project 1

The main language in Saudi Arabia is Arabic, but English is being adopted as a major language in the nation. The nation has a policy of compulsory education from age 6 to 14. Males constitute the largest portion of out-of-school children, but the ration for both genders has been on the decrease. This high intellectual gap between the two genders is attributed to the fact that women, who had previously been blocked from access to education are turning out to be more enthusiastic about the newly granted freedom. According to a report published by the EF English Proficiency Index, Saudi Arabia is number 83 of 88 countries/ regions in terms of its proficiency in English and 8 out 9 in the Middle East region with a 43.65 index. Saudi Arabia sends thousands of students annually to learn English, for example, in America, 100 thousand students to study English before joining universities, and this costs the government a lot of money, so it is better to exploit the money in the Development of materials for learning English (ur Rahman et al., 2013)

Needs assessment:

The results of the needs assessment indicate that there is definite need for the use of this tool. From the experience I have gathered working in the field a a teacher, and from what I have learned from other professionals, learning English as a second language is burdened with a lot of challenges. The most basic challenges include insufficiency if resources. The time and personnel needed as well as infrastructure required may sometimes be so limited that it becomes hard to deliver the lessons effectively. As a result, the learning period is often much longer than should be, and the results are not as good as they ought to be. With BBC Learning English, students and teachers can now learn and teach from wherever they want, regardless of the geographical distance between them, and bypassing many other possible logistical barriers to effective learning. This new approach to learning may stimulate student performance and effectiveness of learning by helping the students to learn, practice and access materials at their own convenience.

Model Background

Context

The main goal of this project is to develop a learning strategy aimed at increasing the effectiveness of learning English as a second language in Saudi Arabia. The proposed approach should be able to increase the efficiency of learning by extending more opportunities to the learners as well as the teachers in order to yield better results than currently seen in the traditional educational setup (Khan, 2011).

The product will include the use of video lectures (with features such as revision materials from previous years), printable materials (also with features such as revision materials from previous years), and a smart-device Application (with features to enable interactive functionality between learners and tutors and among learners). The basic idea behind this project is to provide an opportunity for learners to enjoy a wider scope of educational materials through increased out-of-class access to educational materials.

This way, students and teachers will get the best out of the learning experience since class time will be left for the really important activities such as group discussions and physical laboratory tests among others. The benefit of this system is that it will increase the interaction between teachers and students since the newly introduced platforms will encourage a real-time remote access to each other. In light of this, the IT Department within Riyadh District has been tasked with the mandate of developing the new instruments of study, and testing them before they are made fully available to all learners.

Environment

The IT Department in the Ministry of Education is responsible for ensuring that all technology platforms dedicated to learning and education at all levels in Saudi Arabia are up and learning, updates and effectively deployed. The instructional materials will be developed ad deployed to 8th grade students at Horizon School in Riyadh District to enhance their learning of English as a second language. The government and other senior management officials will ensure that the IT Department within the ministry has everything it needs to develop the instructional materials within the stipulated time (Nassuora, 2012).

In addition, all schools within Riyadh District will be provided with the technology, training and gadgets required to ensure that they effectively participate in the pilot study. While schools will be freely provided with these resources, the students as well as their parents will be required to personally acquire the devices required to participate in the pilot study. The devices include smart phones and computers, and will be provided at a subsidized cost from designated dealers. A survey to ensure that all students participating in the pilot study have the necessary resources, which include smart phones and computers that are internet enabled.

A task force deployed by the IT Department and security agencies will be mandated with the role of distributing the resources to Horizon School in Riyadh District before the actual pilot study begins. As soon as everything is set, the program will roll out, with the release of instructional materials such as video lectures, printable materials, and a smart-device Application. Another task force will be mandated with evaluating the performance of the study, and will report to the senior ministry officials who will report to higher authorities. A cost-benefit analysis will be carried out to see whether the program makes it any easier to learn English as a second language to students at the 8th grade level at Horizon School in Riyadh District, and as such, be the main determinant of whether the program should be rolled out to all levels of learning.

Product Purpose

The purpose of this program is to:

· Reduce logistical and resource restrictions in learning English.

· Help to encourage learners and instructors to develop skills in technology

· Add value to online lessons and assessments with special interests to main learning outcomes

· Allow trainers to have individualized system of monitoring and following the progress of their students, detect when there are problems and engage the necessary corrective mechanisms

· Provide a user-friendly learning experience that will motivate and stimulate learning

Target audience

The students who will participate in this project are those at the eight grade level of learning at Horizon School in Riyadh District. Eventually, the program will be rolled out to students at all levels of learning, since they all have varying levels of their understanding and utilization of English as a second language. The other key members of the target audience include the project managers, designers of the instructional materials, evaluation specialists, experts in the English subject as well as educators.

Rationale for Model

To ensure that there is efficient implementation of the project, the ADDIE model will be used as the protocol to guide in the implementation of this project. The acronym ADDIE stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation, quite commonly used in instructional learning projects. This model is effective in its role as it helps to prevent repetition of tasks due to its high level of iteration at several checkpoints within a project.

Model Purpose

This model will be used to help develop video lectures, printable materials as well as a smart device application for students at the 8th grade at Horizon School in Riyadh District. These three processes are quite intricate, and will, therefore, benefit a lot from the use of the ADDIE model as the model will help to reduce time wastage as well as repetition that would consume a lot of resources.

Model Assumptions and/or Constraints

Being that the project is based on the ADDIE model, it will be quite important for the project guidelines to be clearly demonstrated before the start of the project. In addition, all necessary resources such as hardware and software needed to develop the video lectures, the printable materials as well as the smart device application. The ADDIE model will help in the implementation of this pilot project at the grade level, course level as well as the lesson level and will require the active participation of the key personnel named above. With modifications in key areas, the model can effectively be used to help in the modeling of the 3 key parts of the project.

Due to the complexity of the project, its fulfillment in good time and resources relies majorly on how fast and effectively the details and requirements of the project are communicated to the key stakeholders in advance. The placement of several checkpoints in the project would be an effective way of ensuring a smooth transition from one phase of the project to another. It will also help in the optimal use of the resources, since this will enhance the detection of problems while they are still so little that they can easily be rectified.

The two main assumptions of this project is that both the schools and the students have the required technology to participate in the pilot study, or that the schools and students can, and are in position to purchase the technology as need arises. This pilot study will be conducted among the students in the 8th grade level at Horizon School in Riyadh District. The project managers expect all school administrators to cooperate and support in the study. All the same, there are many more factors to determine the success of the pilot study, in order to guide its wholesome application.

Analysis and Design of Model

Model Components

This project will follow the ADDIE model guideline, and will be rolled out at grade level, course/unit level, and lesson level. The model components required include:

· The model will start at the 8th grade level where it will determine whether it can be applied to lower grades, and eventually to the whole system. To get to understand the specific needs of the students at this stage, some of the important questions that the project personnel will be looking to ask include their current level of education/ understanding of the English as their second language, what hinders them from being more educated about English as their second language, what they believe they should be learning as well as how conversant they are with technology, especially in regards to its use in education. On the other hand, environmental analysis would include the technology that is available for use, as well as the readiness of the schools to participate based on their infrastructure.

· The next step will be to analyze the course materials with the help of English language experts. This step will be carried out in order to understand what would benefit the readers more, and hence guide in the inclusion of important course content in the course.

· Development of instructional goals to guide in the measurement of how well learners understood the course or unit by evaluating how well they were able to meet the key objectives set at the beginning of each unit within the course. The goals will form a key part of coming up with instructional strategies, objectives as well as the techniques to be used at each stage of assessment. The instructional objectives will define what students can do as a result of the objectives, and are required to be SMART. Next would be to come up with suitable self-instructional strategies. Choosing an effective assessment technique will also be key to accomplishing success in the project. The development of instructional goals will be done unit after another for the whole English as a second language course.

· Next will be the development of videos, printable materials as well as smart device application for the ESL course, a task that will involve all the above mentioned key personnel. The process will be intensely sequential, meaning that units within the course will be developed one after the other in order to be able to evaluate the process and thus assess its effectiveness and efficiency.

· The process, which at this point should be effective, will be replicated for all lessons within units comprising the ESL course.

· The process will then be replicated for units comprising the ESL course.

Unit Level Product Implementation

The complexity of the process will be a critical issue, hence there will be need to implement a micro-level process to ensure procedural flow of work in order to reduce the number, possibility and occurrences of iterations, hence save on time and resources (Al-Alwani, 2013). The diagram below shows the simplified implementation plan for the project.

In the table below is a depiction of the micro-level process with an example of each

As an additional measure of efficiency, effective channels of communication are a must-have for this project since it will enable effective use of resources as well as risk management.

Communication and diffusion plan

The first step in the diffusion of the model will be presenting the model to the ministry of education officials for vetting. The document presented to the ministry will have a detailed explanation of the process and sub-process that are pertinent to the effective roll out of this project, which will include a SWOT analysis of the project. The project will then be rolled out in 8th grade at Horizon School in Riyadh District. The presentation of the proposed project files will be followed closely by a field analysis to determine what resources are currently in the field, what is missing, and as such, how the missing resources can be accessed (Bishop & Verleger, 2013).

Prior to the actual roll out of the pilot project, the ministry and other top government officials will compile a checklist and guidelines to be used as the template/ rubric against which to measure the effectiveness of the plot project. These will include the distribution and use of resources, roles of each individual involved as well as other key performance indicators of the project. At the end of this, the team can then be assembled for the actual roll out of the pilot project. The success of the project will heavily rely on the selection of the participants, to ensure that the chosen participants are able and willing to participate in the project. Despite the fact that the project so far shows high chances of success, there is bound to be some difficulty in the speed of progress as well as active resistance.

Conclusion

The use of this model will make the effectiveness of learning English as a second language higher. It will make it easier for students and teacher to interact, and for them to constructively gain from each other. For purposes of effective application of this model, it is important to carefully read and understand all the components of this project and how they interact to build one strong framework. The project is based on steps that need to be completed in order to proceed, so as to ensure total success of the project.

References

Al-Alwani, A. E. S. (2005). Barriers to integrating information technology in Saudi Arabia science education.

Bishop, J. L., & Verleger, M. A. (2013, June). The flipped classroom: A survey of the research. In ASEE national conference proceedings, Atlanta, GA (Vol. 30, No. 9, pp. 1-18).

Khan, I. A. (2011). Learning difficulties in English: Diagnosis and pedagogy in Saudi Arabia. Educational Research, 2(7), 1248-1257.

Nassuora, A. B. (2012). Students acceptance of mobile learning for higher education in Saudi Arabia. American Academic & Scholarly Research Journal, 4(2), 24-30.

ur Rahman, M. M., & Alhaisoni, E. (2013). Teaching English in Saudi Arabia: prospects and challenges. Academic Research International, 4(1), 112.