THE ASSURE MODEL IN TEACHING

By

Tri Hari Nurdi (1507042029)

A. Introduction

The ASSURE model is an instructional system or guideline that teachers can use to develop lesson plans which integrate the use of technology and media (Smaldino, Lowther & Russell, 2008). The ASSURE Model places the focus on the learner and the overall outcome of accomplishing learning objectives. The ASSURE model is an enriched evolution of the ADDIE general model. Although the ASSURE model has six steps, which do not exactly correspond to ADDIE’s five, ASSURE also presents design phases, and shares with it the two main features: the initial focus on analysis and the cyclic structure.

The peculiar feature of this model is that it is focused on “planning and conducting Instruction that incorporates media” (Heinich, Molenda & Russel, 1993). Its main perspective is on how to integrate media (any kind of media) into instruction in a method capable of producing the desired learning outcomes. Developed by Robert Heinich and Michael Molenda decades ago, the ASSURE model gained popularity because of its use in a popular textbook for educators.

It is a well-known instructional design guide that uses the constructivist perspective, which integrates multimedia and technology to enhance the learning environment (Lefebvre 2006). The ASSURE model was modified to be used by teachers in the classroom by Smaldino, Lowther & Russell, 2008.

Teachers prefer the ASSURE model because it is designed to be used for a few hours of instruction and for each individual student. This model does not require high complexity of delivered media, deep ID knowledge, or high revision of designs (Gustafson & Branch, 2002). The main difference between an inexperienced teacher and an expert teacher is that an expert teacher can easily decide on content, appropriate teaching strategies, and delivery medium.   The ASSURE model gives new (inexperienced) teachers a general roadmap to follow to help them think more like expert teachers.

B. ASSURE model for educational media

The ASSURE Model has six steps, each represented by a letter in the acronym title, with each step describing a set of task central to the informed selection and use of educational technology. The ASSURE acronym stands for these important components:

Analyze Learners;

State Objectives;

Select Methods, Media and Materials;

Utilize Methods, Media and Materials;

Require Learner Participation; and

Evaluate and Revise.

Analyze Learners: General Characteristics

The first step in the ASSURE model is to Analyze Learners. To Analyze the Learners you must examine the learner in detail. Like most things, without taking the time in the beginning to examine the learner, nothing you have prepared will be effective. Once you have an understanding and reasonable grasp for the learners’ competence at the beginning of the instruction, the teacher can modify to assist the learner in their learning endeavors (Callison 2002).

As part of analyzing your learners you must identify your audience. Your audience can be students, teachers, group members, an organization, a youth group, among many others. You must know the audience if you are to select the best medium to meet the objectives you have set. The audience can be analyzed in terms of their general characteristics (grade level, age, sex, mental, emotional, physical or social problems, socio-economic status etc.) with specific entry competencies (prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes about the topic), and learning styles (visual, musical, verbal, logical, etc.).

(1) General Characteristics (of the learners)

A superficial analysis of learner characteristics can provide helpful leads in selecting instructional methods and media.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LEARNERS DEPEND:  -reading skills, ethnic or cultural subgroup, learner’s apathy, social background and etc.

The more advanced have a sufficient base for using audiovisual or even verbal materials.

If learner apathy toward the subject matter is a problem, consider using a highly stimulating instructional approach, such as a dramatic videotape or a simulation game.

Learners entering a new conceptual area for the first time may need more direct, concrete kinds of experiences, such as field trips or role-playing exercises. More advanced learners usually have a sufficient base for using audiovisual or even verbal materials.

Heterogeneous groups, which include learners varying widely in their conceptual sophistication or in the amount of firsthand experience they have with the topic, may profit from an audiovisual experience such as videotape. Such as media presentation provide a common experiential base that can serve as an important point of reference for subsequent group discussion and individual study.

(2) Specific Entry Competencies

At the beginning, you have to assume that the learners lack the knowledge and skills But they possess the knowledge or skills needed to learn and understand from the lesson.

This assumption that learners have the prerequisite knowledge or skill to begin the lesson can seldom be accepted casually in school settings. Teachers of mixed ability class routinely anticipate that some students will need remedial help before they are ready to begin a particular unit of instruction.

These realizations suggest that instructors must verify assumptions about entry competencies through informal means (such as in-class questioning or out-of-class interviews) or more formal means (such as testing with standardized or teacher-made tests). Entry tests are assessment, both formal and informal, that determine whether students posses the prerequisites.

(3) Learning styles

Learning style refers to a cluster of psychological traits that determine how an individual perceives, interacts with, and respond emotionally to learning environments.

Gardner was dissatisfied with the concept of IQ and its unitary view of intelligence. He identified seven aspects of intelligence: (1)verbal/linguistic (language), (2) logical/mathematical (scientific/quantitative), (3) visual/spatial, (4) musical/rhythmic, (5) bodily/kinestetic (dancing/athletics), (6) interpersonal (ability to understand other people and (7) intrapersonal (ability to understand oneself)

State Objectives

The stated objectives are statements describing what the learner will do as a result of instruction. In other words, objectives are the learning outcomes, that is, what will the student will learn from the lesson? In order to develop proper objectives you must frame them in terms of desired behavior.   What the learner will be able to accomplish after completing the instruction. The objectives you use should be as specific as possible so the learner understands what they are to accomplish. If objectives are clearly and specifically stated, both the learning and teaching will become objective oriented.

Most objectives contain four parts:

1. Audience-who your learners are? ;
2. Behavior to be demonstrated ;
3. Conditions under which the behavior will be observed; and
4. Degree to which the learned skills are to be mastered.

OBJECTIVES SHOULD BE STATED IN TERMS OF:

1. What the learner (audience) will be able to do as a result of instruction (behavior).
2. The conditions under which the student or trainee is going to perform and the degree of acceptable performance should be included.
3. The next step is to state the objectives as specifically as possible.
4. The objectives may be derived from a needs assessment or a course syllabus, stated in a text­book, taken from a curriculum guide, or developed by the instructor.

The ABCDs of Well-Stated Objectives

1. A well-stated objective starts by naming the Audience of learners for whom the objective is intended.
2. It then specifies the Behavior or capability to be learned and
3.  the Conditions under which the capability would be observed.

specifies the Degree to which the new skill must be mastered—the standard by which the capability can be judged.

(1) Audience

a)    Focus on what the learner is doing, not on what the teacher is doing.

b)    Learning is most likely to take place when the learner is active— mentally processing an idea or physically practicing a skill.

c)    not what the teacher does, the objective begins by stating whose capability is going to be changed

(2) Behaviour

a)    The heart of the objective is the verb describing the new capability that the audience will have after instruction.

b)    This verb is most likely to communicate your intent clearly if it is stated as an observable behavior.

c)    What will the learner be able to do after completing instruction?

d)    Vague terms such as know,' understand, and appreciate do not communicate your aim ' clearly. Better are define, categorize, and demonstrate, which denote observable performance.

(3) Conditions

A statement of objectives should include the conditions under which performance is to be observed, if such conditions are relevant

(4) Degree

The final requirement of a well-stated objective is to indicate the standard by which acceptable performance will be judged Includes: What degree of accuracy or proficiency must the learner display? Whether the criteria are stated in qualitative or quantitative terms.

Classification of Objectives

An objective may be classified according to the primary type of learning outcome at which it is aimed. Although there is a range of opinion on the best way to describe and organize types of learning, three categories (or domains), of learning are widely accepted: cognitive skills, affective skills and motor skills. To these we add a fourth, interpersonal skills, because of the importance of such skills in teamwork. Objectives are not intended to limit what a student learns but rather to provide a minimum level of expected achievement.

Select Methods, Media, & Materials  

Once you know your audience and have a clear idea of what they should get out of the lesson, then it is time to select the appropriate method for the given learning task, select available materials, modify existing materials, or design new materials to help accomplish this task. (Smaldino, Lowther, & Russell, 2012). At this step, the Instructor should connect the audience to the objectives. To connect the two the teacher must determine what method to use.

A systematic plan for using media demands that the media be selected systematically at first.

The selection process has two stages:

(1)  Deciding on the appropriate method for the given learning tasks, First, it would be overly simplistic to believe that there is one method that is superior to all others or that serves all learning needs equally well. Teachers often structure assignments to allow students with different preferred learning styles to pursue their individual practice through different methods (e.g. “having abstract random” thinkers use a role-play simulation while ‘concrete sequential” thinkers use a lab manual for structured problem solving).

(2) Choosing an appropriate media format and selecting, modifying, or designing the specific materials within that format.

Choosing a Media Format

A media format is the physical form  in which  a message is incorporated and displayed. Media formats include, for example, flip charts (still images and text), slides (projected still images), audio (voice and music), film (moving images on screen), video (moving images on a TV set) and computer multimedia (graphics, text, and moving images on a TV set). Each has different strength and limitations in terms of the types of messages that can be recorded and displayed. Choosing a media format can be a very complex task because of the following:

vast array of media available, the infinite variety among learners, and the objectives to be pursued.

Things to consider in media selection models:

a)    instructional situation or setting (e.g., large-group, small-group, or self-instruction),

b)    learner variables (e.g., reader, nonreader, or auditory preference)

and the nature of the objective (e.g., cognitive, affective, motor skill, or interpersonal) must be considered against the presentational capabilities of each of the media formats (e.g., presenting still visuals, motion visuals, printed words, or spoken words).

c)  Some models also take into consideration the capability of each format to give feedback to the learner .

Obtaining Specific Materials: Select, Modify, or Design

Obtaining appropriate materials will generally involve one of three alternatives: (1) selecting available materials, (modifying existing materials, or (3) designing new materials. Once you decided what media format suits your objectives the next thing that you should consider is in finding specific materials to convey the lesson

Selecting Available Materials

The majority of instructional materials used by teachers and trainers are "off the shelf"—that is, ready-made and available from school, district, or company collections or other easily accessible sources.

Survey of Sources

Your first step might be to survey some of the published media reference guides to get a general idea of what is available. The decision about whether to use a particular piece of instructional material depends on several factors. Recent research confirms the critically of certain criteria in the appraisal of materials among the questions to be asked about each specific piece of media are the following:

-       Does it match the curriculum?

-       Is it accurate and current

-       Does it contain clear and concise language?

-       Will it arouse motivation and maintain interest?

-       Does it provide for learner participation?

-       Is it of good technical quality?

-       Is there evidence of its effectiveness(e.g., field-test result)?

-       Is it free from objectionable bias and advertising?

-       Is a user guide or other documentation included?

Modifying Available Materials

If you cannot locate any suitable materials you can always modify what is available. This can be both challenging and creative.

Designing New Materials

certain basic considerations must be taken into account when designing new materials. For example:

- Objectives                       What do you want your students to learn?

- Audience                         What the characteristics of your learner?

- Cost                                Is sufficient money available in your budget to meet the cost?        

- Technical Expertise      Do you have the necessary expertise to design and produce the kind of materials you wish to use?

- Equipment                      Do you have the necessary equipment to produce or use the materials you intend to design?

- Facilities                          if your design calls for use of special facilities for preparation or use of your materials, are such facilities available?

- Time                                Can you afford to spend whatever time necessary to design and produce the kind of materials you have in mind?

Utilize Methods, Media, & Materials                

The Utilize Methods, Media & Materials step is where you develop your plan for implementing your media and materials. For each type of media or materials, the teacher selects and describe in how they are going to implement the media (or material) into your lesson to help your learners meet the lesson’s objective. The media, materials and technology selected should be focused on carrying out the selected method. If you decide to use electronic equipment, be sure to use it before, even practice if you have to, to insure the equipment is functioning properly. In that same regard, it is also important to practice the lesson itself before introducing it to the learner. Next, prepare the room, the necessary equipment and facilities. It may be obvious, but both the learner and teacher should be prepared for the learning experience.

To get maximum learning impact from your presentation, you must follow certain utilization procedures

Preview the Materials

No instructional materials should be used blind that’s why during the selection process you should have determined that the materials are appropriate for your audience and objectives.

Practice the Presentation

After previewing the materials, you should practice your portion of the presentation. However, do not over practice, or the presentation will sound "canned. “

Prepare the Environment

Wherever the presentation is to take place classroom, auditorium, meeting room, or whatever the facilities will have to be put in order. Utilization of many media requires a darkened room, a convenient power supply, and access to light switches.

Present the Material

This is what you've been preparing for, so you will want to make the most of it. Our term for this is showmanship. instructor should be able to direct attention in the classroom.

Require Learner Participation                          

The Require Learner Participation step requires you to describe how you are going to get each learner actively and individually involved in the lesson. Students learn best when they are actively involved in the learning experience. Whatever your teaching strategy, be sure to incorporate questions and answers, discussions, group work, hands-on activities, and other ways of getting students actively involved in the learning of the content.  You should seek to pay close attention to your learners and feel confident that they are truly grasping the content and not just listening. Participating in the learning will facilitate this level of understanding. Allow them to construct knowledge as opposed to trying to “teach” them knowledge. Finally for this step, feedback must be provided to the learner before any type of evaluation is conducted.

The fifth step in the ASSURE model is to provide opportunities for learners to practice the capability being taught.

Educators have long realized that participation in the learning process by the learner enhances learning.

John Dewey urged reorganization of the curriculum and instruction to make student participation a central part of the process.

Behavioral psychologists such as B. F. Skinner demonstrated that instruction providing for constant reinforcement of desired behaviors is more effective than instruction in which responses are not reinforced.

Evaluate Student Performance:                          

The last step of the ASSURE method is Evaluate Student Performance. Here the evaluation should be matched to the objective. Ultimately this last stage is the most important. You must evaluate the instruction process from start to finish using the objectives you created in the beginning. It is helpful to reflect on your objections, the instructional strategy, the instructional materials, and the assessment. By evaluating the learners against the objectives it can be determined if the lesson was effective and whether any step needs to be modify or re-examined.

 The ASSURE model supports the field of educational technology. It is based on the principal that no one student acquires information in the same way.  While the ASSURE model is used to systematically design instruction, it steps away from the traditional means of instruction, (textbooks, lectures, etc) to the use of technology to deliver the instruction. (Academy of Teaching Excellence,2002). In conclusion, the ASSURE model has six components each necessary for the successful implementation of the instruction, including: 1) Analyze learners, 2) State Objectives, 3) Select Methods, Media, and Materials, 4) Utilize Media and Materials, 5) Require learner Participation, and 6) Evaluate and Revise.