Presenter: Celina Byers (University of Minnesota)  cbyers@umn.edu

[ SLOAN-C Proceedings Web Site ]

Celina’s goal was to take Master-level students from “declarative knowledge” to a “procedural level” to full fluency of the information.

ADDIE is a very common course development method. We introduce it and use it in our own CyberEd course.

ADDIE – Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. For Celina, Evaluation is the center of the model upon which all other components are based.

Analysis – Needs, Content, Learner, Environment (i.e. audience, purpose, context).

Design – Write objectives, create assessments, organize lesson units, devise course strategies, and determine strategies for delivery method.

Development – Produce the media resources needed, create all lessons, prepare course packages. This often involves a modular approach to development–units, chapters, lessons. This can be done in a “rolling” fashion such that you can teach fully developed units while continuing to develop future units.

Implementation – Schedule time, location, equipment, and personnel. Make the course packages available (e.g. Adaptive Release in Blackboard). Deliver the lessons to the students.

Evaluation – Check the content, learner performance, and course instructional strategy to make sure the goals are being met for all three components. As with all of the steps in the ADDIE model, this can be–and should be–an iterative process, always looking for improvement. Evaluation can be used at each step within the process as well.

Celina’s approach is to use ADDIE as a foundation for creating a blended
course, but includes components of Bloom’s Taxonomy as well. She has a
circle of Investigative Needs, Plan Course Based on Needs, Develop
Course Materials, and Course Capstone Evaluation, where each quarter of
the circle feeds into the next, thus creating a continuous loop of
development and evaluation based on students’ needs.

Investigate Needs – Institutional mission and values, accreditation,
departmental needs. Student needs include satisfying experience for the
students and, of course, satisfactory learning outcomes. Delivery method
also has some needs to be met, such as resource availability, and
whether F2F, online, or blended is the best approach. Findings from the
course capstone evaluation can be incorporated into the needs
investigation.

Plan Course Based on Needs – Maintain the course description according
to the needs. Tie the course objectives in with the description. Class
meeting objectives (F2F or online) should also meet course objectives.
The text book and additional materials also should be selected based on
the needs of the course. Bloom’s taxonomy can drive the assessment tools
used to gauge learning, comprehension, and synthesis.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – lowest level involves retrieving information from long-term memory (i.e. facts)
The next level is about understanding the information that has been
retrieved in a certain context. Higher levels of learning include
applying the knowledge, evaluating the way the information has been
applied, and finally creating NEW knowledge that can then serve as the
foundation for the next generation of knowledge.

Develop Course Materials – Instructional strategies and materials should
be created in advance as much as possible. Revise the materials for
each successive delivery based on a continuous evaluation. Assessments
can involve project guidelines, evaluation criteria (rubrics), quizzes
and exams tied to course objectives, and building blocks such as peer
review and instructor feedback.

Celina is a fan of WayPoint Outcomes for measuring student learning
outcomes. We are looking at the possibility of introducing WayPoint to
our own campus, though we are still in the early stages of planning.

Celina showed some examples of her model of creating a blended course.
One course is for Instructional Design which shows the overall tasks,
followed by the course objectives.

On a class meeting basis, Celina collects data on achievement and efficiency for her course.

Class surveys (from Educational Assessment Corporation
[http://www.edassess.net] ) were taken outside of the LMS (which can
also be plugged into the LMS). Surveys are also available through mobile
devices. Clickers could also serve this function. This is a continuous,
rolling, self-assessment on teaching effectiveness that would augment
the current implementation of teaching evaluations at the end of the
semester.

On an assessment basis, Celina analyzed the learning results, looking
for trends in the data. She revised the assessment for future courses.

Course Capstone Evaluation – Faculty evaluations are used for promotions
and tenure, as well as accreditation. On a course level, they are used
to gauge perceptions of pre and post skill level. They can also be used
to gauge instructor effectiveness. (email Celina for a copy of the form
she used for evaluations)