Case Study: Reviewing MLA Style Guide (eLearning/job aid)
This three-part Rise course (plus quiz) was designed in Rise to be mobile-friendly and searchable for high school and college students addressing their learning gaps in MLA formatting. Particularly, it was made to fit a need in my school’s IB program related to Extended Essays. The version shown here is a web publish version stripped of the locks and data-collection parts used in the SCORM. It also had a visual update to some of the decorative pieces as I learned to use Rise/Storyline further, though the content was originally effective so remained similar.
Responsibilities: Facilitation (related to topic), Needs Assessment, Data Analysis, Project Management, Consensus Building with Stakeholders, Instructional Design, eLearning Design and Development, Video Recording and Editing, Implementation in Canvas LMS (LMS Administration), and Evaluation/Data Analysis for Case Study Results
Tools Used: Articulate Rise 360, Articulate Storyline, Loom, YouTube, Adobe Illustrator, SnagIt, Canva, Google Docs, and SCORM/LMS (Canvas)
Date Completed: December 2021 v1, January 2022 v2 seen here (Case Study Information Updated September 2022)
About the Project
The Project: This was a real world learning solution that came from needs assessment with my IB team at school. To further conduct gap analysis, we noted common student issues with citations and formatting on end of course assessments. We implemented traditional lessons but found that the information needed to be accessible to students for review. The choice to use eLearning was driven by a desire to create a more effective ongoing resource for the moment of need than merely linking students to websites or guides.
My Skills: This showcases my ability to solve a problem by developing a learning solution as well as conduct needs analysis and gap analysis. In this case, the need was identified across our entire school-wide IB program. You can also see a Kirkpatrick style evaluation framework in my case study write up below. Whenever I can, I like to evaluate and iterate in order to make learning solutions more effective over time and understand if the problem was addressed. You can also see my style in Rise.
This project was a success at relieving pain points for educators by improving student citation skills.
Case Study Reflection
Analysis Phase
I was inspired to work on this topic based on consistent pain points discussed by our entire IB (International Baccalaureate) faculty, particularly Extended Essay supervisors. The initial needs assessment determined the core problems leading to instructor frustration with IB Extended Essay projects, where students were unable to create references appropriately despite receiving prior, documented instruction in the classroom. This was a gap that persisted for several years before I took it on as a project. As you’ll see later in the results, this project was well-designed and helped almost immediately.
Learner Profile: The audience I designed for were our IB students, high school students completing college-level work in a program designed to build their skills towards college and career and help them work autonomously on high-level tasks, including a researched based Extended Essay or Reflective Project task. In this case, the students were likely to access the course on mobile, likely to reference the course while working on papers, and interested in learning this skill as they found it relevant to their needs. These learning profile considerations were crucial to design choices. However, I believe this could be an effective MLA resource for any college writing program as well.
Problem/Solution: Students persistently struggle to remember citation rules when it is time to write their internal assessments, extended essays, and other assessments. In particular, on IB assessments, teachers are not supposed to “copy edit” and correct grammar/formatting line by line on those pieces before they are submitted. As such, Extended Essay supervisors were frustrated students lacked basic formatting and citation skills. Students also lacked technology skills to apply formatting, such as hanging indents, even when they knew they should be formatting.
Measurement Planning: This training would be considered a success if Extended Essay supervisors reported a reduction in MLA formatting errors in students’ projects.
Design & Development
I determined a Rise course would be a good tool since it would be accessible on mobile and would work with the text, images, and videos needed. This way, students could reference it as they needed as well. Rise is also a searchable tool, which makes it good for a recurring resource. I designed a three-part Rise course with a simple assessment at the end that could be implemented and tracked through SCORM in my LMS. I added the Storyline modules later for checks that were not ideal to implement in Rise directly.
Challenges:
Lots of Information: Chunking for cognitive load and future reference was essential. I considered the category organization and decided on General, In-text Citations, and Works Cited.
Dual Use: Teachers wanted to use this in instruction, but we originally envisioned a resource. As such, it was going to do “double duty” and needed some interactions rather than just pure searchable information. I tried to add only meaningful interactions and not over-do it but vary the interactions appropriately to the situation. I incorporated a brief scenario, flashcards, knowledge checks, and sorting. The interactions should help chunk the course as well, giving students a time to stop and consider the information. The resource version is the one shared here, where everything is “unlocked”. The instruction version has locked Continue buttons.
Accessibility: This was my first time using Rise, so I had to plan for new forms of accessibility outside our LMS, such as captioning and alt-text considerations.
Implementation
English teachers in the IB program had students use the tutorial in January 2022. The implementation went smoothly and was delivered through our LMS (Canvas) as a SCORM file, but also available to students on an Extended Essay Canvas (linked as a web file and interactive PDF), where they could download and reference it, as well as linked through a newsletter. Students were surveyed on the course and their progress in Extended Essays was also tracked.
Evaluation
Level 1: Students had overwhelmingly positive feedback and liked the tool, with nearly every student survey saying it was more effective than their previous traditional lessons on the same topic (68%) or equally effective (32%). Only 1 student said it was less effective.
Level 2: Within the course, a check for proficiency was collected and analyzed by English teachers. 86% of learners scored proficient on the quiz at the end and 74% turned in an accurate product in writing on the first try (there was a writing task at our school that has to be graded by a person and isn’t in the course) to show formatting knowledge. The majority of students who did not get proficient on the first try went back and scored 100% eventually on the quiz. Within 2 weeks, 92% of students had fixed errors in the practice task upon review of the resource, showing application to an essay task.
Level 3: English teachers observed student behavioral changes. They noted a reduction in MLA errors in classroom assignments in the Spring of 2022. Though the previous error amount was not tracked, 11 of 12 English teachers surveyed said errors had reduced (7 “dramatically reduced” and 4 “reduced somewhat”). Only 1 teacher saw no change.
Level 4: This data is from senior students (89 total) only, not the whole student group. In final draft assessments, 23 out of 25 Extended Essay supervisors expressed that their students used citations perfectly or adequately this year, compared to 9 who said that students had done so in prior years. Every student also received a passing score or higher on their Extended Essay, though the assessment scoring does not isolate feedback to this skill (it is holistic).
Credits & Resources
Images in this project were sourced from paid subscriptions to Canva, as well as Adobe free images. Screenshot images and videos were of documents written and developed by me as student samples and one student sample given by permission from a fantastic IB graduate of 2021. Thanks to Grace for the use of her essay in this program and permission to show the clips on my website.
Audio and video in this project were produced by me in properly licensed tools. I produced this with an understanding it would be published on this and future portfolios.
References
Purdue Writing Lab. “MLA Formatting and Style Guide /Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab, Purdue University , 2021, owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html