Development Project Requirements

Your Development Project may be initiated as soon as you have taken IP&T 564.

The instructional product that will be developed should be an exportable form of instruction, designed to bring a specified audience to mastery of predetermined competencies. The project report and comprehensive exam should be written and submitted together as one document. Procedural instructions for meeting the Development and Comprehensive Exam requirements are described below.

STEP 1: Faculty Sponsor
STEP 2: Enroll for IP&T 687R
STEP 3: Prepare Your Project
STEP 4: Complete the Project
STEP 5: The Product
STEP 6: Faculty Sponsor Evaluation and Final Grade
STEP 7: Comprehensive Exam
Prospectus Approval Form

A student desiring to complete a Development Project must identify a suitable project in consultation with a member of the faculty and obtain the consent of the faculty member to serve as their sponsor for the project. In most instances, a student will co-author the instructional package with the faculty sponsor. This sponsor may or may not be a member of the student's committee.

Enroll for three hours of IP&T 687R credit the semester the work is to be completed.

1. Prepare a prospectus describing the proposed project and submit a copy to the Department Chair, along with the Prospectus Approval Form signed by the faculty sponsor. The Prospectus and Approval Form must be submitted to the Department Chair before the work is begun, and no later than the second week of the semester in which the work is to be completed.
   
   NOTE: It is desirable that students determine what their Development Project will deal with during the latter part of the semester prior to the semester in which they will work on the project.
   
   Students should retain a copy of the Prospectus Approval Form in their own files.
   
   
2. Must be a defensible effort - In some instances a project will be the outgrowth of one of the two development courses (IP&T 564 or 664) or an Internship. When this is the case, steps should be taken to ensure that the effort is defensible in terms of the three hours credit that are awarded for the project. This is accomplished by establishing in writing that the two activities are going to be combined and having the joint effort approved by the faculty sponsor and the Department Chair in advance.
   
   The Development and Comprehensive Exam requirement may be challenged by making a formal request in writing to the Department Chair and by submitting an instructional product developed along with supporting documentation as described in Step 5. Such products will undergo faculty review. This is accomplished by advanced approval of the faculty sponsor and the Department Chair. It is not permissible to be awarded course Internship credit and project credit for the same activity unless the total time devoted to the activity is commensurate with the total amount of credit being awarded and approved by the faculty sponsor. Double credit is not permissible.
   
   
3. Funding - The Instructional Psychology & Technology Department does not provide direct financial support for projects. However, the student's time and expenses related to a project may be funded by a sponsoring faculty member or agency. If a student is unable to find a sponsor who is able to fund the project, the costs must be borne by the student.

After the approval of the prospectus, the student may proceed with the development project under the supervision of the faculty sponsor. The student will submit those documents required by the faculty sponsor to the department. The faculty sponsor will provide the criteria for each required document.

When a member of the faculty agrees to serve as a sponsor for a Development Project, he agrees to provide the student individual consultation regarding the project on a regular basis and to review the student's work systematically. How the development project is accomplished is left up to the discretion of the faculty sponsor.

Once the student has carried out the above requirements, the actual package or materials, along with supporting documentation should be submitted to the faculty sponsor. These materials should include at least the following:

1. A concise statement of the need for the instructional package and how it fits into some larger curriculum or training program.
2. Purpose - Describe the purpose or objectives of the instructional program.
3. Audience - Describe the target population for the instructional program.
4. Methodology, rationale, and literature - Describe the methodology used in designing and developing the instructional package. A rationale for using a particular methodology should be given and supported based on relevant empirical and/or theoretical literature where appropriate. The results of a search of existing relevant instructional materials should also be described.
5. Instructional materials - Provide a brief description of your instructional materials. Include a copy of the actual instructional materials as an appendix. The instructional package should be exportable so that it may be used by others without direct supervision by the developers.
6. Assessment instruments - Include a copy of all student assessment instruments.
7. Evaluation - Describe the procedures used in the formative and summative eval-uations of the package, the results of the evaluations and any revisions made in the package based on the formative evaluation. Include any evaluation instruments used.
8. Critique - Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the instructional package in light of existing theory in the field and describe how it could be improved given greater time and resources. Where appropriate, the critique should refer to relevant literature.
9. Schedule - Compare the actual schedule with the proposed schedule and note reasons for discrepancies.
10. Final budget report - Summarize the costs associated with the project and compare actual costs with the original estimates.

In preparing your development project report, you should carefully follow the style guidelines outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. You should consult the APA Guidelines web site prepared by the IP&T Department that outlines some of the ways to avoid the most common errors found in student papers and enumerates some variations from the guidelines recommended for dissertations and other student papers. You should also access the Microsoft Word Heading Styles Tutorial on how to use styles in Microsoft Word to facilitate the implementation of the APA heading guidelines. This tutorial includes a link to a Microsoft Word template document that includes all the necessary styles already defined.

When the faculty sponsor is satisfied the student has demonstrated sufficient originality and quality in the preparation of the instructional package, he will sign the Faculty Evaluation Report Form verifying the student has satisfied the Development requirements.

The student will then submit two copies of the final project, along with the faculty sponsor evaluation report to the Department Secretary. The Department Secretary will then send the project out to two additional readers for review (see Step 7). The student will receive a final grade for the project after the project passes these two readers. The sponsor and readers will each grade the project, the final grade will be an average of the three grades received. The grade will not be submitted to the Records Office until this Comprehensive Exam has been passed.

The completed project documents will be submitted by the Department Secretary to two additional IP&T faculty members for their evaluation. Although these reviewers will focus on the literature, rationale, and critique sections of the report, they will also address all other sections. The reviewers should judge the quality of the Development Project and Comprehensive Exam along with the dimensions listed on the Faculty Evaluation Report Form. (Note that these reviewers are not required to judge the originality of the work, or determine if the development requirements have been met. This is the responsibility of the faculty sponsor. However, they are required to review the quality of all aspects of the project as outlined on the Faculty Evaluation form.) The results of these evaluations will be submitted on the Evaluation of Examination Form to the Department Secretary.