Browsing by Subject "development research"

The research assignment of this development research is to design and develop useful 7th grade textile craft distance education course for distance school Kulkuri. Kulkuri provides distance education for Finnish children living abroad. The education follows Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. Development process of the course was based on the ADDIE model. The course follows the curriculum for textile craft and the concept of learning outlined in the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2004). The course is based on the following pedagogical concepts: supporting human agency, engaged pedagogy, instructional scaffolding and game-based learning. The theory part discusses skill acquisition, distance education and textile craft as a basic school subject. Usefulness of the course was tested with usability evaluation methods. The design principles, structure, scope and objectives of the course were evaluated with heuristic evaluation in the early phases of the development process. Seven experts compared the first version of the course against heuristics created for the thesis. Evaluators were experts in distance education or textile craft or double experts in both fields. The feedback was given through electronic forms. The second, nearly completed version was tested with user testing by pupils of Kulkuri. Five abroad living Finnish pupils (aged 10 14) were given test tasks to perform in the course environment. Screen capture was used to follow the experimenters actions and their comments were recorded by Skype. The usability problems revealed by the evaluations were fixed and the usefulness of the course was further developed based on the evaluations. The usability evaluations indicated that the course was suitable for its purpose, its usability was good and the course implemented its design principles. 7th graders are able to learn craft skills through this course if they are motivated and enough teacher guidance is available. From the user point of view, the course was interesting and clear. The pedagogical concepts behind the course seemed to be functional and they could be applied broadly in designing craft education. In addition the development process with its evaluation methods could be used as an example for further studies in the fields of development and usability research. The course developed in this thesis is the first textile craft course for basic education implemented completely for distance education. It is mainly of benefit for the pupils of Kulkuri, but due to its openness it is also practical for independent studying or as a part of traditional classroom education.