< Formative Evaluation

The experts I consulted did not have many suggestions, however, the artist had really good ideas. Unfortunately, I could not implement them all due to the limitations of the software I am using, and time constraints. The advice I found the most useful and the easiest to follow was:

  • Start each new section with a heading,
  • Repeat graphics that may serve as visual clues, e.g., repeat the smiley face for answers, or the walking computer for the same subject continued over the page,
  • Only center a picture when you want to focus on it; if it is being used to illustrate text place it next to the text and turn it so that it faces the writing,
  • Lead onto the next page with a graphic in the lower right hand corner - facing out.

I constantly made minor revisions to the materials as the students and experts evaluated them.

  • Obviously, I corrected the transposed number immediately, as I did not want anyone to be confused by it.
  •  Graphics that were interpreted too literally, I removed and added ones that the students thought more appropriate.
  •  I added an example of what a number looked like when it is written in subscript. 
  •  I filled in two of the base 10 digits, in gray, to guide the students.
  •  I added a little more explanation on how to start filling in the base 2 numbers.

I realized, from working back from the formative evaluation, that I could have simplified the instructional analysis. This would have meant changes in all the subsequent sections.

I do not think I made any major errors in anticipating how homeschoolers would learn the material, as none of them had any serious difficulties. I would, however, write a note to parents explaining more of the theory as all the students wanted more information. I would include more examples of different bases, and a table of the decimal equivalents of ASCII - they all wanted to know if that was real or whether I made it up. (It was real.) This was, however, beyond the scope of this project.


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This page was last updated:
07/18/2006 00:36