Evaluation
"EVALUATION IS THE PROCESS OF DETERMINING THE ADEQUACY OF INSTRUCTION AND LEARNING" (SEELS & RICHEY, 1994, P. 54)
Evaluation is one of the most important aspects of instructional design. Evaluation creates the reiterative process of instructional design. As an ID professional this task will challange you to work through obstacles that may not have been noted be the designer, instead outside evaluators. This section of my portfolio highlights artifacts that showcase my understanding and growth of the evaluation task.
Evaluation Task Reflection
When I first began my journey through the ITMA program, I had an idea of the importance of evaluation. However, it was more related to my professional setting versus instructional design. I knew that evaluation was important to almost any setting and that it only made whatever was being evaluated that much better. Problem ananlysis was difficult for me at first because I have a hard time sitting back and clearly defining a problem. When it came to ID, I found it easier to visualize myself in the context and think about what problems were at the forefront, then deciding if instruction would solve said problems. This subtask is one that I have gotten better at with practice and I can confidently say that I can analyze for needs that would be solved by instruction. Formative and summative evaluations were subtasks that I had little prior knowledge with. However, as I conducted both types of evaluations I realized that I use them all of the time in my professional context. My boss conducts summative evaluations every year at my work. I conduct formative evaluations of my student athletes every day. The more that I looked at these evaluations in this way, the better I felt about conducting them in the ID context. As I leave the ITMA program I can say that I feel the most confidence with this task and its subtasks. This is likely due to my application of evaluation in my professional setting, but learning the reason behind evaluations is what sealed my understanding of the task.
Problem analysis
"Problem analysis involves determining the nature and parameters of the problem by using information-gathering and decision-making strategies" (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 56)
In this assignment I performed a needs analysis of a problem in my professional context. While analyzing my context I used my observations as a former student, as well as a current professional for the past 2 years. This assignment challanged me to find the details of every aspect of a needs assessment which related back to this subtask of information gathering, followed by decision making of the instructional program to follow.
criterion-referenced measurement
"Criterion-referenced measurement involves techniques for determining learner mastery of pre-specified content" (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 56)
This assignment (9.2) required me to create a rubric for the evaluation of a hypothetical learner in my course I was designing. This rubric was simple, but required me to think about the criteria I would use for evaluation of knowledge gained after instruction. This kind of rubric is what would be used to assess learners in my hypothetical course and need to be created early on so that content is presented in a way learners can adhear to.
Formative evaluation
"Formative evaluation involves gathering information on adequacy and using this information as a basis for further development. " (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 57)
In this assignment I was in the final phases of designing a lesson plan for the final project. The assignment went through methods of conducting a formative and summative evaluation for my project specifically. This in turn showed me the methods to apply to any instructional program which relates directly to this subtask.
Summative Evaluation
"Summative evaluation involves gathering information on adequacy and using this information to make decisions about utilization" (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 57)
In this assignment I was in the final phases of designing a lesson plan for the final project. The assignment went through methods of conducting a formative and summative evaluation for my project specifically. This in turn showed me the methods to apply to any instructional program which relates directly to this subtask.
Long Range Planning
This assignment was a large portion of my evaluation report. It laid the groundwork for my evaluation process and I was tasked with projecting how long the evaluation would take me. This was a huge lesson for me as I realized that time moves a lot faster than you think. I truly believed that my intial dates were spot on and I could conclude the evaluation in 3 months time. I quickly realized that I needed a lot more time for feedback, responses, and meetings with stakeholders. I had to take into account every person that was a part of my evaluation including participants of my survey.