Instructional Design Process Connect Your Website: Application Program Interfaces Jullien Gordon Aneto Okonkwo Gilbert Zaragoza

The objective of this document is to give a high level summary of: 1. the needs assessment 2. learner assessment 3. instructional objectives 4.assessment performance 5. strategies and activities development 6. materials selection 7. implementation 8. evaluation of the project 1. INTRODUCTION

What’s an API? Application Programming Interfaces (API) involves technology that connects websites to other services or data and almost every type of website can be connected to another service or set of data with an API. Why is it important? APIs are important because this technology has immense capability to increase the value of millions of websites. Why teach about it? Despite the popularity and widespread use of APIs, there are very few introductory classes to the topic because of the relative youth of the technology. 2. NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The relevant learner characteristics included: 1. Heavy internet user 2. Ability to read text, listen to audio and navigate 3. Limited time 4. Limited programming experience 5. Individual learner 6. Motivation to learn a new technology that can help increase the value of a website. 3. LEARNER ASSESSMENT

Audience: Website creators, owners and publishers Behavior: Upon completion of the presentation, a participant will demonstrate the following skills: 1. Define Application Programming Interfaces (API) 2. List the tradeoffs of using APIs 3. Outline a use case for their website and a sample API 4. Identify the best use of a real world API Condition: Given a background in HTML programming and/or experience with scripting languages, a participant of the presentation will be able to perform the above behavior Degree: After completing this presentation the participant will be able to complete integration with Google Checkout in less than a week. 4. INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

5. ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE Assessment will take place after every section of the learning presentation in the form of short quizzes on the content of the section. There are six sections. The sixth section contains a summary of all the quiz questions in the presentation. This summation will ensure redundancy and repetition. The quizzes are short in order to prevent interruption of the flow of the presentation while still providing a compelling summary. The material for each successive section builds on the previous section. After each question, students will be notified which questions they answered correctly and incorrectly. Below is an example of a sample pre- test quiz that accompanies the presentation. 1.What is an Application Programming Interface? a.new programming language b.interface design of a website c.connects websites to other services or data

6. STRATEGIES + ACTIVITIES DEVELOPMENT REDUNDANACY Our presentation has elements of redundancy which aids learner development. For example, after every section there is a quiz which asks questions based on the section. There are also summaries after each section that detail what was discussed. After the quiz, the answers are provided and after the entire presentation, there is a summary quiz of all the questions. DIAGRAMMING There is also a quiz which involves diagramming the interaction of an API with a website which borrows cognitive strategies of constructing a diagram.

7. MATERIALS SELECTED The instructional materials included a combination of: Abc text audio video powerpoint

The implementation involved: 1. Assigning roles within the team of project manager, designer, and tester. 2. Assigning tasks and deadlines to complete those tasks within the group. 3. Scheduling several team meetings where previous work was reviewed and new action items were assigned. 4. Completing a prototype of the presentation which was reviewed by the class professor 8.1 IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation included many elements of instructional design including: Cognitive Strategies: There is a section of the presentation that involves diagramming architecture of the use of the API with the participant’s website. Multimedia Principle: The presentation uses text, images, audio and video in different parts of the presentation to increase the level of engagement with the learner Modality Principle: The presentation presents very little text on the slides and uses the audio speaking in a colloquial voice to manage sensory intake by the participant. 8.2 IMPLEMENTATION

Redundancy Principle: The presentation summarizes the key points of every section with a quiz and also an auditory summary. There is also a final quiz which is a summation of all the quizzes. Coherence Principle: The presentation is broken up into six sections which logically build on top of each other. There is an outline before each section to remind the participant of their current position in the presentation. Interactive Principle: There are buttons on the presentation to allow the participant to move forward, backward, next section, last section or replay the current slide. Motivation: The motivation for viewing the presentation is presented early in the presentation and is also summarized at the end of the presentation. This value proposition is restated after every section to maintain the engagement of the participant. 8.3 IMPLEMENTATION

Overall, the learning objectives were satisfactorily achieved. However, testers commented that they would have preferred the ability to dive into particularly interesting topics and also requested directions to more resources. 9.1 EVALUATION Professor feedback Testing by informal participants Internal end user feedback Several end users Quizzes within presentation Post-presentation survey FINAL PRESENTATION FEEDBACK SOURCES During developmentPost development