MIST Graduate Capstone 2018

School of Computing and Design

California State University Monterey Bay

Title: Diagnostic Assessment Familiarization

Student Name: Luay Askar

Advisor(s) Dr. Donald Fischer

Summary:
Diagnostic Assessment (DA) is an educational tool used to
identify learners’ areas of strengths and weaknesses for each
language proficiency skill. The guidelines governing this tool are the Interagency Language
Roundtable (ILR) scales and descriptors.
Currently, teachers are provided with training that targets classroom teaching
methodologies, creating activities, designing lesson plans, and other related topics. Formal DA
training is considered special training that is conducted for DA certification, and it requires more
than sixty-four face-to-face hours; thus, it is not provided regularly for all teachers.
The goal of this project is to design a self-paced interactive training module that will be
used to familiarize newly hired teachers at The Defense Language Institute (DLI) with the basic
principles of DA and ILR levels. This training module will also help teachers prepare level-
appropriate material, diagnose strengths and weaknesses of their students, and provide necessary
recommendations. In addition, learning about these basics will help teachers follow their students’
progress and learning process. The training module can also be used as a refresher for seasoned
teachers.
The DA Familiarization training is delivered as a multimedia module, utilizing Adobe
Captivate 2017 as the authoring tool. The knowledge of the fundamental learning and instructional
design theories and the technical skills acquired in instructional technology and multimedia
courses contributed to the design and completion of this instructional module.
This interactive learning module educates the learners by providing the basic concepts of
DA and the use of ILR descriptors in passage rating. This training consists of four modules.
Modules One and Two begin with an introduction to ILR descriptors for reading and listening
skills, respectively; each is followed by a knowledge check and quizzes. Module Three provides
basic concepts of DA interview protocol, with an overview of the forms used to write the final DA
report and recommendations. Module Four includes a self-assessment and a practice session in
which to consolidate acquired knowledge.
The final phase focused on level one and level two evaluation of the instructional module.
This involved participant selection, pre- and post-test, using a scenario-based survey. The analysis
of the data revealed a statistically significant result: the training met its goals.