Tynisa Williams Dr.

Shumack November 12, 2010 FNDS 6243 Mastering Math Design Document Executive Summary This online individually prescribed instructional program website will be provided through the LeNetta Banks group as a tool to give students an alternative to their current course schedule. The initial website will be a small introduction to the abilities of the program and cover major content areas that many students have trouble in. Additions to the program will include personalized lessons in areas that prescribed students will need. Through a combination of testing and short yet relevant and applicable video lessons, students will be able to pace themselves to a place of learning that will enable to join their peers in the classroom. The pretest will allow the teacher to assess where the student is and the posttest will allow the instructor to see what the student has learned, or determine further need of instruction. Students will be directed to the site on an as needed basis. Due to this fact, the learning will be asynchronous. The idea to make the course online and stand alone was for student accessibility at any time. The lessons available on the site will be downloadable so that students will be able to take their learning with them. The usability, features, and functions of the program are all centered on the student. The goal of this program is to improve student success in the classroom and to create an environment where the student can learn, at their own pace, and take the information back to the classroom. Their grades should improve which should also improve their confidence. The instruction is personalized in the fact that the teacher prescribes the activities and lessons to the student based on the areas they are lacking in. Similar to a doctor prescribing medicine to a patient, both are necessary to help the person get better. Guardian and teacher oversight of the program will allow for progress to be recorded and maintained. If records are necessary for student files, the program will assist with maintaining the information. The scores being given back to the student after taking the pre- and posttest will aid the student in knowing where they need help. Immediate assessment feedback is necessary to show need for improvement and afterward to show success. The same goes for the feedback provided by the student. If the student is able to provide feedback on a lesson and then come back to the program and see the changes made, their level of empowerment and confidence will be greatly improved and they will feel a part of the solution. Hopefully this will matriculate back into the classroom and give the student the confidence required to provide input and to participate in classroom activities in a productive and positive way.

Learning Need The LeNetta Banks Group is an organization committed to the nurturing of the mind and spirit. Success in school is one of the ways to improve the mind and nurture the spirit. Mastering Math is a product gives students the keys to success that is needed to increase their productivity and learning. Classroom size and learning level diversity makes it difficult for teachers to be able to attend to the needs of struggling students, especially if the need is one-on-one. This product will be able to assist the student in getting personalized instruction in a manner that is private and self- paced reducing the stress of being singled out and thereby improving performance. Instructional Goals Students who view the lessons and understand the content will be able to pass the posttest given at the conclusion of the lesson. If further instruction is necessary, the student will be able to review more lessons and even save lessons to be viewed more than once. This will allow learning provided by the program to carry on a continual basis. This should carry over into the classroom where the student will be able to return to the classroom with minimal disruption and be able to perform at the pace of the class. As more students use the program and provide feedback, more lessons will be added to the site to ensure a robust program that will benefit students at every learning level. The successful use of the program will produce students who are confident in their math skills and allow that confidence to show through improved grades and success in class which in turn will lead to improved self-esteem which is the goal of our client.

Audience Definition The major audience to use this program will be middle school student-clients of the LeNetta Banks group. The grades will range from 6-8. There are various subgroups that can be defined within the audience from gender to region to grade level; however, the most useful subgroup would be education (or learning) level. For organizational purposes, subgroups can also be defined by teacher or school. Since the audience will be participating in the program at the recommendation of the client, it stands that the learners will be distributed. Poor performance in school, especially in math, has the consequence of producing students who have given up. As such, many will lack motivation at the onset of using the program. There will be others, though, who will be motivated to learn and want to improve their grades or not be retained. Prior knowledge of the content will vary, but the program itself is an original design so students will be using it for the first time. Education level will vary with the student. Some students will be slightly behind as in a grade level and others may have a severe deficiency and have knowledge as low as first grade. This is especially true for learning disabled students. Delivery Environment The product website will be available with any Internet connected device. For most effective use of the program, a computer or laptop would be the best choice; however, future design of the program will allow for use on portable handheld devices to allow students to access the program

wherever they may be. Once the student (or teacher) has created an account, they will be able to access their page and information. The lessons will be on video, so visual and audio capabilities will need to be present. Learning will be asynchronous. The delivery platform for the program will be Windows XP. Though Macintosh is a popular platform, the majority of schools and systems use Windows. There have been too many incompatibilities with the Windows 7 platform and many users (including schools) do not have updated systems, so we chose to use XP. The program will be able to be used in most any browser, from Internet Explorer to Linux. Lessons are in mp3 or mp4 format and therefore will be available for download to a portable device however pre- and posttests will only be assessable online. The student can receive logon information from their teacher or guardian, since the program is a prescribed on. Guardians/teachers will have an account, but the student will have their own personal account where they can track their progress. Test scores, times and login times will be recorded in the system and available for reporting. Sitting times will vary with the student due to the pre- and posttests; however, individual lessons will not last longer than 10 minutes. Development Tools Standard web development tools will be used. The instructional designer is considering using Moodle to use the product as a course management system to concentrate more on content than on website development. Tracking, reporting, and updates will also be easier and more efficient. General Outcomes - Students will be able to take the pretest to know what lessons need to be covered - Students will watch the video lessons as needed to comprehend the lesson - Students will successfully pass the posttest after watching the video lessons - Students will provide feedback on the program to be used by the instructional designer to make updates to the program Assessment Strategies The student will begin each session with choosing a content area and field that is prescribed to their account by the teacher. The pretest will be the first activity and will be used to determine which lesson(s) the student will need to watch. After the test, the student will be provided a link to the lessons needed. They can watch the lessons and also download them to a portable device for review. After reviewing the lesson, the student will be guided to the posttest consisting of similar questions from the pretest. Scores from the pre- and posttest will be recorded and available for the guardian/teacher to use. Content Organization Content will consist of mathematics lessons for middle school students. It will be organized by topic and in groups for ease of use of the product. Lessons will be colorful and informative, yet

short (no more than 10 minutes) to catch and keep the attention of students. The learning environment will be personalized and noninvasive. Assessments will be based on the lesson only and presented in a way as to encourage the student with the information they have learned. Content Sources The Alabama Course of Study for Mathematics, Bulletin 2003, No. 4 Lessons and content will be reviewed by the subject matter experts on the design team and additional source materials will be reviewed and include any additional research necessary. Though content will be based on the source, lesson examples and style will be original. Instructional Strategies The program will include three portions of content: the pretest, lesson, and posttest. In some instances, more than one lesson will need to be reviewed. The typical sequence of event upon login will be: Introductory page with teacher lesson assignments Choice of lesson to begin with (click on choice) 10-question pretest on the lesson selected Score on pretest and lessons needing review Video lessons students will view the lessons assigned and at the end of the lesson have the option of replaying the lesson, moving on, or saving the lesson to the computer or playlist 10-question posttest Score on posttest and approval to next lesson or request to review lesson again

Help The Help function will send the student to another page with FAQs and information on how to use different functions of the program. Tutorials on how to use the site will be the main feature in the help section. Glossary The glossary will be included on a separate page for the student to review words they do not know. For each topic, glossary terms will be discussed at the beginning and end of the lesson and listed as Words 2 Know. Links In addition to the lessons and tests, there will be a page with links to other sites with games and interactivities for students and parents or teachers to use to get students more involved in math and the fun applications that can be associated with it. Links will be to sponsored programs with expressed written consent of the owners and approval from the client before inclusion. Standards The website will maintain the highest level of standards for educational purposes. Graphics and animations will be used for student attention, but content will be the main focus. The name of the program, Mastering Math, will be included on every page. A link to the clients site will also be

included at the bottom of every page. All copyright, registered trademark, or other legal aspect assigned to any information provided on the site will be displayed and strictly adhered to for every mention. Content will be written at an elementary level so that the student will be able to easily navigate their way through the site on their own. Graphics and captions will be used copiously throughout the site. Blocks of text or content will be avoided. Media Audio narration will be the major tool of learning implementation. Narration will be conducted in female voice. Text will be included on the videos in PowerPoint format to enhance the lesson format without being the actual script of the lesson. Video instruction will run with graphics and examples of the lesson topics. Once played, the videos will run once. They can be paused or rewound as necessary during the course of the lesson. They will also have the option of being saved for viewing without the website. Copyright information will be sure to be presented at the end of the lesson to preclude infringement. Evaluation, Usability, and Testing Evaluation of the website will be conducted by the design team first using members of the team and then using a randomly selected group of students to rate the program and lessons. Since this is a program created to improve student success in a course that they have difficulty with, the lessons will be easy to use and follow. No materials will be needed, i.e. workbooks, at this time unless feedback reports come back with a request for hard copy materials. At that time we will review options with the client. The program will be tested on computer desktops and laptops. Downloading of the video lessons to portable devices will be tested as well. A prototype will be presented for use by the client and a random sample population of students. Online Programs Interface and navigation Site needs to include side bar and tabs (top and bottom) for different computer users Navigation will work through hyperlinks Steps will be provided for progression through the course Development tools Standard website development tools will be used. Free courseware, i.e. Moodle, will be used for ease of program production, creation, and updates. Implications for design include prior knowledge of computer programming on the part of the designer and ability to learn and adapt to software adaptations. Delivery platform

Windows XP will be the delivery platform (Windows 7 not compatible with many computers). Site will be able to run in Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Linux. Lessons will be in podcast format and available to download to mp3 player or other portable media device for review at any time. Implications for instructional designer include planning for incompatibility and troubleshooting. Usability Testing will be done using a random sampling of students using a prototype.