The credit requirement for the Master's Project is variable, that is, you may register for 1 to 4 hours. However, the size of the project remains the same. The credit is variable to help you save money and meet the minimal program hours requirement. For example, if you have 34 hours, you only need 2 hours of a Master's Project to reach 36 hours. A 1 credit hour project is the same size as a 4 credit hour project.

Kinds of Projects

There are three kinds of projects:

Course or unit development
Instructional product/materials development or revision
Evaluation or a course or unit

Each of these project types has a general core of expectations that cover broadly the field of ILT. The process requires that you begin with a proposal a semester ahead of when you plan on completing the project. The project itself must be completed about half way through the semester in which you plan on graduating. Stay in contact with the School of Education Student Services Office to make sure that you meet all necessary deadlines. There is no variability in school's deadlines. If you miss a deadline, you don't graduate officially until the next semester.

Determining a Project-a Proposal

The idea for a project comes from you. Work on an idea using some of the basic guidelines provided here. After you have thought your idea over, approach a faculty member in the ILT Division to work as your advisor. You will then work with that faculty member to negotiate the final format of the project. When working up a proposal for a project, consider the following items and be prepared to discuss them with an advisor:

Kind of project
- What do you hope to learn?

Topic/Problem
- What is the topic/problem you wish to work on? Why-what benefits will occur?

Objectives of the project
- What do you hope to accomplish?

Budget
- How much will the project cost? Where will the funds come from?

Timeline for Project
- When do you hope to finish? What are the milestone dates along the way?

End Products
- What materials will result from the project?

Evaluation Criteria
- How will we evaluate your final work? Where will emphasis be placed?
- What criteria shall we use?

Most students choose to develop an instructional unit or course for their project. In such cases, the emphasis is on the design of a new unit with appropriate objectives, strategies, and materials. While you are author of the unit, feel free to make use of existing materials within your overall package. If you choose a development project, you will need to meet the following criteria:

1. You should follow a systematic design model. In particular, you should:

a. Demonstrate an instructional need. Conduct a needs assessment. Use data from interviews and/or records to justify the need.

b. Develop clear goals and objectives based on the need.

c. Analyze your learners. Report on general and specific characteristics that influence the design of your product.

d. Develop an instructional plan based on your needs, goals and, objectives.

e. Develop and produce any materials necessary. Include a rationale explaining your choice of media and strategy.

f. Gather formative evaluation data on your project through appropriate methods, such as small-scale tryouts, expert review, or peer reviews.

g. Show how your project meets the original need through some kind of summative evaluation. An example would be a pre- and posttest comparison.

2. Your product should be consistent with principles of learning and instructional design.

3. Your product should be exportable/publishable. That is, a teacher skilled in the content area should be able to take the package and use it without extensive coaching and guidance from you.

4. You will hand in for this project:

a. A narrative divided into sections listed under #1 above. This narrative will describe the processes you go through and the results of those processes.

b. Copies of any materials produced for the package. They will NOT be returned.

c. The "final" package as it will be used.

The development of an instructional product differs little from the development of a course or unit. The main difference is that an instructional product project focuses on the production of media materials. These materials may be used in a variety of different contexts. Your project will focus on the development of those materials. Therefore, the same criteria used in the Course or Unit Development Project apply here; however, the focus of the project work will be on the materials as opposed to a specific unit or course.

For criteria 1 through 3, see Course or Unit Development Project above.

4. You will hand in for this project:

a. A narrative divided into sections listed under #1 above. This narrative will describe the processes you go through and the results of those processes. Focus on aspects of #1 that affect the design of your media product.

b. Copies of all materials produced for the project. They will NOT be returned.

c. The "final" product as it will be used.

Evaluation of a Course or Unit

An evaluation project may be appropriate if you are interested in examining existing programs and systems. For example, your district may have a curriculum that emphasizes HyperTalk programming at all levels and your principal asks you to help in reviewing the curriculum, evaluating its effectiveness, and making policy recommendations to the school. In such a case your role is that of a program evaluator. The following steps/criteria describe the process:

1. You should follow a systematic model for evaluating the subject. Consult evaluation literature for help in this.

a. Identify a research problem of interest.

b. Conduct a literature review to find out what has been done. The literature review will also give you ideas on how to conduct your research.

c. Develop an evaluation methodology. You may wish to create a team to do this. Evaluations are seldom conducted alone.

d. Obtain permission to conduct the study.

e. Conduct the study with the help of the team.

f. Analyze the data and report the results.

g. Discuss any conclusions based on the results.

2. The length of this project will be negotiated with your advisor.

3. You will hand in for this project:

a. A written report covering items in #1 above. (Have available at professors' request any raw data used in the evaluation.)

The Generic Project Report

Over and over again within the program, you will be asked to generate reports of projects, analyses, and programs that you design and develop. Projects reporting the development of instruction or curriculum should adhere to an instructional-design model, for example:

• Demonstrate a problem and need for instruction.
• Analyze the situation, the learner, and the content, resulting in a statement or goals and objectives for instruction.
• Develop and provide a rationale for your approach to instruction and assessment.
• Show any resulting teaching products or tools, along with instructions for using them.
• Report on formative evaluation activities, e.g., tryout of materials on members of the user population or an expert review of the materials.
• Provide some guidelines for implementation and use of the materials.
  

This instructional-design format for reporting is actually a special case of a more general reporting structure, outlined below:

• Statement of a problem, concluding in a statement of purpose for the project.
• Analysis and description of various components related to the problem, for example, program participants; clients; conditions of use; external constraints and opportunities; rules and regulations; political setting; etc.
• A report of your method or activities.
• A report of your resulting accomplishments, outcomes, or products.
• Evidence pointing to the value or usefulness of the project.
• Reflection on lessons learned, next steps, and guidelines for how your work should be used.
  

You should become familiar with this generic reporting structure as you complete different class and program requirements. The same structure should be used in introducing each portfolio item-and especially your showcased master's project.


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