The ASSURE model for teaching high school web design

Assure Model of Educational design and course development.

The ASSURE method educational course design, in particular coursed which integrate technology and media into the teaching process provides the teacher with a systematic approach to writing lesson plans. The model provides a plan used to help teachers organize instructional procedures in a complex environment which utilizes technology, multi-media, and traditional teaching methods. The ASSURE model is used to help teachers do an authentic and complete assessment of student learning at the termination of the class.

In a rapidly evolving educational environment, teaching methods and teaching theory is changing almost weekly. Every school district in the nation is feeling new pressures from the President's "No Child Will Be Left Behind" act to improve their test performance, and put an immediate and lasting halt to the declining educational performance which has permeated our nation's education system for the past 20 years. The ASSURE model gives teachers who may be struggling to cover all the tasks required to initiate new curriculum. The model helps the teachers develop a checklist to evaluate their curriculum, and a recheck system to evaluate the instructions success after the class has been completed. The ASSURE model stands for:

Analyze learners, and identify their abilities, goals, and resources

State objectives of the class in clear, measurable terms.

Select instructional methods, media, and materials which will reach the goals stated above.

Utilize media and materials, which is an euphemism for teach the materials.

Require learner participation in the teaching process in order to engage the learner

Evaluate and revise the methods and content at the completion of the class in order to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum, and the teaching process selected for the project.

This paper will use the ASSURE method for teaching high school student to use Front Page web authoring software to create their own personal web pages. Front page has set a clear and complete standard for web authoring tools, and the students will gain a complete understanding of the process of designing a web site, writing the sight, and then uploading the site to the internet server.

Analyze Learners

This step is broken down into identifying the general characteristics, early learning competencies, and learning styles of the students.

General Characteristics

The description of the class as a whole is that the class consists of high school freshmen. They have had much experience reading and surfing web sites by the time they reach the 9th grade, but they have little experience writing and publishing a site. They come to the class with ideas of pages which they like, and can identify sites which they did not like during their times surfing the web. The school is a typical middle class suburbia school, which no mainstreamed special educational students. This is a class of inquisitive 9th graders who are interested in the elective class called "Computer programming and Design."

Entry Competencies

The knowledge base expected of the students expects that the students in this class will have knowledge of the World Wide Web. They should know how to type URL's into the address bar, and move from sight to sight. The students are familiar with the 'end product' of web designing, but not the 'assembly process.'

Learning Styles

The course work will be designed to appeal to the students regardless of their learning style. At the beginning of the course, for the first 3 weeks, a series of lessons will be prepared in each of the three learning styles, Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic.

During each of the first 3 weeks, one lessons appealing to one learning style will be exclusively applied in order to evaluate the learning abilities and tendencies of the class.

For example, visual learners like to use visual materials such as pictures, charts, maps, graphs, and they tend to keep a clear view of your teachers when they are speaking so you can see their body language and facial expression. Visual learners will illustrate ideas as a picture or brainstorming bubble before writing them down, they like to study in a quiet place away from verbal disturbances, and enjoy reading illustrated books. Auditory learners will participate in class discussions/debates, like to make speeches and presentations. They will discuss your ideas verbally, dictate to someone while they write down your thoughts, and use verbal analogies, and story telling to demonstrate your point

While Kinesthetic learners tend to be the slower learners in the group. These students may take frequent study breaks and move around to learn new things. These are the kids who will work at a standing position, and use bright colors to highlight reading material, and skim through reading material to get a rough idea what it is about before settling down to read it in detail.

By using different teaching styles during the first weeks of class, the teacher will be able to identify learning styles of the students, and design individual instruction around the student's needs.

State Objectives or Outcomes.

The objectives should always be stated in terms of what the learner will be able to think, do, or feel as a result of the instruction. As a result of this class, the students will gain confidence and pride in their efforts to publish web pages to the Internet. These outcomes guide all subsequent teaching activities, including choosing what is to be learned, and how it can best be learned. The Internet is a wide open space of influences and design ideas. By focusing on designing, writing, and publishing their own web site, the students will gain an appreciation for what is entailed in web design. These objectives are measurable, succinct.

As a result of the three-week preliminary teaching, the student body will be broken down into 4-5 person groups based on the individual learning styles. These work groups will be composed of similar learning styles, and be given specific materials more suited for the individual style. In this way, the students will be able to work cohesively, and assist each other with the basics of the assignments, leaving the teacher free to trouble shoot technical problems, and assist students with specific problems.

The class objective is commonly written in an ABCD format, which outlines the Audience, Behavior they will learn, Conditions associated with the instruction and Degree, or competency they will carry away from the class. For this ninth grade elective, the Objective statement is:

The ninth grade computer programming and design class will be able to design, write and publish and update internet web pages using Microsoft Front Page software with confidence as a result of this class."

Utilize Media and Materials

Once the materials are selected, modified, or designed to meet the learning styles and needs in the classroom, and all materials will be previewed and tested ahead of time. The Front page program is thorough, and designed to walk the student through the process of web authoring. However, the program can become confusion if the student does not know how to navigate from one section to another.

Require Learner Participation

The issue of interactivity is critical to the success of the technology-based learning experience. (White & Bridwell, 1998). There are three major types of interaction in distance learning:

Learner-to-Instructor

Learner-to-Learner

Learner-to-Content

The best technology based instruction facilitates all three types (Moore & Kearsley, 1996). As an instructor, providing prompt feedback is one of the most important things to be done with technology-based subject matter. Collaborative learning can be especially helpful in imparting new knowledge, and for this reason, the students are divided into work groups. Meeting course objectives and building both interpersonal skills as well as online competencies create a fully functioning virtual learning community.

Evaluate and Revise

All instruction, no matter how well designed, should be evaluated in terms of its effectiveness and quality. Did the learners meet the objectives? Did the instructional strategies and media employed assist the learners in meeting intended outcomes? If not, why not? At this step in the educational process, the student often receives most of his or her reinforcement for the work he or she had performed, and internalized the new skills they have just learned.

Both formative and summative evaluation will be used in evaluating the instruction so that it is more effective next time around.

The class will be evaluated in a 360 degree method, including reviews of:

student performance as to whether or not they met the lesson's objective?

Evaluate media components, as to how the software performed and how well the students were able to use the software.

Evaluate instructor performance in order to determine whether or not my own performance as instructor/facilitator was effective?