Formative Evaluation Plan

Expert Review

This instructional design project will be reviewed by my husband, Daniel Davis, who is an

English native speaker and has learned Persian as a second language. I chose my husband as my

SME because he used to be a learner and he also teaches Persian, therefore, he better knows the

challenging areas of the language as a learner which cannot be recognized by a Persian native

speaker who learned it naturally and is not aware of some difficulties. My SME also has studied

on history of the Indo-European languages and can compare the two languages and show their

differences and similarities.

A questionnaire is provided for the SME to evaluate this instructional design and focus on

the needed areas. (See “Formative Evaluation Report” section, page 23).

One-to-one evaluation

In a typical DLI school there are many students at different levels of the language at the

same time. For a one-on-one evaluation, I would ask the department chair or the members of the

faculty to recommend a good student in an advanced phase of the course. This student would

have seen many instructional approaches and would know which were the most useful to them

personally and also for the rest of their classmates. I would arrange a session for the student to go

through the entire lesson and provide feedback to me about the parts which were effective and

the areas that need changing.

Small group evaluation

After the one-to-one evaluation with the student I would get a team of 3-4 beginning

students to go through the lesson as a group. Based on their initial language aptitude

assessments, I would want to have a range of scores from high to the minimum that is accepted.
The students should be at the appropriate level of their head-start instruction for this lesson. It

will be presented just like it would in a class. Their comments will be asked for at the end, but

their success in understanding the material will be a more important indicator of the quality of

the learning materials.

Field trial

Finally, this lesson will be tried as part of the general curriculum. This can be done quickly

using classes from different departments, or overtime as new classes begin every few months.

Using the scores from the exercises and the graded final activity we can determine if most of the

students have a positive outcome from the course or, if the scores are low, we can find the areas

that need improvement and make the necessary changes.

 Formative Evaluation Report

Evaluation survey

SME Questionnaire
1. Do the learning objectives meet the learner’s needs?

2. Does the sequence of content match the level of the learners?

3. Are the content and instructions clear to follow?
4. How enjoyable and effective is the instruction (learning material)?
5. Are there any difficulties with performing the activities?
6. Are four language skills (Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing) addressed in the

instruction?
7. What are the difficulties the instructor may have to use the leaning materials?
8. Is there any cultural aspect which needs to be mentioned for this lesson?
9. How do you evaluate the provided assessment?
10. What are the areas of this lesson that require special attention?
* Find the completed questionnaire in the Appendix A.

Report of expert review

My SME is interested in all aspects of the Persian language and has the knowledge to

evaluate this learning material. He reviewed the materials and completed the questionnaire

(Appendix A). He stated that the material is overall appropriate and well-prepared. However, he

also had some suggestions and modifications to improve the project. The stated suggestions are

as follows: (1) Conduct a pre-test/survey prior to the class to determine the knowledge level of

the learners in order to avoid making the class too low or too high for some. (2) Special emphasis

on the instructor’s responsibility to point out the cultural aspects of pronoun use. (3) Overcome

the learner’s hesitation to participate and increase the learner’s interest and motivation to be

active in the process.

Comments on suggested changes

The expert reviewer did not have a critical suggestion over the materials and the project.

He found the material interesting with some room for the instructor’s creativity and authentic
ideas to improve class quality as well as its outcome. The SME found the audio input of the

slides a positive repetitive element for the pronunciation practice. However, the expert reviewer

had some suggestions on the order and sequence of the slideshow, also adding the “correct

answer” feature for the quizzes. These suggestions have been done on the material.