I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak about my instructional design for my innovation plan. This is how I plan to implement blended learning and the supporting materials that I have created for that goal. Mahalo for watching and supporting.
Implementation Phase
Usability and Reflection
The feedback from my coworkers and updates about my course are found in the following video
The usability test with my student is found in the video below
In the above video, you may notice my Google classroom looks totally different. This is because after certain feedback I received and working more with my original implementation plan, I realized my original design was just not working for me. I chose to change the way I had everything organized to better suit myself along with my students. I wanted to ensure that my course was designed for maximal success from my students. I realized my original design was coming too much from a teacher point of view and I needed to look at it from a student’s perspective. I did a lot of simplifying and experimental stuff within my class to see what worked best with my students. Through this, I developed my new Google classroom that includes all the information my students need to know. Within each module, students will be able to find common core standards for the unit, power points, guided notes, and practice pages. The classroom is currently set up to be supplemental to in person classes to aid with homework or help students who are struggling to get individualized help specific to their needs.
In terms of my usability testing, I sent a mock Google Classroom to my colleagues to review as well as sat with one of my students where I showed her our new and improved course for the first time. You can join and review my Google Classroom here. This is not my real classroom that is distributed to students for privacy sake. Following the review of my google classroom, I sent this google form that asked questions about the usability of my design. I recieved a lot of amazing feedback and a lot of positive comments from my colleagues. I concluded that this simple design proved to be very effective for a supplemental resource for students. One helpful comment I received was that the inclusion of videos would be helpful for students to be able to watch and re-learn some concepts. I will definitely be adding these videos in as we continue onto more difficult material and as my students become more adjusted to Google Classroom as a forum for our class.
I decided to collect both the feedback from my co workers as well as feedback from one of my students. I figured that the insightful feedback from a student point of view would be invaluable even after getting all of the helpful feedback from my colleagues. Being able to have both points of view from experienced teachers and from the view of a student really helped me narrow down what could be improved or changed within the course. Both stakeholders suggested the incoperation of video lessons which I will definitely begin developing. The usability testing of my student can be found in the video above. I did not record her face for privacy reasons. My student is very quiet and shy but she gave great feedback and was able to complete the tasks after I walked her through the course a little more. Her suggestions were to change the titles of the work so that classwork and homework is easier to find, incorperate video lessons, and to have a class training day where everyone gets to experiment with the course.
As we make the transition to using this forum more regularly as a class, there will be a long transition period where I can ensure that all students have access to the classroom and do not face technical difficulties that would result in them unable to complete assignments. My goal with this course is only to give more opportunity for success and not to create stress so I am more than happy to provide adequate adjustment time where each student can have a low stakes opportunity to become familiar with the environment.
I am very happy with how my final course came out and I am elated at all of the positive feedback I have received. I will introduce this idea to my students and slowly update and change the course as I get their feedback as well. My strong feelings are that the simplified design and organization of the course will lead to high levels of student success and I will receive positive feedback from my students as well.
Journey of Learning 