http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=81885
Evaluation of resource:
Quality of Content:
- Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills? Yes.
- Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline? Yes.
- What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used?
- Explanation or description of the topic/stating the problem Yes.
- Demonstration of the curriculum/exploration of the problem No, there is no detailed explanations to guide students independently.
- Practice using the curriculum/analysis of the outcomes from solving the problem No, there is no detailed explanations to guide students independently.
- Applying the curriculum to "new" problems/application of the outcomes to other problems Yes, students could use the resource in order to show their own learning by providing their own explanations.
- What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials? After viewing the animations students will be able to explain how the Earth rotates to create seasons. This is based on the visual animation only. Teachers will need to provide a verbal or written explanation.
- What are the characteristics of the target learner(s) The target learner is a student of any age based on how the teacher uses the animations in their lessons.
- Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials? These videos provide animations about science topics such as moon phases and seasons that support teaching and help to reach the visual preferred learning style.
- Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline? Yes, being that these are simply animations with little to no text these videos are a support tool for existing lessons.
- Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals? Yes, again, being that these are animations teachers can use these in a variety of lessons as long as they provide the text or verbal explanation.
- Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify?
- Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily? Yes, teachers can ask students to use the videos in their own explanations of the phases of the moon or seasons or one of the other topics provided. This allows for students to be challenged and show their understanding independently.
- Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct? Yes, the videos are set up in a simple manner however it would be nice if there was a homepage which offered a description of the videos such as that on MERLOT.
- Does the user get trapped in the material? No, a simple back button is provided.
- Can the user get lost easily in the material? No, a simple back button is provided and the pages are not cluttered with choices.
- Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses? No.
- Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use? The simplicity of the module allows for a variety of uses limited only by the teacher's creativity.
- Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software? This learning material does require quite a bit of instruction from the teacher as how to use the material or what is to be learned from the material.
- Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? Yes, the simple stop and play buttons for the videos are similar controls to other video devices.
- Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students? Yes, the black background makes the site more exciting and the simple choices along with simple colorful animations are attractive to students.