Instructional Design – Getting Started With Station Rotation Blended Learning Model
This course will assist you in implementing station rotation blended learning model into your K-8 classroom. The instruction is intended for educators in K-8 classrooms and school leaders coaching instructional practices. This outcomes based course is intended for CMSD K-8 educators and will provide learning resources and authentic learning opportunities to help you design and implement blended learning specific to your learning environment. The course will be facilitated as a significant blended learning environment that is facilitated partially in person face2face and partially online utilizing Schoology, our district’s learning management system. Therefore, it is partially synchronous and partially asynchronous, but I am available to meet for support and guidance as needed.
Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal- BHAG
Learning in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will be personalized, joyful, and adventurous utilizing blended learning to meet the needs of all learners and accelerate learning.
Key Documents
Planning Document
Course Design Outline (All resource hyperlinked in PDF)
3 Column Table
Course Overview Video
Course Overview
This course will use Outcomes Based instructional design created with UBD, aligning activities and assessment to the intended course goal of getting station rotation blended learning model up and running in K-8 classrooms. In order to have teachers really understand and own the implementation of the station rotation model, they need to have enough choice, ownership and voice in this process that works in their environment with authenticity and the reality of their learners in their environment.
The design of the course will use blended learning with a combination of face2face and online learning because many of our district educators respond well to the human in person experience as well as appreciate the flexibility of time place path and pace that blended can offer. Confident that this is the just right balance to get participants confidently implementing station rotation blended learning model in their classrooms.
Schoology will be utilized for housing the course structure, course outline, resources, collaborative discussion space, and participant submissions. The self-reflection of the learning process and peer and instructor feedforward is will be different than traditional assessments to measure the learning, but will be beneficial to this approach. My goal is for learners to feel comfortable taking risks and reflecting on the learning process for continuous improvement. Class discussions will serve as formative assessment as well as a few assignments with self-reflection as part of the improvement process along the way. We will meet in person, monthly, as a cohort to connect, collaborate, celebrate, and reflect. I will also make myself available for virtual and in-person meetings by request, and do my best to respond via email within 24hours.
In this course, the learner controls, drives, and owns the learning. The instructor will serve as a facilitator and guide to be a thought partner and nudge reflection and a learners mindset. The learner will authentically apply and analyze information to deepen their learning.
Start Here ⬇️
At the start fo this blended learning course, this will be the first area suggested to check out at the start of the course. It gives the general format and layout of the course and lets the learner know the expectations and module layout. The instructional design approach is mostly self-paced with collaboration and reflection embedded. The main course goal is shared as the BHAG in the “intro/start here folder”, and in each subsequent module a learning outcome is listed first as well.
Each module follows the same layout of learning outcomes, learning resources (choice of pathway to learn), discussion, and assessment activities that are all aligned to the module learning outcome that leads to the BHAG. This course is student centered, with the facilitation of synchronous classes and also providing resources as well as feedforward on activities. The instructor’s role is coach/mentor and sometimes facilitator. This is a blended course with both online and in person learning experiences, and will be introduced with the 2 videos I created above, followed by an in person meeting.
The course will be about 75% asynchronous and 25% synchronous mix of in person and online, allowing for flexibility with time, path, and pace for most learning. Collaboration is encouraged and embedded in the discussion activities, and please note that the instructor will be available via text and email to assist students and also available to schedule support sessions via ZOOM or in-person as needed.
Usability Testing
Usability Testing Reflection Video
Usability Testing Reflection
I was able to conduct the usability testing with K-8 teachers in the Cleveland Metropolitan School district that represent potential cohort participants in my innovation plan rollout of blended learning. I do believe these were the right people because they represented those that will interact with course and were a diverse group of participants, including males, females, different races, and varying socioeconomic backgrounds. I sent the message and checklist out to six teachers in different grades, subject areas, and some intervention specialists. Three sent back responses, and I think I would have received more if teachers were not on summer vacation, or I asked them to test during their contracted school year. In the future, I will try to get this testing done during the school year.
Because I utilized our district adopted LMS, Schoology, I feel that the testing results gave me relevant feedback for improving the course because teachers are somewhat familiar with Schoology and the possible workflows within it.
The lessons I learned from the usability testing feedback are are the importance of diverse tester participants, and the impact of actual participant feedback provides impactful insight to improve the course learner experience. Also, giving participants an opportunity to analyze and provide feedforward to my work cultivates a learning environment of safe collaboration, respect, and trust to work together for the greater good.
I have made adjustments to my design to address the usability issues revealed in the testing. These changes include changing the course photo to one that has a student using an iPad rather than the solo recording booth photo I had previously set, changing the wording in the welcome discussion to be more inclusive of educators throughout district roles, and also adjusted and re-uploaded my course design document to ensure the very bottom isn’t cut off. These minor changes make a huge difference and have me feeling more confident as I prepare to launch my course this fall.
This process has improved my course and learner’s experience by making the course icon more telling of what the course will be about, being more inclusive with wording, and ensuring all documents are fully readable.
The testing didn’t really impact my alignment of outcomes, activities, and assessments but rather the testers validated that the plan makes sense and is set up in a straight forward, easy to follow format that made sense to the testers. They also mentioned that the learning resources provided were great and engaging.
I will address the infrastructure, system, and support needs and issues the learner may face throughout the course in both formal and informal collection of thoughts and reflection. Midway through the course, I will ask learners to do a “midterm feedforward to the instructor” assignment, as well as complete a feedback form at the conclusion of the course so I can make adjustments to the course to improve the learner experience moving forward. I will also encourage participants to let me know at any point if they have feedforward to improve the learner experience to please share with me during class meeting or via email.
I am excited to launch my first blended learning course to utilize technology innovation as a catalyst for change and improved learner experience in my school district. I understand that this will continue to evolve and improve as I receive feedback/feedforward from users, and embrace the opportunity to learn through the experience.
Usability Testing Guide
References:
Fink, L. D. (2003). Self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Jossey-Bass
Dweck ,C. (2017). Mindset-Updated edition: Changing the way you think to fulfill your potential.
Hachette UK.