Introduction
Introduction
Digital learning is becoming more prevalent in middle school science classrooms. Teachers should focus on areas of weakness in their lesson designs in order to change how they are delivering content to their students (Xie, Kim, Cheng, Luthy, 2017). Collecting quantitative and qualitative data on student perception of the digital learning environment is important to this planning process (Christie, Carey, Robertson, Grainger, 2015). Digital content delivered to students should be changed in learning tasks and not digital versions of materials normally delivered to students (Walsh, 2017). The goal of this study is to determine what interventions might increase student participation in digital lessons.
School Context
I teach sixth grade science on a military base in North Carolina. This is my 11th year of teaching and my sixth year at my current school. This year I teach 115 students. Our school has about 400 students in grades 6-8. The student population consists of dependents of active duty military personal that live in on-base housing. Only students that have a sponsor in the military can attend our schools. Our base is considered a compassionate posting for soldiers. This means that those families with children with special needs get priority placement for housing and unit posting. Students with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) comprise between 20% and 25% of our school population. Our ESL/ELL (English as a Second Language and English Language Learners) population sits at around 10%.
The unique teaching setting allows for unique sets of problems and advantages. Our school does not have traditional socioeconomic problems. We do not have a high number of students who qualify for free and reduced school lunches. All of our students have at least one family member who is employed by the military or defense department. The benefits of being part of the military include housing, healthcare, and basic food/clothing allowances are covered in addition to a regular salary. Families that live on post have access to mental and physical healthcare facilities and 100% of our students have access to technology. Students have access to after school bussing so that they may stay after hours to receive more assistance or access the computer lab. All neighborhoods on-post have community centers with free access to computers. Funding for our schools to purchase science supplies and technology is not really an issue. As long as I can justify the expense I can usually buy what I need for my classroom.
Being a part of a military family does bring challenges that the “traditional” student may not face. Our school has two full-time dedicated counselors for our 400 students. We also have a full-time licensed therapist on site along with a part-time child psychologist we share with one other school. Our special need students have access to a full time speech therapist and an orthopedic therapist that we share with another school. We are uniquely set up to meet the physical and emotional needs of our students.
Digital learning is becoming more prevalent in middle school science classrooms. Teachers should focus on areas of weakness in their lesson designs in order to change how they are delivering content to their students (Xie, Kim, Cheng, Luthy, 2017). Collecting quantitative and qualitative data on student perception of the digital learning environment is important to this planning process (Christie, Carey, Robertson, Grainger, 2015). Digital content delivered to students should be changed in learning tasks and not digital versions of materials normally delivered to students (Walsh, 2017). The goal of this study is to determine what interventions might increase student participation in digital lessons.
School Context
I teach sixth grade science on a military base in North Carolina. This is my 11th year of teaching and my sixth year at my current school. This year I teach 115 students. Our school has about 400 students in grades 6-8. The student population consists of dependents of active duty military personal that live in on-base housing. Only students that have a sponsor in the military can attend our schools. Our base is considered a compassionate posting for soldiers. This means that those families with children with special needs get priority placement for housing and unit posting. Students with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) comprise between 20% and 25% of our school population. Our ESL/ELL (English as a Second Language and English Language Learners) population sits at around 10%.
The unique teaching setting allows for unique sets of problems and advantages. Our school does not have traditional socioeconomic problems. We do not have a high number of students who qualify for free and reduced school lunches. All of our students have at least one family member who is employed by the military or defense department. The benefits of being part of the military include housing, healthcare, and basic food/clothing allowances are covered in addition to a regular salary. Families that live on post have access to mental and physical healthcare facilities and 100% of our students have access to technology. Students have access to after school bussing so that they may stay after hours to receive more assistance or access the computer lab. All neighborhoods on-post have community centers with free access to computers. Funding for our schools to purchase science supplies and technology is not really an issue. As long as I can justify the expense I can usually buy what I need for my classroom.
Being a part of a military family does bring challenges that the “traditional” student may not face. Our school has two full-time dedicated counselors for our 400 students. We also have a full-time licensed therapist on site along with a part-time child psychologist we share with one other school. Our special need students have access to a full time speech therapist and an orthopedic therapist that we share with another school. We are uniquely set up to meet the physical and emotional needs of our students.
Problem and Needs Assessment:
Our school uses an online learning environment called Schoology. I currently use the online system for tests, quizzes, and positing digital copies of items that I give in class. I have not assigned any more than these items to be completed digitally because I routinely have a large number of students who do not always complete their digital assignments and parents who do not always see the need for digital lessons. For example on our most recent online assessment the students were given a week to complete the task and 23 out of 126 students did not complete the assignment.
I administered a Likert-scale satisfaction survey to sixth grade science students in an effort to better understand their perceptions of online learning. Figures 1,2,3 and 4 below illustrate the results of my survey questions. Overall the students seem to prefer the online learning components for our class
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
The data collected about communication was the only area where it was not overwhelming in support of using online systems. My observations of student work in online discussions also supports the use of this format. I have seen typically quiet students participate more in online posts. I have seen less participation from some of my more talkative students. These observations suggest that digital lessons are indeed valuable in my class.
I also asked my sixth-grade science students open-ended questions on a Google digital survey. I coded each of the four questions and identified the top three themes or trends (see Appendix A). The overall themes from the data analysis are that the students want the assignments to be more engaging and that they enjoy the ease of access that technology allows. The biggest critique that the students gave was they wanted more fun assignments. They are correct that most of the assignments we are doing digitally are the same as what we would be doing in class, but without the paper. While they enjoyed not having to write those assignments, they are craving activities that are more stimulating. I have some bias against this because life/school is not supposed to be 100% stimulating like a video game. I believe, however, that they bring up a valid point that we have access to all this technology and I am only using it to remove the paper component from class. The total access to all of the digital class materials and to assistance from their parents in any location/time is a huge bonus for student and parental involvement. The perception of efficiency of the digitized environment is a huge advantage for the students. With so many students perceiving online assignments as a benefit, I believe that creating more engaging digital lessons may solve the problem of low completion rates.
Research Question
How will creating more engaging digital lessons impact students’ completion rates on assignments?
Sub-Questions:
What types of lessons are most effective on a digital platform?
How does giving digital feedback impact student performance on digital lessons?
How effective is giving digital rewards encourage student engagement in on-line lessons?
I also asked my sixth-grade science students open-ended questions on a Google digital survey. I coded each of the four questions and identified the top three themes or trends (see Appendix A). The overall themes from the data analysis are that the students want the assignments to be more engaging and that they enjoy the ease of access that technology allows. The biggest critique that the students gave was they wanted more fun assignments. They are correct that most of the assignments we are doing digitally are the same as what we would be doing in class, but without the paper. While they enjoyed not having to write those assignments, they are craving activities that are more stimulating. I have some bias against this because life/school is not supposed to be 100% stimulating like a video game. I believe, however, that they bring up a valid point that we have access to all this technology and I am only using it to remove the paper component from class. The total access to all of the digital class materials and to assistance from their parents in any location/time is a huge bonus for student and parental involvement. The perception of efficiency of the digitized environment is a huge advantage for the students. With so many students perceiving online assignments as a benefit, I believe that creating more engaging digital lessons may solve the problem of low completion rates.
Research Question
How will creating more engaging digital lessons impact students’ completion rates on assignments?
Sub-Questions:
What types of lessons are most effective on a digital platform?
How does giving digital feedback impact student performance on digital lessons?
How effective is giving digital rewards encourage student engagement in on-line lessons?