How To Apply for FAFSA?

EDL 642 Week 4 Lesson: Create a brief Instructional Video

Instructional Use of Video:

The instructional video I choose to create is How to Apply for FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)? The video is designed for adult education students whose ages range from 16 and above, who are preparing to enroll in a college program. The topic of FAFSA is extremely relevant to my work as an Educational Program Specialist, Sr. I know first-hand how difficult this process is for many adults who are non-traditional students and first-generation students in their families. Completing a FAFSA application is also a major part of the college enrollment process which is a part of my job. In my opinion, this video will provide students a pre-training experience before they actually begin to create an FSA ID and complete a FAFSA application. The potential college student will gain knowledge of the FAFSA process, terms, and requirements.

Learning Objective:

After watching the instructional video, “How to Apply for FAFSA?” students will be able to:

1.Create a FSA ID using the following website http://fafsa.ed.gov

2.Explore college campuses by completing a college program search to determine which college campuses they are interested in enrolling.

3.Compile the required documents/documentation; and complete/submit their FAFSA application to the U.S. Department of Education.

Once the adult education students have completed this assignment they will feel a sense of accomplishment and creativity because they have completed one of the goals needed to assist them with enrolled in college. As a tangible item for the students, I would suggest that they begin to add items such as their FSA ID (user name and password), and their FAFSA Confirmation sheet to their digital portfolio that they created in the prior week’s lesson. The student would continue to build that portfolio or resources and artifacts.

Some factors that could influence the success or failure of my instructional video lesson are access to technology, student’s level of expertise or the lack of experience, and time. I know from working with the students I have encountered in the past that some students need more time and assistance when it comes to the use of technology.

The readings from the first week of class align themselves with this week’s assignment because it focused on the principles for multimedia instruction and our assignment this week was to create an instructional video. As a future instructor and curriculum developer I had to consider the multiple principles for multimedia instruction in the development of my video. I also had to consider the age group of the students my lesson was created for, and the learning methodology I was going to utilize. Throughout the video lesson several principles can be seen such as Temporal Congruity, Spatial Congruity, the Embodiment Principle, and the Pre-Training Principle. The main principle that I focused on was the Pre-Training Principle. Since this was a short lesson I did not go into more detail that I would have liked for fear of using too much time.

Reflection:

In reflection of this weeks assignment, I really enjoyed the creativity involved in developing my own instructional video and evaluating the work of someone else. The feeling of accomplishment I felt by completing this video was amazing! I actually thought that it was so much more complex and time consuming to create instructional videos. As a result, I believe that I will continue to use this tool as a part of my methodology and content delivery.

Obviously, my thinking and outlook of multimedia instruction has evolved. I no longer view multimedia instruction as a fad or a difficult task for instructors. I do realize that the time involved in using and creating multimedia instruction is in the planning process. Your objectives, and intent of the multimedia tool must meet the needs of the student, be relevant to the lesson (what you are teaching), and keep the student engaged. I would recommend choosing a design principle before you begin to develop your multimedia instruction method.

Any tension that presented themselves in developing my instructional video involved how to present the topic and material in my instructional video. I choose to create a pre-training video because my lesson involved many more complex details that would ultimately have to be done once the student/adult learner actually performed the task. The video does introduce the adult learner to the concepts, websites, FSA ID, and other major tasks or parts of completing the FAFSA application. Overall, I believe that everyone will enjoy the video, understand the purpose, and feel more enlightened about the FAFSA application.