EDU 643

Testing Design With Learners

I was privileged to be able to try this lesson with my entire set of film students in my program (about 45 students) and found an overall success with my lesson design. I have reviewed test footage from my students and created a compilation with test footage from 3 groups of students, which can be viewed here.

Considering that my design was intended to be the first lesson in a series of intro lessons for my learners to understand the basics of Stop-Motion animation, this lesson has a primary focus of understanding one of the most basic components of animation, which is applicable to all types of animation: how to manipulate speed.

There were 4 primary learning goals for this lesson that students had to demonstrate in their test animations:

• 1. 1. demonstrate animating a slow constant speed

     2. demonstrate animating a fast constant speed

     3. demonstrate animating a speed ramp up (slow to fast)

     4. demonstrate animating a speed ramp down (fast to slow).

As I have stated in my lesson design, students were told to use basic objects, such as a marker, specifically because I did not want students to get distracted by features of the object (like using a lego character and trying to make it walk). This allows students to focus strictly on practicing and demonstrating their understanding of this principle of animation, without worrying about other concerns, or getting distracted by trying to do too much that is unrelated to the lesson objectives.

One issue that came up that I did not anticipate was a tech issue relating to the cameras we were using (the OKIOCAM), which have the older USB-A plug. This was an issue because most of my students have newer laptops with only USB-C inputs. During the activity portion of this lesson, I had to improvise and make a last minute change in my lesson to allow students to work in groups instead of by themselves, and I made groups based on who had an older laptop or a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Going forward, before I prepare the class for their final summative assessment I will purchase $3 adapters so that I can ensure students can work by themselves and can be assessed properly for their learning.

In terms of feedback from my students, I think there may have been a general sense of "what's so important about this concept?" which is something I will work to address in future lessons, and it may not be something that they fully understand until they attempt to apply it to their final digital storytelling assignments. Future lessons will also build on these concepts by adding additional principles of animation, and students will be required to combine this and other principles in their final project.

Assessment Strategy

Being that the activity in this lesson is just practice and a formative activity, I would not count how successful they are in this activity towards the final grade of this unit, but rather, use it as an opportunity for me to give feedback on where they may be going wrong or misunderstanding this particular concept. In their final summative assessment project, I will, however, make it clear that this, and other principles of animation, will be assessed so it will be wise of them to try to their best to be successful in this activity. And following the completion of the digital artifact from this activity, they should consider my feedback and their own reflections and think about ways they can improve this specific principle of animation when demonstrating this in their final summative assessment.

In terms of assessment standards, I use rubrics based on the ISTE standards and for my class I have chosen to use ISTE Standards for Students #2, #3, #4, and #6, however, not all of these categories will apply to the final assessment of this unit. For this project in particular I will only be using 2c, 3b, 4a, and 4b.

To make it easier for my students to apply the ISTE standards to my program, I have taken each of the standards in these 4 categories and rewritten them in a way that applies to the context of my course, and with different wording that will help my students and their parents understand how they apply to their projects. I call these rewrites my "Translations for Students."

For example, when I share ISTE standard 4c with students, which originally is worded as "Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process" my translation states that "Students demonstrate an understanding of the creative process and demonstrate improvements from their reflections during their practice attempts while learning new skills." Since I teach my students the "Creative Process" in my class, and not the "Design Process" I found it important to have translations for this particular standard, as well as all other standards to reduce confusion.

To view all "translations" please feel free to access the Google Site that I have created for my students and parents to browse at their convenience.

In addition to providing this site and these rewritten standards to help students understand how the ISTE Standards apply to my course, I create a spreadsheet for each large unit summative project that I later use as an important part of the feedback process for each student, which will contain detailed written feedback as well as each assessment standard broken into the parts of their project that specifically relate to the assessment and the standard in which they are associated.

To view a blank template of this spreadsheet I have developed for my upcoming Stop-Motion unit summative assessment, click here.

I share the blank version of this in advance of students beginning their final assessment, so that students may use this information during the production of their final project, and I encourage them to use it as a check-list that they can refer back to throughout the creation of their project so they can ensure they aren't forgetting anything. Additionally, I download and share respective pages with each student during my feedback conferences with students after I have completed their assessments.

Since I feel the feedback process is a huge part of the learning process for my students, I ensure I have these conferences with students as it gives me an opportunity to help them understand how they did on their project, and it also gives me an opportunity to check-in with students 1-on-1 in a way that is more valuable than a typical class check-in. In terms of logistics for these conferences, I also engage the students in an activity that they can keep themselves busy working on, while I'm calling up and chatting with each student individually.

Following this feedback conference, I also give my students additional opportunities to submit new and improved versions of their activities, as I value the iterative process and I teach my students that mistakes are always good, and the more they redo/practice something, the more they will improve. My students often equate this as an opportunity only to learn how to improve their grade, however, I work with them to consider this more as an opportunity for me to inspire their reflections for their creation, which helps them find ways to learn, grow, and improve what they made from these reflections, as well as improve their future creations.

Reflection - Part 1: My Assessment Design

The assessment type I chose for this lesson is a simple video that students produce to demonstrate their understanding. When I think about the other possible methods of assessments of these concepts, I could potentially consider verbal responses questions relating to the topic, written theoretical analyses, or other methods, however, this method allows for students to create and apply their learning throughout the lesson in a hands-on activity, which then yields a digital artefact that they can easily review for their reflections and use as reminders of these animation principles in future projects. Since the goal for all of what I teach is to be at a level of "Create" in the Blooms Taxonomy, I work towards affording my students with as much hands-on time creating as possible.

Not only do I feel this method allows for deeper level learning, it also gives me an opportunity to clearly see if students understand the lesson or not and give more accurate feedback. Many students can often speak about what steps are needed to execute to be successful, however, when they attempt to execute these steps, there may be a disconnect at some point. If students provided a written summary of the steps needed to be successful, I don't know for certain if they would be able to apply these steps, therefore I strive to limit my assessment forms to hand-on activities. Furthermore, the main goal of my program is to actually be able to apply these in real-world filmmaking scenarios, and the most effective method for students to learn to how to apply these concepts in filmmaking is to actually have them practice with hands-on activities.

Reflection - Part 2: Critique My Design

Going through Jessica's Rubric, I felt confident in each area, however, I the area where I consistently lowered my grade was for my lack of UDL from each category, giving me a total score was 25.5. You may view the completed rubric here.

In terms of UDL in my pedagogy and teaching methods, I strive to support my students with a variety of mediums and teach the content in different ways to help them understand the lesson better, which includes videos, discussion, written instructions, physical walk-throughs, etc., etc. However, when considering how students are given the opportunity to demonstrate their learning, I do admit that this is limited, especially for an activity like this where their goal is not to be creative, just to demonstrate the skill.

An alternative I have used in class for students who may not have access to an OKIOCAM (such as students at home during online learning), is to allow students to create a Google Slides animation. This is an accessible alternative that all my students can make use of with any type of laptop and an internet connection. As I mentioned previously, I could potentially allow students to give verbal or written responses to demonstrate their understanding, however, given the nature of my course, I feel that these would not make sense, unless there is something that is preventing a student from physically taking part in the hands-on activity.

I do admit that I struggle with considering these alternatives (with the exception of a Google Slides animation) as viable means of representation and expression, as the main point of my class is to learn how to create, and not to learn how theorise about creating. Therefore the most important way students demonstrate success in my class is with hands-on activities and project-based learning.

The more I reflect on the meaning of UDL and how I can allow my students the ability to create "multiple means of representation" and how that applies to my class, I think it's important I take the context of my class into consideration. If I consider that my class is a hands-on class, would it not make sense to look at the concept of UDL through a lens that makes sense for this class? With that in mind, should I consider other options similar to the previous example of Google Slides animations as an example of differing means of representation and expression?

As I reflect more on this topic, I can think back to occassions where I have had students ask me if they can use their iPads and an app they like to use, or other pieces of software already installed on their computer, and I always say yes (after deeming their preferred tool to be viable for use in the activity). And I wonder if this, specifically within the context of my class and learning environment, would be considered me providing multiple means of representation and expression? One thing is for certain, (and I can work to correct this), is that I do not make it clear in my activity instructions that students can choose their own method of completing the hands-on task and demonstrating their learning with a hands-on method of their choice.

I feel it would make sense if I work to be more transparent about this in the future.