Learner Analysis

IDT 846
Kate Prudchenko

The focus of this learner analysis will be on Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s

Single Variable Calculus and Mountain View College’s English 2327: Survey of American
Literature. Links are available in the References section.

DESIGN ANALYSIS

I. Rationale for the Lesson

Single Variable Calculus (SVC) is an introductory mathematics course, also known as

Calculus I, that lays the foundation for many areas of study including, science, engineering,
economics, and computer science. MIT requires all freshmen to take this course in their first
semester. Students who have advanced standing or transfer credit may proceed directly into
multi-variable calculus or Calculus II. The course through OpenCourseware is designed for
independent study and is not available for credit through MIT. It does however incorporate
videos from the class offered on campus in Fall 2007.
Survey of American Literature (English 2327) is an introductory literature course offered
by Mountain View College. As a comprehensive survey course that introduces learners to major
writings from the beginning of the Colonial Period through Walt Whitman, this course fulfills
one of the college’s General Education requirements toward an Associate Degree. The course
can be used both for independent study and for credit. It is entirely open and course materials are
available online. Students without Internet access can also request that the materials are mailed
to them on a CD-ROM. Those who wish to receive credit must register through Mountain View
College and may enroll throughout the year, at the beginning of each month. These students will
be allotted sixteen weeks, from the time they register, to complete the readings and the required
exercises.

II. Learners

High school algebra and trigonometry are SVC’s prerequisites and prior experience with
calculus is recommended. MIT requires this course, the on-campus version, for all freshman
during their first semester at the university. Other typical learners generally consist of
independent students who are taking calculus at their institutions (high schools and colleges) and
use the resources to review or clarify certain concepts.
The prerequisites of English 2327 are Composition I (English 1301), Composition II
(English 1302), and Texas Success Initiative assessment test (formerly called TASP/Alternative
Assessment Standard in Reading and Writing). In order to take this course, learners have to
establish that they have basic reading and writing skills. In Spring 2011, 30.8 % of the students at
Mountain View College were between the ages of 16-20, 30.0% of students were between the
ages of 21-25, and 60.9% of students were female (Dallas Community College District, 2011).
Therefore, it is likely that the typical learner in English 2327 is between the ages of 16 and 25,
female, and in their first or second year of college.
III. Objectives

● Single Variable Calculus

The focus of this paper will be on the fist lesson, Session 1. It does not provide the
learners with explicit objectives but certain implicit objectives can be determined from the
content of the lesson. The topic of the first unit is differentiation and the focus of this lesson is
the geometric interpretation of a derivative. After watching the five lecture video clips and
reading the course notes, students should recall that the tangent line is defined as a limit of secant
lines and that, as Δx approaches 0, the secant’s slope Δf approaches the slope of the tangent line.
Using this information, students should then identify ‘how close to 0 does Δx have to be for
Δf/Δx to be close to the slope of the tangent line?’ In particular, students should use the Secant
Approximation Mathlet to investigate the slopes of secant lines passing through different points.
The final implicit objective of this lesson is to view the recitation videos in order to observe how
to find and graph simple derivatives and reinforce the concepts introduced earlier.

● Survey of American Literature

The focus of this paper will be on Week 2’s lesson, “The Colonies, the Revolution, and
the New Nations: The Colonies.” The lesson does not provide the learners with explicit
objectives but certain implicit objectives can be determined from the content and the study
questions. After reading William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation, Book I and II” and Study
Guide I, students should identify examples of God’s “special providence,” explain the necessity
for democratic principles in the Mayflower Compact, identify inferences of Calvinism in the
‘History,’ and discuss the treatment of ‘minorities’ or dissenters in Plymouth Colony. After
reading Thomas Morton’s “New English Canaan,” and Study Guide I, students should
reconstruct Morton’s defense and identify what in his essay suggests a ‘minority report’
regarding life in the English colonies. Another implicit objective of Week 2 is that students
should complete and turn in a four to five page essay that analyzes a literary motif in the
previous week’s reading, “Three Dirges.”

IV. Instructional Strategies

● Single Variable Calculus

The lesson’s video lectures begin with basic definitions in the video lectures in order to
provide learners with the necessary background to understand how to solve particular problems.
The instructional strategies that the lesson uses to teach these cognitive procedures consist of
demonstration, elaboration, and practice (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, & Kemp, 2011). In particular,
learners are presented with a worked examples that illustrate different concepts and are then
given four problems, with two to three sub-parts each, to solve. Students are encouraged to work
with a partner and to use the Secant Approximation mathlet. Once they complete the problems,
learners compare their work to the solutions. The concepts are further reinforced with the
recitation videos with additional worked examples. The lesson engages learners using
demonstrations, in the form of video and recitation lectures, the Mathlet, and the online study
group which allows learners to ask their peers for help on specific problems.
 The content of the lesson is adequate, even far and beyond adequate, and the instructional
strategies are appropriate and effective. The lesson give learners access to many examples and
practice problems. In addition to the lecture and recitation videos and the course notes, the lesson
also gives students access to Mathlet and allows them work with others in an online study group.
As a result, this lesson goes a lot further in facilitating effective calculus instruction than many
traditional on campus lessons.

● Survey of American Literature

Week 2 uses three types of generative strategies to assist learning: organizational,

integration, and elaboration. The oranizational strategy helps students identify the ways that new
concepts relate to existing ideas, the integration strategy requires student to transform
information into a more easily remembered form, and the elaboration strategy requires students
to contribute their ideas to the new information (Morrison et al., 2011). The lesson presents
learners with new information in the form of two readings from early Colonial writers, Bradford
and Morton, and provides them with a historical background about Colonial America in Study
Guide 2. The Bradford reading is found in the required textbook while the Morton reading is
available online. The lesson then asks the learners to reply to six study questions.
The lesson uses the organizational strategy twice by asking learners to identify examples
of God’s ‘special providence’ and to identify inferences of Calvinism in the ‘History’ in the
Bradford reading. The lesson uses the integration strategy once by asking learners to reconstruct
Morton’s defense presented in his text. The lesson uses the elaboration strategy three times by
asking learners to explain the necessity for democratic principles in the ‘Mayflower Compact,’ to
discuss the treatment of ‘minorities’ or dissenters in Plymouth Colony using the Bradford
reading, and to explain what in Morton’s essay suggests a ‘minority report’ regarding life in the
English colonies. Furthermore, elaboration strategy is also used in the larger assignment due at
the end of Week 2. Exercise 1 requires students to write a four to five page typed essay analyzing
a literary motif or element in the previous week’s reading, “from ‘Three Dirges.’” Student have a
choice of analyzing one of the following topics: development of theme, use of time, point of
view, foreshadowing, or image/symbols patterns.
The study questions and the essay are methods that the lesson uses to engage learners.
These assignments require students to identify, explain, discuss, integrate, and analyze the
readings in order to promote comprehension. The study guide provides appropriate background
for the readings and assists the learners in putting together different ideas. It appears to be a
transcription of the information that is covered in a traditional lecture and the lesson would
benefit from a recording of the lecture. However, the content and the instructional strategies are
adequate and appropriate.
The lesson further engages learners by providing online resources. These readings give
additional insight into the presented material and are likely to promote learning in students who
are especially interested in the subject matter. These online resources however are much less
engaging since the learners are not given specific questions to think about and answer. They are
therefore much less effective in facilitating comprehension and might be entirely overlooked by
some students.

V. Assessment
 ● Single Variable Calculus

The objectives of the lesson are assessed using the problem set listed under ‘Worked
Example.’ Learners are expected to solve the problems using the Mathlet and to compare their
solutions to the provided solutions. The material covered in this lesson is also assessed using
problem sets and exams, found later in the course. Since the course is intended for independent
study, the eleven problem sets and four exams are not turned in for a grade. Solutions are
provided and learners are encouraged to check and assess their own work.

● Survey of American Literature

According to the syllabus, the study questions are not turned in and objectives are
assessed by grading the exercises. Exercise 1 mainly covers the material discussed in Week 1 but
Exercise 2, due on Week 5, does require students to draw from at least two Colonial Period
writers to respond to in one of the topics covered in later readings. This assessment encourages
learners to approach the readings critically and to provide a personal interpretation of the topic.
The three to five page essays will be graded according to their development, organization, use of
sources, style and correctness. Learners aiming to get A’s and B’s should demonstrate familiarity
with the relevant ‘Basic Concepts’ and include references from the introductions of the readings
and online resources. This assessment of the lesson does not focus on the details of the particular
readings and does not grade the individual study questions. Instead, it expects learners to
synthesize all of the readings from the past weeks in order to elaborate on the presented ideas
using a cohesive and supported thesis.

Functional Analysis

● Single Variable Calculus

The lesson’s three technology components are videos (lecture/recitation videos), Mathlet,
and chat. The videos serve the purpose of delivering the content to the students. The individuals
in the videos communicate information to the learners that consists of some background and a lot
of examples of procedures. The videos are also captioned so that the lectures can be used by
those who are hearing impaired. Finally, the videos also come with accompanying lectures notes
which allow the students to follow along on paper. The videos treat all objectives of the lesson in
that they present the processes of how to reach the objectives. Of the three components, the
videos carry the largest amount of instructional load and are essential to the successful
completion of the lesson.
The purpose of the Mathlet program is to allow users to solve and graph problems in
order to reinforce concepts introduced in the lectures. The Mathlet serves the function of a
simulated dialog by allowing the learners to interact with the program. It also serves the function
of a real dialog if learners chose to work on the problems in pairs. The Secant Approximation
Mathlet that allows learners to investigate the slopes of the secant lines passing through
particular points treats the general objective: identify ‘how close to 0 does Δx have to be for
Δf/Δx to be close to the slope of the tangent line?’ The Mathlet carries a decent amount of
instructional load since it can be confusing and difficult to use at first. However after learners
gain some familiarity with the program, the Mathlet is a great teaching tool that allows students
to gain a better understanding of mathematical functions.
The chat component found on the left hand side under Course Study Group allows
learners to ask their peers specific questions from the course material. The chat is operated
through OpenStudy.com and learners can post their questions and get feedback from their peers
at any time. The function that this component serves is to create real dialogue between students.
In particular, the chat allows learners to contact a specific individual directly and/or to post their
questions for anyone to answer, like a bulletin board. OpenStudy.com also connects learners to
their Facebook accounts for more personal contact.
Since the learners can use the chat to ask their peers any questions they might have, the
chat component can treat any of the lesson’s objectives. The chat does not carry a substantial
amount of cognitive load and learners can ignore this component entirely if they don’t have
specific questions or if they don’t want to reply to other people’s questions. If the study group is
utilized, it does carry a decent amount of instructional load in that it allows students to gain a
better understanding of a confusing concept.

● Survey of American Literature

The media and technology components of the Week 2 lesson, and the course in general,
are sparse. The lesson does not have any video lectures and the materials are similar to a
correspondence course, with print materials available online. The only media component is the
online resources which are links to additional readings. The purpose of these online resources, as
well as the other links to the readings and the study guide, is to deliver the content of the lesson
to the learner. In particular, the online resources as media components treat the objectives by
providing learners with access to the material that the learners are then expected to use to
construct knowledge about early Colonial writers. Unfortunately, the vast amount of reading
material with no verbal explanation makes the instructional load especially high. It is therefore
less likely that the media components enhance the learner’s ability to effectively analyze the
readings and elaborate on what they have learned in the writing assignments.

Interaction Analysis

● Single Variable Calculus

The lesson has real dialog, student-content and student-student interaction. The strategies
that the lesson uses to encourage learners to participate in real dialog is by prompting them to
join the course’s Study Group to chat with other learners in the class. This dialog can take place
both in real time and with a delay. Learners have the option of contacting others who are
presently online and leaving their questions for anyone to answer in the future. The chat
technology, operated by OpenSource.com, also allows learners to connect to others using
Facebook for a more personal conversation. Currently there are 287 students registered to
participate in this course’s chat. This real dialog helps learners achieve objectives by getting help
from their peers on problems they are having trouble solving. A good example of the interaction
is the posting by user named, Dpflan, from Georgia State University. He asked “What is the
linear approximation for sin(x) at x=0? How can I use the answer the approximate the values of
sin(.01), sin(.1) and sin(1)?” A day later another user, Joanflu, replied “y=x; sin(.01)≈.01;
sin(.1)≈.1; sin(1)≈1” with the correct answer. Another good example, is Dpflan’s other question,
“Can someone help explain “Newton's method?” One user, Serychj, replied “it is method for
finding approximately solution of equation f(x)=0. You pick some starting point and then you
compute tangent line to the f(x) in this point. Then you repeat these steps, but now picking point
where tangent line=0 (crossed x-axis) as your starting point.” Serychj then added a link with
additional clarification and added “It is very fast approximation method, but be careful. It can
easily fail to find the solution.” All of these replies clarified the concept and were posted on the
same day. This indicates that the real dialog took place in approximately the same time.
Besides these student-content and student-student interactions, the course allows little
student-teacher interaction. Learners have access to the videos but this is not so much interaction
but rather one way communication. It is unclear whether the students have access to the teacher
or whether the professor will reply to emails from those who are not officially registered through
MIT.

● Survey of American Literature

This lesson provides learners with a lot of student-content interaction, some student-
teacher interaction, and no student-student interaction. The ‘Course Orientation’ mentions that
learners have access to a message board that allows them to interact with their peers and the
instructor but no such message board was found for this lesson or for the course in general.
Therefore, there are no examples of good or bad dialog since the only way that learners can
participate in real dialog is by contacting the professor directly. The strategy that the lesson uses
to create this student-teacher interaction is by providing learners with the instructor’s email and
telephone number.
The lesson also does not have simulated dialog. The study guide uses formal language,
avoids personal pronouns and does not invite learners to participate in debate. The lesson does
not encourage learners to discuss the readings or the study questions and it is unclear whether the
instructor will provide feedback to the study questions, if the student submits them. It is also
unclear how much or how little feedback the instructor will provide on the writing assignments.
Overall, the course is highly independent and the general lack of interaction does not help the
learners achieve objectives.
Critique

● Single Variable Calculus

The design of this lesson is highly interactive and supported by many useful
technological features. The lesson is aimed at independent learners and therefore does not require
a specific text to go along with the material. A mathematics course without a textbook is very
unusual since the text provides learners with additional explanations, examples, problems and
solutions. However, the design of the course and the vast amount of well organized content more
than makes up for the lack of textbook. Instead of simply referring to their notes from the
lectures, the students can review the particular steps of how to solve the problem shown in the
lecture and recitation videos. Furthermore, the lessons are even more effective as a result of the
problems available under ‘Worked Example.’ This mini-problem set allows learners to work on a
problem on their own, as if it were an in-class assignment, in order to apply the procedure they
just watched in the lecture. From personal experience, undergraduate calculus courses rarely
allow students the opportunity to work on problems in class since most of the courses consist of
lectures only. In traditional classrooms, students take notes and work on problems at home while
in this course, students have the opportunity to catch what they don’t understand immediately
and listen to the lecture again, if necessary.
Finally, the lesson also gives learners the opportunity to connect with their peers in an
online Study Group discussed above. All of these strengths makes the lesson particularly
effective. However, it does have one weakness. Learners who use this lesson, and the course in
general, do not have access to an authority figure, such as a professor or graduate student, who
could provide them with additional help. However, since the course is not taken for credit
through the university perhaps this is not possible.

● Survey of American Literature

This lesson is designed much like a typical correspondence course and is even available
on CD-ROM for students without Internet access. Its strengths are focused on the actual content
of the materials. In particular, the readings are appropriate for an American literature survey
course and the online resources are interesting and complimentary to the readings. The study
guide provides a decent amount of historical background and asks learners relevant and poignant
questions to consider. While these elements help make the lesson somewhat effective, it does
exhibit several significant weaknesses.
The course is offered online but only uses technology to give students access to the
reading materials. It does not encourage any two way communication in order to make sure that
the study questions are actually being considered and answered. Therefore, the lesson and the
course would benefit greatly from additional student-student and student-teacher interaction and
dialog. The lesson can be made more effective by incorporating a discussion board where
learners can respond to the study questions. The discussion board will give the students the
opportunity to not only put forth their own views, and actually do the assignments, but also to get
feedback from others. These discussions will make the learners more engaged in the course and
will undoubtedly result in better essay responses.
The lesson is also weak in lecture material and can be improved with additional video
lectures provided by the instructor. The instructor can record the lectures he conducts for the
traditional students and make them available on the web. This content will provide learners with
more relevant background as well as with access to any conversations about the materials that
occurred in class.
Comparative Critique

Taking their respective fields of study into consideration, SVC is a much better designed
lesson than English 2327. It does not require a textbook but makes up for the materials found in
the textbook in an effective and interesting way. The English 2327 lesson, on the other hand, is
designed to be entirely online with access to numerous resources yet it does not provide links to
open access reading materials that can be easily found online, such as the Bradford reading.
Instead, the course requires a textbook which has to be ordered separately.
Both courses are intended for independent study but English 2327 can also be registered
for credit. Considering the fact that they are both intended for the independent learner, the MIT
lesson is much better equipped in delivering effective instruction. The lesson and the course both
have a lot of recorded lecture material, problems, exams, and solutions as well as appropriate
technological components like mathlets and online study groups. While English 2327’s lesson
does not necessarily need all of SVC’s technological components, it can be greatly improved by
the addition of a discussion board. The discussion board would give students a place to exchange
ideas and allow the instructor to monitor whether they are actually responding to the study
questions. The lesson can also be improved with recorded lectures that can perhaps decrease the
reading load and deliver some historical content found in the study guide in a more interesting
manner.

References

Dallas County Community College District. (2011). Retrieved from

http://www.dcccd.edu/Employees/Departments/IR/FactsBriefs/Documents/fbstaspring2011rep.pdf

Grimes, Geoffrey (2010). English 2327: Survey of American literature. Retrieved from
http://www.distancelearningassociates.com/eng2327/2327TOC.html

Jerison, David (2010). 18.01SC Single Variable Calculus Fall 2010. Retrieved from
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/syllabus/

Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2011). Designing effective
instruction, 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

APPENDIX

Single Variable Calculus-Reverse Engineering

The lecture videos provide students with some background, examples of problems and
the sequence of steps they should use to solve the problems. These content items consist of facts,
concepts, principles and procedures. The lesson also requires students to practice what they have
learned by solving problems in a problem set and these content items are classified as
applications.

I. Differentiation (Topic)
A. Definition and Basic Rules (Topic)
Session 1: Introduction to Derivatives (Facts, Concepts, Principles, Procedures)
1. Students should watch lecture video clip 1 and read course notes
2. Students should watch lecture video clip 2 and read course notes
3. Students should watch lecture video clip 3 and read course notes
4. Students should watch lecture video clip 4 and read course notes
5. Students should watch lecture video clip 5 and read course notes
6. Students should work on problems available under ‘Worked
Example’ and check their answers (Application)
● Students should use Mathlet to solve the problems (Application)
7. Students should watch recitation video 1: Definition of Derivative
(Facts, Concepts)
8. Students should watch recitation video 2: Graphing a Derivative
Problem (Procedure)
 Survey of American Literature-Reverse Engineering

Items listed under numbers are required readings or concepts that are further broken
down into individual parts. The study guide provides historical content and puts forth principles
that express relationships between concepts. It also have study questions or applications that
require learners to provide answers in the form of analysis.

II. The Colonies, the Revolution, and the New Nation (Topic)
A. The Colonies: selected writings of Colonial New England authors (Concept)
1. Students should read William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” (Concept)
2. Students should read Thomas Morton’s “New English Canaan” (Concept)
3. Students should read Study Guide 2 (Principle and Concept)
4. Students should answer W. Bradford’s Study Questions (Application)
● Identify examples of God’s “special providence”
● Explain the necessity for democratic principles in the “Mayflower
Compact”
● Identify inferences of Calvinism in the “History”
● Discuss the treatment of “minorities” or dissenters in Plymouth
Colony
.5. Students should answer T. Morton’s Study Questions (Application)
● Reconstruct Morton’s defense
● What in his essay suggests a “minority report” regarding life in the
English colonies?
6. Students should read Online Resources (Concepts)
7. Exercise 1 due (Application)
● Students should complete an essay analyzing a literary motif from
previous week’s reading, ‘Three Dirges’