ID Brief

Title/Topic: ​CST 361s Introduction

Date Created: ​3/13/18
Designer: ​Cassandra Humphrey
Time: ​10 minutes

Project Description
Halfway through CSUMB’s CS Online program, students are required to take CST 361s,
a service learning course where they are required to perform 30 hours of computer
science related community service with an outside organization.

Because finding a partner and getting ready to serve may take some time, the professor
and student assistant hold an informational session one month before the course
begins. During this session, they review general course requirements (including forms
specific to the class that are required to pass the course), as well as recommendations
for how to find an appropriate service learning partner.

Unfortunately, not all students are able to attend the synchronous session, and not all
absent students watch the available recording. This can cause students to be
unprepared for the course, which puts them behind.

The solution is to create a self-contained, asynchronous learning module with Captivate

that allows students to review the requirements at their own pace in the hopes that
students will be better prepared to class and have a full understanding of what is
needed to meet course outcomes.

Target Audience
The target audience is CS Online students that are about halfway through the program.
Their ages range from early twenties to fifties, and there are typically more men than
women. They are located mainly in California, however some may be in other states,
time zones, or even countries at the time of study. This, along with the fact that most
students have families and work full time, means that availabilities can vary widely.

However, each student should have had the same introduction to the course when they
took CST 300, the first course of the CS Online program, so each student should have a
basic understanding of the CST 361’s premise as they participate in this learning
module. Furthermore, they are already required to have a computer and internet
connection to attend CS Online, so the module should be easy for them to access.
Learning Objectives
After participating in the learning module, students should be able to do the following
(with help from the learning module/syllabus if needed):
1. Given a list of various course descriptions/goals, st​udents should be able to identify
the correct course description for 361.
2. Students should be able to state the number of service hours required to pass
the course.
3. Students should be able to select the 4 documents required by the Service
Learning Institute.
4. Given descriptions of sample organizations, students should be able to
determine whether each partner meets the requirements for an acceptable
partner according to CST 361 specifications.
5. Given a scrambled list of the 4 steps required to begin service, students should
be able to rearrange them in the correct chronological order.

Task Analysis
This breakdown follows Ray Pastor’s hierarchical model of task analysis, which guides
students through the required tasks, problems, rules/procedures, and concepts and
facts (2015). In this case, the overarching task is to begin preparation for CST 361. The
problem at hand is that students do not yet know the details of the course, so they are
not yet ready to begin preparing by searching for projects on their own. So, this will be
addressed with learning outcome one, which will state the course outcome as listed on
the CSUMB website: ​https://csumb.edu/course/cst/361s​. Next come the rules and
procedures, which are addressed with outcomes two and three. Students will be guided
through the major requirements of the course, including the minimum hours requirement
(30), and four required forms (Learning Agreement, Activity and Time Log, Partner
Evaluation of Student, and Student Evaluation of Stie). Outcome four covers concepts
and will outline the types of organizations that are acceptable to work with, such as
nonprofits, senior centers, public schools, after-school programs, and outreach
programs. It will also cover organizations that are not acceptable such as for-profit
companies, paid internships, or projects not relating to computer science. Finally,
students will be given the initial steps to begin their service (search for local partners,
contact a few organizations, determine which organization they will work with, and
submit to the instructors for approval), as outlined in outcome five.

Assessment
There will be a graded quiz at the end of the learning module, with questions for each
learning outcome. Outcome one will be addressed with a multiple choice question,
where students will need to choose the correct course description out of three
descriptions. Outcome two will be a simple fill-in-the-blank question, where students will
have to input the correct number of hours required (30). Outcome three will be a
multiple-answer multiple choice question, where students select the four required
documents out of six total options. Outcome four will be tested via two true/false
questions, where students have to determine if a described organization would be an
acceptable partner. One will be acceptable (true), and one will not (false). Finally,
students will need to demonstrate they have met outcome five via a sequencing
question where they put the steps of preparation in chronological order.

Instructional Strategies
The learning module will follow Merrill’s first principles of instruction, which are, “(a)
activation of prior experience, (b) demonstration of skills, (c) application of skills, and (d)
integration of these skills into real-world activities” (2002, p. 44). The module will begin
by reminding students that they were first informed of this course in CST 300, and that
this module will build on their initial knowledge. After laying down the foundation of
course and partner organization requirements, the module will demonstrate realistic
examples of potential partners. Then, the students will apply these skills in the
Assessment, where they will need to not only define requirements, but analyze
situations and respond accordingly (like when determining if a described partner
organization and project is acceptable). Finally, students will directly integrate this
knowledge into real activities as they start searching for partner organizations local to
them and prepare for the course.

Resources
The learning module will be created on the designer’s Macbook Pro with Adobe
Captivate CC. It will be hosted on the designer’s personal ITCDLand account for testing
and initial publishing. If implemented as part of 361, more formal hosting may be used.

For media, the designer plans on sourcing most - if not all - resources from
pixabay.com, which provides a vast library of photos, videos, illustrations, and graphics
with CC0 Creative Commons licenses.

Links to resources and media include:

● Graphics
○ https://pixabay.com/en/it-business-icons-computers-722950/
● Illustrations
○ https://pixabay.com/en/cranium-head-human-male-man-2952552/
○ https://pixabay.com/en/computer-hand-help-laptop-helping-2851285/
○ https://pixabay.com/en/art-balance-boy-chromatic-colorful-2101933/
References
Merrill, M. D., (2002). First Principles of Instruction. Retrieved March 11, 2018 from
http://mdavidmerrill.com/Papers/firstprinciplesbymerrill.pdf

Pastore, R. (2015, March 11). Performing a Task Analysis in Instructional Design.

Retrieved March 10, 2018, from ​http://raypastore.com/wordpress/2015/03/2747/