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IDM - WEEKLY NOTES-WEEK 4

Instructional Design and Technology:
Instructional Design Models, University of Maryland, University College - IDT200x
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WEEK 4 - Aim of lesson

Submitted: 26.08.19

This week you were introduced to UbD.  The Understanding by Design framework offers a planning process and structure to guide curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Its two key ideas are contained in the title:

1) focus on teaching and assessing for understanding and learning transfer, and

2) design curriculum “backward” from those ends. For this week's assignment, download the UbD template and complete one of the scenarios in the learning module.  

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To complete this assignment, download the UbD template and then review the different scenarios.  Remember, you only need to complete the UbD template for one of the scenarios, but your responses should be details and address the scenario with UbD criteria presented in this module. 

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Scenario 3: Technology-Based Learning 

  • Goal: Your goal is to help elementary teachers at your school identify technology components for classroom use.

  • Role: You are an instructional technologist tasked with developing a program to train teachers on implementing technology-based learning.

  • Audience: Elementary school teachers (K-6) with a diverse technology understanding and skill set. 

  • Task: Develop an implementation plan for teachers to select and apply technology assets for student learning. Complete the template applying UbD standards to the information provided in this scenario. 

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 Response 

I have chosen Scenario 3: Technology-Based Learning scenario to develop.
Please click on the download button link below to view my response:

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Weekly Notes:
Understanding by Design(UbD)

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Begin with the end in mind!  Using the Understanding by Design’s (UbD) framework can help ensure that curriculum, content, and assessment are aligned with the specific outcomes and transferable skills we seek to impart to our students.  UbD is a process of backward curriculum design. There are three important steps to backward design planning:

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What do I do in each Step?
Below is a short overview of each of the three steps. At the end, we'll explore each
step in detail. 
 

Step 1: Identify desired results

Begin with the end in mind: What are the desired results for the lesson, unit, or exercise? Identifying the specific content knowledge or skill set teachers expect from students helps to narrow focus. Textbooks, the Internet, and the world at large provide such rich content options that it can be difficult to hone in on our exact goals for a lesson.

Identifying the educational priorities of a lesson or unit deliberately narrows content into a manageable stream. “Understandings” and “Essential Questions” help articulate and communicate the educational priorities. This, again, narrows focus and ensures that content is the means, and skill acquisition and transfer are the end.  The essential questions should be big ideas, not easily answered, used to drive inquiry of the lesson.  

According to the ASCD website, (http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109004/chapters/What-Makes-a-Question-Essential%A2.aspx) there are 7 elements to make a question essential.   Review the page and be sure to keep this points in mind as you write your Essential Questions.

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Step 2: Determine a method of assessment

In the second step, you decide how to assess learning. This assessment goes much deeper than a simple multiple-choice exam. It should measure a person’s ability to attain those educational goals and exhibit high-level learning.  Major assessments should examine several of the six key traits of deep learning identified by UbD:

  1.  Explanation

  2.  Interpretation

  3.  Application

  4.  Perspective

  5.  Empathy

  6.  Self-knowledge

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Deliberate assessment may not measure every time, but when significant learning needs to be examined, an assessment that requires a combination of these skills can help instructors to know if students understand material enough to transfer their knowledge outside of the classroom.

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Step 3: Plan instruction and learning experiences

Once you have created deliberate goals and identified assessment methods, plan individual learning experiences aligned to the educational goals and assessment with a deliberate focus on how those individual learning experiences support transfer, meaning making, and skill acquisition.

An important final step can be reflection. After the individual lessons or the unit as a whole, it is incredibly important to revisit that first step and measure how effectively the individual learning experiences aligned with the overall goals.

Now you have a rough idea of each step, you might be asking yourself what do I do to begin with the end in mind? or Plan for learning experiences?   The following site will allow you to take a deeper dive into the ideas and activities within those steps.  As you take some time to explore the site, think about how this approach differs from ADDIE and Dick & Carey, and potential advantages by starting with the end in mind.   Understanding By Design

UbD is a way of thinking purposefully about curricular planning and school reform. It offers a 3-stage design process, a set of helpful design tools, and design standards -- not a rigid program or prescriptive recipe. The primary goal of UbD is student understanding: the ability to make meaning of “big ideas” and transfer their learning.  UbD reflects a “continuous improvement” approach. The results of curriculum designs - student performance - informs needed adjustments.

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Explore an additional 2 of the following sites and readings on the Understanding by Design model. 

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