Aligning Instruction to Learning Targets
Solidly constructed assessments are foundational not only for determining individual student needs, but also for informing instructional design of any curriculum, course, or module. This project showcases targeted use of both quantitative and qualitative assessment items to evaluate a unit about creating educational videos.
Focus: Aligning instruction through formative and summative assessment
Roles: Unit Design, Assessment Development, Statistical Analysis, Unit Evaluation
Tools: Panopto Capture, Panopto Editing
Need: Create a well-aligned Ed Tech unit about recording and editing video for asynchronous courses.
Solution: In addition to developing a unit on both pedagogical principles of effective video production as well as technical instructions for editing these videos, I also developed and administered a quantitative assessment and then used statistical analysis to determine which of the targeted learning outcomes were achieved, and which needed strengthening. Along with my previous experience leading teams to develop well-aligned units in the k-12 setting, this project furthered my skills in AECT's Content Pedagogy competency.
Organizational Strategy: Gagne's Nine Events served as the organizational schema for the core instructional unit. Because instructional congruency was the focus of this initiative, special attention has been given to Event 8, assessment, including the direct correspondence of each item to the instructional goals and their constituent objectives. Furthermore, each objective is mapped to a model stemming from Gagne's taxonomy of knowledge types, thus ensuring opportunities for deep cognitive engagement.
Delivery Strategy: Designed to fit into the institution's professional development for professors, this unit is configured for scaffolded delivery within a synchronous session. Materials, however, are arranged versatilely to support asynchronous instruction as well. Basic elements of Mayer's Multimedia Principles such as chunking and spatial contiguity govern materials, and ancillary discussion options are provided for more enhanced delivery methods.
