Section 3

For this week's reflection activities, I would like for you to concentrate on the following:

1. Chapter 10 discusses evaluation in instructional design and provides you with two evaluation models, the CIPP and Kirkpatrick models for evaluation. Search for at least two other models used for evaluation and summarize these models. Describe how you would use them to evaluate your instruction.

Model #1 Triad model

Flashlight “Triad” model

The Triad model is comprised of five steps.

Step 1. Overview and Confronting the Blob.

In this phase of the model, brainstorming is conducted on all parts of the curriculum that are involved in developing the outcomes for that course. Some of the items that are discussed are, student prerequisites, the budget for the course, availability of required course materials, attitudes and satisfaction of faculty and students, to name a few. Often times a comprehensive list is reached by instructors that who teach similar sections of the same course.

Step 2. Blob to Issue.

This phase of the evaluation is designed to move from a large-scale maze of various elements that have a direct impact upon learning outcomes, to a more manageable evaluation process that can be viewed as one major issue. In this phase the process must address the following questions: What is the most important element of the lesson to you, the designer, and others? Who is intended to complete the evaluation? The next part of this phase requires that the next two questions be answered:

• What are the three most crucial things you fear might happen as a result of using the technology?
• What are the three most crucial things you hope will occur?

Step 3. Issue to Triad

The third and final phase of this model takes each issue selected and creates several “triads.” It is important to remember that a triad is comprised of the technology used (identified by the use of the letter “T”), a particular activity that the technology enables (the activities are identified by the letter “A”), and the outcomes expected for that particular activity (outcomes are identified by the letter “O”).

I have created some examples of “Triads” that I can use in areas that I teach. After generating the triads it is important to focus on only ones you wish to address. It is important to remember that Rome was not built in a day.

Step 4. From Triad to Data.
For the triads that have been selected, questions must now be generated to gather data about the triads. These questions can take the form of interviews, focus groups or even surveys.

• Question Type 1: Technology. These questions are related to the technical infrastructure, its capacity, its functioning, or the degree to which students/faculty were appropriately trained to use/manage it.
• Question Type 2: Interaction of Technology and Activity. These questions are related to the functions and features inherent in various technical systems and their ability to support or enable a specific activity (i.e., "Did X technology enable you to do Y?").
• Question Type 3: Activity. These questions are related to the nature of student tasks, or what students are asked to do.
• Question Type 4: Interaction of Activity and Outcomes. These questions are related
  to the capability for specific technology-based activities to generate predicted outcomes (i.e., "Did activity Z help you to accomplish S?").
• Question Type 5: Outcomes. These questions are related to what students learned, how satisfied they were with a lesson or course, and what changes they would recommend.
  

**Note, The Flashlight Network has a pre-existing database of 500 question. Items are organized various categories and the Flashlight Online tool can be used to create web based surveys.

Step 5. From Data to Next Steps.

Based on the evaluation data, decisions about unit or course (e.g., discarding a strategy, modifying the use of technology or improving support network models) must be made.

Model #2 Objectives - Based model

Ralph W. Tyler headed the evaluation of the Eight- Year Study. He designed a curriculum planning rationale for the participating schools. Tyler continued to cultivate his ideas on the rationale, and published it in 1949, entitled the Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. Tyler believed that the goals of the school should move across a continuum of concerns that speaks to the purpose of the school, the organization of student experiences and the evaluation of those experiences. He only had four basic questions that his evaluation was comprised of:

1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

• In my web development class that I teach I like to focus on the terminal objectives of students being able to build a functional website that will be attractive to potential customers of the website.
• I focus on the enabling learning objectives that would help me accomplish this task
  • Colors used in the website
  • Animation (if any)
  • Navigation tools
  • Payment Gateway functionality

1. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?

• Review of current revenue generating websites.
• Assign students to work in groups to develop websites
• Assign students to deliver presentations on the aspects of sites that they like that they have found through their research of the world wide web.

2. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?

• The experiences will be recorded in a rubric that catalogs what they liked in particular about each site they viewed
• Journaling will be another was to organize their experiences of what they have created and what they have researched.
• Group discussions will also be held on what is and is not effective in developing a rich and interactive website.

3. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
   

• Students will be assigned to web design groups and build websites.
• Websites will be hosted and students from the department and the school will be asked to visit the site online.
• Suggestions from site visitors will be cataloged for the developers to review and enhance their site.

Tyler believed that the curriculum also had to be responsive to the main elements of an educative experience:

1. the nature of the learner (developmental factors, learner interests and needs, life experiences, etc.);
   

• Are there any prerequisites for the course
  
• Has the student expressed an interest for website design
  
• What does the student bring to the table (is he/she a graphic artist, photographer, or traditional artist – sculptor, actor, set design etc.
  
  

2. the values and aims of society (democratizing principles, values and attitudes)
   

• What doe the industry currently require of those in the website design field.
  
• What are business owners looking for in those that design their websites.
  
• What are the legal obligations for a web developer.
  
  

3. knowledge of subject matter (what is believed to be worthy and usable knowledge).
   

• What must the student learn in order to be effective and thrive in the world at large. What knowledge sets must we teach the student in order for the student to become gainfully employed.
  

2. Think about a technological innovation within your social system that was recently introduced (social system = place of work, home, etc.). Any innovation has what is known as perceived attributes - relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. Describe these attributes of the innovation and which of the attributes assisted and/or hindered adoption of the innovation. For example, was it not compatible with the existing beliefs of the system or was it overly complex to use or understand?

There is a company that is promoting their program that manages students records along with their payment. The program is being recommended by the company and some instructors that are currently using the program.

• Relative Advantage – It is to make managing your students paperwork much easier.
• Compatibility – The software is advertised as being compatible with various gateway payments systems but is not compatible with several of the larger banking systems that are used throughout the world.
• Complexity – The system doesn't seem to difficult to operate but some working knowledge of accounting software is preferred.
• Trialability – The company has overcome this obstacle by offering a 30 day free trial. I don't think it is enough because you only see it in action for one pay period. Many schools are set up to receive payments from students once a month.
• Observability – Many owners seem to like the program but many don't want to make the large monetary investment for a program that doesn't save them a great deal of time. Many of the owners that I have spoken with already have some sort of accounting software in place that also aides in the preparation of their taxes.

It does not seem that the software will receive an overwhelming vote of confidence from the current school owners. The incompatibility of the software to with other payment gateway programs is, in my mind the key, for it not doing so well in the trials. If a school owner has to use another program to process credit cards and checks, then switch to an entirely different system?

3. Chapter's 12 & 13 focus on project management and how to manage projects when resources are scarce. You have been assigned to develop a series of professional development sessions focusing on technology use in the classroom for teachers. How will you use Situational Leadership to facilitate this project?

 Below is the military perspective of situational leadership.  Please enjoy.

For this project I will turn to the introduction of the Digi Pad to the mathematical classroom. In developing this lesson that focuses on this particular technology, it will be important for the curriculum to have a single look and feel throughout all of the lessons. As the instructional project manager and instructional designer (due to the fact that we are on a budget I will wear two hats), it will be important for me develop a clear and concise channel of communication for all team members. Given the fact that we are on a tight budget we will have a “duty expert” on our team (one that is extremely familiar with the Digi Pad). We will also include end users (teachers and students), our subject matter experts (teachers that are currently using the Digi Pad) will also be kept in on the loop as the instructional design take shape.

I will most likely use the Tao of situational leadership. This is also referred to as the Yin and Yang of leadership. The Yin is the more passive side of the equation. Leadership activities are tailored toward the readiness of the team. The Yang is far more active and is considered to be aggressive. It is here where the leader develops team members toward the objective doing their work independently. Due to the time constraint and budget. I will use the Yin method of situational leadership. I have chosen this because the instructional design team will be made up of members from our institution and I will not be well versed in the areas of each members strengths and weaknesses.

Of the four types of leadership styles, I would prefer to use the supporting style – This would be for people that don't require a great deal of direction and they are generally seen as being competent in their field. If the members of my team seem to be accomplishing the objectives and require little support from me then I will shift to a delegating style of leadership.

To form this group I would definitely draw upon professors / members from the graphic arts, computer science and math departments, student council, and the curriculum and instruction committee. I would pull of these members together and place them in key position outlined by the graph below. By doing developing this program in house we keep cost to a minimum by not having to go outside the institution to develop it.