policy maker will be a letter outlining how they identified the problem, the solution they've created, and how they know it will work. Again, students will need to use language and evidence valued by their audience.

Students can transfer this learning to many other situations. This may be in other courses, an internship or service learning experience, or in their job.

Criteria & standards

• Presentation to their Community - Infographic:
• language appropriate for their community (e.g. lay terms v. technical terms)
• visual depictions of the problem and solution
• evidence that is valued by that community (e.g. personal narratives, local expert testimony)
• Presentation to the Decision/Policy Maker - Letter:
• writing appropriate for this audience (more formal)
• detailed descriptions of the problem and solution
• evidence that is valued by this community (e.g. research, data)

Self-assessment

I like to use written reflections to help students determine their growth in any area. I have mainly used pre- and post- reflections to ask students where they started and what they learned. These are a few questions I've used (taken from AVID):

• KWLA (can also be used to frame the research process):
• What do I know?
• What do I want to know?
• What did I learn?
• How will I apply it?

Feedback

As the assignment above is more of an end-of-the-module assignment, so students won't receive "frequent" feedback. However, as students complete the scaffolded assignments during their module, I will follow the FIDeLity model for feedback.

We use Moodle on my campus and all of the content and assignments for the course are housed there. This makes for an easy way to offer frequent and immediate feedback. However, in order to provide better feedback, I need a more fully developed set of criteria to make it more meaningful. Empathy is also very important to me, because I want the students to feel safe in my class and willing to express themselves both in the classroom and the Moodle course.

instructional design essentials, week 1

My focus for this course is a first-year experience course, General Education Lifelong Learning, 101 (GEL 101). The librarians teach a two-week module during this 16-week course, and work with 4-6 sections of the course each semester. During this module, we teach the foundations of college research, using a linear research process as the context. The overall goal (which is very difficult to measure) is that students see themselves not only as students, but also as scholars - producers of knowledge. The research process we use is as follows:  Get Assignment, Choose Topic, Understand your Topic (incl. basic web searching, focusing topic and surveying the scholarly literature), Analyze your Topic (incl. draft thesis statement and collecting evidence), Draft/Outline Paper, Revise, Complete. The students move through this process over two weeks (sometimes, closer to three) and complete an infographic as their final project. We use student-centered, active learning techniques, and have incorporated different strategies from AVID, as well.

The librarians who teach this course use the same SLOs and some of the same lesson plans and activities. I have been responsible for the curriculum for the past few years, and make minor adjustments each time I teach the module. This summer, I'm getting ready to test some larger revisions that my colleagues will implement in the fall.

There are a few things that I'd like to change:

1. I'd like to flip my lesson about the research process. Typically, the first day of class is taken up with my lecturing about the research process. I'd like this now to be done as homework prior to the first session, so that students can jump right into their group research.

2. I've been using the same lesson to teach students about scholarly articles for a few years. Students read (skim) through two scholarly articles and have to identify different pieces of the research - what did they study? how did they study it? what did they learn? Just within the last two semesters, students are still unable to identify scholarly articles after this exercise (fewer students had trouble in the past). I'd like to revise this part of the curriculum to include more holistic conversations about scholarship, and give them more time to read, digest and understand these articles.

3. Lastly, Ive been using Costa's Levels of Questions to guide students through their group inquiry. This has, by far, been the most helpful for students to get to a focused topic, but I'd like to find a way to guide them through this process better. Is there an activity that I can develop where we practice as a group first?

And without further ado... the worksheet!


1. Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation 

There are around 30 students in the class, working in groups of 4-5 students. This is a freshman course that 85% of our students complete as a GE requirement. Most of the sections are taught in the fall, but there are some in the spring, which is a completely different dynamic (these students tend to be higher achieving). We meet for 300 minutes total, over 4 or 6 sessions, sometimes followed by an optional drop-in lab. Our module is a hybrid model, where some of the material is delivered via the LMS. We have three different library classrooms used to teach this course - one with rows of computers, one where the computers are around the perimeter of the room, with tables in the middle, and the third a "flipped" classroom with round tables, and one computer per three students.

2. General Context of the Learning Situation

We have a blended model of the first year experience course - not quite equal parts academics and extended-orientation. Many of our instructors come from Student Affairs, with no disciplinary knowledge. The library module may be the only place in this course where there is academic rigor. However, students who take this course have a much higher rate of retention than students who don't take this course.

3. Nature of the Subject  

As I mentioned above, this course provides foundational college research skills that are intended to carry a student through their general education work, into their major, where they will have more in-depth instruction on discipline-specific research.

4. Characteristics of the Learners

We are a commuter campus in northern San Diego county with 10,000 students (thereabouts). We are a Hispanic Serving, Asian-American Native-American Pacific Islander-Serving, and Veteran serving institution. Many of our students are first-generation college students. While some students do see the value in this course, many find it to be a joke, or waste of time.

5. Characteristics of the Teacher

I strongly believe in the research foundational taught in this course. This is my favorite course to work with because I feel like I have an opportunity to help students prepare for the research they will be doing throughout their college career. I love working with first year students in their transition from high school to college, when they are embarking on their journey to find out who they will become (idealistic, probably). In my teaching, I try and honor their experience and their expertise and learn from them as much as they learn from me.  My teaching style is as a guide, helping students find their own way, rather than spending too much time talking at them.


Questions for Formulating Significant Learning Goals
(I'm sure I've forgotten something)

Foundational Knowledge

• research is a process
• the evaluation and use of information is situational and nuanced, not absolute
• authority is also contextual, and will vary based on the community you are in

Application Goals

• critical thinking - evaluating and understanding sources; making connections between sources (synthesis);
• creative thinking - inquiry, asking questions

Integrations Goals

• making the leap between research they did in the past (for school, work, personal interest) to the research they do in college
• the structure they use to determine the use, authority, credibility, etc. in other communities can be transferred to their community of student-scholars. New community, new rules, same concepts.

Human Dimension Goals

• there is a human dimension to information; information is only what you make of it. without our interpretation and use, information is nothing.
• self-confidence in their own authority and expertise

Caring Goals

• become more confident in their own abilities to do the research/write the paper; complete the analysis or synthesis that is asked of them.
• embracing their scholar identity

Learning-how-to-learn Goals

• the student-scholar identity