Doctoral Defense

An Expeditionary

Learning Approach

To EffectiveCurriculum Mapping

Exploring a User Centered Framework

K

Formalizing the Process

K

S Presented toThe School of Information Arts and Technologies

BY IAN CARNAGHAN

APRIL 2014

An Expeditionary Learning Approach to Effective Curriculum MappingFormalizing the process by exploring a user-centered framework

University of Baltimore

Presentation Outline

BEGIN

END

ProjectPurpose

=I

LiteratureReview

II

Analysis & Results

7IV

ResearchMethodology

KIII

SoftwareBuild

(V

Conclusion

jVI

ProjectPurposeIntroduction and purpose of the project

=[

I



Propose, design and develop a user-centered curriculum mapping solution for Monarch Academy, an Expeditionary Learning (EL) charter school.

• Provide a platform for administrators to manage curriculum, identify gaps and overlaps, and align outcomes to state standards

• Provide a user-centered tool for teachers to more efficiently map curriculum with less effort than current practices

• Be compatible with the school’s outcomes-based curriculum planning framework

Project Purposebackground information



Project Purpose

Atlas Rubicon

Commercial

Curriculum Partner

Commercial

TODCMSystem

Open Source

Curriculum Mapper

Commercial

Monarch Academy spent over a year and a half researching various curriculum mapping applications. All ended up being too expensive, too restrictive or incompatible with Expeditionary Learning’s unique educational model.



Project Purpose

sWhat are the unique curriculum standardization needs and requirements of administration and teachers within an Expeditionary Learning school?

How can a proposed curriculum mapping solution address the distinctive challenges of Expeditionary Learning while adhering to User-Centered design principles?

How do teachers perceive current curriculum mapping techniques and proposed changes and what can be done to increase the likelihood of long term user acceptance?

This study was guided byResearch Themes



Project Purposeresearch structure

High level outline of areas covered within the research

Standardization

Expeditionary Learning

Planning Frameworks

Practical Implications

Agile Sprints

Usability Testing

Field Survey

Observations

KKey Stakeholder

Influence

Workflow Analysis

Teacher Involvement

7ExpeditionMapper

Architecture

Interface Design

(

Literature Review Research Methods Results and Analysis Technical Architecture

LiteratureReview

Existing literature

[

II



Establish what is already known within the field of education with regards to curriculum standardization, planning and expeditionary learning.

• To determine what has already been investigated

• To gain a better understanding of the unique characteristics of Expeditionary Learning

• To identify challenges of software integration within the educational environment

Literature Reviewpurpose



Curriculum Standardization

• Overview of educational standards

• What is Curriculum Mapping?

• Why is Curriculum Mapping a viable tool for mapping Common Core?

Literature Reviewresearch areas

`



Expeditionary Learning

• What is Expeditionary Learning (EL)?

• What is EL’s role within the education system?

• What are EL’s unique characteristics?


I



Planning Frameworks

• Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe

• An overview of other planning frameworks


X



Practical Implications

• Technology integration

• Long-term acceptance

• Security concerns


?



Existing Body of Knowledge

Curriculum standardization, Expeditionary Learning (EL), planning frameworks and practical implications of curriculum mapping with consideration for the teaching environment, adoption, and security.

User-Centered Research

An understanding of the teaching environment can only in part come from literature. Direct involvement with teachers and administrators needed to fill some of the gaps needed in order to gain a better understanding of Monarch Academy’s unique requirements. A teacher-centered or user-centered approach will help mitigate risks of non acceptance.

Literature Reviewnext steps

K

Research Methodology

Research activities carried out with Monarch Academy

K III



Research Methodology

AGILE SPRINTSCurriculum Mapping

Committee

Six sprints were held between September and December 2013. Prototypes facilitated

user stories

USER TESTING10 Participants

One pilot and ten remote usability

studies were conducted January-

March 2014

FIELD SURVEY21 Participants

Field survey was distributed to 21

teachers, staff and administrators at

Monarch Academy

OBSERVATIONSCurriculum Planning

Meetings

By-yearly cross-curricular meeting and second grade

team meeting were observed



Agile Sprints

AgileSprints

Decomposition

User stories were decomposed into manageable development tasks

Kanban

Kanban was used via an online service as a communication tool for the team

User Stories

User stories were a direct output from each sprint

Prototype

A new prototype or modifications were developed between each sprint

Website

After completion of newest prototype modifications, it was published online

Scheduling

Next sprint session was scheduled to discuss newest developments

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7

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L

P

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• Current comfort level using web applications

• Use of web applications in teaching

• Mobile device usage to access web applications

• Familiarity with curriculum mapping

Field Surveybackground questions

• Gender (Male/Female)

• Current Grade Level

• Years of teaching

• Age range



• How do you currently manage lesson planning and curriculum mapping within your class and grade level?

• What features do you believe would be useful to you in a web-based curriculum mapping system (be specific)?

• Where would you ideally physically access Monarch web-based applications, including grade systems, email, administrative?

• What resources and tools are essential to you today when planning curriculum and lesson planning within your classroom and within your grade level?

• What obstacles or issues with a web-based curriculum mapping system would hinder you from adopting this over your current processes?

Field Surveysopen ended questions



Spring 2014

K-3rd Grade

January Team Meeting

Second Grade Team

Observationscontextual research

Bi-Yearly Cross Curricular Meeting

Cross curricular meetings are held with different grade levels in order to share their proposed expeditions, solicit feedback, and cohesively work together to ensure a logical stepped progression of the students learning experiences year to year. These meetings take place with three groups of grade levels called hallway teams.

Grade Level Team Meeting

Weekly team meetings are carried out in every grade level which focus on more detailed day to day lesson planning. The purpose of these meeting is to flesh out specific skills and concepts for upcoming weeks. Typically they include specific materials, activities, demonstrations, and lessons that the team would use for planning and / or locating resources needed.



Usability Testingtasks

You want to know if lecturer Richard Quinn has been assigned as an expert under the Fall expedition’s Ancient Greece case study. If he has not been added, add a record for him.

Non-Profit Organizations are no longer included as service learning. Locate Non-Profit Organizations inside the Fall Expedition’s Ancient Greece Case Study and delete it.

You realize that the final product for Ancient Civilizations fall Expedition is missing a reference link to ushistory.gov. Locate the final product description and add a hyperlink to ushistory.gov.

You need to plan for a new expedition on community. You heard one of the third grade teachers mention they taught an expedition on community this year. Try to locate this expedition on the system.

2

3

4

5

Your team leader has requested a list of all items in the system that includes Mathematics Common Core 2.OA.C3 and 2.OA.C4. Retrieve a list from the system that matches these common core standards.

The Ancient Greece Case Study under the Fall Expedition is missing information under the STA grid. Fill out some Standards, Targets and Assessments for this Case Study.

Add a new expedition for the spring and one case study. The expedition can be based on previous expeditions taught in your class or based on future anticipated expeditions.

6

7

8

Locate the fall expedition’s Big Ideas for Science. Add a new Big Idea under ‘Constancy and Change’ called ‘Forces of Nature continuously change the earth’ and add a rationale for this.1

Analysis and Results

Research gathered from various methods

7IV



Analysis And Resultsoverview

The activities and research leading to this final prototype involved an iterative development process in partnership with Monarch Academy.

Agile Sprints

Prototyping

(

Observations

V

Field Survey

Usability Tests

fFinal Alpha-Version of ExpeditionMapper integrating findings from research

KEY STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE WORKFLOW ANALYSIS TEACHER INVOLVEMENT

RESULT



Teachers can login to their customized dashboard.

Teachers can view and edit basic expedition and case study properties.

Key Stakeholder InfluenceAgile Sprint 1: High Level Requirements

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K



Teachers can see basic First Six Weeks (FSW) semesters.

Teachers can enter more detailed information into their expeditions.

Key Stakeholder InfluenceAgile Sprint 2: Defining Expeditions

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Teachers can see and edit Winter and FSW semesters.

Teaches should be able to edit and update Standards Targets Assessments (STA) grids for case studies.

Teachers should be able to pick from drop-down lists of preselected values in applicable fields.

Key Stakeholder InfluenceAgile Sprint 3: FSW and Winter Terms

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K

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Teachers should be able to clearly see different non-expedition subject areas.

Non-expeditions should only require fields relevant to them.

Teaches should be able to create strands for non-expeditions, similar to expedition forms.

Key Stakeholder InfluenceAgile Sprint 4: Non-Expedition Subject Areas

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K

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Teachers and administrators should be able to access top level mapping and reporting.

Mapping should provide facets for searching and filtering.

Data entry screens should be optimized for effective and meaningful reporting.

Key Stakeholder InfluenceAgile Sprint 5: Data Elements Review and Reporting

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K

K



Administration team should have the ability to create new non-expedition subject areas.

Mapping should allow for gap analysis.

Administration team should be able to access aggregate reports via a dashboard.

Key Stakeholder InfluenceAgile Sprint 6: Application Demo and Reporting

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K

K



Proposing Expeditionsplatform for presenting ideas

Expedition Themescombining ideas

Peer Feedbackwithin grade level groups

Sharing Resourcescombining efforts through shared resources

Scheduling Toolsonline calendar component

Backmapping Functionalityprocess documentation

Lesson Planningfile attachment functionality

Trackingmodifying, changing and republishing

Workflow Analysis

CrossCurricular

CrossCurricular

Grade

Level

Grade

Level

Grade

Level

CrossCurricular

CrossCurricular

Grade

Level

observations



Teacher Influencefield survey general questions

Male

22%

Female

72%

Not Reported

6%

18-29

56%

30-39

22%

40-49

11%

Not

Reported

11%1

5% 3

6%

4

39%

5

44%

Not Reported

6% 2

11%3

22%

4

33%

5

28%

Not

Reported

6%

GENDER AGE MOBILE DEVICE ACCESS WEB COMFORT LEVELs s s s

1 Not Often5 Very Often

1 Least Comfortable5 Most Comfortable

• Mainly younger, female population

• Only 11% reported above 39 age group

• 83% use mobile devices very often or one level below

• Over half most comfortable with web applications, or one level below



Obstacles Physical Access Process / Tools

Time Tablets ALA Common Core Crosswalk

Access and Availability iPhones Decisions on topic to teach

Document Management Home Access Mapping to standards

Usability Develop LT & ST Targets

Security / Updates Summer CM and CC Alignment

Stability Grade team collaboration

Alignment to Common Core

Resources to meet / assess standards

Teacher Influencefield survey themes



TaskCompleted with

EaseCompleted with some

level of DifficultyFailed to complete

Task 1 6 2 2

Task 2 9 1 0

Task 3 10 0 0

Task 4 6 1 3

Task 5 10 0 0

Task 6 8 2 0

Task 7 5 5 0

Task 8 5 6 0

TOTAL 73.75% (59) 21.25% (17) 6.25% (5)

Teacher Influenceusability testing task results



Usability Testingtasks

You want to know if lecturer Richard Quinn has been assigned as an expert under the Fall expedition’s Ancient Greece case study. If he has not been added, add a record for him.

Non-Profit Organizations are no longer included as service learning. Locate Non-Profit Organizations inside the Fall Expedition’s Ancient Greece Case Study and delete it.

You realize that the final product for Ancient Civilizations fall Expedition is missing a reference link to ushistory.gov. Locate the final product description and add a hyperlink to ushistory.gov.

You need to plan for a new expedition on community. You heard one of the third grade teachers mention they taught an expedition on community this year. Try to locate this expedition on the system.

2

3

4

5

Your team leader has requested a list of all items in the system that includes Mathematics Common Core 2.OA.C3 and 2.OA.C4. Retrieve a list from the system that matches these common core standards.

The Ancient Greece Case Study under the Fall Expedition is missing information under the STA grid. Fill out some Standards, Targets and Assessments for this Case Study.

Add a new expedition for the spring and one case study. The expedition can be based on previous expeditions taught in your class or based on future anticipated expeditions.

6

7

8

Locate the fall expedition’s Big Ideas for Science. Add a new Big Idea under ‘Constancy and Change’ called ‘Forces of Nature continuously change the earth’ and add a rationale for this.1



Working with / Saving Data

Participants ran into issues saving data because of missing the correct control button, arrangement of keyboard mappings, confusion between form and grid updates.

User Controls

Confusion with some of the controls led to difficulty in completing tasks.

Sizing and location of form controls created further confusion.

Workflow

Several workflow issues were observed including locating sections of the application, form posts which led users to previous page they visited, keyboard accessibility concerns.

Bugs

Several bugs were identified during user testing.

These included instances of browsers crashing and a bug in the text area editor.

Teacher Influenceusability testing task results

2

2

2

2



2 Working with / Saving Data



2 User Controls



2 Workflow



2 Bugs



Teacher Influenceusability recommendations / enhancements

AccessibilityRewrite all screens to be fully keyboard accessible. Check code for cross-browser validation.

Controls

Clearly color / highlight controls. Resize smaller elements

Forms

Relocate save buttons, integrate grids more cohesively with system forms

Prompts

Provide meaningful feedback

Page Size

Resize page sizes to reduce scrolling

Business Logic

Add sufficient validation to all forms

Bugs

Fix remaining bugs

Navigation

Create more cohesive UI throughout workflow

STAs

Rewrite STA into a more manageable grid. Provide global STA

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a n

q W

D V P N



Dashboard look and feel, UI enhancements

Sub Sections: Easier access to sub sections

Notifications: Alerts and news notifications

Global Search: Easier access to other grade maps for vertical alignment

Teacher InfluenceRe-designed User Interface (UI)

å

å

å

å

Software Build

Platform and Architecture

(V



Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 5

BootStrap 3 CSS Framework

KendoUI JavaScript Framework

Team Foundation Server (TFS)

ExpeditionMapperdeploy.expeditionmapper.com

å

å

å

å



ExpeditionMapper

ExpeditionMapper.UIUser Interface Project

ExpeditionMapper.BEBusiness Entities Project

ExpeditionMapper.DALData Access Layer

architecture

DALBEUI



Feature Version Source

Core Data Entry Forms Alpha Sprint

Reporting and Mapping v1.0 Sprint, Usability Testing

Roles Implementation v1.0 Sprint

Administration Panel v1.0 Sprint

User Account Authentication Alpha Sprint

Custom Field Generation v1.0 Sprint, Observation

Business Logic Beta Sprint, Usability Testing

Multiple Device Compatibility Alpha Observation, Field Survey

Import Feature v1.0 Sprint, Observation

* v1.0 planned for fall 2014, v2.0 planned for fall 2015.

ExpeditionMappercore features



Feature Version Source

Integrated Calendar v2.0 (future release) Observation

Advanced Charting v2.0 (future release) Sprint

Integration with other EducationalModels

v2.0 (future release) Sprint

* Cohesive Dashboard UI Alpha Usability Testing

* 508 Accessibility v1.0 Usability Testing

* Additional Help / Prompts v1.0 Usability Testing

* Updated Contrast & Control Coloring Alpha Usability Testing

Online Community v2.0 Observation

Document Attachment Management v2.0 Field Survey

* Enhancements iteratively added from research activities

ExpeditionMapperextended features and fixes

Conclusion

Review of research themes and limitations

jVI



Conclusion

sWhat are the unique curriculum standardization needs and requirements of administration and teachers within an Expeditionary Learning school?

How can a proposed curriculum mapping solution address the distinctive challenges of Expeditionary Learning while adhering to User-Centered design principles?

How do teachers perceive current curriculum mapping techniques and proposed changes and what can be done to increase the likelihood of long term user acceptance?

This study was guided byResearch Themes

revisiting research themes



ConclusionLimitations

There were various limitations to this study, which has left some areas of research open for future studies.

Access

Screening

f

Monarch Academy

EL Model of Education

p

Feature Set

Future Versions

(Quantitative TAM models, other EL schools, other educational models

POPULATION GENERALIZABILITY TIME FRAME

FUTURE RESEARCH

Questions and Answers

YOUTHANK

Doctoral Defense

Education

Transcript of Doctoral Defense