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The Integration of a SCORM-Designed, Digital Learning Object with Coursesites for a 21st Century Earth Science Classroom

Andrew Marcy

EDUC 586: Multimedia and Instructional Design State University of New York: College at Oneonta

3 April 2018

The Integration of a SCORM-designed DLO with Coursesites

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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3 Product Description ........................................................................................................................ 3 Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 Design Planning (DDDE) .................................................................................................................. 7

Decide Phase: .............................................................................................................................. 7 Design Phase: .............................................................................................................................. 8 Develop Phase:............................................................................................................................ 9 Evaluate Phase: ......................................................................................................................... 10

Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Sources .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Appendix I: Peer Review Transcript………………………………………………………………………………………….13 Appendix II: Design (Flowchart) .................................................................................................... 14


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Introduction

In the 21st century, there are many tools that students have access to. The tools relating

to the field of education are numerous. In order for a teacher to create a courseware product

that their students can use across different learning management systems, these product need

to be produced with certain guidelines. In this case, SCORM guidelines are the most useful

when creating a courseware product. SCORM gives the ability of the digital learning object to

be seamlessly transferred to any types of learning management systems. This paper will focus

on the integration of a SCORM-designed, digital learning object with Coursesites for a 10th

grade Earth science classroom.

Product Description

The learning problem that this courseware product can help solve is students’ ability to

summarize one lesson worth of content. For example, students in the classroom can complete

various tasks and assignments, but they have difficulty summarizing the most important or

essential concepts from the lesson. To help practice this skills, students will complete an

assignment that requires them to take notes from a PowerPoint slideshow and complete a

summary on the 3 more important content concepts. The type of courseware product for this

lesson would be a cross between “skill n drill” and “tutorial”. When used effectively, this would

not be the first time the courseware product goal would be presented to the students. For

example, the students in the classroom should already be used to, and comfortable with,

creating summaries based on readings, content assignments, etc.… This product is a way for


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students to work on this skill by completing another type of practice problem with their

preferred technological device.

The content standards addressed in this courseware product are from the NYS Earth

Science Core Curriculum and the ISTE*S (Student) Standards. The NYS Earth Science Core

Curriculum standards are:

Key Idea 2: Many of the phenomena that we observe on Earth involve interactions

among components of air, water, and land.

Performance Indicator 2.1p: Landforms are the result of the interaction of

tectonic forces and the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition.

ISTE*S Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency.

a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate,

synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media c. Evaluate and

select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks d.

Process data and report results.

Students will be required to take notes from the PowerPoint Slideshow on content

information on Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition of rock material. The PowerPoint

slideshow has information and images relating to the specific content material for the students.

The information on weathering, erosion, and deposition has been modified and created to be

more accessible for the students by minimizing the amount of words for each of the topics. The

students will need to write their own set of notes based on the slideshow. Then, students will

need to summarize the 3 main concepts from the slideshow and write that in the form

provided. This task is aligned with ISTE*S Standard 3 Research and Information Fluency. The


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task allows the students to work with the content information and analyze the information to

create a summary of the important, or essential, concepts.

The target audience for this product is 10th grade students who are taking the Earth

science course. In this audience are 3 different types of users. The first type of user are the high

level/high-functioning students. These students can use the content information to make a

summary to show their grasp on the content provided. The second type of user are the low

level/low-functioning students. These students will most likely need to use the content

information, but also the images to help show their grasp of the content. The third type of user

are the ELL (English Language Learner) students. The ELL students will need to try and

understand the content information presented in English, but must also use the images to try

and grasp the summary of the content information provided.

The courseware product for this lesson has been purposefully designed to incorporate

specific technological considerations for a 21st century student. The design for any educational

product for the 21st century student needs to be created with HTML5 and a SCORM design

package within any learning management system. A SCORM package is a set of rules and

guidelines that the programmer uses when designing the program. SCORM is best because it

allows all types of devices to access the program. For example, if someone wanted to open a

word document on a Mac laptop, they would get an error message that there is no application

to open the document. This is because the application that understand the document’s internal

codes is not available on a mac. The concept of having the right tool to open the package is

extremely important when designing any educational product. The best way to make sure that

this type of error does not occur is with a SCORM package. This is because SCORM packages are


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made with a set of codes that can be used between all different types of programs. This is also

why SCORM packages are a better way to integrate educational technology. This courseware

has also been made with HTML5, and not flash. This was created purposefully because HTML5

is able to work on mobile devices so the students can access this courseware product from any

location.

In sum, the PowerPoint is considered the DLO (Digital Learning Object) for the students

to work with because it has content information and images that are accessed with a

technological device. Then, iSpring, which is considered the authoring tool, was made to allow

students to open the content and write a summary based on the content. The authoring tool is

able to export this as a SCORM package. Lastly, the SCORM package has been uploaded to

Coursesites. Coursesites is a LMS (Learning Management System), that gives users (students) a

username and password to access the files that the teacher gives.

Literature Review

The learning goal for this courseware product is for students to be able to learn the

content standard by analyzing information from words and pictures. They will then be able to

write a summary based on the information given. “The ability to write clearly and correctly is

essential for students both in college and as they enter the workforce” (O'Neill & Gravois,

2017). This is important because the skills used in this courseware product allow for students to

practice their writing skills. In particular, their ability to use evidence-based claims in their

writing. “The main point of this activity is that students are making observations and they get

directly involved with the phenomena” (Senan, 2013). This relates to a science classroom


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because the students needs to make observation on the images that are given. For example,

when they see the before and after images of the statue of liberty they can analyze them both

based on their observation of color. The images when the statue of liberty was brand new are a

bright copper color. The images of the statue of liberty now, are a pale green color. Students

will be able to use their observations of color to make their evidence-based claim on how

chemical weathering affected the statue of liberty over time.

Design Planning (DDDE)

Decide Phase:

The standards and instructional goals are aligned with both the NYS Earth Science Core

Curriculum Standards and the ISTE*S Standards. The task for these students is to learn new

information on the concepts of weathering, erosion, and deposition of a landscape. This is NYS

Earth Science Core Curriculum Standard 4, Performance Indicator 2.1p: Landforms are the

result of the interaction of tectonic forces and the processes of weathering, erosion, and

deposition. The students will also need to take the information from the content and the

images and create a summary by analyzing the information given. This is aligned with ISTE*S

Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency. The learning outcome for this lesson is for

students to be able to describe the key difference between weathering, erosion, and

deposition. In order to complete this task, students will need a technological device that has a

basic internet connection to Coursesites. From there, students can open the SCORM package

and no longer need the internet connection. Also, because this product has been designed with

HTML5, the students can access from their iOS or mobile devices. In terms of the content


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standard being addressed students will need to use some prior knowledge on basic

information on rocks and minerals from the unit before. For example, students will need to

understand that calcite will bubble with acid from the Earth Science Reference Tables and that

Talc is a very soft mineral. This is important when determining the different between physical

and chemical weathering. At the end of this learning task, students will be given a section to

complete a summary. This summary will act as a small quiz grade. In order to complete the

summary, students will need to use their prior knowledge on how to write a summary using

evidence-based claims (EBC’s). Students will be graded on their ability to create 3 EBC’s to

determine the differences between weathering, erosion, and deposition.

Design Phase:

The design for the task and courseware product for this lesson has been designed with

the Professional Online Virtual Lectures from ck-12. The three design considerations are Writing

Skills (Chapter 6), Technology Access (Chapter 5), and Accessibility (Chapter 5). The first design

consideration, writing skills, is addressed by having students create the summary of the content

information being presented. Students will use evidence-based claims to create their

summaries. The second design consideration, technology access, is addressed by creating this

task with a HTML5 SCORM package. The type of package used for this course is important

because it allows students with any type of device to access the content. Also, the SCORM

package allows the students to access the package with any learning management system. In

this case, Coursesites is the learning management system. The third design consideration,

accessibility, is addressed by allowing students to access the content information through the

words on the PowerPoint, as well as, the images. Students with varying levels of abilities will


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have an opportunity to use the content with either the words or the images to create their

summaries.

The design for this courseware product has also been created with 3 of Richard Mayer’s

13 Principles. The 3 principles are Temporal Contiguity, Spatial Contiguity, and the Multimedia

Principle. The first principle, Temporal Contiguity is that students learn better when the

pictures and words are shown simultaneously. This is addressed in this lesson by having the

pictures and the words on the same screen when the students are scrolling through the

slideshow. The second principle, Spatial Contiguity, is that students learn better when words

and pictures are shown closer together on the screen, rather than far away. This is addressed

by having the words and pictures on the screen right next to each other. This way students

know which words are corresponding to which pictures on the screen. The third principle,

Multimedia, is that students learn better when there are both words and pictures on the

screen. This is addressed by having each slide on the PowerPoint created with both pictures and

words.

The design for this courseware product is shown in Appendix A, as the flowchart.

Students will follow this flowchart to gain access to Coursesites and open the SCORM package

to complete their task.

Develop Phase:

To develop this task, the design considerations were emailed to two other science

teachers. The review from both science teachers were positive in that the images and words

used on the PowerPoint were directly related to the tier 3 vocabulary words used on the NYS

Earth Science Regents Examination. One teacher made a comment to highlight some of the


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words that are most important so the low-level students can still access the information and

guide them on the most important concepts.

Evaluate Phase:

The best way to evaluate the effectiveness of the courseware product that has been

created is to gain insight from the people who will be using it most, the students. Once the

courseware product is implemented, the students will complete the task that is assigned to

them. Then, in class, more expanded reviews will be completed by the students to gain insight

on what they enjoyed most and what they enjoyed least. The submissions from the students

will then be compiled and analyzed to produce common themes. These themes will then be

sent to the same teachers who helped during the development phase to further develop and

evaluate the courseware product.

Summary

It is evident that students need various skills to be successful in high-school, college, and

in the work force. The DLO for this courseware product will help students practice their

research and writing skills. The information and content in the courseware product also helps

the students with the content information necessary to prepare for the NYS Earth Science

Regents Examination. Together, both the writing skills, and content information can help

prepare a students’ skills to be successful in high-school, college, and in the work force.

The courseware product has been designed with HTML5 and SCORM design

considerations to allow students to thrive in a 21st century learning environment. It is important

that teachers who wish to create courseware product use SCORM and HTML5 to allow for


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seamless integration of their digital learning objects, as well as, making sure the courseware

product is mobile friendly.


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Sources O'Neill, K. S., & Gravois, R. (2017). Using a Focus on Revision to Improve Students' Writing

Skills. Journal Of Instructional Pedagogies, 19

Senan, D. C. (2013). Infusing BSCS 5E Instructional Model with Multimedia: A Promising

Approach to Develop 21st Century Skills. Journal On School Educational

Technology, 9(2), 1-7.


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Appendix I: Peer Review of Multimedia Plan Teacher 1: “The idea you have seems really well put-together. I think that the design you have

works well because it aligns exactly with the NYS Earth Science Regents Exam. I think that some

students might struggle with it at first, but once you build that culture your students wil enjoy

this”

Teacher 2: “I think that this will work great. I like how you added the summary section as a type

of formative assessment. I also think I like how you are using the specific vocabulary on the

regents exam. I think one bit of advice would be to highlight some of the key words you would

like your students to really remember”


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Appendix II: Design (Flowchart)

Login to Coursesites with Username and Password

Click on the SCORM Courseware product (Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Notes)

Read Task: Summarize the following notes with 3 individual ideas or concepts

Students will read notes, observe images, and write down notes/observations made

Students write a summary using evidence-based claims

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