Architecture and Design [u06a1] Week 6 Assignment: Developing a Logic Model 8030
The Journal of Educators Online-JEO July 2016 ISSN 1547-500X Vol 13 Number 2
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Logic Models as a Way to Support Online Students and Their Projects
Jesse Strycker, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
Abstract
As online enrollment continues to grow, students may need additional pedagogical
supports to increase their likelihood of success in online environments that don’t offer the same
supports as those found in face to face classrooms. Logic models are a way to provide such
support to students by helping to model project expectations, allowing students to demonstrate
their current and changing understanding of relationships for different projects and instructors to
review and comment on those understandings, and as a vehicle for reflecting on the outcomes of
a project.
Keywords: logic models, distance education, instructional scaffolding, reflective pedagogy
INTRODUCTION
Students taking online classes do so for a variety of reasons. Full-time work schedules
aren’t always compatible with campus-based programs featuring classes that meet during regular
work hours. Night classes will work for some students, but other mays need flexibility to have
different nights be when they work on their assignments. Physical distance may also make
campus attendance impractical. In these different instances, a distance education class or
program may be the only viable option.
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While enrollment numbers have slowed over recent years, online enrollment continues to
grow (Allen and Seaman, 2015). Despite the continued growth in online courses, they aren’t
without their concerns, such as dropout rates that are higher than traditional classes (Roby, Ashe,
Singh, & Clark, 2013) and the possibility of outcomes being negatively affected (Allen &
Seaman, 2014). A challenge to online courses and the learners who take them can be the lack of
the kinds of support, instructional scaffolding that occur in face to face classrooms, as well as the
need for greater self-regulated learning by students online (Delen, Liew, & Wilson, 2014). One
way to provide online students with support and scaffolding, and one utilized by the author, are
logic models. The author’s use of logic models with online students draws conceptually from
schema theory and metacognition. Schemas are the prior knowledge that individuals have
accumulated over time, how that knowledge is organized, and have also been identified as the
plans that they can follow when approaching different situations (Wiseman, 2008). A logic
model provides a way to illustrate a student’s current understanding or schema of how their
project will be designed and executed. This physical representation also provides a vehicle for
their metacognition. Often summarized as thinking about thinking, metacognition “refers to the
processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance…includes a
critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as thinker and learner” (Chick,
n.d. para. 1). Students’ metacognition provides a basis for illustrating their existing schema in the
form of a logic model for how they will carry out each project, assess their current plan, and later
reflect on their execution of the plan and how it may have varied from their model and what they
have learned as a result.
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What is a logic model?
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (2004) defines a logic model as a “systematic way to
present and share your understanding of the relationship among the resources you have to
operate your program, the activities you plan, and the changes or results you hope to achieve”
(p.1). You may also know logic models under different names since “common synonyms for
logic models include idea maps, frameworks, rich pictures, action, results or strategy maps, and
mental models” (Knowlton & Phillips, 2013, p. 4). While the Kellogg Foundation uses program
logic models as part of their grant funding decisions, logic models can be used with other kinds
of projects as well. Some of the projects that logic models have previously been used with
include public health programs (De-Regil, Pena-Rosas, Flores-Ayala, & del Socorro Jefferds,
2014), as a basis for evaluating change in vocational rehabilitation programs (Groomers, Jones,
& Lewis, 2014), developing program theory for a father support program (Gervais, Lacharité, &
Dubeau, 2015), and assessing effective practices of out of school programs (Wilkerson & Haden,
2014), just to name a few. Regardless of what they are used for, at a basic level a logic model is
used to identify relationships between inputs, outputs, and outcomes (W. K. Kellogg
Foundation). Such models can vary in level of detail from the basic (see Figure 1) to the more
advanced (see Figure 2)
Figure 1: Basic logic model with three elements and an informing context.
Figure 2: Advanced logic model with five elements and informing context.
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Why use a logic model?
The use of a logic model requires students to think through an entire project or program
and how the different pieces fit together in a meaningful way. This holistic approach may lead to
discoveries of inputs that have been overlooked or identifying limited consideration of outputs,
outcomes, or impacts, if not in the short term, then in the intermediate and longer terms. These
kind of models are unique to each individual and are always changings as learners develop new
understandings and modify their old ones (McNeil, 2015). This evolutionary aspect of logic
models increases their utility for use with online class projects.
In an online course where the instructor cannot always be present to meet with students
for regular mentoring and scaffolding, logic models can be a way to help outline expectations
and demonstrate understanding. From the instructor perspective, a logic model provides structure
to students to know exactly which elements in a project they need to think about when planning
and designing a project. From a student perspective, they are able to demonstrate their
understanding in several ways. This back and forth interaction using the logic models as a basis
for discussion is an example of an instructional scaffold (Delen et al., 2014). At a basic level
students are able to fill in each portion of the model to meet the requirements, but on a more
advanced level they can demonstrate their understanding of a situation. This can be
accomplished by having a model that acknowledges their unique context and how it informs the
project, the different kinds of inputs they have available to them to work with, and the different
types of results they can expect and hope for in the short, intermediate, and longer terms. The
logic model can also serve as a map to help keep students on task when they are outside of class
as they have constructed a map of their project, identifying both starting and ending points.
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The end of a project does not signify the end of a logic model’s usefulness. The use of
logic models also provides a built in basis for comparison when assessing a project and reflecting
on it. As noted earlier, these kinds of models evolve as students develop new knowledge
(McNeil, 2015). The reflecting on the logic models helps students to make more meaningful
learning from the experiences (Guthrie & McCracken, 2010) of each project that the logic
models informed. A student is able to review the logic model of how they intended for the
project to be carried out and its results versus how the project proceeded and its results. Through
reflection students may realize they actually had greater access to inputs then they were initially
aware. For example, many students will overlook the instructor as an input that has provides both
feedback and continue guidance and may also not consider colleagues on who they can rely at
their internship sites. They can ask themselves further questions, such as, if they overlooked
certain inputs, were unaware of certain inputs, or if they didn’t use the inputs as well as they
could have. Students can also consider how well the outputs, outcomes, and impacts matched
those they had identified. If they are unable to identify a fit, this time for reflection could also
lead to a restructuring of the logic model to allow the results to be more likely or to better inform
future logic models so that they are more accurate. This reflective practice can aid instructors in
assessing student learning in classes they may otherwise have limited interactions with through
an online class setting or with students with whom they may be unable to visit at sites where
their projects were executed.
How to use a logic model?
Using a logic model begins by considering its different parts. The context or situation that
is informing the model should first be identified as this will inform what the model is addressing.
Next the inputs should be considered, which can be broken down into activities and other types
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of inputs depending on how it is being approached. General inputs are the resources available,
individuals contributing support in some way, and may also include the activities being utilized
to garner results. One consideration for thinking about activities separately is that only certain
inputs may apply for given activities. For example, one activity might use only certain resources
and individuals who do not cross over to support other activities.
Outputs are the results that are yielded by the activities and inputs, such as artifacts which
are generated and exercises or trainings completed. Outcomes can sometimes be less tangible as
there may not be immediate results. Instead, outcomes might be increased skill or confidence.
Impacts can be more nebulous as they are based on the outcomes. For example, a participant in a
professional development activity may need to produce an artifact to demonstrate what was
learned as part of the session. The artifact of that session could be a lesson plan that incorporates
a technology the participant knew little about before the session. The outcome for that participant
is she or he is now more confident in incorporating the technology learned about and will do it
more often (short term impact), which potentially results in an impact of the participant
becoming a teacher that uses more technology in her or his classroom and having students who
are more engaged (intermediate or longer term impacts).
While logic models can be prepared offline by students and feedback offered by
instructors using the grading functionality within a learning management system, another
technology can better support the evolving nature and scaffolding opportunities of logic models.
Through the use of a collaborate technology, such as GoogleDocs, both student and instructor
can pose questions to each other via inserted comments or using the built-in chat feature.
Collaborative editing also provides students and instructors with additional real time support
options. Finally, instructors are able to view changes to the models over time via the version
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control options within GoogleDocs. The use of such a Web 2.0 tool can also be a way to increase
instructional presence (Tunks, 2012), helping to add more of the support that would more
regularly be found in a face to face class.
How might logic models be used in a specific online course?
In an online K-12 technology leadership internship class taught by the author, students
must identify a mentor or mentors and have them approved before discussing what projects they
might pursue and how they’ll go about them. Once they have this initial brainstorming session
completed they must put together a brief proposal and logic model for each of their projects. In
doing so they must not only consider the activities they wish to pursue, but also the inputs they
have going into the projects, the activities they’ll be undertaking, the outcomes they’re hoping
for, and the impacts that they plan for and hope will result from those outcomes.
In this particular class students must construct logic models for a minimum of one needs
assessment, one professional development session, and one community outreach project. They
are given the freedom to brainstorm with their mentor(s) on the focus of each of these projects,
but they then must be able to explain their reasoning within their proposal and logic models to
gain approval from the instructor. While the proposal language will include what the students are
hoping to accomplish, the logic models show the instructor a map of how the students plan to
reach their goals. The logic models also provide an opportunity for the instructor to identify
missing components, understand students’ current thinking, and identify areas that students may
not have considered or understand at that point. Student are also encouraged to regularly revisit
their logic models as changes occur at their internship sites so that they can continue to see how
changes affect not only the logic models, but also the different relationships and outcomes of the
projects.
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Before students get to this point, they often must be introduced to what a logic model is
and how to construct one. Each semester the author has taught this internship class there have
only ever been two or three students who had heard of logic models and fewer still who had used
them. Students typically listed To-Do lists as their organizational method for such projects in the
past if they weren’t just planning everything out in their heads and following a simple timeline to
stay relatively on track. In a face to face class or one where the instructor is able to visit
internship sites on a regular basis, the site visits may help students to avoid simple To-Do lists or
spur of the moment thinking and allow discussion with students about their process and steps,
reviewing any notes that may exist as well. These casual, non-systematic approaches by students,
such as the planning everything in their heads approach, can be harder to assess since there is
little or no documentation of their thought process present, and which provide fewer
opportunities for students to more deeply and meaningfully reflect. An example of a student
intern’s original logic models and an excerpt from their reflection statement are provided at the
end of this article (see Appendix A).
In the internship class students must provide a report after each project is completed, with
a final report on the entire internship experience being the final project. Students must present
their original logic models for each project and discuss how closely their project ended up
resembling their model and plan. In these reports students must discuss the sources of changes,
any factors that they may have overlooked, any surprises that occurred, and finally what they
would change if they either could do a particular project over again knowing what they know
now or if they were to carry out a particular project again in the future. This opportunity to
reflect on the logic models and project experiences helps students to continue to develop their
understanding and evolve their models. According to Guthrie and McCracken (2010), “reflective
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pedagogies have the potential to dramatically facilitate and extend significant learning when
implemented in online learning environments” (p.15). The use of logic models and reflection in
this internship class allow students to better understand what they have learned; it could also
provide a meaningful way for the instructor to better understand what students have learned as
well.
SUMMARY
Online instruction continues to grow each year (Allen & Seaman, 2015) and effective
strategies continue to be necessary to support online students. Online classes often lack the kinds
of support and instructional scaffolding in place to support face to face students (Delen et al.,
2014). One way to help address this is the inclusion of logic models in an online class to support
student projects and planning. Logic models are a way to help identify and understand
relationships between inputs, outcomes, and impacts (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2014).
Whether a simple graphical model or a more advanced one, such models can help
students to demonstrate their understanding of relationships, especially as new knowledge is
added and their own unique models evolve to reflect this growing understanding (McNeil, 2015).
The models themselves provide a way for instructors to better understand students’ thinking and
understanding through the process and provide a basis for instructional interactions to support
online students (Delen et al. 2014). Logic models can also provide a way to support students’
reflective and evaluative process within the class and beyond (Guthrie & McCracken, 2010).
While logic models may not provide all of the answers in supporting projects for online students,
they have provided instructional scaffolding, a window into student understanding, and reflective
pedagogical device for the author and helped to support the success of many online K-12
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technology leadership student interns. The use of logic models could help other instructors
support their online students to be more successful as well.
REFERENCES
Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2014, January). Grade change: Tracking online education in
the United States. Babson Park, MA: Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from
http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradechange.pdf
Allen, I.E., & Seaman, J. (2015, February). Grade level: Tracking online education in the United
States, 2014. Babson Park, MA: Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from
http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/read/survey-reports-2014/
Chick, N. (n.d.). Metacognition. Retrieved from
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/
De-Regil, L. M., Pena-Rosas, J. P., Flores-Ayala, R., & del Socorro Jefferds, M. E. (2014).
Development and use of the generic WHO/CDC logic model for vitamin and mineral
interventions in public health programmes. Public health nutrition, 17(03), 634-639.
Delen, E., Liew, J., & Willson, V. (2014). Effects of interactivity and instructional scaffolding on
learning: Self-regulation in online video-based environments. Computers & Education,
78, 312-320.
Gervais, C., Lacharité, C., & Dubeau, D. (2015). The father friendly initiative within families:
Using a logic model to develop program theory for a father support program. Evaluation
and Program Planning, 52, 133-141.
Groomes, D. A., Jones, T. M., & Lewis, T. A. (2014). The expanded logic model: An agile tool
for vocational rehabilitation programs. Journal of Rehabilitation Administration, 38(1).
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Guthrie, K. L., & McCracken, H. (2010). Reflective pedagogy: Making meaning in
experiential based online courses. The Journal of Educators Online, 7(2), 1-21.
Kellogg, W. K. (2004). Logic model development guide. Michigan: WK Kellogg Foundation.
Knowlton, L. W., & Phillips, C. C. (2013). The logic model guidebook: Better strategies for
great results (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
McNeil, S. (2015). Visualizing mental models: understanding cognitive change to support
teaching and learning of multimedia design and development. Educational Technology
Research and Development, 1(63), 73-96.
Roby, T., Ashe, S., Singh, N., & Clark, C. (2013). Shaping the online experience: How
administrators can influence student and instructor perceptions through policy and
practice. The Internet and Higher Education, 17, 29–37.
Tunks, K. W. (2012). An Introduction and guide to enhancing online instruction with web 2.0
tools. Journal of Educators Online, 9(2), n2.
Wilkerson, S. B., & Haden, C. M. (2014). Effective practices for evaluating STEM out-of-
school time programs. Afterschool Matters, 19, 10-19.
Wiseman, D.G. (2008). Schema theory: Using cognitive structures in organizing knowledge.
(Research Brief No. 10). Retrieved from
https://www.coastal.edu/education/research/schematheory.pdf
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Appendix A: Excerpt of Student Intern Logic Models and Reflective Statement
Figure 1. Student intern’s original logic model for their professional development activity.
Figure 2. Student intern’s original logic model for resource development. The resource
development was carried out after the professional development session was completed.
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Figure 3. Student intern’s original logic model for their community outreach project.
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Appendix B: Author’s Notes
I followed the logic model as I first designed the Needs Assessment, reviewing the results
to guide me in making the instruction for the training. I ensured the clickers were available to
teachers, and while building my confidence, I feel I became a professional leader.
Teachers have been checking out the clickers and using them to prepare their students for
the end-of-grade testing. Many teachers utilize test questions from our PowerSchool resource,
SchoolNet, and have the students click in their responses. The method provides instantaneous
feedback for both teachers and students. The clickers have been employed for assessments,
group work, and class discussions.
The after-school tutorials were part of my Resource Planning and Development logic
model. The outcomes from these one-hour tutorials were very beneficial to the teachers. I
received the most positive feedback from this component of my internship. Teachers gushed
about the Web 2.0 tools and the endless possibilities of both the Promethean/ Smart series
boards.
The logic models faced innumerable changes throughout the semester. For the Needs
Assessment, I didn’t use a Google Form, but instead gave the staff a short survey about what
classes they would be interested in. Also, I hoped to teach ten classes, but I will only be able to
teach six. Overall, I was able to master the technology resources that I taught and the staff
ultimately viewed me as a professional technology facilitator.
Comprehensively, the outcome of the Community Outreach project was very helpful to
the parents and legal guardians that attended. Parents were guided through the process of setting
up a parent account for Engrade in addition to seeing how to access their students work through
Moodle. I was able to follow the guideline of my Logic Model almost completely, except for
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adding a parent/guardian blog to the school’s website. The night was a success because over the
following two weeks I received positive feedback from the school counselor, teachers, and
administration. They informed me that parents appreciated the guidance on using Moodle and
Engrade.
Overall, my internship was a very successful experience. I can remember finishing my
undergraduate coursework and being placed in my first internship as a student teacher. I
mistakenly thought I could not be any more prepared after studying philosophers, strengthening
my knowledge on my content areas, and working in schools with small groups. I was in for a
rude awakening. The classroom was a completely different environment, many times I found
myself thinking back to the class discussions and wondering how to deal with the situations that
arose. In my head, and many times there was a blank slate because the situation was new and I
needed to think on my feet. My internship experience as a graduate student was comparable.
Teaching colleagues was very similar to teaching my students. The knowledge for 21st
learning had a wide range, the instruction needed to be differentiated, and many staff members
required the one-on-one attention. As I went through the internship, I realized that I had many
misconceptions about teaching adults. I had to work longer and harder with some, but it was very
rewarding when they came back with praise and excitement after learning about the new
technology resources and tools.
As an educator, one must be very flexible and ready to adapt to new and changing
environments. Overall, my internship was a very smooth experience and I was able to adapt to
my audience. If I were to do it all over again, I would take advantage of my exceptional staff
members. Many colleagues mastered certain technology skills, and I should have used them as a
resource for my classes. Additionally, I would also have more incentives to come to my tutorials.
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Throughout the internship, I often found myself working one-on-one with a teacher and I
should have planned more efficiently. I would spend over an hour with one teacher and the next
day do the exact same lesson with another teacher. I also had some issues with software updates,
therefore prior to trainings, I would make sure that each teacher had the updates installed before
the professional development.
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