AEA AUTHENTIC ENGAGEMENT & ASSESSMENT

439 Avenida De La Luna ! Vista, CA 92083 ! 760 505 - 9193 ! jasim@csumb.edu

March 25, 2014 Dear Selection Committee: At AEA, we take pride in developing authentic and engaging instruction using proven techniques. Our exclusive team includes instructional designers with learning theory expertise, media specialists, and a quality assurance team. Our quality assurance team plays a key role in our companys continued success by ensuring the product we deliver is of optimal quality and by partnering with customers to collect data on the effectiveness of the instruction we develop. As a self-paced online course, the WriteRight Rapid Refresher for Business Writing prepares business students to go out into the real world and write resumes, cover letters, and business correspondence that wont embarrass them or your university. With this critical goal in mind, weve reviewed the current state of the WriteRight course: Strengths
Specific, targeted modules Instruction & assessment aligned to clear goals Examples & non-examples related to business context Clearly stated purpose and objectives Pre & post assessments Students dont benefit from pre & post assessments

Weaknesses
Bare-bones explanations Video media content is contradictory at times Limited amount of examples

Opportunities
Fuller, more interactive instruction Rich media delivery that is tied tightly to goals Build job application context into some examples Further clarify the value of learning each objective More example sentences, would allow a greater variety of assessment questions

By designing media-rich, interactive instruction aligned to WriteRights learning objectives, AEA can build more explanation and sentence examples into the instruction without boring learners. The development of additional examples will clarify instruction for learners and build up a question bank big enough to provide valuable pre & post assessment feedback to students without depleting the question bank. For example, imagine how powerful it would be for the learner to be able to walk away from the pre-assessment with knowledge of which modules he or she needs to pay the most attention to. WriteRight has already developed clearly defined learning objectives and AEA can enhance the value of those learning objectives to learners by describing the benefits of learning the content and by using examples that relate most closely to learners most pressing interaction with the business world: the job application process. AEA can redesign your entire course, a total of 52 minutes of lesson time, plus exams, for a cost of $6,180. This cost covers 206 hours of development and consultation time at $30/hour. The scope of this project includes the creation of rich student-tocontent interaction plus audio instruction. The freshly designed WriteRight course will be ready within 90 days of acceptance of this proposal. Join our Eval-Partner program to receive one year of free support and revision. EvalPartners provide valuable assessment data to AEA; data that allows AEA to continue our commitment to effective instruction. When you review the sample lesson we created on using a dash in business writing, you will notice three main learning objectives: why use a dash, how to use a dash, and how to format a dash. Because adult learners need to know that what theyre learning is useful to them, we introduce the topic of using a dash with examples of why using a dash can be valuable in business writing. At the conclusion of the lesson, learners understand instances where it is beneficial to use a dash, how to use a dash to interrupt the flow of a sentence (rather than wrongly substituting a dash for a comma), and how to format a dash properly when using Microsoft Word.

The current lesson on dashes in WriteRight introduces the concept of using a dash to interrupt the flow of a sentence and describes how to format a dash when using Microsoft Word. This is mostly accomplished by way of demonstrating non-examples. The examples used are business related and therefore activate the learners vision of applying the use of dash in their future business writing. In our example lesson, we built upon that instruction with the additional enhancements: Graphical organization of the 3 learning objectives to enhance comprehension and transferability Interactions that keep learners engaged Opportunities to practice learning and receive feedback Explanation of the value of using a dash More examples of dashes being used correctly, including sentences that relate to applying to a job, activating a more immediate relationship between the learner and their future dash-usage My team and I are eager to speak with you on the phone or in person to further discuss how we can contribute to the worthwhile endeavor of preparing graduates to work and write in the business world. Sincerely,

Jane Sim
President, AEA Instructional Designer