POP 6: User Tests!
For my problem of practice, I have created a Project-Based Learning opportunity for students in my 4th grade Spanish classes where they will be researching and creating a presentation about a Spanish speaking country where a water crisis currently exists. The outcome of the project is for students to design or brainstorm a solution for their country’s water crisis, and then present their findings to another classroom in our school. Students will also need to relate their project to our own community’s water resources. Lastly, as a 4th grade unit, we will vote on one person’s solution and choose to fundraise in order to raise money for that solution to become a reality. Overall, I believe this will be a beneficial way to motivate my students learning while also relating concepts to real-world projects and problems.
Protocol Steps:
Use my “Prototype” outline of each unit for this PBL activity to structure the daily lesson for each of my users.
For this testing mode, only the first two units that feed into my Project-Based Learning Activity will be tested.
Test 1: Formative assessment: Students will create a water cycle diagram and label at least 8 words in Spanish.
Test 2: Website Browsing: Students will be starting to browse websites to aide the researching of their project. I will provide all websites.
During each of these tests I will be observing my users, facilitating informal discussions (Test 2), taking photos of water cycle diagrams, and recording audio/video of my students browsing on the websites.
Users:
Test 1: My students will be the users for this test. I will be observing their knowledge of the water cycle as they draw, design, and label in Spanish.
Test 2: Again, my students will be the users. I will provide a list of websites, games, and videos for students to browse while I am observing their choices and facilitating discussions with a select few individuals.
Results:
Thinking back to our readings for this Module, I believe the testing mode can be compared to the informal and formative assessments teachers give students to check their understanding. This is the approach I took when conducting my first user test. Below are a few examples of the assessment my students completed on the water cycle. I found this assessment to be a strong guideline on what my students had learned from what I initially taught about the water cycle during two previous lessons. It provided information on my students’ achievement and a way to reflect on the concepts students do or do not understand. Similar to the test mode from the Stanford Model of Design, assessments give you valuable insight about a user, they allow you to redefine and present questions and problems in a different way, and they should be modified and reworked frequently to fit the needs of students. During this test I was able to carefully observe my students while they were designing and take notes on who was going to need more help, who needs further clarification, and where do I need to do some re-teaching for all students.
For the second part of my testing phase, students had time to become familiar with the websites I had found to help their future research. This browsing provided a chance for me to observe students choices as well as interact and receive feedback from a few students I why they choose something. This test allowed me to gain valuable insight on what students were interested in browsing ranging from videos to water activities and to researching how to sponsor a child. This was a great opportunity to speak with individuals to gain an understanding of many of my users focus was going to lead for their upcoming project. I was able to see the countries students were choosing, what water solutions they were interested in, solutions they might be interested in learning more about, etc. Students were coming up to me and sharing great documentary and informational videos they had found, and students were researching how to sponsor a child who needed help due to the global water crisis. It was inspiring to me to see how inspired my students were by the videos and water usage activities they were playing.
To conclude, both of these user tests provided worthwhile information that will help me cater the focus of this project for specific user needs. From these tests, I was able to further my understanding on individual learners needs and how to assist them throughout this PBL process.
