Formative Evaluation Report

by: Jennifer Taylor

Posting a lesson on YouTube
http://jennifertaylor3.weebly.com

For the evaluation part of this project I choose to create a Google Form that I would send to the

teachers along with my website URL. The form consisted of four sections: section one was

name, section two addressed content appropriateness and accuracy, section three addressed

completeness, and section four covered usability and appeal. I asked the teachers to rate the

different aspects of the lesson on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best. I also asked for their

comments or suggestions at the end of each section. The evaluations I chose for this report

were three sixth grade teachers that I’ve worked with at least the last two years. Teacher A -

teaches english language arts (ELA), she’s been teaching for five years. Teacher B - teaches

math, this is his fourth year teaching but first year teaching sixth graders. Teacher C - teacher

reading, she’s been teaching for two years. All three of these teachers use computers daily but

their level of expertise varies greatly.

Teacher A - does have the most computer experience, on her evaluation form she said for

content appropriateness and accuracy the lesson especially the video demonstration was very

helpful but should have done it without the video. In terms of the completeness of the lesson

she thought the explanation of how to upload was broken down and detailed enough that even

those with no experience with YouTube would be able to do this. Teacher A thought the

uploaded videos in regards to usability and appeal were very to the point and easy to follow.

She liked how my lessons were set up and didn’t like some of the suggested changes. I show

here the lesson before the suggested changes and then after the changes, she thought it was

almost too simplified.

Teacher B - has an ok working knowledge of computers and can do most things without

assistance. Looking over his evaluation of the lesson for content he liked how detailed the
explanation was but the video was the most helpful for him. For completeness of the lesson he

thought it was very helpful, he’d used YouTube many times but never to upload a video of his

own and the detailed breakdown made it very easy for him to follow along and understand. In

usability and appeal he liked the look lesson, it wasn’t “to over the top with difficult instruction”

and the videos attached, all were simple and to the point. Teacher B was also shown the lesson

before the suggested changes and after the changes, he really liked the lesson before but felt

some of the activities were not needed or helpful. His thought was “we are all adults, adding

unnecessary activities only wastes our time.”

Teacher C - has the least experience with computers and often needs help with the smallest of

tasks. When she was filling out the evaluation she said as far as content appropriateness and

accuracy she could not have done any of it without the added video, she stated she was a

“visual learner”. For completeness she said the directions were good but it was really the video

that helped her the most on the uploading part. Lastly for the usability and appeal, she thought

the lesson looked really good and was very appealing for her since this was something she’d

never done before and wanted to start trying. Overall, her only suggestion was that I add videos

with each lesson rather than just the couple at the end.

Looking at the instructor’s suggestions for change and then the suggestions my peers made for

the lesson I’m torn. A couple of the suggestions from the instructor was adding activities or

assignments when exploring around on YouTube and also adjusting the lack of assessment or

assignment after the different lessons. All of my peers, not just the three that I wrote about are

so overloaded with work and other commitments I don’t think any assignment or assessment

that isn’t “required” would get done. I also think that to those that already know how to do this or

could easily pick it up the extra work would be viewed as annoying. In the end I think I found a

good compromise for both my instructor and my coworkers. I went back and added small,

simple assignments that I would at least know they’d done the work and would also allow for me

to check for understanding. I also asked that my peers email me their assignments each time,
by doing so this also opened up a line of communication between us and if indeed they did have

questions or concerns they could reach out this way.