Running head: LEARNER ANALYSIS

Learner Analysis Angela D. Kennedy Georgia Southern University FRIT 7430 Instructional Design Dr. Kennedy 06/05/2011

LEARNER ANALYSIS Introduction I teach health, physical education, and wellness courses at Georgia Military Colleges Ft. Benning/Columbus campus. Georgia Military College is a two year junior college based out of

Milledgeville, Georgia with several campuses across the state. My instructional standard for our class project is for a first year wellness course, WEL 154: Design an exercise prescription that encompasses the 5 components of physical fitness.

Demographics Since I will not teach WEL 154 again until the Fall 2011 semester, my demographics are hypothetical and based on previous student population enrollment in this course. Table 1.1 summarizes the hypothetical student demographic information that would be derived from information obtained through the Student Survey in the Appendix. Please note that because Georgia Military Colleges Ft. Benning/Columbus campus conducts courses in such close proximity to and on a military base, our campus boasts a fairly large population of students who are either members of the military, military spouses, or veterans. Due to the unique qualities and needs associated with this population, I request this information on the student survey and include it in the student demographics.

LEARNER ANALYSIS Table 1.1. Student Demographics for WEL 154 Student 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sex F F F F F M M F F F Age 28 20 53 49 19 20 21 25 21 19 Ethnicity White White Black Asian Black Black White Black Black Black International No No No Yes No No No No No No Military No No Veteran Spouse Yes No No Spouse No No Employment N/A Part-time N/A Full-time Part-time Full-time Full-time Full-time Full-time Full-time

Enrollment Full-time Full-time Full-time Full-time Full-time Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Full-time

Entry Skills & Prior Knowledge Georgia Military College has a very large Learning Support Services (LSS) division, and most students require at least one remedial course. In an email to the campus faculty on May 23, 2011, Ron Hundley, the campus director provided information about the Winter, 2011 term that included student enrollment, student retention, course grade averages, and LSS success rates. Approximately 82% of students enrolled in the Winter, 2011 term were also enrolled in LSS courses. Because many courses have English and math prerequisites, advisors often suggest students enroll in wellness and physical education courses, so they can maintain a full-time enrollment status. This is occasionally a challenge for students who have not had ENG 101, since I require them to complete many reading and writing assignments via course discussion forums and paper submissions on turnitin.com. Consequently, I ask students to provide me information about their existing skillsets and whether they have successfully completed ENG 101 on the first day of the class. This information along with other data about the students

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current skillsets is included in Table 2.1. This information is summarized from questions on the student survey in the Appendix. Table 2.1. Students Entry Skills and Prior Knowledge Student 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Year Freshman Sophomore Freshman Sophomore Freshman Freshman Freshman Sophomore Freshman Sophomore 1st Term Yes No No No Yes Yes No No No No ENG 101 No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Major Gen Studies Gen Studies Criminal Justice Education Gen Studies Business Health & PE Business Education Business Turnitin Excel No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes No No No No Exercise regularly No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No No

Academic Motivation While the material for this objective is somewhat complex, the majority of students who have taken this course in the past are motivated to learn this material. This is not simply because the assignment is a large portion of the students grade but also due to the student-centric focus of this task. Each person designs a plan that is customized for them. Most students recognize the value in creating an exercise plan for themselves when they realize it can be tailored to themwhether that be for weight loss, weight gain, weight maintenance, increased muscle mass, improving ones general health, or addressing an even more specific health ailment, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. I have had students tell me in the past they were concerned about the course being geared toward weight loss, since there are units about weight management and the exercise prescription. Their understanding of the term weight management is broadened tremendously when they realize the scope is much larger than simply losing weight. Once they understand this, they are motivated to engage in this subject because they realize their focus is totally on enhancing their own lives by utilizing the tools provided in this unit.

LEARNER ANALYSIS Motivational Strategies One of the major questions posed to students during this unit is What is free and has more promise in offering you perpetual health than any drug in current or prospective use? An enduring exercise program. This is such a strong question and statement that it immediately addresses two of the four components of John Kellers ARCS model: attention and relevance. Students want to look and feel better and love the idea that they can do so without any expense and address so many health issues simultaneously. Once students see the benefits involved in

incorporating physical fitness into ones life, it isnt difficult to convince the youngest and oldest of students that this is a worthwhile and relevant task for them to pursue. While its fairly easy for students to see how incorporating fitness is relevant, it is often more difficult to build confidence in those who have been unsuccessful in reaching or maintaining their personal fitness goals, particularly if multiple attempts have already been made. This is where receiving professional, innovative, and practical information is critical in maintaining the students attention and helping them increase their confidence to meet and maintain their goals. Without yet getting into specific activities that will be utilized, its probably best to state that students will be asked to identify reasons they have not been successful in attaining or maintaining their goals and what strategies could have been implemented instead to increase the likelihood of long-term success. Since the course is eight weeks in length, it is critical that students receive this information early in the term, so they can begin implementing the strategies immediately and have the opportunity to address any areas of weakness prior to the end of the term. In keeping with the expectancy-value theory, this strategy will encourage students to put forth the effort initially so they can devise a plan with the knowledge that it can be adjusted to meet their specific needs. Once they have implemented the plan, they can be confident in long-

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term success, because they have already been successful in implementing it for 4-6 weeks. Since results are typically seen by most people within 4-6 weeks of beginning a regimented exercise routine, satisfaction will increase because students will have already seen some physical manifestations of improvement that are specific to their stated goals.

Educational and Ability Levels As shown in Table 2.1, the students taking this course are college freshmen and sophomores. 40% of these students have not yet successfully completed English 101 and are not familiar with turnitin.com. Additionally, 50% of the class has no familiarity with Excel. Students will be required to submit an Excel spreadsheet for completion of the exercise prescription, so students will need to acquire basic knowledge of both applications in order to successfully complete these class requirements. Finally, based on the questionnaire, only 40% of the students enrolled engage in a regular exercise program at least three days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes per exercise session.

Learner Characteristics According to Starnes (2009, p. 75), there are really three broad categories of diversity: who we are, how we learn, and how we understand. My design will be based on the learner characteristics for all three categories. My hypothetical class is based upon the demographics I have seen in this course over the past five years. There is a proportionally large number of females (80%), and specifically a large percentage of African American females (50%). Additionally, 40% of the students are affiliated with the United States military in some capacity. Furthermore, as is illustrated in the learner demographics and entry skill sections, 40% of the students in this class work full-time jobs and attend school full-time. All of these characteristics are important factors in the way that I will approach teaching this objective. For example, the fact that 40% of my students are both employed full-time and attending school full-time

LEARNER ANALYSIS necessitates flexibility and good time management skills (Stevenson, 2010) and ensuring that students devise a plan that will allow them to fit an exercise program into their daily routine at least three days a week. This often means suggesting they prioritize and multi-task, such as getting on the treadmill while watching television or simply forgoing an hour in front of the television and walking instead. In addition to the aforementioned learner characteristics, I have

one international student from Korea. Along with differences between the Korean language and English, research indicates that Korean students tend to be more reflective in their learning style, strongly prefer lectures, and are much less likely to participate in classroom discussions with direct questions (Lee & Carrasquillo, 2006). Because of this and the fact that there are American students who also share these preferences/learning styles, a variety of classroom teaching methods will be invoked to ensure opportunities are available for students to learn in the manner in which they are most comfortable. Additionally, as recommended by Lee and Carrasquillo (2006), the rubric for this task will also explicitly describe the expectations, including those for in-class and online discussion forums. This is not only important for international students, but studies indicate older adults (I have two for this analysis) who are returning to school after a long absence need explicit and accurate information about how the higher education process works (Schaefer, 2010). By far the most significant demographic learner characteristic that must be considered when teaching this course is the large percentage of African American females. With this objective, it is critical that discussions concerning body image are approached with the understanding that my students have a vast array of viewpoints, and many are far different than the standard cultural norms. Generally, African American females view beauty and body image differently than Caucasian females. Rather than focusing on what is frequently an unattainable cultural ideal of

LEARNER ANALYSIS beauty and thinness, African American females tend to focus more upon a multifaceted beauty ideal that promotes personal style, self-care, and spirituality (Rubin, Fitts, & Becker, 2003, p. 55). While this certainly encourages self-acceptance, it can be a hindrance when encouraging students to engage in a regular fitness routine if the subject isnt properly addressed. In my experience teaching this course, some students reject ideas about eating healthfully and exercising regularly, because they do not want to conform to social norms and view attempts to

encourage these behaviors as attacks on their cultural values. While I am including this under the ethnic learner characteristic, this is a scenario that expands beyond a single ethnicity and is often more related to the students age and current body type. Interestingly, their classmates are very important to these discussions. I typically have a few females in their 40s and 50s each term, and they often suffer from one or more serious ailments that are the direct result of an overindulgent and sedentary lifestyle. Generally, these women are very forthright in their experiences and explain to their younger classmates the importance of embracing a healthful lifestyle sooner rather than later. These women have a very positive impact on their classmates and beautifully illustrate the diverse perspectives that convey the knowledge and understandings about each of those diversities so learners can see how they both individually and collectively contribute to and enrich our lives in a democratic society (Starnes, 2009, p.75). With regard to Gardeners Multiple Intelligences theory, obviously, the exercise prescription will require the student to utilize his/her body/kinesthetic intelligence, since the whole purpose of this plan is for the student to engage in physical activity. However, this plan will also require the student to engage other intelligences identified by Gardner. The student will have to consider the type of music he/she will prefer (if any) when exercising and how that would vary based on

LEARNER ANALYSIS activity. For example, one would not usually choose the same music for a yoga routine as one

would for a high-impact aerobics class. Because the student will be required to design the plan in an Excel spreadsheet, he/she will not only have to engage verbal/linguistic intelligence by explaining what exercises will be chosen, he/she will also have to engage mathematical/logical intelligence in order to determine what their ideal body fat percentage should be, what their heart rate should be when exercising, the time and speed that maximizes the benefits of their chosen aerobic activities, the maximum weight they should use for each strength training exercise they choose, how many repetitions and sets they should perform for each exercise, and how long each stretch theyve chosen should be held. To a lesser degree and more dependent upon the individual, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences may be engaged. For instance, someone may choose to engage intrapersonal intelligence by being reflective when jogging alone or during yoga practice.

Accommodations One of my hypothetical students has depression and suffers with test anxiety. As with this student, Crundwell and Killu (2007) indicated depression is often comorbid with anxiety disorders as well as other emotional and behavioral disorders. They also noted that there is very little research available in the area of accommodation for this group of students, despite depression and anxiety disorder being the most common mental disorders in the 18 to 44 age group and the age of onset for these disorders is between 17 and 25, with a trend to earlier onset (Stevenson, 2010, p.42). Because students with depression often have difficulty with organization, goal development, and follow-through(Crundwell & Killu, 2007, p. 53), along with the fact that many of my students work full-time, which is also associated with higher rates of depression in the college student population ( Khwaja & Duncanson, 2008), I will implement

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Stevensons (2010) suggestion for having students utilize personal calendars/day planners along with requiring all students to use the online course calendar for updates and announcements about upcoming assignments. This is a rolling calendar that provides updates for work that is due the following week. Students will also utilize personal calendars such as those found on http://www.keepandshare.com/ to determine how they will fit the exercise prescriptions they design into their current routines. I will also work with this specific student directly to map out a plan for completing all assignments and assessments for the course, as well as working with her in allowing extensions if necessary (Stevenson, 2010). In order to accommodate her test anxiety, she will be given additional time to take exams (Stevenson, 2010). Finally, I will explain and provide detailed study guides to the entire class (Crundwell and Killu, 2009).

LEARNER ANALYSIS References Crundwell, R.M. & Killu, K. (2007). Understanding and Accommodating Students with Depression in the Classroom. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(1), 48-54. Khawaja, N. & Duncanson, A. (2008). Using the University Student Depression Inventory to Investigate the Effect of Demographic Variables on Students Depression. Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 18(2), 195-209.

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Lee, K. S. & Carrasquillo, A. (2006). Korean College Students in United States: Perceptions of Professors and Students. College Student Journal, 40, 442-456. Rubin, L. R., Fitts, M. L., & Becker, A. E. (2003). Whatever Feels Good in My Soul: Body Ethics and Aesthetics Among African American and Latina Women. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 27(1), 49-75. Schaeffer, J. (2010). Voices of Older Baby Boomer Students: Supporting Their Transitions Back into College. Educational Gerontology, 36, 67-90. Starnes, B. A. (2010). Rethinking Diversity. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 74-75. Stevenson, M. (2010). If They Cant Stand the Heat : Supporting the Academic Development of Higher Education Students with Anxiety and Depression Disorders. The Open Rehabilitation Journal, 3, 41-46.

LEARNER ANALYSIS Appendix WEL 154 Introduction Survey 1. What is your gender? 2. What is your ethnicity? 3. Are you an international student? If so, where are you from? 4. How old are you? 5. Are you employed? If so, are you employed part-time or full-time? 6. Are you in the military, a veteran, or a military spouse? 7. Are you a freshman or sophomore? 8. If you are a freshman, is this your first term in college? 9. What is your major? 10. Are you enrolled full-time or part-time? 11. What is your major? 12. Have you successfully completed ENG 101? 13. Have you used turnitin.com for other classes?

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14. Are you familiar with Microsoft Excel and have you used it for submitting class projects in other courses? 15. Why are you taking WEL 154? 16. Do you currently engage in a regular exercise program at least three days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes per exercise session? 17. Do you think you currently have good nutritional habits? 18. Will you need any special accommodations this term?