Instructional Strategy

Keeping ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) in mind, I'm ready to take all the information I have gathered so far and use it to create a sequence of instruction. This lesson should take approximately 45 minutes, in a lab setting, or alone using a personal computer at home or at school. Since it is so narrowly focused on basic Word principles, there is not a great deal of extraneous material to deal with, which is good. I'm just about done in on this project, and I know I've done it to myself.

For Pre-instructional activities, samples of poorly formatted documents can be used. It would be best if this was done using a computer and projector, so the document could be changed in real-time and allow the learners to see why using the spacebar is not the best way to indent and align text. It would also allow the instructor to change the fonts to demonstrate the differences between serif and san serif as well as legible and illegible. For the online version, a Camtasia file will be created, demonstrating the same principles. This will also serve as the time to bring home the major points of the lesson from the overarching goal:

Plan, create, and edit documents created with a word processor uuing readable fonts, alignment, page setup, tabs and ruler settings.

Using the unformatted document "Writing," the learner will move through each of the steps in order:

1. Start the word processing software
2. Open the unformatted file
3. Save the document with an appropriate name
4. Change the margins
5. Set the title and sub headings in a san-serif font
6. Set the body text in a serif font
7. Center align the title
8. Indent all body paragraphs
9. Save the document
10. Exit the program

The assessment checklist will be provided to the learners so they can verify having completed all the steps, and further activities in the Word Processing unit will allow them to continue to use the skills learned in this first, basic lesson.

I have confirmed with the Curriculum Coordinator that she is comfortable with this being offered in a workshop setting and as a Do-It-Yourself activity with the files available on the school intranet as well as the Internet.

Now it's time for the Learning Object. I hope I'm not totally wrong here. I have created the unformatted document, the attendant handout, and I'm only creating the Learning Object for one particular aspect...centering the title.

I'm going to use some of my students and a couple of faculty members, as well as my family for the formative evaluation. They will be given all the materials, including the L.O.