The Context for My Distal Goal:
Too often in computer courses, from my experience, the teachers become like robots, simply allowing students access to learning/testing software and allowing the software to do the teaching. I know I have fallen into this trap before when using this kind of software. It's easy to do. What teacher wouldn't want a software program to do all of the marking for them? The problem is the student experience and achievement. Letting a student learn on their own from a computer program doesn't infuse them with excitement for the course or the subject matter. The computer program does the bare minimum, and it shows with student achievement. In these computer programs there is a standardized, and internationally recognized Microsoft Office Specialist Exam. If the student scores over 70% they officially become certified. The problem is that only half of the students in all of the classes being taught at our school achieve this score. Meaning that only half of the students in the class can use this certification to advance their careers once they graduate. To me, this number is unacceptable and I plan to make sure that at least 80 percent (or more) of my students achieve this certificate at the end of this semester. I will also be documenting my progress and sharing what works and what doesn't in the hopes that my program, and possibly the whole school can learn and improve our methods to help more students achieve the Microsoft Office Specialist certificate.
Below I will share my Distal goal (long-term) and my more achievable, short-term proximal goals that will help me to reach my end goal.
Below I will share my Distal goal (long-term) and my more achievable, short-term proximal goals that will help me to reach my end goal.
Setting the Stage for my Distal Goal:
Based on this article from Harvard University, (Turkay, 2014: https://vpal.harvard.edu/publications/setting-goals-who-why-how), goals need to be specific, challenging, proximal, and meaningful. Below I will explain how each component relates to my inquiry project:
Specific:
I will aim to assist students who struggled in the prerequisite course (PowerPoint) and did not receive the Microsoft Office Certificate (achieved a greater score in 70 percent or higher) in that course. My goal is to get these students to achieve the Microsoft Office Certificate in Excel in 13 weeks.
Challenging:
This goal can be challenging as I only have 13 weeks to improve students’ test scores and abilities who are struggling with computer software. Many of these students are second career students who are unfamiliar with this software as opposed to students who grew up using this software like myself.
Proximal:
Every week I will document and record my attempts to help these student by using technology and UDL design to help them with their learning challenges. I will record notes in an on-going journal that will detail the specifics and help me to reflect on how to improve my methods each week.
Meaningful:
This goal is meaningful to me because I grew up with a sister with a physical disability and have seen first hand the effects of feeling excluded from learning activities and skills. I think of her when thinking about how these students must feel when it seems everyone is comfortable with using computer programs in class and they are not.
This goal interests me the most because it is challenging and will involve improving my methods to better low-achieving students in my Excel course. I am interested to see if I am truly capable of achieving this goal and sharing the results with my colleagues so that they can also help students in their classes as well.
This goal will help me in my professional situation as student retention and success are not only important to me, but also to my dean, colleagues, and chairperson as well.
Specific:
I will aim to assist students who struggled in the prerequisite course (PowerPoint) and did not receive the Microsoft Office Certificate (achieved a greater score in 70 percent or higher) in that course. My goal is to get these students to achieve the Microsoft Office Certificate in Excel in 13 weeks.
Challenging:
This goal can be challenging as I only have 13 weeks to improve students’ test scores and abilities who are struggling with computer software. Many of these students are second career students who are unfamiliar with this software as opposed to students who grew up using this software like myself.
Proximal:
Every week I will document and record my attempts to help these student by using technology and UDL design to help them with their learning challenges. I will record notes in an on-going journal that will detail the specifics and help me to reflect on how to improve my methods each week.
Meaningful:
This goal is meaningful to me because I grew up with a sister with a physical disability and have seen first hand the effects of feeling excluded from learning activities and skills. I think of her when thinking about how these students must feel when it seems everyone is comfortable with using computer programs in class and they are not.
This goal interests me the most because it is challenging and will involve improving my methods to better low-achieving students in my Excel course. I am interested to see if I am truly capable of achieving this goal and sharing the results with my colleagues so that they can also help students in their classes as well.
This goal will help me in my professional situation as student retention and success are not only important to me, but also to my dean, colleagues, and chairperson as well.
Distal Goal Monitoring
Below is my distal and proximal goals and how I plan to monitor them. Every week I will share my progress leading up to the distal goal that will be due on April 27. Although this distal goal can't be measured within the time frame of our course, the midterm exam on March 8, 2017 is very similar and will be used a measuring stick for the final exam. Below is a workbook I created that will help me to monitor both my proximal and distal goals.
| distal_goal_tracking.xlsx |
Distal Goal:
The typical success/fail ratio, or students who score over 70 percent (achieve a certificate), in Microsoft Excel testing software at Centennial College is 50:50. I want to increase that typical that pass/fail rate this semester to at least 80:20 or greater. This means I will have to improve my teaching methods to meet the needs of all students, teach skills that will prepare them for the test, and both record and reflect on assessment and evaluations leading up to the final certification test. I plan to meet this goal by using and meeting three different proximal goals that will be mentioned below:
Proximal Goals:
Student Assessment and Evaluations:
I plan to track and monitor student assessments and evaluations to give me an idea on how students are improving their skills in the course. My proximal goal in this area is to have the class average (minus students who don't attend) over an 80% on quizzes, tests, and assignments. I will document student marks for each grade item and reflect on what seems to be working and what isn't based on the feedback from the students' marks.
I plan to track and monitor student assessments and evaluations to give me an idea on how students are improving their skills in the course. My proximal goal in this area is to have the class average (minus students who don't attend) over an 80% on quizzes, tests, and assignments. I will document student marks for each grade item and reflect on what seems to be working and what isn't based on the feedback from the students' marks.
Test-Specific Skills:
Each week I will try to have students practice specific skills that are required to be successful on the test. These include, but are not limited to the following skills:
Each week I will try to have students practice specific skills that are required to be successful on the test. These include, but are not limited to the following skills:
- Read instructions carefully
- Refer to a solution image
- Complete tasks efficiently (the test is timed)
- Check over work for mistakes
Teaching Strategies:
These are teaching strategies that I hope to implement to give my students to achieve the skills required to perform well on the Excel Microsoft Office Specialist exam. The three teaching strategies I plan to use are: 1) Create a learning zone where students are free to make mistakes and ask questions 2) Give frequent and detailed formative assessment to help student achievement 3) Try to be as inclusive as possible to help students with their unique challenges
These are teaching strategies that I hope to implement to give my students to achieve the skills required to perform well on the Excel Microsoft Office Specialist exam. The three teaching strategies I plan to use are: 1) Create a learning zone where students are free to make mistakes and ask questions 2) Give frequent and detailed formative assessment to help student achievement 3) Try to be as inclusive as possible to help students with their unique challenges
Student Assessment and Evaluations
Assignment 1 Results and Reflections:
I allowed students to work together on this one which is why the average may have been higher than expected. Also, the students seemed more engaged in the task without having instructions provided. It was amazing to see that almost all of my students could duplicate a heavily-formatted worksheet and still included all of the information that was asked of them. The overall average on this assignment was 89.7.
Quiz 1 Results and Reflections
The average of 89.1 percent shows that most of my students are beginning to understand Microsoft Excel and some of the skills that are required on the MOS exam. This quiz challenged students to remember their basic formulas, and even had an additional challenge of performing a manual calculation in the final step that required some critical thinking. 70 percent of my students were able to get that final question which was exciting as I honestly thought it would be difficult to complete for the majority of students.
Practice Test Results
This mark was slightly lower than I expected as the testing software can be challenging, but resembled some of the practice activities we have been completing in class. From the student feedback, there seemed to be three common challenges in the class:
1. Gmetrix language: The way the Gmetrix software worded some of the question were vague. For example,
one of the questions asked "type the author in the left side of the footer". Some students typed "author" as that's what the question was asking for, but the testing software wanted the students to post the author of the document into the footer.
2. Time: The time counting down was a little bit intimidating and might have caused students to make errors they wouldn't normally make
*Although, 76 percent of the students scored 70 percent or higher which means we are heading in the right direction from the typical 50 percent of students who achieve the certification score.
1. Gmetrix language: The way the Gmetrix software worded some of the question were vague. For example,
one of the questions asked "type the author in the left side of the footer". Some students typed "author" as that's what the question was asking for, but the testing software wanted the students to post the author of the document into the footer.
2. Time: The time counting down was a little bit intimidating and might have caused students to make errors they wouldn't normally make
*Although, 76 percent of the students scored 70 percent or higher which means we are heading in the right direction from the typical 50 percent of students who achieve the certification score.
Assignment 2:
This assignment used Excel language that will be used on the final exam. Also, there was a lot of information provided that the students had to look over and it could have been easy to confuse certain data columns if the instructions are not carefully read. However, students were able to read the instructions carefully. Also, as seen by the student grades, the students (generally) understand both basic and advanced formulas as both of these were needed to complete assignment 2. I noticed that there was more of an effort/ability to complete the task efficiently. The class average was 88.5 percent.
Midterm Exam Results...
Test-Specific Skills
Week 1: |
January 22 to January 26
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Many of the students have little to no experience with Excel. They do know how to look up help through the internet or the help button in Excel. Many students were familiar with using YouTube as a resource for learning. This will help as I will be posting tutorial videos using this platform. Students were given a lot of work this week and it was impressive to see how determined and hard-working they were.
Improve: Post tutorial videos to our class webpage a week early in case students want more time to view them.
Improve: Post tutorial videos to our class webpage a week early in case students want more time to view them.
Week 2: |
January 29 to February 2
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With a little practice from the previous week, students were able to refer to a solution worksheet and duplicate the formatting with no instructions. This is encouraging as they will be provided with a solution picture on the final exam and need to know how to make changes to match it if the instructions weren't followed in the same way that is dictated by the exam software. Students were timed during a quiz to help them prepare for the timed final exam.
Improve: Encourage students to read instructions carefully and try to get them to solve problems on their own instead of jumping in to help. Find others way to help students be more efficient than just timing them.
Improve: Encourage students to read instructions carefully and try to get them to solve problems on their own instead of jumping in to help. Find others way to help students be more efficient than just timing them.
Week 3: |
February 5 to February 9
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Students are starting to use the tutorial videos, checking the case study instructions carefully, and referring to solution pictures when they are given one. I also noticed that students are willing to help others and discuss their mistakes in class. Students are reading instructions carefully and referring to the solution pictures provided with each activity. However, some students are taking a little more time than they should to complete the tasks.
Improve: Encourage students to use short cuts provided in Excel such as autofill and copying a formula to multiple cells to be more efficient in their learning tasks.
Improve: Encourage students to use short cuts provided in Excel such as autofill and copying a formula to multiple cells to be more efficient in their learning tasks.
Week 4: |
February 12 to February 16
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Students were given their Gmetrix software practice test this week. I did notice many students referring to the solution picture in the software as they have been trained to do. Hopefully, this will reinforce them to do this for the final test. Due to the time constraint, students did not check over their work for mistakes, and did not all read the instructions as carefully as I had hoped. However, all students completed the tasks within the alotted 50 minute time frame.
Improve: Encourage practices that can help students to deal with test anxiety and the time constraint for the final exam
Improve: Encourage practices that can help students to deal with test anxiety and the time constraint for the final exam
Week 5: |
February 19 to February 23
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Assignment 2 was given this week and this assignment used a lot of Microsoft Excel language that would be similar to the language used on the midterm test and final exam. Minor errors were made, but, for the most part, students followed the instructions well as the class average for this assignment was 88.5%. The students were able to complete the assignment efficiently in class as well.
Improve: Remember to go over general mistakes that were made as a class to identify challenging Excel language that was used in assignment 2 and that will be used on the final test.
Improve: Remember to go over general mistakes that were made as a class to identify challenging Excel language that was used in assignment 2 and that will be used on the final test.
Week 6: |
March 5 to March 9
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A mock test was created to help ther students prepare for the test at the end of the week. The review had a reference picture, and students were timed. I assumed that students would read all instructions carefully, but some still did not. This shows that perhaps I did not drive this home in the previous classes, or perhaps the time constraint still may some students prone to mistakes.
Improve: Try to get students to focus on instructions and less on the time counting down. This could be included in every class leading up to the final exam.
Improve: Try to get students to focus on instructions and less on the time counting down. This could be included in every class leading up to the final exam.
Teaching Strategies:
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Week 1:
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January 22 to January 26
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This week, I introduced what a learning zone is to my students and what it means in my classroom (based on Eduardo Briceno's TED talk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaiwGb0csas&t=134s). I want students to want to improve their skills without focusing just on marks, which is why I created a few assignments with completion grades that I will add formative feedback to. We had a group discussion that celebrated everyone's unique experiences, but more can be done to embrace an inclusive atmosphere. I was able to give quality feedback to students based on the first few activities we performed. Only a few minor errors were made, but it was important to note that mistakes are welcome and that they teach us something new as a class.
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Week 2:
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January 29 to February 2
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This week, we practiced formatting in Excel, and I was careful to introduce multiple options for formatting to let students choose their preferred method. I also tried having one class where students followed instructions that are similar to their exam instructions and another activity that allowed them to duplicate a heavily-formatted Excel document with no instructions. This will help the students prepare for the exam as they can refer to a solution image if there is any confusing parts to the instructions. Just like a puzzle, this method of instruction allowed students to create a similar Excel worksheet while using a variety of methods to complete the task. Students were encouraged to use the help options in Excel to learn from if they got stuck and seemed to rise to the challenge of duplicating an Excel worksheet with no instructions.
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Week 3:
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February 5 to February 9
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This week we I introduced the class to basic formulas and math operations in Excel. I created a few short video tutorials and posted them in advance of our class to give students time to view them before our class if needed. This helped some students who needed to review the order of operations or "Excel math" a few times. My students also appreciated the option to use time stamps during the video to go to a specific spot or learning skill if needed. Although my ability to use formative assessment and create a learning zone for my students was strong this week, I could have varied the learning activities this week to make them more inclusive.
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Week 4:
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February 12 to February 16
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This week, students reviewed and completed their Gmetrix training software. I wanted to be proactive so I created a few video tutorials that were similar to the learning skills in the training software to show students how to navigate through some of the challenging questions. I also tried to put some pointers in a PowerPoint presentation and made sure to check for accessibility options for greater inclusivity. Although, I could not genuinely create a learning zone because of the testing software.
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Week 5:
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February 19 to February 23
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This week we practiced more advanced formulas in Excel such as Vlookups and IF functions. I tried to use more variety of teaching methods this week, by using collaborative work, discussions, tutorial videos, gamification, and I went around with a white board to groups who needed help to remember the components of a Vlookup or IF Function formula.
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Week 6:
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March 5 to March 9
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This week we had one last final review for the test. I created a mock test and timed the students. Unfortunately, I was not able to incoporate some of the teaching goals for this class except for formative assessment in which I gave the students immediate feedback, running around the room to record scores and offer feedback on somethings that were missed and how to correct this for the test.
The Results:
Success! To my surprise, all of my students scored over 70 percent!!
This my son Avery. He was also pretty excited that my students did so well on their standardized midterm exam.
For my completed progress tracking worksheet with notes and results, click on the workbook below:
For my completed progress tracking worksheet with notes and results, click on the workbook below:
| completed_distal_and_proximal_goal_monitoring_.xlsx |
Reflection:
I feel very empowered as a teacher as I was a little nervous about this ambitious goal at the beginning of the course. Although, the work is not complete yet, there are some great signs that the students will be successful on the final exam as I have never had all of my students achieve over 70 percent on a midterm exam for this course. I will also keep updating my progress above as it will keep me and my students on track for getting the big MOS certificate on April 29.
I think one of the key strategies for success on this project was sharing the project with others. My students knew what my goals were for them, and that could have motivated them to help me reach that goal, seeing how invested I was in their success might have encouraged them to step up (they all performed so well on a standardized mid term!). This reminded me of when athletes proclaim to the world that they will win the next game against all odds, and then they are more motivated to go out there and do it. By letting others know about your goals and how willing you are to complete them you create this positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
This project taught me a lot about self-regulated learning and some of my strengths and weakness in my own SRL practices. This project forced me to be more organized with my tracking skills and planning this semester. I was able to plan more thoughtful learning activities because I managed my time more wisely, and was able to design my lessons with the students' needs in mind.
The project also asked me to reflect after my classes and examine what practices worked and which was did not. I had obviously thought about this before, but writing it down and keeping track of a journal helped me to stay focused and be more mindful of my students' needs.
My students achieved more than I expected them to. All of them scored higher than a 70 percent on a standardized mid term exam, which is a good indicator that they should do well on the final, as it is a similar exam, just with more skills added. I feel confident now that a large majority, if not all, my students have a chance to achieve their Microsoft Office Specialist Exam certificate.
My next steps would be to keep organized like this and use the worksheet I created for this project in other classes as well. Being organized has freed up a lot of time for other things like marking, and planning and I should try to keep this going.
I think one of the key strategies for success on this project was sharing the project with others. My students knew what my goals were for them, and that could have motivated them to help me reach that goal, seeing how invested I was in their success might have encouraged them to step up (they all performed so well on a standardized mid term!). This reminded me of when athletes proclaim to the world that they will win the next game against all odds, and then they are more motivated to go out there and do it. By letting others know about your goals and how willing you are to complete them you create this positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
This project taught me a lot about self-regulated learning and some of my strengths and weakness in my own SRL practices. This project forced me to be more organized with my tracking skills and planning this semester. I was able to plan more thoughtful learning activities because I managed my time more wisely, and was able to design my lessons with the students' needs in mind.
The project also asked me to reflect after my classes and examine what practices worked and which was did not. I had obviously thought about this before, but writing it down and keeping track of a journal helped me to stay focused and be more mindful of my students' needs.
My students achieved more than I expected them to. All of them scored higher than a 70 percent on a standardized mid term exam, which is a good indicator that they should do well on the final, as it is a similar exam, just with more skills added. I feel confident now that a large majority, if not all, my students have a chance to achieve their Microsoft Office Specialist Exam certificate.
My next steps would be to keep organized like this and use the worksheet I created for this project in other classes as well. Being organized has freed up a lot of time for other things like marking, and planning and I should try to keep this going.
