LAN Academy
April 1st 2014
Pilot Proposal
To:
Guyanese Ministry of Education
Hon. Priya Manickchand
68 Brickdam, Georgetown, Guyana
For: Massive Open Online Courses 1.0
Introduction
2.0
Background
3.0 Implementation 4.0
Goals
5.0
Proposal Overview
6.0
Conclusion
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Introduction
1.0
The presented proposal outlines the creation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for the Department of Education of Guyana. Beginning with a pilot after-school program using tenth graders within the Guyanese School system this program hopes to create guidelines and strategies for the creation of a nationwide multimedia on-line and off-line platform. This proposal outlines some of the considerations for the design of this system and logistics needed to complete a nationwide project and subsequent pilot program.
Background
2.0
LAN Academy Inc. is a Boston-based nonprofit that develops digital education technology for secondary-school students around the world. Our main research focus is on blended learning, a relatively new field of education instruction characterized by the combination of on-line/ digital learning resources, rich on-line educational communities and traditional teacher-driven instruction. As a non-profit we are looking to create universal learning centers that are extremely accessible and engaging students in developing countries.
With the support of the Guyanese government LAN Academy is looking to pilot our newest software on the national level. After identifying and visiting two schools, St. Ignatius in Lethem and North Georgetown Secondary School in Georgetown, which fit directly into our program we are excited to begin this process where-ever is possible.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Implementation
3.0
The pilot program will begin with two groups of tenth grade students who will each take four courses based on Caribbean Examinations Council(CXC) standards on their local labs computers. Each student will take a pre and post CXC examination to help monitor how effective the program was during each course. These groups will function as the center of our continued user research to evaluate the layout of courses, navigation, and grading of our platform to best fit our students.
Goals
4.0
• Observe and measure the effects of our learning intervention on the participating students
• Further develop our blended learning training program for computer lab supervisors
• Build a proposal on the result of this that assess the feasibility of using LAN Academy software and framework at the national scale in Guyana, either on-line or school-localized
• Identify potential issues that might occur in a national roll-out of this program and preemptively prepare solutions
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LAN Academy
Proposal Overview
5.0
To develop the pilot program effectively LAN Academy will develop an initial system off of our existing software that we will shape into a more effective and extensive program that can be expanded to the national scale. This initial system will try to address some of the problems that the Ministry of Education faces in developing a MOOC.
Guyana as a developing country has a high literacy rate with over ninety percent of the population having attended some form of school up to the age of fifteen. With this impressive statistic also comes the fact that only a very small percentage of the population has regular internet access. This presents the problem creating an interface that is accessible to those that have little to no experience with web or software interfaces.
Another problem that this pilot looks to solve is the retention of information and interest in a subject or series of subjects for an extended period of time on an electric learning platform. Many studies find that solely reading text off a screen for hours is not an effective system for teaching young adults due to the fact that all sense of engagement and excitement is lost. A related problem is that there is no universal system for teaching every subject. LAN Academy looks to solve this problem through the implementation of a highly intuitive and directed interface exclusively designed for Guyanese students.
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LAN Academy
Navigation
5.1
The navigation of the proposed system is an essential part of creating an effective MOOC. Creating a successful layout for moving from one part of the website to another is a task that requires a focus on streamlined learn-ability as a well as focus on extensive usability for students and teachers without regular access to computers. To achieve this and avoid confusion, the navigation will be present at all times and will be located along the left, top, and right of the screen in colored bars.
The top navigation bar is the main source of navigation of the site with three main buttons: Courses (Figure 1) , Home (Figure 2) , and User (Figure 3). The Course link, located in the top left of the screen, will take you to the Course page which will outline and provide links to all of the presented courses, along with highlighting whatever course was last worked on. The Home link, located in the center of the top navigation bar, will take the user to the website homepage. This is where one will log in if the user has not already done and is also where the main information about the site will be located. The User link, located in the top right of the screen, will take the user to a personalized page that will show the progress and achievements of the user. These links provide a straightforward and safe way to navigate the website and make it assessable to almost anyone.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy Figure 1
Courses
Figure 2
Figure 3
Home
John Bill
Entry
Home
User Page Courses
Biology
Economics
Geography
Chemistry Learning Center
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Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Chapter 1
Section 4
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Chapter 2
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Chapter 3
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LAN Academy
Navigation
5.1
The left navigation bar (Figure 4) will be comprised of all of the courses offered and will also highlight the current course and section that the student is currently accessing. To do this clearly drop-down menus will organize the course and highlighted color changes will show the students current location in the website. For example if the student is currently studying section 3.2 of Biology then the Biology section will be opened and the 3.2 section will be differentiated by color. This is included to give the user a sense of position inside the overall course and program. Often in a website an inexperienced user can get lost navigating many pages and become frustrated. To avoid this frustration and to help retain a narrative of learning in which one lesson builds on the next, the navigation will streamline movement from one learning environment to the next.
The right navigation bar (Figure 5) will target the user. Since the focus is to retain interest and information this section will highlight the students’ progress, points, accomplishments, and notes for the current section. This area aims to help motivate the student through the idea of self-efficacy by reminding them of what they have already accomplished, what they have gained by doing so, and convincing them that the system has realistic goals. The bar will also include a discussion area where students can communicate with the teacher and other students about questions they might have pertaining to the material.
These three menus will scroll with the page whenever the user scrolls. This prevents the navigation from being hidden and provides a component of the static and reliable part of courses that will be using many different mediums to teach. Each button in the three menus will be labeled with a name and a direct symbol of what each button does.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Courses
John Bill Experience Points:
-+=/
$
Mathamatics
Economics
Biology
2000 Recent Badges:
Last Completed Section: Biology: Chapter 1, Section 1
Figure 4
Geography Class Disscusion
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Section 1 Section 2
Mark: What is an Ionic Bond? An Ionic bonding is a type of chemical bonding that involves the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions. These ions represent atoms that have lost one or more electrons and atoms that have gained one or more electrons
Section 3
Chapter 4
Type your question
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
Figure 5
LAN Academy
Course Template
5.2
The course content will be located in the center of the web page and will come up after selecting any of the courses from the navigation bars. At the top of the center page there will be tabs to showing information about the current course and the different learning environments.
These three tabs will be labeled Learning (Figure 6), Research (Figure 7) , and Discussion (Figure 8) and will navigate the user between controlled contained reading (Learning), exploration (Research), and community learning respectively (Discussion). One of these tabs will always be lighter and will be connected in color to the background of the rest of the content page to show what page the user is currently on.
The Learning tab will be the main center of material for the course and will feature videos, quizzes, lesson discussions, and text whenever anyone clicks on a section or chapter. This section will be tailored to the current course and will feature a learning environment which best fits the material. By engaging in these features through actions such as answering questions, watching videos, and finishing quizzes a student can earn “experience points”. These experience points add up to badges and accomplishments that will be displayed on a student’s profile and User navigation bar. Over lessons they will build up to a set number for the section which will determine if the student can take the a quiz to finish the section. These features allow for a more controlled sense of progression while also allowing a teacher to keep track of where all of his or her students are in their engagement and progression in understanding.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Figure 7
Figure 6
Learning
Research
Figure 9
Figure 8
Discussion
43% Complete
Biology: Chapter 1, Section 2 Section 1
Section 2
Introduction Ionic bonding is the complete transfer of valence electron(s) between atoms. It is a type of chemical bond that generates two oppositely charged ions. In ionic bonds, the metal loses electrons to become a positively charged cation, whereas the non-metal accepts those electrons to become a negatively charged anion. Ionic bonds require an electron donor, metal, and an electron acceptor, nonmetal. Ionic Bonding is observed because metals have few electrons in its outer-most orbital. By losing those electrons, these metals can achieve noble-gas configuration and satisfy the octet rule. Similarly, nonmetals that have close to 8 electrons in its valence shell tend to readily accept electrons to achieve its noble gas configuration. In ionic bonding, more than 1 electron can be donated or received to satisfy the octet rule. The charge on the anion and cation corresponds to the number of electrons donated or received. In ionic bonds, the net charge of the compound must be zero. This sodium molecule donates the lone electron in its valence orbital in order to achieve octet configuration. This creates a positively charged cation due to the loss of electron. This Chlorine molecule receives one electron to achieve its octet configuration. This creates a negatively charged anion due to the addition of one electron. The predicted overall energy of the ionic bonding process, which includes the ionization energy of the metal and electron affinity of the nonmetal, is usually positive, indicating that the reaction is endothermic and unfavorable. However, this reaction is highly favorable because of their electrostatic attraction. At the most ideal inter-atomic distance, attraction between these particles releases enough energy to facilitate the reaction. Most ionic compounds tend to dissociate in polar solvents because they are often polar. This phenomenon is due to the opposite charges on each ions.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
Section 3
LAN Academy
Course Template
5.2
The Research tab will be accessed whenever a student clicks on the tab or on a link within the Learning text, and will display a localized Wikipedia page on that subject. From there the student can further explore interest in that relevant localized area of study by moving to related pages. This allows a student to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the knowledge surrounding a certain lesson or section by giving them the chance to see the things that directly relate to what they are studying.
The Discussion tab will feature discussions put forth by students and teachers to help answer questions that are not covered by the course itself. Here students can engage with their classmates on problems they had and ideas they want to share. This is also an area where a teacher can place assignments such as peer reviews or group projects to engage a more communal learning environment.
To the right of these tabs will be a line with nodes of progress , highlighting the lessons within the section that have been completed. These nodes will be click-able, allowing the user to move back and forth between lessons easily. This bar will also give the user a greater understanding of his or her progress through that chapter or section in a course.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Home
Courses Figure 7
Figure 6
John Bill Figure 9
Figure 8
Experience Points:
-+=/
$
Mathamatics
Economics
Biology
Geography
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Figure 4
Chapter 3 Section 1 Section 2 Section 3
Learning
Research
Discussion
43% Complete
Biology: Chapter 1, Section 2 Section 1
Section 2
Introduction Ionic bonding is the complete transfer of valence electron(s) between atoms. It is a type of chemical bond that generates two oppositely charged ions. In ionic bonds, the metal loses electrons to become a positively charged cation, whereas the non-metal accepts those electrons to become a negatively charged anion. Ionic bonds require an electron donor, metal, and an electron acceptor, nonmetal. Ionic Bonding is observed because metals have few electrons in its outer-most orbital. By losing those electrons, these metals can achieve noble-gas configuration and satisfy the octet rule. Similarly, nonmetals that have close to 8 electrons in its valence shell tend to readily accept electrons to achieve its noble gas configuration. In ionic bonding, more than 1 electron can be donated or received to satisfy the octet rule. The charge on the anion and cation corresponds to the number of electrons donated or received. In ionic bonds, the net charge of the compound must be zero. This sodium molecule donates the lone electron in its valence orbital in order to achieve octet configuration. This creates a positively charged cation due to the loss of electron. This Chlorine molecule receives one electron to achieve its octet configuration. This creates a negatively charged anion due to the addition of one electron. The predicted overall energy of the ionic bonding process, which includes the ionization energy of the metal and electron affinity of the nonmetal, is usually positive, indicating that the reaction is endothermic and unfavorable. However, this reaction is highly favorable because of their electrostatic attraction. At the most ideal inter-atomic distance, attraction between these particles releases enough energy to facilitate the reaction. Most ionic compounds tend to dissociate in polar solvents because they are often polar. This phenomenon is due to the opposite charges on each ions.
Section 3
2000 Recent Badges:
Last Completed Section: Biology: Chapter 1, Section 1
Class Disscusion
Mark: What is an Ionic Bond? Katie: An Ionic bonding is a type of chemical bonding that involves the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions. These ions represent atoms that have lost one or more electrons and atoms that have gained one or more electrons
Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Type your question
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Figure 5
LAN Academy
Content
5.3
a.
Biology
Section A - Organisms in the Environment
Section B - Life Processes
Section C - Continuity and Variation
Section D - Disease and its Impact on Humans
Section E - The Environment and Human Activities
The Biology course is designed to allow students to work individually and with others in practical, field, and interactive activities that are related to theoretical concepts in the course. It is expected that students will apply investigative and problem-solving skills, effectively communicate scientific, information and appreciate the contribution that a study of biology makes to their understanding of the world. The platform will assist students to develop positive values and attitudes towards the living components of the environment and will also provide a sound foundation for those who wish to pursue further studies in the sciences.
Each of these sections will include video and textual learning as the primary medium which students will learn with supplementary labs and quizzes included with ever lesson to try to keep student retention and interest. The labs will be virtual environment programs in which students learn by interacting with cells and molecules to help understand concepts such as Cellular Division, Biological Molecules, Enzyme State Diagram, and Meiosis Activity.
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LAN Academy
Content
5.3
b.
Geography
Section A - Map Reading Section B - Field Study Section C - Natural Systems Section D -
Human-Environment Systems
This course, though not limited to a study of the Caribbean, focuses on areas of study that are particularly relevant to Caribbean students. The syllabus utilizes Field Studies to cement the link between the subject matter of Geography and the methods of investigation associated with it. Students have an opportunity to observe, experience, reflect on, and draw conclusions about the intricate inter-dependence and inter-relationships that comprise the human and natural systems
These sections will use video as the primary learning format and will include interactive quizzes that will test map knowledge and along with the location of resources to help students draw conclusions between the relationships that comprise humans and natural systems.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Content
5.3
c.
Economics
Section A - The Nature of Economics Section B - Production, Economic Resources and Resource Allocation Section C - Markets and Prices Section D - The Financial Sector Section E - Economic Management: Policies and Goals Section F - International Trade Section G - Caribbean Economies in a Global Environment
This course hopes to introduce students to relevant economic concepts and principles that will provide the foundation necessary for a proper understanding of how economies work, especially the economies of small states like those in the Caribbean. It also gives students the critical knowledge and skills to communicate ideas using the language and tools of the discipline of Economics.
This course will use text, video, research and discussion as the primary mediums of teaching. This course will also use peer reviews and paper submissions as a large part of assessing how well a student is progressing in the class.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Content
5.3
d.
Mathematics
This course seeks to provide for the needs of specific mathematical techniques in the future careers of students, for example, in agriculture ,commercial, and technical fields. The course focuses attention on the use of Mathematics as a problem solving tool, as well as on some of the fundamental concepts which help to unify Mathematics as a body of knowledge. The course hopes to explain general and unifying concepts that facilitate the study of Mathematics as a coherent subject rather than as a set of unrelated topics.
This course will use video as the primary medium of teaching and will include interactive problem sets with every lesson that will help to reinforce concepts and encourage retention.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |
LAN Academy
Conclusion
6.0
In total LAN Academy hopes to introduce to Guyana the next step in on-line learning by creating a system that is highly responsive and adaptive to the needs of the Ministry of Education and to the students it serves. To do this the four month pilot is necessary to help create this highly tuned experience for the betterment of Guyana’s students. The presented pilot program is one that intends to blend many different mediums of learning together with a straightforward interface to create a highly interactive and educational experience that aims to retain attention and information in the students it reaches.
400 Huntington Ave | 3rd Floor | Boston, Mass | TEL 4013680787 |