Running Head: Make Your Plate MyPlate

Final Paper for: Make Your Plate MyPlate Jason Thorne Purdue University EDCI 569 June 16, 2013

Make Your Plate MyPlate Digital Prototype http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~jthorne/story_html5.html Process Overview

My topic of choice for my e-learning lesson is MyPlate by the USDA. I choose this topic because I had a lot of material to work from, familiarity with the topic, and I could best see my path towards completion. The key to seeing a path towards completing the project involved me being able to identify objectives and assessments. I have found those to be the biggest obstacles for me to overcome. To begin the process of developing my e-learning unit I used primarily the Dick and Carey model. I found that this process naturally fit the layout and the progression that this project took. It began with determining the project and goals, identifying learners and creating objectives. I then moved on to assessments, strategy, and the content of the unit. While the Dick and Carey model was a good fit, I did think two areas werent accurate in my use. While some of the steps I didnt follow, I did consider them. For instance, I just stated what the entry behaviors were; I did not give any pretests or survey my learners. I also dont think that the Dick and Carey model reflect then amount of feedback loops I had. The Dick and Carey model seems large and rather linear but I regularly cycled through and updated my lesson as I saw gaps and errors. I included formative assessments in my lesson as well as had a quiz at the end for a summative assessment. My formative assessment serves two purposes. First, it is to engage the learners in thinking about how this content impacts them. The second purpose is to provide feedback to the instructors to see if any follow up is needed. The formative questions are mostly fill-in-the-blank and asks the learner to share their eating and activity habits. Im hoping the questions get results like the following. The question may have the learner realize that they dont know when the last time they had a vegetable

Make Your Plate MyPlate was and they need to start eating some type of vegetable. The instructor might see that the learner doesnt have any healthy activities and they could follow up with them and provide them with options. The summative assessment is a cumulative quiz for the lesson. It is not a long quiz at seven questions but it covers the most important highlights of the lesson. The purpose of the quiz is if the learners only learn seven things, this is what they should be. While other areas are important, the quiz represents the most important aspects to begin eating according to the MyPlate guidelines. Key Decisions

The first decision I had to make for this lesson was the topic and I choose the MyPlate topic because I could think of some of the objectives I could use. It was a topic Ive had experience with at work and the USDA provides many resources at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/. The resources provided me facts and guidelines and I filled in the rest of the content and created the question. Early on I decided I wanted my lesson to take place entirely in one screen and at one website. One reason was that I didnt want to confuse my target audience of second and third graders with having to go to multiple locations. The other reason was from a technical standpoint; I thought a standalone lesson would be more manageable to keep working when I submit my project. I looked at several different platforms to develop my lesson but the two that stood out quickly was Articulate Storyboard and Adobe Captivate. I first choose to use Captivate because Ive used other Adobe products and it looked more versatile. Given a few more weeks to complete the project I would have stuck with Adobe Captivate because of all the options I had to control the design. The problem I ran into was that it offered you so many options it created a steep learning curve. I was not on pace to complete my lesson in time. I switched to Storyboard because it looked like I could assemble my

Make Your Plate MyPlate

prototype quicker. It had many of the same features and layout as Microsoft PowerPoint and so I quickly understood was able to put together my lesson in a timely manner. Changes I made many revisions to my project along the way. As I began to move material from my paper prototype to my digital project I ran into issues. Text felt cluttered and some of the text didnt seem to flow well. To solve this I added some slides and reworded some paragraphs. One example of this is in the How much on MyPlate? section. I split the first page into two pages. I divided the content by making one page about general information and the next slide how it relates to Max & Munch. This provides scaffolding from the understanding level to the applying level. The assessments needed some revisions as well. I revised some of my questions in order to fit the technical capabilities of the software. One of the first changes I made to the summative assessment was add an instruction page. In my paper prototype I had the instruction on the main introduction page. I found that the Articulate Storyboard software had different steps from the main pages to the quiz pages. The instruction page before the quiz provides exact steps for the learner to follow so that there is no confusion during the quiz and they can focus on the questions. After the creation of my paper prototype I knew that I still had a lot of work to do in order to create the digital version. Each area of content I created for the paper prototype I had pictured what the layout of the content would be. As I moved into the digital prototype I saw opportunities to improve the lesson visually. I abandoned my structured storyboard and went for a more varied design. Instead of the characters on the left and text on the right I have the characters and text in many locations. I kept the same navigational aspect and tied the text to the characters with speech bubbles as I had in my storyboard.

Make Your Plate MyPlate Formative Evaluation of Unit To evaluate my digital project I had four children between the ages of four and seven test my

project as well as one adult learner. The adult learner is someone who has experience with the MyPlate content. The adult learner found the content accurate. He thought the objectives could be more similar. For instance, some of the objectives discuss food groups while others discuss specific food. In future revisions I could adjust for this by having objectives followed by sub objectives. This way I could cover the content I thought was most important in an organized and consistent format. He found the colors, graphics, and navigation of the unit appealing. The moms that reported back to me after their children went through the unit said that all of the kids enjoyed it. The oldest child at 7 years old and in my target audience seemed to understand the lesson and appeared to be engaged. She did well on the quiz, only missing one of the check all that apply questions. The other younger learners needed some help reading the content. The mothers said that the text in the bubbles seemed hard to read because the text goes in and out of the blue area. The younger kids enjoyed discussing food and looking at the colorful slides. They struggled with connecting food groups with specific food. This became more of issue in the quiz area where the some questions specifically wanted learners to make the connection. To create a lesson targeting a young audience based on the feedback I received I would focus on what foods are in what food groups. I think there are some good options for creating a colorful and fun lesson where young learners can make this connection. Final Thoughts To date, this has been my favorite project in the LDT program. I enjoyed seeing the process all the way through and finishing with a tangible finished product. In a work environment I would need more

Make Your Plate MyPlate time to make a higher quality final product and go through several cycles of getting feedback and

making corrections. The project provides me with a solid introduction to e-learning design. I am hopeful that my future duties at work will involve creating similar e-learning programs. I envision having a position where I create e-learning programs that coordinate with educational museum exhibits. This would provide learners with a wide array of learning opportunities. Given a chance to do the project again I would do a few things differently. Some things would be different because I have a better understanding of the software capabilities and a few things would be different because my view on what is important to learn has changed. One change I would make is in the quiz because I thought it would be more difficult to put in a hot spot than it was. I currently only have the first question as having a hot spot where the learner clicks on the graphic to answer the question. The lack of text and a focus on imagery makes that type of question appealing and I would like to use more of them in the future. Another change I would make, as I mentioned before, is to organize my objectives clearer by having the main objectives followed by sub-objectives. While I have them currently, I dont think that they are as uniform as they can be. Clarifying this could help the learners to better understand my lesson. Merrills Five Star Instructional Design Rating Is the courseware presented in the context of real world problems? Yes, the topic naturally is in the context of the real world because of the necessity of food. Learners get information they can immediately apply to their life. Does the courseware attempt to activate relevant prior knowledge or experience? Yes, learners take their previous understanding of what foods are in what groups and apply that to what foods are healthy and how much of different types of foods they should eat.

Make Your Plate MyPlate Are the demonstrations consistent with the content being taught?

Yes, graphics showing specific foods and the organization of the plate help visualize the content being learned. Are the application and the posttest consistent with the stated or implied objectives? Yes, the characters Max & Munch create a bond with the learners to show how the information is applied. The objectives are directly related to the post test. Does the courseware provide techniques that encourage learners to integrate the new knowledge or skill into their everyday life? Yes, motivation to apply the new knowledge comes from many sources. They will be motivated because of the health benefits, the possibility for it to be fun, and because it can taste good.