ID_+Thought+Provoker+9

Thought Provoker 9 Prompt

After reading Chapter 14 of Helping Teachers Teach, consider the questions on pages 222-226 of the text in relation to the sample lessons in the handouts and your group discussions for student instruction project.

Write a summary describing ways in which you could evaluate the effectiveness and impact of collaboration in the planning and implementation of student instruction.

This class has really opened my eyes to many ways in which I need to improve my instructional design. As the authors notes at the end of the chapter, it is important that we maintain an "atmosphere of objectivity" and evaluate instruction and not people.

Evaluation of instruction should be an ongoing process, even though it is depicted as taking place in the "end" (in the little ID chart in our books). Reading this chapter and getting this sort of summary, birds-eye perspective on the instructional design process has impressed upon me that I do not take enough time to work out these different steps, but more on that later.

In evaluating the Needs Assessment, we look at sources of content, rationales, goals, prioritization of goals, etc. In looking at my own course, I need to conduct a more in-depth Needs Assessment. When asking these needs assessment types of questions in my course's redesign, I feel like a second-rate detective in a windowless office. It's a lot of work to question the way a course has always been taught, or to question the goals on a syllabus. If I change objectives, then I may be looking at change prerequisites, which is a huge ball of wax involving courses taught in other departments, etc. So, I can see why folks often gloss over this step. It's certainly easier to do so. But our students need our watchful eyes questioning the core why of the courses we create for them. The evaluation of Learner Analysis is something I will do by looking at student evaluations, both formative and summative, as well as look at the FAQs (my old email inboxes) students have. Evaluation of learning objectives is something I do a little more regularly as I tweak the purposes and activities students pursue through assignments. Evaluation of the Assessment of Student Performance is something that I very much need to do. I have come to realize that the best time to do this is when I am actually grading a given assignment. If I wait until January to recreate a course, I have difficulty thinking deeply about ways to evaluate assessment. If in the midst of my grading now, I take notes on ways in which my assessment is lacking, I stand to make better changes. For me, Evaluation of Strategies and Activities goes hand in hand with evaluation of objectives. Evaluating Materials Selection is an area of special interest to me as more of my course goes online. I think I have a fair handle on locating appropriate content and materials. However, navigating the tricky waters of copyright is what concerns me.