Revising Instructional Materials

Revising Instructional Materials

By Raheen Brooks

Objectives

The objectives consists of the following

• Describing methods that are used to summarize data obtained from formative evaluation studies

• Summarizing data that is obtained from evaluation studies

• Using formative evaluation for instructional materials, identifying problems in the materials, and suggesting revisions for the materials.

Types of revisions

There are two types of revisions• The first one consists of changes made to the content or

substance of materials to make them more accurate or more effective as a learning tool.• The second type is more related to the procedures employed

in using your materials.

Analyzing data from one-to-one trials

The designer will have access to five types of basic information which are:

1. Learner characteristics and entry behaviors

2. Direct responses to the instruction

3. Learning time

4. Posttest performance

5. Responses to an attitude questionnaire


There are three steps used in collecting data:

1. The first step consists of describing the learners and indicating their performance on any entry-behavior measures

2. In the second step the designer brings together all the comments and suggestions about the instructor that resulted from going through it with each individual learner

3. The third step begins by obtaining the individual item performance and then combines it with item scores for each objective and for a total score


Revising the instruction:

In revising the instruction the goal is to try to determine whether your rubric or test items are fault by basing them on learner performance. If they are flawed, changes must be made to make them consistent with the objectives and the intent of instruction. If the items are not flawed, but the learners did not perform well then the instructor will be changed.


There are three sources of suggestions for change:

1. Learner suggestion

2. Learner performance

3. Your own reactions to the instruction

Analyzing data from small-group and field trials

They consists of five types of data:

1. Item performance on pretest

2. Item performance on posttest

3. Responses to an attitude questionnaire

4. Learning and testing time

5. Comments made directly in the materials


The purpose for the item-by-objective analysis is threefold:

1. Determining the difficulty of each item in the group

2. Determining the difficulty of each objective for the group

3. Determining the consistency with which set of items are within an objective measures learners’ performance on the onjective


• Learners’ item-by-objective performance and from the data the designer can infer that:

1. The group selected was appropriate for the evaluation

2. The instruction covered skills not previously mastered by the group

3. The instruction was effective in improving learners’ skills

Why the individual item information is required?

There are three reasons why the information is required:

1. First is that the item information can be useful in deciding whether there are particular problems with the item or whether it is effectively measuring the performance described in its corresponding objective.

2. Second is that the individual item information can be used to identify the nature of the difficulties learners are having with the instruction.

3. Third is that the individual item data can be combined to indicate learner performance on an objective, and eventually, on the entire test

Graphing learners’ performances

There are two ways in graphing data:

1. Is to display the data through various graphing techniques

2. Another way is to graph techniques for summarizing formative evaluation data involves the instructional analysis chart

Other types of data

There are several different ways types of data are used:

1. Data can be summarized from an attitude questionnaire

2. Comments can be obtained from learners, other instructors involved in the formative evaluation, and from subject-matter-experts who react to the materials

3. Related to any alternative approaches you may have used during either the small-group or field-trial evaluations

Sequence for examining data

Consists of five different methods:

1. Entry behaviors

2. Pretests and posttests

3. Instructional strategy

4. Learning time

5. Instructional procedures

Revision process

When beginning the revision you should summarize your data as suggested in this chapter:

• Given that all the data are from small-group or fields-trial evaluation, the designer must make decisions about how to make revisions

• Strategies suggested for revising instruction following the one-to-one evaluations also apply to using the data, your experience, and sound learning principles as the bases for your revisions

Revising selected materials

When working with selected materials, there is little opportunity to revise the materials directly, especially if they are commercially produced and copyrighted. With copyrighted materials, the instructor can consider the following adaptations for future trials:

There are the following three:

1. Omit portions of the instruction

2. Include other available materials

3. Simply develop supplementary instruction

Revising instructor-led instruction

• Instructors working from an instructor’s guide have the same flexibility as the developer for changing instruction

• The instructor’s notes from the guide should reflect questions raised by learners and responses to those questions

• Unlike using written instructional materials, the instructor can revise the presentation during its implementation and note the reasons for the change

Life Long Learner

As a life-long learner, I am aware of the importance of making sure our instructional materials stay up to data and current with all the methodologies that maybe constantly changing. The frequency of change is primarily dependent on the field but should be kept a breast of.

Raheen Brooks

Revising Instructional Materials

Education

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