Main narrative and synthesis

Analysis of Learners and context

To gather information about the learner and instructional context of DepEd ALS Imus, I designed a Needs Assessment Form (Appendix B), which is answered after an interview with my gatekeeper, Mrs. Marilou Merino, and an online class observation with the students. I also gathered information through an evaluation of their documents, including the instructional materials of ALS and the Recognition of Prior Learning form. You may read my personal experience in my eJournal entry entitled Getting to Know DepEd ALS Imus City Part 1.

The learner analysis is anchored on the five fundamental characteristics that should be assessed among learners: entry knowledge and skills, prior knowledge of specific domain, attitude toward content and delivery, and academic motivation (Dick, Carey, and Carey, 2001, as cited in Doolittle, 2010). Meanwhile, the instructional and curricular contexts are anchored on the guide questions crafted by Doolittle (2010), such as the preferences of teachers and students in media instruction and the philosophies in which the instruction takes place. I customized these guide questions to further target the situation of the ALS teachers and learners.

These sources of evidence helped me unearth several problems surrounding DepEd ALS Imus City. But one instructional design project won't be able to solve numerous issues, both educational and organizational. I had to specify and narrow them down to make the instructional design project more targeted. Doing so also helped me refrain from having that "savior complex" or a mindset where I, an Iskolar ng Bayan from a position of privilege, try to "rescue" ALS students—who are mostly members of the adult dropouts and out-of-school youth—from every single issue they face. According to the Department of Education (n.d.), ALS practices community-based learning, giving me more reason not to make myself the center of this project. Instead, this project, specifically the needs analysis, comes from the ALS gatekeeper's and students' experiences, expertise, advice, and requests.

One major issue I found through my gatekeeper was that ALS Imus has been withholding the implementation of ALS' sixth learning strand: Digital Citizenship or Digital Literacy (LS6). The first time I went to DepEd ALS Imus City and had a casual talk with my gatekeeper, she instantly suggested that my project could focus on LS6 so that the learners will learn a few things from the subject before they graduate. I made sure to bring this up again during the formal interview I had with her. Her insights also gave me information about the instructional context of DepEd ALS Imus, especially one of the guide questions on the Needs Assessment form, "Do learners and teachers have enough resources for the current delivery system?" It should be noted that this question is a modification of Doolitle's guide question, "What media is available?" The gatekeeper mentioned that DepEd only provided two self-learning modules for LS6, then showed me an online repository of DepEd ALS' complete modules to prove it.

On the rare occasion that a teacher hosts an online learning session, they only discuss topics which the students find confusing. Then, the rest of the time was used to follow up on missed activities, evaluate submissions, and provide feedback. During my observation of the online session, the teacher mentioned all the required activities for every subjects and skipped LS6. It seems that the entire class does not even have an idea what LS6 covers and what it should be about. However, I noticed that students already have some sort of digital and technological skills because of the activities they had in previous subjects. The mix of young adults and working adults in the session can edit PDF documents, attach e-signatures on their Recognition of Prior Learning sheets, and edit videos for school requirements. These skills could be enhanced if only LS6 were implemented.

The gatekeeper also gave me the opportunity to check their Recognition of Prior Learning document for LS6 (Appendix I). It's a form or document that provides a checklist of competencies for every learning strand. Mobile teachers use this as a guide to record prior knowledge and provide individualized instruction for every learner. However, because of the poor student-to-teacher ratio, this document is not being followed to cater to the needs of every ALS learner. Because learners already know the basics of using specific technologies, the students and teachers agreed it's best for them to learn "values" attached to LS6. The closest possible topic we could tackle was Digital Ethics.

The two other problems were not explicitly mentioned by the gatekeeper and students. When I asked the learners what their motivation for studying was, they said they wanted to gain more career opportunities in the future and skills that will help them in their daily life. I checked their learning materials if these personal goals were being solved through the different ALS topics. While the content of different subjects are more on the practical/functional side—such as learning how to read medicine labels and segregate their trash for their Science subject instead of complex scientific concepts—the instructional materials' elements do not cater to their learning characteristics. The adult learners' materials resembled textbooks for schoolchildren that simply dictate what the student should learn then measure their learning through traditional standardized tests. This layout might also hinder them from maximizing their distance mode of delivery for the content, which the gatekeeper described as "overwhelming." The tone is not conversational, there are no estimates of study time, and there is no space for learners to write personal goals. These are essential features of distance learning materials that aid in learner autonomy despite minimal teacher presence.

The learning material is not designed for the construction worker student who only accesses the self-learning modules every Sunday on his day off. The overly rigid material is also not designed for the independent adult learner who proudly said, "ako bahala, Ma'am" while self-assessing and trying to catch up on learning activities. It's also not created for the learners who do not see their teacher as a bestower of knowledge through lectures, but as a facilitator who simply reminds students to finish their tasks. Most importantly, the inflexible and repressive self-learning module is not designed for the single mother, OFW, and other ALS students who come to school with a wealth of life experiences.

After conducting the interview and class observation and analyzing the learning materials, I went back on my Needs Assessment Form to ensure all aspects of the learner, instructional, learning material, and curricular contexts were covered. I narrowed down the problems that can be solved through an instructional design project and came up with the three main issues.

Designing the instruction

After establishing the main problems (non-implementation of Digital Citizenship and unsuitability of instruction to adult learning and distance learning principles), I started designing the design blueprint and instructional plan. This document will serve as the backbone of my entire project, making sure that every decision I make is based on theory and maximized to address the needs of DepEd ALS Imus City.

First, I created a review of related literature. I did my research on the basic tenets of Adult Learning Theory and distance learning principles. The Theory of Adult Learning, also known as the Andragogical Theory, is proposed by Malcolm Knowles and is based on the idea that adult learners learn differently from schoolchildren because of their changes in self-concept. They are problem-centered and motivated by personal factors, such as professional development.

I realized how Knowles' 6 Characteristics of Adult Learner (in Commonwealth of Learning, 2005) perfectly describe the ALS learners. For instance, he states that adults are motivated by personal factors. They study not because they are told by their parents or because they want to get good grades. The ALS students study so they can have more career opportunities and overcome poverty.

I also looked for similar instructional design initiatives that used an andragogical framework, hoping I can learn from their strengths and weaknesses. Most of the projects used Adult Learning Theory for developing courses that use "real-life situations," such as Eyitayo's ICT information resource (2013) and Villamil's English course for the elderly (2018). This theory is also relevant to the topic of Digital Ethics because it helps the adult learner acquire functional skills on the ethical use of information technologies in real life. For instance, they can easily apply their understanding of digital ethics in using social media, teaching their children, avoiding fake news, and in their workplace.

But why would I use Knowles' theory when two ALS students were only sixteen and seventeen years old? Knowles does not consider a specific age for the adult learner. While these students have not yet attained legal adulthood, their capacity to set their own learning goals, study independently, and perform self-assessments while being mature in status and experience qualifies them as adult learners. However, relying solely on the theorist and my interpretation of his ideas will only make me overstate my relevance in this project. It's always important to consult the ALS teacher and students since they hold more knowledge about their lived experiences. When I engaged in dialogue with them, they instantly agreed.

I used the Commonwealth of Learning's guidelines for creating online and distance learning materials for two reasons. First, it's the only resource that guides instructional designers in making distance learning materials based on pedagogical principles. Other resources merely focused on the layout and format of the material, while the others could not provide specific steps. Some also concentrate on e-learning materials, which are completely different from distance learning materials. Second, of the many pedagogical theories, Commonwealth of Learning's guidelines focus on how adults learn and some recommended activity tasks for them.

Instead of using Digital Ethics, I changed the title of the topic to The ALS Student as an Ethical Digital Citizen because the content will focus on real-life scenarios they might experience as ALS students.

At the end of the module, the learner should be able to:

explain the meaning of digital ethics, its importance, and how to minimize negative online behaviors by giving real-life examples in an essay.
distinguish ethical versus unethical behavior as a user of digital technology through a ten-item identification quiz.
practice respectful conduct when using the internet by developing their own digital ethics oath.

To summarize, here are some strategies I used to apply the Adult Learning Theory and the Commonwealth of Learning's Guidelines for Distance Learning Materials.

1. Designating a space for learners to write personal goals. This helps adult learners concretize their goals while taking ownership and responsibility of their learning.

2. Pre-activities. These reflective questions at the start of every subtopic tap into their personal experience so they can make references for what they are about to learn.

3. "Why" and "How" content. Adult learners do not want to know the technical definition of digital ethics. They need to learn the importance of digital ethics and how they can be more ethical in using digital technologies. For instance, the subtopic for Day 2 is How to Prevent Being a Victim of Computer Fraud, which is a practical life skill that directly benefits them as card holders, social media users, and adults in general.

4. Using Personal Experiences. Activity 1 asks the learners to list down activities they do on the internet so they can draw on their personal experience. Activity 2, which asks learners to explain what digital ethics means for them, also helps them relate the topic to their personal life. This activity also sees considers assessment as not merely a way to quantify knowledge.

5. Collaboration. Adults understand the importance of collaboration in the workplace and in other social contexts. While Activity 3 is traditional because the items are consistent with pre-determined answers, the items are still based on real-life scenarios like "Giving Google Drive account to a classmate."

6. Digital Ethics Oath. This activity asks for concrete action plans so the adult ALS learners can apply what they have learned from the topic. It's based on the notion that adults like to know how the training will have an immediate application and benefit for them.

7. Self-Assessment. Adults can evaluate themselves because of their high self-efficacy from their previous knowledge and wealth of experience. This allows them to monitor their performance so they can go back to topics that require improvement or ask for assistance from the teacher. It will also help them check if they have achieved their personal goals.

8. Estimates of Study Time. This allows the distance learner to organize their time and establish healthy, independent study habits.

9. Learning outcomes instead of learning objectives. Distance learning materials should be specific and pre-prepared because they are for learners' use and not for the teacher. Moreover, adults are self-directed and instantly want to learn why they should learn something.

10. Divided subtopics into three days to take advantage of the cognitive load theory. This allows the distance learners to remember large amounts of information better.

11. Conversational tone in writing helps the learner be more motivated while easily understanding the content of the self-instructional material. Words like "Congratulations!" or "Can you think of other examples?" either reward the learners or guide them into higher levels of thinking.

12. Summary in the end determines the essential ideas for the student to remember with little to no teacher presence. It also consolidates important details that support those ideas.

13. Synchronous live learning sessions but only to discuss confusing topics and activities and share personal experiences regarding the topic. This is based on the idea that the teacher's role is not a holder of knowledge and students are not passive recipients.

See the PDF file below or Appendix C: Project Proposal and Design Blueprint for the complete design blueprint and instructional plan. This document further explains Adult Learning Theory and the Commonwealth of Learning's Guidelines for Creating Distance Learning Materials, possible arguments against their use in my project, and my counter-arguments for them.

The document also features the complete activities for the implementation from Day 1 to Day 4. I drew a table showing the alignment of learning objectives, content, and assessment methods based on the levels of thinking prescribed by Bloom (Armstrong, 2010)