Monday: I met with Catherine to go over what the layout of the Canvas page would look like and how each module should run. 

Tuesday: I asked my fellow coworkers for activities and assignments they used in which students enjoyed. 

Wednesday:  I looked through my own activities to see what I could include as an activity for each module. 

Thursday: I received some activities from a coworker via email.

Friday, I spoke with a coworker in the hallway about how she does her daily activities.
 

           I was asked to work on this project last week on Wednesday, the same day this semester started.  After reading the activities list and seeing the assignments for this course, I accepted this project to do in conjunction with the assignment.  I feel like this week was slow but productive.  This was my week of researching and waiting.  Similar to a needs assessment, I texted and asked coworkers and team members who had experience teaching Math 3 what their favorite hands-on assignments and activities were without involving direct instruction.   The text went like this:
“Hey, Math 3 peeps! I need a favor… Can you email me ideas or links (or whatever) to “fun”, collaborative, in-person Math 3 activities? Like pie-in-the-sky stuff you wish you could have done but couldn’t because we were not in person. Mostly want stuff for multiple representations of all non-linear functions. I need ideas because I’m helping the district write the Math 3 summer course. Thank you!”
           I did not hear back from many. I received an email from 2 teachers with 2 separate activities and spoke to another in the hall.  My informal conversation in the hall with a friend was very helpful.  She eventually emailed me some of the documents she told me about.

            I pulled up some data from our Personalized Learning Community (PLC) meetings from the past year and made notes of big topics from each unit that students commonly missed or were heavily tested on the final exam and necessary for future math courses. Our PLC is made up of all the teachers who teach the same course in the year.  We usually plan and meet once a week or more as needed since we have a common planning period.  The processes from this week relate to researching and planning to know what is necessary to include and what is fluff that can be taken out to only hit the main points.  A typical semester is 18 weeks where this program is a third of that length. Cutting out the fluff was crucial. 

With short notice, I was reminded/learned that people may need more time to answer an email or text message during the end of the school year when so many things were due for other teachers.  I surely believe that had I sent the text and followed up with an email that I may have received more responses to my query.  Also, I was reminded that I need to over-invite to get the number of responses I would have preferred.  These are things that I knew, but reality hit me with a tiny slap when I got minimal responses.  However, there was not much time to waste, and I did what I could with what I was given.

 

Monday: Planned out course. Created a plan of action for each day of the 6 weeks. 

Tuesday: Researched and gathered Activities for week 1.

Wednesday: Researched and gathered activities for week 2.

Thursday: Researched and gathered Activities for week 3.

Friday: Researched and gathered activities for week 4.
 

           I started the week by narrowing down the order of how the entire course was going to flow.  Then I dove in to create a task analysis and objectives for each day.  These were long days. After going through the activities.  I was given or had of my own, I turned to books and notebooks filled with ideas and activities for the topics I listed.  The hardest part was that there was no direct instruction or videos allowed.  Every activity had to be a discovery learning activity or practice that could be easily replicated across the district.  This relates to planning the course activities and gaining the necessary materials for implanting that activity. 

           As I was collecting ideas each day, I built out modules in Canvas with each week.  I’d upload the activity instructions to Canvas with any necessary documents.  Some of the weeks had modules built out just for the teacher and others for students.  The instructor of the course would eventually click the publish button on the module for students so that not everything was visible to the students.  Built into each week’s module, there was a part that was just for teachers that had the instructions to the activity, any files that were associated, a list of materials needed, and answers to the questions that were being asked of the students.  In the part for the students, there were files associated and the objectives for that activity. 

           Wednesday was when I realized that I needed to be building everything out in Canvas and not just gathering the activities.  Otherwise, I would be doing twice the work.  I learned time management in my planning.  My mornings were for researching and collecting activities, while the afternoon was for inputting them into Canvas. 
 

Monday: Researched and gathered activities for week 5.

Tuesday: Researched and gathered activities for week 6.

Wednesday: Created take-home assessments to be done in Canvas for each week. 

Thursday and Friday: Updated and finalized in Canvas.

Friday, I met with Catherine to show her my final picture and get feedback. 
 

          This week was more of the same as last week with finishing off the last 2 weeks of the course, but I put the finishing touches on everything.  I pulled tests from district banks and imported them into Canvas to create student evaluations for each week.  A lot of the tests had been converted to Canvas throughout the school year from our PLC meetings and we had even banked each question so that it would be harder to share answers with other students. Every student had the same type of question for number 1, but child 1 had his own set of numbers, and child 2 and 3 each had their own numbers that were different from the others.  It would be difficult to have the same test as another student.  These tests were meant to be done at home over the weekend or day off asynchronously but timed. Student evaluation helps evaluate the course as a whole.  If students do well on the weekly tests and show gains on the final test, it demonstrates that the course was somewhat of a success for that participant.  Overall test scores will provide me with a general overview of how well I put the course together giving feedback on what would need to be improved for the next time the course is offered. 

Evaluation is necessary to see if the students/participants learned anything and if the course was successful.  Using Kirkpatrick’s 4 Level Model would also show if there was a return on expectations/investment in creating the course.  I would like to know what the students think of the activities I chose for them to see if I can personally incorporate them more into my teaching. 
 

           The project was submitted, and Canvas courses were airdropped to the teacher accounts. Teachers will now have a few days to read through each activity and create/gather the pieces needed for each one.  They will also be able to modify the Canvas course to make it work for them.  This falls into the implementation category after creating a program.  I look forward to feedback at the end of the summer. 

 

           This project came just at the right time. Catherine Veale, an old friend, reached out asking if I could help with creating a course for the summer school program for my school district. The response was conditional on getting to chose which course I would write.  I chose Math 3 because it was the class I had taught this past year and the subject matter was fresh.  My task was to analyze, design, and develop a 6 weeklong course using Instructure’s LMS Canvas.  The intent was to have each day planned out for any random teacher facilitating the course with all the necessary instructions and tools.  After the creation of the course, it would be blueprinted and shared with all the instructors using it to teach that summer program.  Each teacher would then have access to the blueprinted course and be able to personalize it to their likings or leave it as is. One turnkey Canvas blueprint would cover both the facilitator and the students registered under that teacher, so there had to be a piece for both.  Students intended for this course would be those who failed a course for whatever reason or for those who are trying to bridge a gap between the previous math class taken and the next class needed.  The timing of this project happened to be the last week of the school year and the 2 weeks following Memorial Day.  All steps of the ADDIE process were or will be used with the creation of this Math 3 project. 
 
A-Analyze

           Analysis is the first step in ADDIE.  Instructional designers need to do their research and decide if a course is needed or what needs to be included/removed in the course.  Designers should be mindful of what teachers will want included in the abbreviated course (Campbell et al., 2009).   Ruark (2013) would argue that sometimes additional research is needed to make the course more practical by using Evidenced-Based Practice (EVP). 

          In the case of this project, the analysis was initiated by surveying and interviewing other teachers who have taught the complete course where they shared what they would like to see in this abbreviated course as well as pulling data collected over the last school year.  External and internal research was collected and analyzed varying from input from other SMEs and the designer’s personal experience as well as books filled with project-based learning activities.

D-Design    

           Design is the second step in ADDIE.  In the design phase, the instructional designer organizes how the course will operate and the plan of attack to complete each step of the project.  Keeping in mind what the focus of the course is, the designer will plan and research content to be included in the program and defining the course or section objectives.  Student motivation plays a large role in the success of the course, and one way to increase motivation is by building a strong student-instructor relationship (Frisby et al., 2020).  If students enjoy the activities they are doing, it will build trust and a relationship with the teacher, which in turn will increase motivation and overall success. 

           In the design process of this project, a table organized each week’s and day’s plans, and an informal task analysis was created outlining the major tasks that had to be completed by the end of each day.  Although evaluation falls at the end of ADDIE, the designer reflected on each week’s accomplishments as a type of formative assessment which in turn sometimes caused a small addition of tasks for the following day to fix the pieces that did not sit well with the designer. Research from various resources on hand made planning each day’s activities easier than just creating new activities from scratch.  The design process also included the literal designing of the layout of the Canvas course. 

           What should the page look like, how do students and teachers access each day/assignment? The design I went with was to create a homepage, then access all the weeks in one place. Once the user picks a week, it opens to a new page that has all the days listed. The student will pick a day, and a new page opens with all the activities listed on it.  Behind the scenes, each week will be a module with each day and activities listed.  Instructors will have the power to give each button click-ability.  If they do not want students going ahead, they can keep that part locked until it is time.  Luckily, I do not have to code each aspect of the course, it was already done for me since the district had a programmer go in and connect all the links for a course shell that I just had to update.

D-Develop

           Develop is the third stage of ADDIE.  Everything comes together creating action in putting all the pieces together to make a program flow.  During this step, the developer will create each page that is part of the Canvas design and upload all documents needed. Then all the instructions will be typed in or Canvas assignments created.  In all using 4 activities per day and 16 activities per week, there were 96 activities to organize and create.  By working on one week a day, it was manageable to keep every activity organized and processed.  In this phase, the designer also tests every link to make sure everything is working and good to go.  Another formative evaluation occurs to make sure nothing is out of place.

I-Implement  

          Implement is the fourth stage of ADDIE, where the course is administered.  Students who registered for summer school will now have a Math 3 course to work through with guidance from the facilitator or teacher.  For the program at hand, it is currently being used. Teachers have the leeway of choosing to do all activities or just some.  Classes are 3 hours long and the activities are set up to take between 45 minutes to an hour each.  Each activity requires setup and administration. Then afterward, there should be a discussion to go over what should have been learned by each participant.  Some activities could take longer than others to complete, so that is why there is an extra activity.  The first three are intended to cover the main topics, and the last activity is like an enrichment or review of the entire day’s work. 

E-Evaluate

           Evaluation is the last stage of ADDIE. Several types of evaluation can occur on a project.  Formative evaluation happens throughout creation and can be used to evaluate the course designer or the learning of the participant. Formative assessment should happen through each stage of ADDIE to ensure a successful program creation, while teachers can observe students informally as they work through each part of their day and make judgments as to how the student is doing with learning and progress.  Summative evaluation occurs at the end of the program for the designer or end of a lesson for the student.  Kirkpatrick’s 4 levels of evaluation model is very commonly used to observe how successful a program was.

Kirkpatrick's 4 Level Model 

           In the Math 3 Project, the first level of Kirkpatrick would be reactions as a quick observation by the teacher if the students are enjoying the activities and learning from them.  In the second level, that is where the testing of the learning comes in.  During the third level of Kirkpatrick, the students will be able to use the skills learned from each lesson.  It is a measurement of behavior and use of skills also observed by the teacher informally.  The last level of Kirkpatrick’s method is the hardest to see on the surface but after some research and comparison of data, one can see if the course was worth it. This level answers the question of what the expectations were and have they been met, why or why not. At this point in the project, the designer is currently waiting to get a full evaluation back to see if there was overall student growth and individual growth for each participant. 

Conclusion

           In conclusion, all aspects of ADDIE were met in creating the project.  Analysis and research came from my co-workers. The layout of the course, as well as a schedule to help me stay on task acted as the design.  Multiple long days of developing the material and attaching activities to the site made it possible for teachers to implement the course. Evaluation was part of every step to ensure the site operated without flaw, and assessments were built in to check for mastery of the participants.  Many different pieces went into this project. The ADDIE model and the project management checklists kept everything organized. Feedback from Catherine was positive, and from what I have heard is that teachers like the summer reboot as an exciting addition to the full course.

References

Campbell, K., Schwier, R. A., & Kenny, R. F. (2009). The critical, relational practice of instructional design in higher   education: An emerging model of change agency. Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(5), 645-663.   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-007-9061-6
 

Frisby, B. N., Hosek, A. M., & Beck, A. C. (2020). The role of classroom relationships as sources of academic resilience and   hope. Null, 68(3), 289-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2020.1779099
 

Ruark, B. E. (2008, Jul 1,). ARDDIE: The year 2013 - ARRDIE is in, ADDIE is out. T+D, 62, 44.

 

Part 4: Work Samples

Click here to see planning pages and screenshots of some of the final work.