|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
A flash-based interactive learning module designed for high school students in Spanish I at Monroe Area Comprehensive High School (MACHS). At MACHS, the students are on 4x4 block (90 mins/class) scheduling so they have the opportunity to take Spanish I anytime between their freshman and senior year; the average age range is 14-18. In this module, students will learn some food vocabulary and how to conjugate the verb "gustar," which means "to like." Students often have trouble with this verb because it is an unique irregular verb and has several rules associated with it. Samantha Purcell, Spanish teacher at MACHS, is my client as well as the teacher for this course. She believes by making this learning experience interactive and fun, hopefully some of the anxiety towards learning this verb and its correct conjugations will be removed. The product will be used towards the middle and end of her Spanish I classes.
Purpose Statement The purpose of this learning module is to provide opportunities for students to comprehend new vocabulary, conjugate an irregular verb, and create sentences using the vocabulary with the irregular verb. Goals During this learning module, each student will be expected to:
Objectives
Learner Analysis The learner group is approximately 50-60 Spanish high school students at Monroe Area Comprehensive High School (MACHS). At MACHS, students are on 4x4 block (90 mins/class) scheduling so they have the opportunity to take Spanish I anytime between their freshman and senior year; the average age range is 14-18. Most of the learners are proficient in American Standard English and approximately 55% of them are women. Students using this learning module must be able to speak and listen in English and be familiar with some Spanish. For instance, they should already know how to say their name in Spanish. In addition, students should have the knowledge of Spanish noun categories, pronouns, and definite and indefinite articles. In addition, students should have the ability to use a computer, type on a keyboard, use a mouse, and access the Internet. Students will use this learning module every semester during class time. Normally, there are two-three Spanish I classes per semester. Most of the students taking Spanish I are on a college track, yet some of them are on a vocational track. If students take three years of a foreign language, they receive a foreign language seal on their diploma when they graduate. Learner Characteristics Chart (pdf)
Task Analysis
Students will use this CD-Rom with the laptop workstation in their Spanish I class with the instructor present. However, the CD-Rom will be made available for students to check out and use on their own. The purpose of this learning module is to provide opportunities for students to comprehend new vocabulary, conjugate an irregular verb, and create sentences using the vocabulary with the irregular verb. There are four main sections of the learning module.
In the first section, students are introduced to the six main characters that will be used throughout the learning module. The purpose of this first section is to grab the students’ attention and stimulate prior knowledge. They will receive basic information about each character. In the second section, twenty food vocabulary items are introduced in an island scene with text rollovers followed by a list format. After the vocabulary lists, students will engage in a drag and drop matching game with the new vocabulary that was just introduced. The third section presents the irregular verb “gustar”—to like. Because “gustar” is an irregular verb, there are a lot of rules associated with it. This section defines the verb, explain the rules, and provide examples using the verb correctly. In addition, this section ends with a verb conjugation drag and drop matching game. Sections two and three present the main content. The final section of the module is an animated fairy-tale story. The story tells how the characters met, where they are from, and what types of food the like and dislike. At the end of the story, students must translate five sentences from the story. Then, students will create five original sentences using the verb “gustar” and the food vocabulary. The module will end with a recap of the lesson. Hardware/Software Constraints Chart (pdf)
This learning module is designed using John Keller’s ARCS model. The four design considerations for creating motivation instruction include: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. Because this module is for high school students, it is extremely important to address the motivational factor. The module is designed to engage and motivate the learner.
Most of the students in the Spanish I are college track student; thus, they are somewhat motivated to learn. Usually, the students interact in daily face-to-face lectures, so their motivational factor sometimes diminishes with that delivery method. By allowing students to interact with a CD-Rom learning module on a computer is much more appealing to them than listening to a teacher for 90 minutes. The client is aware of the motivational issue among high school students and wants her students to have a “change of scenery.” She wants to see how they will respond and interact with computer-based learning. Because this is her first time using computer-based learning in her class, I wanted to make this module really interactive and full of life and color so the students would enjoy it. She opted not to use simply a web-based module because she did not want the students surfing the internet while they were suppose to be engaged in the learning module. In addition, she was not sure if the mobile laptop lab had Internet access.
The learning module will be used in the Spanish I curriculum. It should be integrated after students demonstrate basic knowledge of Spanish. For instances, students should be able to demonstrate the following items in Spanish: say their name, where they are from, their age, days of week, etc.; use pronouns; distinguish between feminine/masculine and singular/plural nouns; and conjugate regular ar, er, and ir verbs. Since this learning module focuses on “gustar,” which is an irregular verb, this module can be used virtually anytime after students successfully demonstrate the items above. Learning how to describe likes and dislikes in Spanish I is essential to the course curriculum.
Introduction The purpose of the alpha test is to identify and then eliminate as many problems as possible with the learning module. Throughout the entire design and development phases of this project, I have been soliciting feedback from experts and targets users and making the necessary revisions accordingly. Towards the end of the development phase of this project, I completed a formal alpha test focusing primarily on the expert review of the learning module. This test was conducted with five experts, and their profiles are presented in the table below. Profile of Reviewers
Assessment Although the target audience (Spanish I high school students) will be given a CD-Rom, the expert reviewers viewed the learning module on the internet. Each of them were emailed with two assessment surveys. Click here for a pdf of the complete alpha evaluation form. The first survey, An Expert Review Checklist for Interactive Multimedia, was composed of ten likert scale questions. The ten questions were divided into three areas: instructional design review, cosmetic design review, and program functionality review. The reviewers were to circle or highlight their choices ranging 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) and including a N/A (Not Applicable) option. At the end of the questions, the reviewers were provided space for comments/recommendations. The second survey, Evaluation Form, had eight major categories: subject matter, auxiliary information, affective considerations, interface, navigation, pedagogy, invisible features, and robustness. Within each category, there were several topics. The reviewers marked with an “x” if the topic was “Acceptable” or “Needs Work.” In addition, for each topic there was space provided for comments. Procedures One week prior to sending out the alpha evaluation form, I emailed ten people (whom I considered expert reviewers) to see who would be willing to participate in a formal alpha test for the learning module. I received five replies from people who were interested, and I responded and asked them to be on the lookout for the evaluation form. On April 18, 2005 , I emailed the five reviewers the instructions for completing the alpha test, information about the project, and the actual evaluation form. The instructions informed the reviewers that they needed to go through the entire module and listen to the audio that accompanied the module. Although the target audience would be given CD-Rom’s, the learning module could also be evaluated online so I saw no need to watch while the reviewers completing the evaluation. In addition with everything being online and electronic, the reviewers could complete the form on their own time and be more willingly to do quickly. The email also encouraged the reviewers to call or email if they had questions or concerns. By April 20, 2005 , I received all five of the alpha evaluations forms. Results Survey I - An Expert Review Checklist for Interactive Multimedia Results from the first survey, An Expert Review Checklist for Interactive Multimedia, are presented below. For each multiple choice question, an average score is presented. Key
When given the opportunity to make comments or recommendations, here is what the expert reviewers said. Participant #1 - You already know I adored this module, Ericka. What little I’d change is noted in the next form. Great job! =) Participant #2 – Everything went well. It was very enjoyable. Participant #3 – Muy Bien! Participant #4 – I think that this module creates a fun learning environment for students. I wish that when I was enrolled in such a class that this kind of enrichment material was available for my use. I feel that it would have made Spanish class a little easier to understand and would have encouraged me to use it more in my everyday conversation. Participant #5 – (nothing)
Survey II - Evaluation Form The results for the second survey, Evaluation Form, are described here. For the most part, most categories and topics were deemed acceptable. Only the areas were the experts made comments are listed below.
Recommendations for Revisions
Conclusion Overall, this evaluation was quite helpful for me to tidy up some items before conducting the beta test with the actual target audience. All the expert reviewers seem to think really positive about the learning module, and I was very pleased with the results and recommendations from them.
Introduction The purpose of the beta test is to test usability and learning effects after the program is complete. Based on the feedback from the alpha test, I made revisions and conducted a beta test with four users from the actual target audience: Spanish I high school students in Senorita Purcell class. Their profiles are presented in the table below. Profile of Reviewers
Assessment I used several assessment methods during the beta evaluation with the target audience. These methods include the following:
Prior to interacting with the Gustar Learning Module, each participant completed a pre-instructional questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to tell me the each participant’s experience level with computers and help me to discover his/her current knowledge level of information that will be covered in the learning module. The pre-instructional questionnaire was composed of eight questions. The first five questions were about computer skills, and the participants were to circle the answer that best describes them. The last three questions were knowledge and comprehension questions that the participants more than likely would not know prior to interacting with the learning module; these questions were in short answer format. I observed each participant and took notes while he/she completed the learning module. I encouraged them to think out loud, but they were not allowed to ask me any questions until after they had completed the module. At the end of the module, there is an assessment section. This assessment section has three parts:
Each participant completed the assessment section and submitted his/her paper to me prior to receiving the post-instructional questionnaire. The post-instructional questionnaire was designed to determine each participant’s opinion and attitude about this instructional module and what he/she learned as a result of completing the Gustar Learning Module. Before giving them the post-instructional questionnaire, I informed each participant that the questionnaire is not testing his/her knowledge but testing the actual module so answer truthfully as possible. This questionnaire was composed of fifteen questions. The first ten questions ask their opinion about the navigation, graphics, interaction, preference of module over classroom lecture, purpose, expectations, and help. These questions were in the form of either likert scale or yes or no, which the users circled the answered that best applies. The next two questions asked the participants which principle they liked and disliked about the module. And finally the last three questions were a repeat of the same knowledge and comprehension questions that the participants answered in the pre-instructional questionnaire. Once the participants completed the post-instructional questionnaire, I looked over all the forms they filled out and interviewed them one on one. Procedures The beta test occurred over two days (April 21-22, 2005 ) at Monroe Area Comprehensive High School in a private room in the Media Center . The students are on a 4x4 block schedule, so each class lasts ninety minutes. Senorita Purcell teaches Spanish I during first and second block. I conducted a one-on-one beta test during the first and second block for both days (yielding a total of four test participants). My client was active in helping me select a good variety of students to represent the target audience. In a private room in the Media Center, I explained to each participant one-on-one the purpose of learning module, his/her role in testing the learning module, and the procedures that he/she will complete over the next hour. I launched the beta test by providing them with the pre-instructional questionnaire to complete. After each participant completed the questionnaire, I gave him/her the CD-Rom and asked him/her to go through the module remembering to think out loud and not to rush. I also provided the participants with paper in case they wanted to take notes and informed them that I could not answer any questions for them pertaining to the module. While each participant interacted with the module, I took notes and observed. At the end of the module when the participants reached the learning module assessment, I provided them with more paper in order to complete the three part assessment. Once again I informed them that I could not help them answer the questions. After completing this assessment, each participant completed the post-instructional questionnaire. When each participant gave me their questionnaire, I stapled all of the forms (pre-instructional questionnaire, learning module assessment, post-instructional questionnaire) together with the participant number on each page. Then, I opened the learning module up and conducted a debrief session/interview with each one of them in order to discover or reveal items that possibly the other evaluation instruments did not cover. Results Pre-Instructional Questionnaire Results from the pre-instructional questionnaire are presented in the table below.
Learning Module Assessment Results from the learning module assessment are presented in the table below.
Post-Instructional Questionnaire The results from the post-instructional are lengthy. Click here for a pdf of the post-instructional questionnaire results.
Recommendations for Revisions
Conclusion Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed conducting this evaluation with users from the target audience. I was more than pleased with the results. The participants were extremely helpful and provided me with useful insight. I will also be present the first time the client uses in the module in her class, which will be May 2, 2005 .
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
