Main narrative and synthesis (pArt 2)

Development of materials

The ALS Student as an Ethical Digital Citizen is an instructional design project that aims to create teaching and instructional materials for the ALS learners of Imus, Cavite for their Learning Strand 6: Digital Citizenship (LS6). As the first topic under LS6 that the students will encounter, it must equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills for using digital technologies ethically.

 

The two materials I developed include the Teacher’s Guide (Appendix E) and the Self-Learning Module (Appendix D). The Teacher’s Guide is simple and conventional, comprising the necessary elements that a teacher needs to make the 4-day implementation successful. These include the following:

 

• guidelines for preparing for the implementation

• suggested schedule of implementation

• the materials that the teacher needs

• The reminders and announcements she will give the students on the first day

• Daily tasks (including the tasks for the live group session)

• Answer key to the learning activities 

• What to do after the implementation.

 

Such sections provide the teacher with a clear structure for the implementation while also leaving room for her to make other decisions. After all, the teacher knows the instructional context and learners best.

 

The Teacher’s Guide also guarantees that she maintains her presence despite the distance learning setup. Despite the learners being solely reliant on the self-learning modules during the first three days of the implementation, the Teacher’s Guide reminds the educator to be active in the group chat for concerns that the students may have.

 

I believe this is the phase where I focus more on the technical aspects of the materials. The process of developing the Self-Learning Module took careful consideration of the principles of instructional media resources. I made sure each sub-topic has pre-activities and post-activities aligned with the objectives to become more engaging. I also followed the guidelines regarding visuals, making sure the font style, size, and color are readable. The images I used were also properly cited and formatted in the digital learning material. 

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I also found the 12 Principles for Reducing Extraneous Load by Mayer and Fiore (2014) valuable because the ALS learners should only process information from the materials that are relevant. As adult and distance learners with other life endeavors, they need to maximize their study time for understanding concepts and quickly applying them without all the fuss. These principles state that extraneous overload occurs when "essential cognitive processing and extraneous cognitive processing exceed the learner's cognitive capacity" (Mayer & Fiore, 2014). 

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For instance, I followed the Signaling Principle which states that learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential materials are added. I made sure the self-instructional material has clear headings and subheadings to separate each subtopic and introduce them appropriately.

 

Two problems I encountered while developing the materials are not being able to incorporate other media formats and not taking advantage of open educational sources for revising and remixing, as what Wiley (2009) would suggest. My initial plan was to create a video for the learners about internet addiction so I can apply my skills in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia. Since the gatekeeper gave a tight deadline, my last resort was to use a video from YouTube that aligns with the learning objective. But I made sure this video, along with the other sources I used are reliable and properly cited. I also tweaked some parts of the content to be more suitable to the experiences and characteristics of ALS learners. For example, I replaced the sample scenarios on the topic "Netiquettes" to reflect day-to-day activities that the ALS students may encounter. 

 

In the end, I was able to overcome the problems and finish the materials on time. (See 4th eJournal entry for my personal experience). It was all made possible because of my meaningful dialogues with my gatekeeper and a few students. I consulted them back and forth regarding the materials to understand which parts require changes. After all, these self-learning modules were produced for specifically foe the ALS adult and distance learners' use and not for mere scholarly presentation.

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Pre-Implementation

After proofreading the materials developed and having the educator approve of them, I started creating the group chat for the learners plus the teacher, Mrs. Marilou Merino. She gave me a list of the hundreds of students she handles. However, not all of them were active. So we consulted her group chats for different barangays and included them in one new group. The total number of members is 46, including me and the teacher. I also created a Google Drive where the learners will submit their finished Self-Learning Modules.

 

I conducted a brief meeting with her about the implementation. We went over the teacher’s guide, reminding her of to check on the students every day through the group chat. We also discussed the plan for the group live session. I informed her that it should be just like her usual online calls with students about wrapping the topic up, giving feedback for their activities, and catching up on other subjects. There is no need to conduct an entire lecture because the Self-Learning Module should be enough. 

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Implementation

The implementation was held from June 1-4, 2022. On the first day, the teacher distributed the self-learning modules to the learners and gave them the necessary reminders based on the Teacher’s Guide, e.g., submit the module on or before June 3, 2022, work with assigned partner. 

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The goal for the first day was for students to input their personal goals for the topic and start with the first sub-topic. The space for personal goals reinforces the idea that they are self-directed adult learners who can apply their learnings in different aspects of their lives. And their answers were able to prove that. Below are random samples of students’ personal goals.

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