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This total includes references and bibliography.
Deadline
25 March 2008
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Description
M.Ed. Learning and Technology
Capstone Directions
The capstone is a major culminating project for the masters programs in all colleges of the university. In this project the candidate is expected to demonstrate competence in each of the four domains of the Masters of Education program. The focus of the competencies in the M.Ed –Learning and Technology program is the application of the systematic process of instructional design for creating a technology-based effective instructional program.
Candidates will demonstrate competence in designing and developing instruction that incorporates technology as a tool to promote student learning. A formative evaluation will be conducted on the instructional unit in which you apply research principles and analyze the results. Candidates will identify a real life instructional problem, and develop or modify curriculum using technology to address the problem. You will research both the curricular issues and evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction or training through research-based formative evaluation.
Task:
Candidates will identify an instructional problem that they believe instruction/training will help to solve or improve. Through the use of the instructional systematic design process (ISD) the candidate will conduct analyses and then design, develop, and formatively evaluate an instructional program designed to help solve the identified problem. Candidates will incorporate technology as a tool to help students think and learn more effectively than was often the case without the integrated technology. Candidates will formulate questions to be answered through an extensive review of the literature based on best practices, data collection and the analysis of data. You will design, conduct, collect data, and analyze the data collected for a comprehensive research project in your field. Come back to this part.
The instructional program should meet the following criteria:
80% of the work should be the candidates own original work (lessons, practice, assessment)
8-10 hours of instruction, including the presentation of information, practice, feedback, interaction, and assessments.
Instruction will primarily be delivered through a hypermedia learning environment which consists of text, sound, graphics, animation, video and images. The most common hypermedia example is a web page.
Computer-based tools (i.e. mindtools) will be used to engage students in meaningful learning to help them recognize how to solve problems, comprehend new phenomena, and regulate their own learning.
The instructional product needs to be exportable.
The final written product will adhere to APA guidelines and include components A through V.
A. Abstract should be approximately 150 words in length and include a brief discussion of the problem that led to the new instruction, participants, technology or special instructional strategies used to improve learning, methodologies for data gathering and analysis, and a brief summary of formative evaluation results. It is accurate, self-contained, concise, coherent and readable. The abstract is written after completing the written capstone project.
Chapter 1, Introduction
B. Introduction that provides a rationale for your project. In this section describe what you did, why you chose this project, why it is important, how it relates to appropriate theory for your discipline, and how the project fits into teaching and learning in your field.
C. Problem
1. Describe the problem.
2. Describe possible causes of the problem.
3. Provide background information that helps the reader understand how this problem relates to teaching and learning in the field.
D. Description of Stakeholder Groups. Identify each legitimate stakeholder for the formative evaluation and define stakeholder need in detail.
E. Research Questions and Goal Statement: The goal statement is the expression of the way things should be. Instructional goals focus on what learners will be able to do and describe the outcomes of instruction, and NOT the process of instruction. The goal of your instruction should be:
a clear, general statement of learner outcomes,
related to the problem and need,
achieved through instruction rather than other means, such as changing the environment or creating a job aid.
Ensure that you include the following.
1. List the specific measurable questions to be answered by your research-based formative evaluation.
2. Describe what the learner will be able to do if the curriculum is effective.
3. Relate the goals of the project to the identified problem.
Chapter 2, Literature Review
F. Literature Review: Critically review, analyze, and synthesize the professional literature relevant to the topic you have chosen. Use at least 25-40 scholarly sources. Your review should include research into best practices related to your topic.
1. Organization:
a. Provide a well-organized review of the literature by grouping the literature findings according to themes.
b. The review of the literature will be a logical flow that builds a supportive case for the proposed project.
c. Provide in-text citations that are complete and accurate according to APA format
2. Content:
a. Include a majority of the review from primary sources
b. Describe the research literature so that it is more than a series of annotations
c. Use only references that are clearly relevant to documenting the problem or supporting the proposed resolution.
d. Begin by introducing what you choose to research and why.
e. Report on the lesser relevant information you found and work to the most important information found.
f. Provide relevant empirical and/or theoretical literature where appropriate to support the use of a particular pedagogy or technology.
g. Write a conclusion that is a summary of the literature review and interprets the literature and its implications for the problem being investigated
Chapter 3, Methodology
G. Learner Analysis: The purpose of the learner analysis is to describe the target audience for the instructional product and any unique characteristics of this population. The learner analysis provides important information for the selection of research-based strategies to ignite student learning.
1. Describe demographic information that you obtained through your needs assessment or analysis of the target population and relevant group characteristics
2. Describe information on the participants’ prior knowledge of topic or issue, participants’ entry level knowledge or skills that they will need prior to beginning the instruction, if any, describe whether the learners’ have this knowledge/skills.
3. Describe information on the participants’ attitudes and/or motivation toward the topic or issue.
4. Describe additional information on education levels, learning styles and/or orientations.
5. Describe cultural characteristics of the target population.
H. Methodology – Research/Evaluation Instruments
1. Describe the instruments that were used to measure each of the research/evaluation questions for the needs analysis, and the formative evaluation study.
a. Include a description of at least 3-4 instruments or methods of data collection.
b. Include a description of qualitative and/or quantitative data collection instruments or methods employed in the research.
c. Describe validity and reliability of the instruments and of the research in general.
2. Include in appendices all pretests, posttests, surveys, questionnaires, performance tasks, observation checklists, focus group protocols, etc. that are used to answer the evaluation questions.
I. Special Populations. Summarize the way the current curriculum addresses the needs of special populations (learners with disabilities, gifted and talented learners, or learners with diverse backgrounds.) Based on the evaluation, make recommendations for revisions to the curriculum for special populations.
J. Performance Objectives: These are the specific, measurable steps required to meet the instructional goal. You might have multiple objectives for each goal. Objectives must consist of three parts:
1. the conditions under which performance is expected to occur
2. the performance that the learner will be able to do as a result of your instruction (must be measurable and verifiable)
3. the criteria by which performance will be measured.
K. Materials
1. Describe materials needed to complete the project. This might include technology tools, worksheets, visuals, etc.
L. Learning Theories and Instructional Strategies: The performance objectives and learner analysis provide a focus for selecting instructional content and instructional strategies to help ensure the mastery of your goal. In this section you should:
1. Discuss what instructional strategy you chose to use as a framework to make your unit of instruction effective. Suggestions: Gagne’s events of instruction.
2. Each performance objective should have at least one instructional strategy.
3. Provide a description or example of what you did and briefly discuss how you expect learning to occur using this instructional strategy based on a theory of learning (behaviorism, constructivism, cognitivism or brain-based research).
M. Procedure
1. Describe the process for carrying out the formative evaluation/research project in enough detail that another person could replicate the research including the process for collecting data to answer each of the research questions, and when and how data will be collected
2. Description of how the integrity of the data will be maintained
3. Description of how you will obtain permissions and maintain participant anonymity
4. Include a timeline showing when each component of the research will be completed.
N. Technology Used in the Curriculum.
1. Describe how you used technology to create meaningful learning. Support your discussion through your literature review and other readings such as the Jonassen book.
2. Discuss the computer-based tools used to promote student thinking and learning. Include in your discussion why you believe these tools will create an effective learning environment. Such mindtools might include databases, concept maps, spreadsheets, visualization tools, or direct manipulation environments.
3. Discuss how you used technology to help students solve problems, comprehend new phenomena, and regulate their own learning.
4. Based on the evaluation, make recommendations for integrating new possible technologies in future instructional programs.
O. Analysis - describe
1. How data will be organized and analyzed.
2. How analysis of data will address each research question.
3. It is suggested that a table be developed to show the relationship of each evaluation question to each data collection instrument and the specific participants or sources of the information.
Chapter 4, Results
P. Results (this section should include results of data only, not conclusions of delete or conjecture)
1. Provide a general statement of results that is data driven, for example: Analysis of the quantitative data indicates students post test scores were above 80%.
2. Include data tables and charts to show actual analysis of data to answer each research question.
3. Describe the results of quantitative data and/or qualitative data analysis (data without analysis do not provide results).
4. Provide evidence of qualitative data results that include multiple pieces of evidence and artifacts to show how the results were determined. This may be student work, observation documentation sheets, surveys, interview statements (if research did not include qualitative data, indicate this).
5. Describe how you triangulated the data.
Chapter 5, Discussion
Q. Discussion
1. Write an overview of your project restating the general purpose and briefly describing how the results were obtained. Provide a brief summary of the findings and describe what the results suggest about learning based on the data – this moves beyond the data to describe what the results mean.
R. Implications and Limitations
1. Implications – Describe how the formative evaluation/research can be used to address the problem, and how educators can use and adapt the curriculum in later teaching or use the results of the formative evaluation/research to inform education in your particular setting.
2. Limitations – Describe what problems you noted with the formative evaluation/research, what may have hindered or affected the findings, things that needed to be changed during the study, things to be changed for the future, and recommendations for the future. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of your instructional product and describe how it could be improved given greater time and resources. What would you do differently? Where appropriate, this critique should refer to relevant literature.
S. Critique - Discuss your reflection on your master’s degree experience, including how you see yourself applying the experience and skills gained from this Masters program in your work environment. Think of other applications to this capstone project that you may not have previously considered and discuss.
T. References. Provide a complete list of references that includes all the sources you have cited.
U. Appendices. Attach all appendices and exhibits important to the instructional product. Include all data gathering instruments such as surveys, questionnaires, and pre and post assessments. Make sure that you have clearly referred to each appendix within the body of your report.
V. APA format – Follow all APA formatting to be sure that:
1. The paper is well organized and logical
2. Grammar is correct
3. Sentence structure is thoughtful and well constructed
4. Punctuation is correct
5. Tables and any figures are correctly formatted
6. In-text citations and references are in the correct APA style.
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