Course Information

Course Description

Required Readings

Assigned Modules

Elective Modules

Assessment Scheme

Submitting Work

Technology Requirements

Web-based Conferencing

The Discussion List

How to Register

Instructor

Paul Lloyd, Ph.D.
Smith Research Center, Suite 150
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
(812) 855-1236
dlloyd@indiana.edu

I coordinate research projects of Professor Larry Mikulecky and Professor Roger Farr on the areas of adult literacy, and school-to-work transition. My responsibilities include:

• developing and implementing customized assessment instruments;
• developing and implementing methods for analyzing data;
• developing training materials for teachers;
• delivering training on customized assessment methods;
• coordinating a departmental team in carrying out these activities.

Course Description

This course is designed to enhance an understanding of the nature of workplace literacy needs and to show how to develop and teach in workplace literacy and basic skills programs.

The objectives of the course are to learn how to:

• appreciate the nature of workplace literacy and the kinds of literacy demands facing workers and employers;
• understand the factors involved in planning a workplace literacy program;
• assess the needs of a particular workforce and put forward a plan for meeting those needs;
• conduct a task analysis to find out the detailed literacy needs of job tasks;
• develop custom-designed curriculum that provides for workplace needs;
• select commercial materials that will supplement the custom-designed curriculum;
• build lessons around custom-designed material, learner example material, and commercial material;
• evaluate the success of the program using a mixture of standard and custom-designed measures.

Required Readings

To order your readings from TIS Bookstore, call 1-800-238-1229 or (812) 332-3306, extension 212, or send an email to Tim Lloyd at tlloyd@tisbook.com. If you are in Bloomington, you can purchase the books at TIS Bookstore, 1302 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47401. They are shelved with the other Education course texts.

To order your readings from the IU Bookstore, just call Brenda Young at 1-800-553-6471 or (812) 855-4668 and state that you are a Distance Education student and provide your class number(s), or contact her via email at bkstext@indiana.edu. If you are in Bloomington, you can purchase the books and course packets at the Bookstore in the Indiana Memorial Union building.

• Course Handbook I and II
• National Center for Education Statistics. Adult literacy in America: A first look at the results of the national adult literacy survey (1993). Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.

Assigned modules

1. The need for workplace literacy: what is workplace literacy?, literacy and language issues, need for programs. This module is available for prospective students to review by clicking here.

2. Planning issues: type of program, target audience, level of involvement, recruitment.

Each assigned module consists of readings and is assessed by a focused response paper.

Elective modules (choose 4 of 6)

3. Proposal writing: need, courses, timing, recruitment, curriculum, and personnel.

4. Task analysis: assessing detailed delivery needs of workers.

5. Curriculum materials: custom designing from a task analysis.

6. Supplementary materials: choosing appropriate available materials.

7. Lesson plans: integrating custom-designed material, learner example material, and supplementary material.

8. Evaluation: need, methods, instruments, analysis, and feedback.

Each elective module consists of readings, and is assessed by a practice exercise. (You can review the sample exercises.) You will receive feedback on your practice exercises in preparation for extensive applications in two of the four modules for which you have completed the practice exercises.

Assessment Scheme

Response papers for Modules 1 and 2 [20 points x 2 = 40]

Practice exercises for four Electives [10 points x 4 = 40]

You will receive feedback on these practice exercises in preparation for your next assignments, which consist of extensive applications in two of the four modules for which you have completed practice exercises.

Applications for two Electives [40 points x 2 = 80]

Submitting Work

When you are finished with an exercise, please email it to me at dlloyd@indiana.edu. You can either cut and paste it into your email message or send it as an attached file. The application projects, which may include photographs, lesson materials and other items, can be mailed to me (they will not normally be returned) at my Indiana University address given above.

Technology Requirements

Students are required to have a current word processing program, an e-mail account, and access to the World Wide Web. Students will be required to use a web-based conferencing system to discuss readings and issues.

Web-based Conferencing

In this course, we will be using a web-based bulletin board system. This will be our primary means of class discussion.

To access the web-based bulletin board system, you will need a password. Contact me and I will provide you with one. Then you will need to go to http://www.indiana.edu/~l530wp/bb1_bbs/bb1.cgi (you can click on the Online Conference button at the top of this page as well.)

The Discussion List

There is also an email discussion list established for the class, and you should subscribe to it as soon after you register for the course as possible. It will serve as another forum for class discussion, as well as being the quickest way to reach the other students in the class all at the same time. However, the main 'class discussion' aspects of the course will take place on the bulletin board.

Subscribe Address (send an email to this address to subscribe):
literacy-subscribe@topica.com

Unsubscribe Address (send an email to this address to unsubscribe):
literacy-unsubscribe@topica.com

Posting Address (send any postings you want to share with the instructor and the other students to this address):
literacy@topica.com

List Info:
http://www.topica.com/lists/literacy

All you need to do to join the discussion list is to send an email to the above subscribe address. The content of the email, in terms of subject line and body text, is irrelevant--it just has to go to that address. Please do this ASAP. You should then get an email from the Topica service (which hosts this list) asking you to confirm your subscription. You need to reply to that email, as it requests, in order to complete the subscription process. You will also need to unsubscribe yourself when the course is over.

How to Register

You can register for this Indiana University School of Education course online at this address: http://www.indiana.edu/~disted/form1.html