Week Three Assignments

Group Project :

Assessment, Research & Evaluation

by Group 3: ( Allen, Desmarais, Herrmann & Smith)

Assessment: Assessment is the process by which an individual or organization uses internally determined methods to gather information on the efficacy, efficiency, and impact of a program or curriculum on learner performance.

Research: Research is a process by which an individual or organization; in a strictly controlled environment, determines the facts of a situation or the relevance of a set of circumstances.

Evaluation: Is the summative process of collecting data to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, impact, and the end result, based on an externally determined standard, of a program of instruction on learners with the purpose of making a decision.

Evaluation Project Brainstorming: (New Ideas)

I have chosen option one: "Plan and conduct a small-scale evaluation of a program in your school or industry. This will need to be small. For example, 3-5 hours of curriculum. You will use real data for your report."

I have two ideas and am not sure which one I should pick:

1. My first idea is to evaluate student achievement using an web-based typing tutorial called Custom Typing. Custom Typing has a feature that allows the students to be computer guided. Each student will be working at their pace. I would like to compare one class of 5th graders success using this program, and another class of 5th graders learning how to type using a manual designed for kids and endorsed by the ISTE called Keyboard Success. The Keyboard Success students will be using Zoho writer as their typing platform. I am very curious which program will allow students the greatest success, which program will better teach the home row, how the typing speed of the students will either increase or decrease.

2. My second option is to use a program called Tumblebooks. Tumblebooks is a web-based and for fee program that has taken popular children's fiction and animated the stories with audio. Upon reading the book, students take an online reading comprehension quiz with five questions. I would use Tumblebooks with one 5th grade class and with the other 5th grade class I will read the actual tangible book to them. We then will take the same quiz but I will print the test and we will use the old-fashioned method of paper and pencil. I would like to find out which method produces better results.

1. What are the benefits and limitations of the evaluation?

The benefits are:

I will hope to discover which typing (or reading) method is better, the traditional manual way or web-based. I will also find out weaknesses within my teaching, and hope to find out which method produces a better typist (readers)

The limitations are:

One of the limitations is the time I have to accomplish this evaluation. Another big factor or limitation is the age of my students, and the amount of time I get to see the students.

2. What factors ensure that this evaluation will be successful?

Testing with two random samples will help with the success of the evaluation. Each class has the same amount of students and approximately the same amount of students on IEP's, At-Risk and G.T. students.

3. How might one use evaluation results?

I will use the information to adjust how I teach keyboarding, which program I use. If the manual method works best, it will save the district many dollars on subscription fees. My findings will help choose a new typing program for next year for the district.

If I choose to use Tumblebooks evaluation, the results will help me to decide whether to keep the Tumblebooks subscription or return to the free, tried and true method of reading to children. This will save my school approximately $200.00. If the evaluation shows that my student's reading comprehension improves with teacher lead reading then I definitely will try to include much more teacher lead reading time and make up my own reading quizzes.

I am looking forward to seeing the results from whichever evaluation I complete.

I will be using a summative evaluation.