Design Document for

EDU 767/ Natural History Gallery Training

By Jacquelynn Accetta
Purpose of the Course The goal of this course is to provide newly hired museum educators at the Reading Public Museum background information on the
Natural History Gallery. The curator and managers of education got together and decided upon the five most important
objects/concepts in the gallery. The new hires will learn about each object/concept to prepare them to answer visitors questions and
give them the facts they will need to give a school tour. Upon completing the training, they will begin shadowing other educators
giving tours in the gallery.
Audience Description

The primary target audience are Museum Educators: part-time and full-time museum employees. When hired they all typically have
a college degree (at least a bachelors, sometimes a masters) with a background in art, history, or science. They all have experience
teaching school-aged children and many of them have a teaching degree. They tend to be recent college graduates in their early to mid
twenties and most are female.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to deliver content on the five most important objects/concepts in the Natural History
Major Course
Objectives (Terminal) Gallery to a member of the general public. cognitive
Course Enabling
Objectives

Present information to a member of the general public on the five different types of fossils. cognitive

Present information to a member of the general public on the Pennsylvania state fossil. cognitive

Present information to a member of the general public on the amphibian fossil. cognitive

Present information to a member of the general public on the Apatosaurus vertebrae. cognitive

Present information to a member of the general public on the Diatryma. cognitive

RLO Enabling
Objective

By the end of this RLO the learner will be able to present information to a member of the general public on the five different types of
fossils.

Learning Assessment
for Course

The assessment for this course is two-fold. The first is that after each of the five objects there is a knowledge check so the learner
can evaluate their own knowledge and revisit any information they did not get correct. After learning about all five objects the
educator will then take a graded quiz on the gallery as a whole. Upon successful completion of the graded quiz they will receive a
certificate and will be able to begin shadowing tours in the gallery.

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Learning Assessment
for RLO

With in each fossil type there will be a practice question where they have to do one of the following:

Identify that particular type of fossil from a collection of photos of fossils.

Answer a true/false question about that type of fossil based on photos.

Identify which part of a slab of rock is the fossil, given a photo.

At the end of the RLO there will be a knowledge check. The knowledge check will feature questions similar to the practice exercises
but will be presented as if they are interacting with museum visitors. The learner will have to:

Identify a fossil type from a photograph.

Answer multiple choice questions about a fossil or fossil type.

Choose a photograph that matches a given fossil type.

Instructional Delivery This instructional program will be delivered virtually through a tablet. The education department possesses six tablets, which will be
enough to cover the number of new hires at any given time. It will also be available on a website for those who wish to complete it
method for Course
on their own device.
(overall)
Instructional Strategy The RLO will feature a tutorial. There will be text to read (along with an audio recording of the text) and images that supplement the
text.
for RLO
There will be application of the information through practice drill exercises.
The knowledge check will be scenario based.
Media

This course will use:

-

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Text
Graphics (both illustrations and photographs)
Audio recordings

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508 Accommodations

Accommodations will include:

-

Course Structure
Description

Option for an audio recording of the slide text

Use control of pace and ability to move forward or backward from a given point
Use of contrasting font/background colors
Text will be large and legible
Consistent design from slide to slide
Alt text descriptions will be included
Color will not be used as an only indicator
Full keyboard access will be enabled
Hovering to access material will not be used
All lists will be real lists
Distracting transitions will be avoided
Hyperlinks will be well defined/described

The entire course will contain five modules, one for each of the five enabling objectives.
This particular RLO is divided into five subcategories. These are indicated in the enabling objective above as what the learner will be
able to do.

Seat Time of Course

The entire course, with all five modules, would take approximately 2.5 hours. This is assuming 30 minutes per module.

Seat Time of RLO

30 minutes

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RLO Outline

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I.

What is a fossil?
a. Define Fossil
i. Remains of a plant or animal
ii. At least 10,000 years old
b. Practice: answer questions about what is a fossil and what is not a fossil
II. Mold & Cast Fossil
a. Mold
i. impression or imprint of a plant or animals
ii. negative image of the organism
b. Cast
i. filled in mold
ii. can be created in the lab from a mold fossil if it did not happen naturally
c. Examples of mold & cast fossils (images)
d. Practice questions- pick out the fossils that are molds or casts.
III. Body Fossil
a. Definition
i. Whole body (or parts of a body) are preserved, unaltered
ii. Usually happens to just the bones or hard parts of the body
iii. Petrified wood is considered a body fossil
b. In certain cases, soft tissue can be preserved
i. Insect in amber
ii. Mammoth in ice
iii. Peat bog fossils
c. Examples of body fossils (images)
d. Practice by picking which of the shown images are of body fossils
IV. Trace Fossil
a. Definition
i. Not a plant or animal but provides information about an organism
1. Food/diet
2. Movement
3. Living conditions
ii. Footprints, coprolites (feces), tracks, nests, burrows
b. Examples of traces fossils
c. can you find the trace fossil in these images?
d.

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V. Compression Fossil
a. Definition
i. Forms with an organism is compressed by high pressure
ii. Leaves a very flat, dark imprint of the organism
iii. Ferns and leaves are most common
iv. Coal fossils are a type of compression fossil
b. Examples (images)
c. Practice: Choose the images that are of compression fossils

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RLO Flowchart

Screens/Pages in RLO 35

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Knowledge Checks or [Mod 4 estimated number of knowledge checks or other interactions]

Other Assessments or
__2__Dichotomous (T/F, Y/N, etc.)
Practices for RLO
__5__Multiple Choice
__5__Multiple Select
__1__Drag and Drop
____Custom describe; if appropriate, supply flowchart in an Appendix and reference it here.
____Other describe
Rollovers/click events [Mod 4 estimated number of individual rollover or click event items/objects, outside of navigation elements]
__0__Rollovers
__15__Click Events

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RLO Navigation

Each slide will contain a side menu (I am choosing to use a side menu because we will be providing iPads which will allow for plenty
of screen space to leave this menu displayed) with links to:

The definition of fossils, each of the types, and the quiz (since they can learn the information in any order and revisit it as
needed.)

The information page about how to navigate the course (i" button)

A button to return to the menu page (home button)

Each slide will have buttons that link to:

The next slide (if there is one)

The previous slide (if there is one)

The home screen to indicate the end of a section

Audio recording of the information on the slide if the user prefers audio

Slides will also contain buttons where information diverges (get the definition of a fossil type or try the practice problems) instead of
an expanding or multi-level menu.
There will also be hypertext links for those who wish to learn more information or who do not have as much background knowledge
on the topic.
I would like to include a search field but I do not currently know how to do that. I will explore that more.

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Screen Layouts for

RLO

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Development Tools
for RLO

Articulate Storyline
GIMP image editing software

Ownership

Jacquelynn Accetta will develop the initial course; the Education Department of the Reading Public Museum will maintain the course.

Development Time of
entire course and
RLO

RLO development time: 40-50 hours

Entire Course development time: 250-300 hours

Support requirements The ID will act as the SME as well as do all graphic design work and audio recording. The ID will work with the other Manager of
Education to complete all proof reading and testing of components. Additionally, the ID will upload the RLO to a Weebly site and the
for RLO and course
Museum iPads.
The ID will need to download software. This will most likely be Articulate Storyline.
Project
Sign-off [optional]

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Please sign below indicating agreement with the proposed course plan and approving start-up of the storyboard and development
phases.

Instructional Designer

Date

Project Manager/Sponsor

Date

11

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