Design Project: Problem Solving Session

In our last problem-solving session of this pathway development, we tackled the learners’ final project. The pathway will culminate in a month-long collaborative Design Project, in which learners apply knowledge and skills from their two courses to complete a design challenge.

We would like the Design Project to:

• Take the form of an authentic performance task
• Require leaners to design with a specific user in mind
• Provide learners with significant opportunity to make their work personally meaningful

We started our session by working creatively as a group on a simple drawing task. This activity encouraged us to see ideas and add to what others have offered already. We started with three basic shapes on the board and ended up with what is pictured below.

This was a warm-up to the main problem that needed to be solved: what should the final Design Project be?

Some design projects that we are considering are:

• New App Expo – leaners create a new app concept that they publically pitch at a New App Expo
• Artstream Student Websites – Pathway students create a professional website for an Artstream student to showcase their identity as an artist and their work.
• Digital Image Consultant – Are you a BVC employee that is looking to develop or enhance your professional online presence?  Pathway learners are here to help!

And thanks to this brainstorm we added:

• Music Connect – marketing for an initiative that allows learners from SFL to showcase their musical talent
• Promotional video for the college – as a celebration to highlight all the interesting opportunities on campus
• App with a Virtual Tour – of the college or surrounding area
• Premier’s Luncheon – marketing for this event
• Digital Storytelling – for the kids in the BVC day care

After this brainstorm, we used the 6 Thinking Hats method to further explore one of the options. It is during this exercise that we start to ask questions such as, would the learners have the skills to complete such a project, and think about connected opportunities, such as mentorships or partnerships with other learner groups at the college.

This was a very creative and productive process for us. Many thanks to those who were able to join us at this, and the previous, problem-solving sessions.

We were holding these open problem solving sessions every two weeks as part of the development of the Career Program Pathway – Creative Technologies project. The purpose of these sessions is twofold: give SFL and CT faculty multiple opportunities to get involved in the development process, and for the course developers to be able to learn from the expertise of others and apply that knowledge in this project.

Interested in the results of our last Problem Solving Session? Check out our post on this blog: Feedback on Learning Outcomes and Objectives. Have ideas to share but were not able to make a session? You can chat anytime with Allison, Penny, or Deanna.

Depth of Knowledge - Problem Solving Session

How deeply do learners understand what you are teaching them? Do they get why they are learning this? Can they apply it to a new situation? During the design process we purposefully develop assessment to address these questions.

This session focused on applying Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels to determine how in-depth learners need to know each of the learning outcomes in the CPP-CT courses. See the image below for a brief explanation of each level.

Source: http://www.synergiseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dok.svg

 We broke into three groups and each group chose one learning outcome to focus on. The group discussed what the learning outcome meant and the sub skills that learners need to be introduced to before they can achieve the learning outcome. The group then looked at each sub skill and determined which DOK level it represented.

As this was a brainstorming session, we also tried a new approach to increase our creative ability. We had containers of legos set out that participants were encouraged to sort by colour into piles, in between brainstorming the DOK targets. This idea is based off of research that suggests that keeping the mind engaged in a simple/mindless task enhances creativity. The lego sorting worked for some; others said they have found chores such as folding laundry or washing dishes to be beneficial.

We came away from this session with three fully developed learning outcomes with various objectives aligned to DOK level targets. This kind of work is time consuming but important, as it sets the stage for a well scaffolded course. We are thankful for the full participation from everyone who was able to join us.

We are holding these open problem solving sessions every two weeks as part of the development of the Career Program Pathway – Creative Technologies project. The purpose of these sessions is twofold: give SFL and CT faculty multiple opportunities to get involved in the development process, and for the course developers to be able to learn from the expertise of others and apply that knowledge in this project.

Interested in the results of our last Problem Solving Session? Check out our post on this blog: Authentic Tasks and Audiences. Have ideas to share but not able to make a session? You can chat anytime with Allison, Penny, or Deanna.

Authentic Task and Audience - Problem Solving Session

We often hear about the value of using authentic tasks in the classroom. They can motivate learners, provide an opportunity to integrate skills, and help us focus on the big issues of a course. When developing courses and trying to create authentic tasks, we need to understand what they are in a little more detail. We wanted to differentiate between authentic tasks and other ways of applying skills and knowledge, so we opened up the conversation and got other instructors’ input.

We came into this session asking the following questions. For any subject:

• What are some ideas of authentic tasks?
• What are your sources or contacts when creating authentic tasks?
• What tips can you give us from your experience? Any pitfalls to avoid? Any amazing successes?

After describing various examples of authentic tasks that we have been involved with, we tried to define what makes a task authentic and came up with this list of characteristics:

• Has value outside of educational setting (may be workplace or general life)
• Utility beyond the project
• Can be simulated, real, or a hybrid
• Can be simple or complex
• May involve authentic props/documents
• It considers: what will be meaningful to students?
• Includes an element of performance/execution of a skill
• An authentic audience – is someone who would actually use this product or process outside of the educational setting? Community, industry, general public, peers
• Assessment of authentic tasks can be based on process or product, depending on the learning outcome

Other considerations that came out of the discussion include:

• Community partnerships can contribute to authentic task creation. Establishing and maintaining these can be challenging.
• Timing and the timeline of such a task needs to be carefully planned for
• Flexibility needs to be built into such tasks
• Reflection time should be built in early and often
• Instructors will need different types of support for some of the bigger ideas discussed

This has given us a great starting point for integrating authentic tasks into these new courses. We appreciate the people who showed up and offered insights and asked thoughtful questions. We look forward to learning with you in the next session.

Not everyone can make it to the scheduled sessions. We appreciate your emails and conversations around these topics anytime. Some of the resources shared with us this way include:

• Creating Learning Partners Literacy Tutor Training manual,Unit 13
• Creating authentic materials and activities for the adult literacy classroom: A handbook for practitioners

We are holding these open problem solving sessions every two weeks as part of the development of the Career Program Pathway – Creative Technologies project. The purpose of these sessions is twofold: give SFL and CT faculty multiple opportunities to get involved in the development process, and for the course developers to be able to learn from the expertise of others and apply that knowledge in this project.

Math - Magical and Delicious

Darcy dubbed it “The Lucky Charms meeting.” It was the last in a series of get togethers we had to discuss the learning objectives of the Prep Math 10 course. Who knew it would take us back to the childhood breakfast table and those magically delicious marshmallow-enhanced bowls of cereal? But that it did as we debated the magical properties of angles and the delicious qualities of numbers.

The task before us was to decide whether the trig objectives should stay or go, as this was the last decision to make before finalizing the list of learning objectives. Over the course of all of our meetings we had a few key questions that guided our debates over what should be included in this prep course:

- What is the purpose of this course?
- Which learners take this course?
- Was the objective covered in a previous course?
- Yes - then does it need to be covered in this course again?
- No - then should it be introduced in this course?
- How does the objective relate to the next course?
- How does the objective relate to science courses?
- Is time better spent on this objective or other objectives?
- How do most learners perform on this objective?
- How does an objective relate to other objectives in the course?
- For learners in the next course who do not take Prep Math 10, when do they get introduced to the objective?

Starting with an old list of learning objectives, there were deletions, additions, and modifications in all sections. It was all up for debate and Penny did a great job moderating the conversations and ensuring changes didn’t leave a hole in anyone’s heart. With the learning objectives in place, the hunt for a good textbook is the next component of this curriculum project.

Many thanks to all of the instructors who shaped the learning objectives for this course: Penny Marcotte, Bev Kosior, Darcy Milano, Brenda Thomas, Michael Gaschnitz, Melanie Macdonald, Alix MacDonald, Carol Johnson, Diny Woyiwada, Travis Seaman, and Kiranjit Brar.

Exam Development Update

Happy March everyone! I hope your semester is going well so far. 

The Exam Development Team would like to update you on the progress of the current exam development projects in CEFL. Thanks to the many instructors who have worked hard on exam development projects! Your knowledge and expertise has allowed us to create valid and reliable exams for a number of courses. Thank you to Karlie Wimble and Karim Jaber for the ongoing and invaluable work they have done on creating answer sheets, converting and distributing exams, and revising answer keys. Thank you also to our coordinator Carey Hilgartner for his ongoing support and guidance.

Current Exam Development projects:

Science 14 Final and Unit Exam Review

-nearly complete Form B for the final

-Final Exam Form A has been used since August and we are continuing to collect data using Form Return answer sheets. This exam has proven to be valid and reliable.

-Unit exams 1 and 2 complete with Form Return answer sheets. We are working on Units C and D

Science 14 Exam Review Collaborators:

Lindsay Bonenfant, Danielle Dore, Karen Harris, Julie Hill, Penny Marcotte, Alix Macdonald, Neil Summers

English Language Arts 30-2 Equivalency Exam Review

-final stages of Form B revisions and review

-Form A has been in use since August. We are collecting data using Form Return answer sheets. Form A has proven to be valid and reliable.

ELA 30-2 Equivalency Exam Review Collaborators:

Meghan Clayton, Susan Lemmer, Lorna Malanik, Tasha Nott, Patricia Pryce,  Murray Ronaghan, Jennefer Rousseau, Chris Taylor

English Language Arts 20-1 Unit Exam Review

-The review process is under way and items for four unit exams are coming together.

-At the end of this project, we will have 4 common unit exams for ELA 20-1 (poetry, non-fiction, Shakespeare, and short story).

ELA 20-1 Unit Exam Review Collaborators:

 Meghan Clayton, Marc Desilets, Danielle Dore, Tasha Nott, Murray Ronaghan, Jennefer Rousseau, Duff Waddell

Bio 30 and Bio 20 Unit Exam Review

-Units 1 and 2 have been reviewed, revised, and the new forms blueprinted. We are using Form Return to track data for these exams

-Units 3 and 4 are coming along with item review and revision, as well as item writing.

Bio 20/30 Unit Exam Review Collaborators:

Lindsay Bonenfant, Michelle Bourne, Celia Herodek, Penny Marcotte, Lee Murray, Laura Slade

Common Unit and Final Exams

-We are making our way through the exam conversion process.

-thanks to Karlie's excellent workshop on how to convert exams, we have had more staff participating in the conversion project (you can view the video on the Foundational Curriculum website)

Exam Conversion Team:

Danielle Dore, Penny Marcotte, Karlie Wimble

Math 30-1 Form B Unit Exams

-Thanks to Debbie Scott for taking on the initiative to write Form B unit exams for MAT3791

-These exams have been reviewed and blueprinted and are currently being used. The exams also have Form Return answer sheets.

Exam Reviewers:

Debbie Scott, Michael Gaschnitz, Bev Kosior, Melanie Macdonald, Brenda Thomas

There has also been some Exam Development Centre work taking place that is not necessarily a project, but is still valuable work to the CEFL. Work is currently being done on Science 10 unit and final exams (Neil Summers, Penny Marcotte, Karim Jaber), and Chemistry 20 unit exams (Debbie Scott, Lindsay Bonenfant, Penny Marcotte), and Math 30-3 exam and assignment development thanks to Brenda Thomas and Bev Kosior.

Thank you again to all instructors who have graciously given their time and expertise to exam development projects! It’s a pleasure to work with all of you!

If you would like to be involved in an exam development project please contact Maureen Stewart (3410, mstewart@bowvalleycollege.ca). If you would like to submit an exam development project idea, please visit the Foundational Curriculum website and click on Submit a Project Idea.

If you spot an error in an exam, please fill out the Report and Error Form on the Foundational Curriculum website. We will respond within one business day. Many thanks to those already using the form including Brenda Thomas, Penny Marcotte, Neil Summers, Debbie Scott, Michelle Bourne, Celia Herodek, Laura Slade, and Lindsay Bonenfant.

We look forward to working with you!

Maureen Stewart
Curriculum Development Exam Lead

Physics 30 Diploma Exams Now Employ Virtual Labs; Student-Based Performance Standards Provide Additional Guidance for Designing Lab Experiences

Example Set-up of a Virtual Physics 30 Lab for Use in a Diploma Exam Item

Physics 30 Diploma Exams Now Employ Virtual Labs:  Will the other Sciences Follow Suit?
Physics 30 is a particularly challenging course to write items for because lab skills, as applied to virtual labs, are now evaluated on the diploma exam itself.  These are extremely difficult items to construct.  I plan to add similar sorts of items to virtual labs, unite exams, and assignments over the next few months.  Most interesting of all, the Physics 30 Information Bulletin seems to imply that these items fully address the “design-an-experiment skill mandated in the program of studies outcome B3.1:  Students will design an experiment to demonstrate the effect of a uniform magnetic field on a current-carrying conductor.”  Click here to see an example Physics 30 diploma exam item that asks questions regarding the outcomes and design of a virtual lab. 

I wonder if Biology 30 and Chemistry 30 will eventually employ virtual labs on the diploma exams?  With the extensive availability of powerful technology, there is a lot of research into interactive, high-fidelity item types.  The Quest A+ technology has some real potential to deliver these innovative item types.  For example, perhaps students could perform a virtual titration lab experiment worth three or four marks.

Student-Based Performance Standards Provide Additional Guidance for Designing Lab Experiences
Alberta Education’s Student-Based Performance Standards documents provide some guidance to the development of lab experiences for students.  For example, the Biology 30 Assessment Standards document (starting on p.15) suggests that Standard of Excellence performance on general outcome D2 is identified when students “design an experiment or a simulation to demonstrate interspecific and intraspecific competition.”  The Chemistry 30 Performance Standards document suggests that SE performance on general outcome C1 is indicated when students are able to complete this lab task: “When given evidence of reaction with aqueous bromine or potassium permanganate, identify saturated and unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon derivatives.”  I suppose we could develop some sort of blueprint for labs, but that might be excessive planning.  Nevertheless, it is helpful to know which lab activities are designated Standard of Excellence or Acceptable Standard so that we can achieve a reasonable balance between them on labs, assignments and exams.

Regards,
Michael Gaschnitz
Previous blog postings

Curriculum REDESIGN from Alberta Education

(Image from “Curriculum REDESIGN Conversation Starter, Alberta Education, 2013)

At the “On the Same Page” potluck breakfast, Keith mentioned that the government is planning to revise the entire K-12 curriculum in the next few years. Here’s some information about this project from education.alberta.ca.

This informative video conveys some of the spirit of the project. Terry Godwalt, a Curriculum Coordinator, says that “We’ve constructed this other reality, which is one of textbooks and videos--artificial constructs. If we want students to be prepared for the real world, we need to make our classrooms about the real world.” I’m always a bit cautious when anyone speaks of the “real world” as if they were in full possession of it.  However, he has a point--perhaps Alberta's courses lack fidelity to, or are a pale reflection of, the world outside the brick walls of institutions.

The pamphlet entitled Curriculum REDESIGN Conversation Starter describes the outcomes Alberta Education is focused on and asks us how we can help move this vision forward: “How can we build on what we as a school/district are currently doing to empower EVERY student to become an engaged thinker, and ethical citizen with an entrepreneurial spirit? What do we need to do more of?”

Furthermore, in Curriculum Development Prototyping, Alberta Education is seeking vendors who can develop curriculum “that is competency focused, digitally based, and built on a foundation of literacy and numeracy. It is an opportunity for school authorities to showcase and build on the innovative work they are already doing that aligns with the vision of Inspiring Education.” I think we could have a real opportunity here  to collaborate on new curriculum. For example, perhaps there is room for a High School English course that is based on writing and reading skills that are directly related to business, health, science, and engineering?  This would seem to fulfil the "Entrepreneurial Spirit" outcome.

Regards,
Michael

Welcome Karim and Karlie!

The Curriculum Development Team is delighted to welcome Karim Jaber and Karlie Wimble to BVC and CEFL. Karim has taken on the role as Exam Support Assistant, and Karlie is an Education Assistant. Karim has formal educational in Biological Science from the University of Guelph, and a diploma in Object-Oriented Software Technology. Karim has numerous years experience in educational material development, as well as exam development with publishing companies and Athabasca University. We are thrilled to have Karim on the team as he brings significant experience and expertise in exam development. Karlie joins us with a diploma from SAIT in Administrative Information Management. She has experience working in IT support, and has excellent software skills and is proficient in MS Office and Adobe. Karlie was recently named the Canadian Excel Champ. We are excited to put her skills to use in exam conversion and development.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Karim and Karlie to the department.