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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

MONTEREY BAY

Creating New Goals within SIRAS Systems

Training

CAPSTONE PROPOSAL

Submitted in partial satisfaction of requirements of the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE in

Instructional Science and Technology

Diego Barraza Avila

Date

Capstone Approvals: (At least one advisor and capstone instructor should approve)

___________________________ ___________________________ _____________

Advisor Name Signature Date

___________________________ ___________________________ _____________

Capstone Instructor Name Signature Date
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND..........................................................................................................4
ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN/LITERATURE REVIEW/LEARNING THEORIES ...................................................5
PROBLEM DESCRIPTION .....................................................................................................................6
TARGET AUDIENCE .............................................................................................................................7
SOLUTION DESCRIPTION ....................................................................................................................8
GOALS ...............................................................................................................................................8
PROPOSED SOLUTION ........................................................................................................................8
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES..............................................................................................................9
MEDIA COMPONENTS ...................................................................................................................... 10
CHALLENGES .................................................................................................................................... 10
METHODS/PROCEDURE.................................................................................................................... 10
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................ 10
RESOURCES...................................................................................................................................... 11
SKILLS REQUIRED ............................................................................................................................. 12
TIMELINE/PROGRESS REPORT .......................................................................................................... 12
MILESTONES CHECKLIST ................................................................................................................... 12
EVALUATION/TESTING PLAN ............................................................................................................ 12
FORMATIVE EVALUATION ................................................................................................................ 12
SUMMATIVE EVALUATION ............................................................................................................... 13
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Abstract
Special Education Departments (Sped) members are required to submit Individualized
Education Program (IEPs) files into the SIRAS Systems portal offered by the Monterey County
Office of Education. SIRAS Systems is one of the primary resources for Sped members working
on IEPs. SIRAS Systems offers many resources to learn how to use the product however
members do not have the time to go through them. This training aims to teach how to create new
goals within SIRAS Systems.
Submitting a non-compliant IEP into SIRAS Systems causes a departmental issue with
state and federal agencies. The department, which is formed by Speech Pathologists, School
Psychologists, Special Day Class Teachers and Resource Teachers must follow department
procedures and submit compliant IEPs into the SIRAS Systems service. Currently, the
department is becoming non-compliant with state and federal guidelines due to the constant non-
compliant IEPs submitted into SIRAS Systems.
The proposed solution is an hour-long training aimed to demonstrate how to properly
create new goals within SIRAS Systems. The training will be facilitated by the SME and will
mimic her style on submitting a compliant IEP into SIRAS systems. New members have
difficulty creating goals within SIRAS Systems and this is causing IEPs to be submitted as non-
compliant. This trainings goal is to help Sped members submit compliant IEPs into SIRAS
Systems by providing the knowledge and style on how to create new goals.
Sped members current support is provided face to face through appointment. The SME is
currently the only person in charge of supporting members that have submitted IEPs as non-
compliant. This training would easy up the workload of the SME by providing a quick and
effective approach to solve this issue.
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Introduction/background

SIRAS is the software used by the Special Education (Sped) department to submit
Individualized Education Program (IEPs). SIRAS offers a great amount of resources and new
staff members in the department hardly have time to go through them. The purpose of this
training is to concentrate in areas of the software that are detected when staff submit non-
compliant IEPs into SIRAS. The focus of this project will be on creating new goals within
SIRAS Systems.
The Individualized Education Program or IEP, is the result of an essential process to
ensure that individuals with disabilities have appropriate educational planning to accommodate
their unique instructional needs, and that these needs are met in an appropriate learning
environment (Diker, 2010). Understanding the importance of Individualized Educational
Programs (IEP) in the Special Education (Sped) department in my organization is crucial to
meeting State and Federal guidelines. Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs), Psychologists,
Resource Specialist Program (RSP) teachers, and Special Day Class teachers are constantly
submitting IEPs through SIRAS. SIRAS is the Monterey County Office of Education platform to
submit IEPs. The SME understands that submitting a compliant IEP is crucial for the overall
well-being of the department.
According to the department of education, complaint IEPs are tied to the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) signed in 2004 by President George W. Bush. Non-compliant
IEPs results in schools being noncompliant in the legal mandates of IDEA. The implementation
of specialized designed IEPs unique to the student's needs and disability were mandated by
IDEA law to serve the student and the school community. The lives of individuals are being
marginalized when not following the proper required laws.
Noncompliance with IDEA has serious consequences for students. For instance, Students
evaluations, without a compliant IEP it is impossible to follow an effective plan of instruction
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and support for the student. This leads to improper progress reports that enables the student to
fall behind. According to SPEDWatch Special Education Activism, A students lack of progress
and the districts outlay of funds for ineffective instruction can go undetected for an entire school
year, or more.

Environmental Scan/Literature Review/Learning Theories

The theory this project would use is Albert Banduras Social-Cognitive Theory. By
definition, Observational learning in Social Cognitive Theory is based on identified weaknesses
in prior views on imitative learning. The project is developed based on identified weaknesses in
the department. The training would target those areas staff members fail to file correctly at the
time of submitting it through SIRAS, such as crating new goals within SIRAS Systems.
Social-cognitive theory began with Banduras work, his subjects made use of information
in reflecting on their own behavior. One of the main goals of this training will be to lay out how
important it is to submit a complaint IEP and how not doing so causes the department to be
noncompliant with state and federal laws.
Another factor for using this theory is the use of concepts such as self-efficacy and self-
regulated learning. Self-efficacy refers to personal beliefs about ones capacities to be successful
in tasks with novel or ambiguous elements and includes teacher efficacy (Bandura, 1997). Self-
regulated learning refers to students proactive efforts to mobilize emotional, cognitive, and
environmental resources during learning and self -observation, judgement and reaction to ones
progress (Bandura 1986).
The role of the instructor, in this case the SME, would be to deliver the training pointing
out that it was developed based on the department's overall points of failure when submitting a
non-compliant IEP. The department also counts on the staff self-efficacy and self-regulated
learning for this training. It is not just about doing the training but to continue practicing in the
areas they have trouble completing correctly.
In general, imitative learning is an association between a stimulus and a response. The
learner mimics or imitates a model behavior, is reinforced for the response that matches the
model and later repeats the behavior (Bandura 1995). The training will be address from the SME
standpoint developing each area from her expert style so learners could mimic the way she
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develops an IEP for submission into SIRAS focusing in the way she creates new goals within
SIRAS Systems. It is expected that if learners adopt this style the IEP submissions into SIRAS
would be compliant to state and federal laws.
There are other projects where Banduras work has been utilized. For instance, according
to the Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication this theory provides and agentic
conceptual framework within which to analyze the determinants and psychosocial mechanisms
through which symbolic communication influences human thought, affect and action. It also
explains how Social cognitive theory analyzes social diffusion of new styles of behavior in terms
of psychosocial factors governing their acquisition and adoption and the social networks to
which they spread and are supported.

Problem description

The performance gap comes from new or inexperienced staff members that use SIRAS
Systems without proper training. The performance gap is approached by developing a training
that can target new Sped staff at the time of hire. This will ensure that they have the knowledge
to prepare and submit a complaint IEP focusing on creating new goals within SIRAS Systems
from day one on the job.
New hires need quick access to effective training. The desired performance outcome for
this instruction is to increase the possibilities of creating a compliant IEP by building knowledge,
motivation, and confidence when using SIRAS. An hour-long training module is proposed to
address this performance gap. SIRAS has many features that can take many hours to analyze.
This training module will target specific areas in which the Sped staff are having difficulty when
developing an IEP. Specifically focusing on creating new goals within SIRAS Systems. This will
consequently decrease the amount of non-compliant IEPs submitted through SIRAS Systems.
The main high-level organizational goal is to meet State and Federal requirements when
submitting IEPs. This will ensure department compliance. The current situation of the
department indicates a lack of training, causing inexperienced members to submit non-compliant
EIPs. There should be efficient training alternatives in place to provide staff with knowledge
needed to submit a compliant IEP.
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IEPs are important documents that are tied to State and Federal agencies. If they are
repeatedly submitted as non-compliant, it could create an issue between the organization and
these agencies. It is crucial that staff submit compliant IEPs 100% of the time. Different factors
aside from training or instruction that contribute to the performance gap are the lack of
motivation of the staff to get trained. In most cases, staff will state that they feel proficient
navigating SIRAS, and developing a compliant IEP. However, IEPs keep being submitted as
non-compliant.

Target audience

This training is intended for the Special Education departments new hires. The learners
could be composed of Speech & Language Pathologists, Psychologists, Special Day Class
Teachers, and Resource Specialist Program Teachers. The level of expertise on SIRAS varies.
Members that are new to the profession are most likely to request extra support. There are some
members that are proficient in developing an Individualized Educational Program file, but lack
the skills to create new goals within SIRAS Systems. The SME has been with the district for
about 18 years, she is an expert on the subject. The most important element during the design
will the essential input from the SME to strategically create an eLearning module on how to
create new goals within SIRAS Systems.
Applying Banduras theory on this training is appropriate because as explained earlier it
focuses on weaknesses staff shows when submitting IEPs and the training would be adopting the
SME style, which provides a style to mimic when creating new goals within SIRAS Systems. If
learners adopt this style, then the chances of staff members submitting IEPs as compliant into
SIRAS increases.
The SME is well known in the department and input will be considered by everyone
involved with the development of IEPs. Staff will consider adopting her style by possibly taking
this training. As stated in Banduras work, learners adopt and/or correct their behavior by
imitating others doing the assigned task in the correct way without consequences reinforcing the
behavior in others to follow the given example.
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Solution Description
Goals

The training main objective is to decrease the amount of non-compliant IEPs being
submitted into SIRAS. The main high-level organizational goal is to meet State and Federal
requirements when submitting IEPs. This will ensure department compliance. Acquiring 100%
compliant IEPs will be accomplished by providing a one-hour training module where the
learners goals will be as follows:
To be able to create new goals within SIRAS Systems
To be able to complete a compliant IEP
To build confidence when using SIRAS
The current situation of the department indicates a lack of training, causing inexperienced
members to submit non-compliant EIPs.

Proposed Solution

The proposed solution is an hour-long training aimed to show how to create new goals
within SIRAS Systems. The training would consist of an eLearning module that will be divided
into two sub-modules; Module 1 and Module 2. Module 1 would provide a pre-assessment
survey before starting the training. The SIRAS Systems user manual will be provided in PDF
format for users to have the document available. The module would then go through an overview
of SIRAS and its purpose in the department.
Module 2 would target creating new goals within SIRAS Systems and filling a compliant
IEP. The module would make use of video resources, activities and a post-assessment survey
will be offer at the end to capture user engagement and understanding.
The training main goal would be to decrease the amount of IEP submitted as non-
compliant into SIRAS Systems. This would be accomplished by targeting the areas of the IEP
that show as incomplete in this case creating new goals seems to be one main issue for members.
By focusing on the areas that members need support, the training assures an improvement
overtime.
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The training will offer a short intro to case management. The Case Management learning
module was created as part of a capstone project. The scope of this module was to cover a ten-
minute lesson that explained the process of case management. The module was created with the
objective of having learners go through the phases of case management before moving on with
the rest of the capstone project, which consists of creating new objectives on SIRAS Systems.

Instructional Strategies

The hour-long training module will include the following activities:

Module 1
1. SIRAS materials and Pre- Assessment
Take pre-assessment survey
Case Management
Download SIRAS Manual in PDF Format
Overview of SIRAS
Its main purpose in the department
Short video clip (adapted or adopted)
Interactive activity (yet to be decided)

Module 2
2. Creating New Goals and filling a compliant IEP
Steps to complete a compliant IEP
Fill in the gaps activities
Short video clip (adapted or adopted)
Creating New Goals within SIRAS Systems
Interactive activity (yet to be decided)
Interactive activity (yet to be decided)
Deliverable
Take post-assessment survey
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Media Components
The Case Management portion of the training was created in Captivate and can be
accessed through a webpage link on the computer and mobile device. The duration of the
prototype is approximately ten minutes. At the start of the module, learners can see the lesson,
practice, and test options. The module has narration and closed caption. The module is designed
so that any first-time user can simply follow the directions, go through the lesson, take the
practice, and finally take an assessment that will provide them with a pass or fail score at the end.
The training would make use of short video clips and interactive presentations. It will
also consist of an eLearning class through Moodle, space provided by the instructors in the MIST
program.

Challenges
One of the greatest challenges in completing this capstone is balancing the time to work
on it. Having a full-time job and family are time consuming. Working with the SME requires the
ability to schedule times to meet that work for both of us. One of the challenges has been
working in the design phase. At the beginning of the project I was expecting an LMS to be
deployed by the time I finalized the capstone. However, the LMS is not going to be ready by
then and a different delivery method must be selected.
Another challenge was to address the bugs encounter in the captivate module for case
management. Captivate is a complex software and it was complicated for me to go through the
bugs and try to make it as smooth as possible. Captivate was also fun to use and it expanded my
skillset.

Methods/Procedure

Design and Development

The course aims to support new Sped members in summiting compliant IEPs into SIRAS
Systems. The course consists of two modules; module 1 and module 2. Each module focus on
critical factors to help create new goals into SIRAS Systems, given as a result a compliant IEP.
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The first module is focused on case management and an overview to SIRAS Systems and
its function in the department. The second module is focused on creating new goals into SIRAS
Systems and the steps necessary to submit a compliant IEP.
The case management portion of the training is created using Captivate. The Ten- minute
module is focused on the importance of case management to create a compliant IEP. By
providing both visual and auditory information each of the two modules allows the learners to
create a compliant IEP.

The case management module includes narration and close captions explaining the
materials of the current slide. The navigation buttons are simple to use and easily helps the
learner to transition throughout the information. The learner is put in charged on the progress of
the module.

Resources
The resources used in the project are from a combination of sources. The capstone will
make use of videos offered at the SIRAS Systems website. It will also use an original captivate
module which was created during the design and development phase. The project did not have a
monetary expense.
The SME is an important resource to get this capstone completed. The time invested and
the constant communication will be key for this projects success.
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Skills Required
Learning how to use captivate to develop the learning module was the most challenging
skill necessary. Different aspects of captivate were used to increase and maintain interest and
motivation. The Ten-minute module created with captivate was innovative.

Timeline/progress report
Milestones Checklist

Topic Goal Date

Initial Design October 1, 2017

Module 1 October 15, 2017

Module 2 November 1, 2017

Usability Testing November 15, 2017

Summative Testing December 1, 2017

Evaluation/Testing Plan

Formative Evaluation
The case management portion of this capstone has gone thou usability testing. The results
are as follows:
A pre-test and post-test were offered during the usability test. The pre-test helps to assess
the learners knowledge on the seven phases of case management. The pre-test and
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post-test are the same in order to measure how much was gained from the training. The learners
accessed the pre-test through learning module from the link or the host computer. The answers
were recorded on paper by the evaluator. There were seven questions altogether with three
multiple choice, two true and false, and two fill-in- the-blanks. The variety of questions help
check the learners understanding of the case management process and whether they can
recall the information without referring to the learning module.
After the learners took the pre-test, they would click on the begin button to start the
learning module. The directions were given from the beginning of the module to the end with
audio and closed caption. The learners read all seven slides and then practice what they have
learned through a matching exercise. In order to match the words, they clicked and dragged each
word to the correct definition or description as stated in the audio and closed caption. The
tasks took on average of ten minutes and depended on how quickly the learners read and
comprehended.
Afterwards the learner took the post-test, but they were not allowed to refer back to the
learning module. The post-test was the same as the pre-test and access through the main menu.
For the post-test, the learners submitted their answers and get immediate feedback on whether
they answered them correctly or not. If the answer was left blank, then an error message would
pop up saying you must answer the question before continuing. At the end of the test, the
results are shown with the percentage answered correctly.

Summative Evaluation
This section is based on the case management portion of this capstone. Both, pre- and
post-tests were identical with seven questions. Ten people participated for this evaluation. On the
pre-test only two people received a 71% and the rest scored below. However, on the post-test all
ten learners received a higher score as seen in table 1. Four learners received 71% and six
learners received a score of 86%. The learners only missed one or two questions on the post-
test. The mean for the pre-test was 3.8 with a standard deviation of 0.92 and the mean for the
post-test was 5.6 with a standard deviation of 0.52. Overall, there was an improvement in the
scores from the training.
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The learners struggle most with the fill-in-the blank questions number six and seven and
the multiple-choice question number two on the pre-test (see Figure 3). However, after the
training, the learners showed the most improvement on the fill-in-the-blank questions and most
the learners were able to fill in the correct terms. 100% of the learners were able to answer
number seven correctly.

The hypothesis was that the training will enhance the learners knowledge about case
management. The dependent sample t-test was used to analyze the pre-test and post-test for the
same group of learners. The Paired Two Sample for Means is shown in table 2. We used the
one-tail results since the hypothesis was directional. The absolute value of the t-stat result is
greater than the critical value 6.19>1.83. So, we reject the null hypothesis and support the
research hypothesis that the learning module will enhance the learners knowledge about case
management. This shows that the training was effective in teaching learners about the case
management process.
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