Team Educational 2.0

Software Critique: AdaptedMind

Applying to Instructional-Design Models

Our team was assigned to evaluate the 6th grade Math Practice portion of the AdaptedMind website. This site’s big draw is the ability for each individual student to establish their own learning path. The website measures a student’s progress and establishes different levels of learning for the student to excel using a specific pattern of Instructional Design.

           This Instructional Design is based on the Cognitive Learning Theory as explained by Professor Dave Merrill who states “The purpose of instruction is to promote the development of that cognitive structure that is most consistent with the desired learned performance (Merrill, 2003). In the case of this website, the desired learned performance is mastery of sixth grader math skills. The website sets up a cognitive environment by allowing the students to work through practice problems, observe video tutorials, and progress at a self-pace. The exact technique to do this is some routine learning through a procedural task process coupled with a reward at the end.             
           In our course reading, procedural tasks are taking action in a sequence of events. The AdaptedMind website does this in a great manner. If you take a look at the 6th grade Math material, it builds upon each item by breaking down elements of 6th grade Math into individual procedures. Students complete practice problems expanding their cognitive ability and then can even watch video tutorials leading to getting a badge for completion. While students must physically input their answers, this is strictly a mental exercise of learning. Bill Butts for Research in Science Education breaks mental exercises of learning into three phases: Cognitive Phase, Intermediate Phase, & the Final or Autonomous Phase (Butts, 1981). AdaptedMind uses all three in this particular lesson.
The Value of the Design
           The design of a learning object can be evaluated in several ways.  Thoms (1999) gives us the criteria to judge the value of the design; is the information being presented readable?  A basic question with a complicated answer.  The most obvious area to start with is the thing people notice first font and size.  According to Feliz (2009) the target audience and their age must be considered when evaluating fonts.  With the assigned lessons are target age group is grade 6.  The fonts in the lessons are all sufficiently large and can be easily read.  “text is much easier to read when there is a high contrast between the text and the background” (Bayram & Erdogan, 2007).  Contrast is the key.  In the case of our assignment, the designer chose to many different variations of contrasting colors which in turn calls attention to certain objects on the page such as answer choices or diagrams.  These colors are often bright and draw the eye in.  Many times graphics are given their own unique colors not used anywhere else.   Much of the time the graphics are unnecessary for solving the problems, however, when they are used they give the student a visual aide to help them solve the problem.  The reason for this as Chun (1996) and Teeler & Gray (2000) concluded is that students need to have text broken up with graphics as these visual cues aid comprehension.  The text on AdaptedMinds is kept to a minimum and it is in short segments that are divided by graphics or visual aids.  The screen never feels cluttered, nor is it hard to locate the information being presented or where the answers should be chosen or entered.
Usability
    To be able to critique the learning objects to value its usability, we need to understand what makes up a “learning object”.  “A learning object should satisfy the requirements of a context, and also adapt characteristics of the context”(Assche, Duval & Ternier, 2009). In this case, the learning object should be able to convey the message intended for. It should also contain elements that will enhance meaning or understanding of a concept as well communicate to its audience.  Madhour and Maia (2007), thinks a learning object should be easily searched, retrieved and  can be used in other context. Learning objects should be easily accessible to its users, they should be able to use learning objects anytime and anywhere. The versatility of the learning objects is very important so that the user can use it to meet different learning goals and styles. This website (http://tinyurl.com/6r6qjh5) gives more in-depth into learning objects and listed its characteristics as; (1) self-contained (2) reusable (3) tagged with metadata (4) just in time and (5) just for you. This information makes critiquing the software easy.
    AdaptedMind 6th grade Math website features practice exercise, videos, fun badges, and users progress. The learning objects are clear, colorful and appeals to the age group . Directions are easily understandable due to the language used, is appropriate for the grade level.
    Links are easily navigated. The video link gives audience prior tutoring to help them with the practice exercise, therefore making the learning objective intuitive.   The instructions for the practice exercise is clearly stated and understandable.
    Students earn fun badges and skill points for every exercise completed and getting problems right. The availability of these fun badges encourages students to succeed.  
Credibility

A website’s credibility is central to its usefulness to educators and one of the most important aspects of credibility is a site’s accuracy. After trying correct and incorrect answers in all of the various practice categories in the AdaptedMind site, no errors were detected. Also, when incorrect answers were entered, a mini-lesson popped up showing the user how to properly complete the problem. The user was then given the choice to watch a video lesson or return to the practice exercises. Many of the videos were created by the Khan Academy, and the AdaptedMind site did point out that all were available for free on YouTube.

           In addition to accuracy, age- and grade-level appropriateness is also important. Students attempting to complete problems that are above their level will get frustrated and give up while students who are working on problems that are too easy will quickly become bored (Matsumura and Slater, 2008). AdaptedMind has broken down the curriculum by grade level and by categories within each grade level. For example, the sixth grade curriculum included sections on geometry, factoring and multiples, percents, and units. What was missing was any kind of reference to national standards. Someone knowledgeable in standards could go in and apply the information; however, that would prove time consuming. It would be nice to have been given some kind of reference to demonstrate that the curriculum was based on something other than the creators’ whims. It is important to note that, despite the lack of notation of alignment, at least some of the lessons did match the 6th grade math TEKS. For example, TEKS 6.6A says that students are expected to: use angle measurements to classify angles as acute, obtuse, or right and that happens to be the first lesson in the sixth grade section of the 6th grade practice section.
The Learning Process

The learning process is incorporated in the learning system in different ways.  Reigeluth (1993) tells us that instructional design is a discipline which deals with understanding and improving one aspect of education:  the learning process of instruction.  The instructional process is incorporated in these lessons by using the following cycles of giving different types of math problems to focus, frequent assessments, and tutorial to reteach problem areas and rewards for correct answers.  The learning process is incorporated by the different types of problems that are offered for students to work out to see if they have mastered that concept for 6th grade math. If the students answer a question incorrectly, they get immediate feedback and an explanation.  Another way the learning process is incorporated is by the use of video lessons that point out key terms in the problem, along with step by step problem solving examples.  Then they use worksheets to reinforce what the students are learning and practice.

           The learning objectives are not stated clearly. Each section tells what skill the student will practice for reinforcement.  Each problem just asks the student a question.  It does not always tell the student what they will be learning.  As the students do the practices, the learning objects reinforce concepts progressively by the problem difficulty increasing as the students answer correctly.  This concept helps students to develop mastery on a certain skill or knowledge.
           The learning object does provide an opportunity to receive immediate feedback on the practice section of the intended knowledge or skill.  As for as the worksheet, the students can print out the worksheet with or without answers and take it to practice on paper.  I believe the learning object meets the purpose of reinforcement learning of math objectives.  

Reference

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