I'm back!

It’s been quite awhile since I have made a post; several ideas came across my mind but just never got the chance to put hand to keyboard …..guess it’s no longer pen to paper. I have finished my internship and all’s well that ends well. I am now trying to find my niche as Instructional Design and Performance Improvement allows you to be flexible and can be applied to other areas such as Project Management and Human Resource Development. I got the opportunity to shadow one of the Organizational Development (OD) Specialist and it was great, one of his projects was succession planning. This peeked my interest in OD and this semester I am doing a course on work motivation and leadership. I tried to get in to a HR course too but unfortunately it was full.

So to wrap up this semester I need to present an electronic portfolio that provides evidence that I have met the goals of the program. I am now in search of an open source application that will allow me to do this.

Any recommendations? I am checking out Dr. Barrett’s online portfolio adventure.

Aside: I’m home in Jamaica enjoying the sun, friends and family; I am so not missing the cold!

More on Instructional Design

I have posted on "What is Instructional Design?" already. However I found this video only 8 minutes long and I think it covers some salient points about the ADDIE model (The foundation of all Instructional Design models), how it is important for training and how to go about using it. Have a look!

A Cup of Inspiration: Making the Lights Come On!

On Friday, September 5th, I attended The 21st Annual St. Louis American Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Banquet. It was a very well coordinated event and it was very inspiring. Each of the awardees did a video presentation/interview on what motivate them as teachers and this was shown at the banquet. Interesting but not surprising almost all the teachers said that what keeps them going is when the lights turn on for students…when you can get a student who was oblivious to the content area to respond and say…”I get it now…I understand”. For the kindergarten teacher it was the fact that most of them leave her class literate.
This should be the aim of every instruction to turn the lights on despite the age group. Here are some things to bear in mind when preparing for instruction to ensure that the light’s get turned on. These are especially relevant for adult learners:

Know your learners
-What are their interests?
- What attitudes and skills do they bring to the course?
-How do they prefer to learn?

Identify what you want them to learn
-Decide on the general outcome skills/knowledge that learners must have.
Example, should they be able to use software, carry out a process?
- Ask your self if learners are to achieve this general outcome what do they need to know and do?
Example, for software do they need to know parts and functions?
- It may help to start off broad and then further subdivide.
For example I may have: Interface of the software as 1 thing that they need to know and under that section have: Command tabs Command sets.
-Get the content for each area in details bearing in mind the level that your learners are at. Ensure that you provide enough information for them to understand; for procedures include cues where necessary……the things that they should look out for, avoid, as well as indicators that the process has been completed successfully.

Decide how learners will show understanding
From the content that you have developed decide for each section how learners will show you they understand, using what is called instructional objectives. These should be measurable, and student centered…the image below is an example of one and the components.














Decide how you will impart the information
Based on the nature of the content and your learners learning style come up with strategies, will use demonstration, role play, video presentations.
What delivery media will you use: Face-to-face, Self paced, virtual learning environment, hybrid etc.
How will you sequence it?

Develop your materials
What ever format you have chosen develop your materials so that it is appealing to the audience and conveys the message. This can be achieved by using the right images, font faces, highlighting important points etc.

Evaluate constantly
For each decision that you make get some feedback and use the information to revise what you have done.

Remember it’s all about the learner!!

How do you make the lights come on?

Information Processing

As I have said in previous post, I have been assigned to lead a wiki project. However, I am part of a bigger team that involves creating a website as well. With SharePoint in the picture the concepts that we have of each has to be slightly adjusted to fit the mold that this platform provides. We have an even bigger challenge as even though the two projects are separate they are not exclusive. The website will contain links to pages on the wiki and vice versa. Below is an outline of the process so far and some internal challenges that we have encountered.

The Decision Making process

In order to decide what should go on the wiki the following steps were taken:

1. The executive team went through a period of brain storming of categories.
2. The results of the brain storming process were put in a diagram
3. Each team lead (Members of the executive body) discussed the categories with their individual teams and solicited feedback, whether the categories made sense, additions etc.
4. Each team member was asked to show the categories to their managers and get feed back as well.
5. The executive team discussed all the feedback and decided what was feasible and what made sense.
6. The initial categories diagram was updated to reflect feedback and decisions.
7. The executive team met again and finally discussed and approved the categories

NB: During this process decisions were made about what content would be best for the website and what would be best for the wiki as well.

Conflict

So it’s data collection time and confusion has started. The same people who were in the executive team meetings when decisions were made and questions were asked start asking questions that should have been asked during the decision making process. However, during the meetings they nodded their heads in agreement and never voiced their opinions. Some of the questions that they are now asking are questions like “why was this category included?” and make comments like “this category don’t make any sense” , “This is unnecessary”, “We need to pick what goes on the site, we cant accommodate everyone”. So my question is, were these people sleeping in the executive meetings when we were asked to examine the categories and pick what is feasible and what made sense?

Application to teaching and learning

This really brought home to me, how important it is to clarify and confirm learners’ understanding. The truth is being exposed to knowledge does not mean it is processed. Thus we have to make sure that we assess students learning and assess it in a way that will give valid results. For example, if I wanted learners to use MS Excel to build a gantt chart, asking them to tell how it’s done or do a multiple choice quiz may not be a good assessment. Giving them an opportunity to demonstrate the skill is what is necessary.

So we are in the meeting and we assume that everybody understand why the decisions were made and they agree. Who knows maybe they too thought it made sense. Notice when the issues came up, when they had to pay close attention to the information, when they were required to use it. The same is for our learners we have to draw their attention and give them opportunities to use the information in order for learning to be effective.

Project Management Lessons Learned

I once read a book that said when in brain storming or decision making meetings everybody should speak and I now agree. As the persons who are raising the questions now are persons who spoke very few words in the meetings. Thus meaningful comments should be solicited from all.

I was rather upset when all the email threads started coming, but now I think it’s just obvious that the goals and decisions of the project were not understood by all and all were not in agreement. The good thing is that it has been brought in the open before the project advanced. Therefore as project managers or anybody in leadership we have to ensure that the people involved understand and getting a “I understand” is not good enough. We have to come up with creative ways of effectively passing on the vision and soliciting feedback.

What are some of the ways you use to assess learning?

How do you know that your students understand?

In project management how do you confirm if participants understand the goals and task?

Please Share!

What is Instructional Design?

I have had a lot of ‘what?’ reactions when people ask me what’s my major and I respond Instructional Design & Learning Technologies. Well it’s becoming more popular but the name I guess has not formed its way among the popular/familiar career fields. Nevertheless, the response usually gives me an opportunity to explain what the field is all about; however they still ask the follow up, “So what can you do with that after you are finished…teach?” Well Tom has come to the rescue with a very simple but effective blog entry “What Everybody Ought to Know about Instructional Design”

• What responses do you get when you tell people Instructional Design is your major or profession?
• What are the views of the masses about the value of instructional design?

Wearing more than one hats

I have just completed a self paced course on managing instructional development. This course combined the concepts and principles of Instructional Design with Project Management. The course was self paced, not my preferred style of learning, but it was convenient and enough resources were provided for us to cope. The structure of the course captured Cathy Moore’s idea of allowing learners to ‘wing it.’

The course assessment was based on case scenarios of real projects. While doing the readings I felt lost and sometimes a bit overwhelmed, however after the course was completed I felt confident that if given the tasks to do in a real working environment I would not be as clueless as I was before.

The course brought home to me that Instructional Designers need to have project management skills as well. It is reflective of how the working world has evolved, it is unacceptable to be one dimensional and job descriptions are less defined. One has to be able to wear more than 1 hats….that’s just the fact.

What are the essential competencies of a good instructional designer?

Are there competency models out there for instructional designers?

What do they look like?

Please share some!