Capstone Project Abstract

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I am nearing the end of my M.Ed. with only one more course to go! I am so excited!

 

 

As my study comes to a close, you are going to see more posts about my Capstone Project. I hope that it will be a great addition to this blog.

Below is my Capstone Project Abstract. It is not in final form as I have not completed the Project yet but it is coming!

Abstract
Some older adults desire to use the internet, but lack the skills needed to do so. They may have “technology discomfort”, although research has been shown that this population can learn to use the internet if given assistance. A course will be designed for family caregivers of older adults that is web-based (online) as it would be accessible to anyone, even the isolated caregiver. It will be designed to both motivate and empower the caregiver, focusing on benefits, barriers and strategies for facilitating internet adoption by older adults. A panel of experts, made up of instructional designers and family caregivers, will evaluate the course for both its design and effectiveness, using a mixed methods design of interviews and Likert scales. The results will be analyzed and utilized for possible changes to the course to increase its usability and effectiveness. The hoped-for result will be an online course that is accessible to all caregivers that both motivates and empowers caregivers to facilitate internet adoption by the older adult in their care.

Executing, monitoring and controlling the project

This is the last of the two-week summary blogs for EDU627. Next week, I will be completing my course project and you will be able to find it under the “EDU 627 Project Management and Instructional Design” link at the top of the page. Please explore and feel free to leave comments.

These past two weeks, we covered “executing, monitoring and controlling the project”. In contrast to the first five weeks that we spent planning the project, this is about ‘follow-through’ – “project execution requires mobilizing all committed project resources and ensuring that these resources carry out their intended activities” (Cox, 2009, p. 168). In other words, it is making sure everyone is doing their job. We were given access, during this time, to many templates for managing this phase of the project. In week 6, we were asked to identify areas of project management underdevelopment in our own projects and get feedback from our fellow classmates. We also put together the third phase of our final project and identified areas (stakeholder analysis, communication plan and risk analysis for me) that were of most importance to our project’s success. Week 7 focused more on change management and quality control. The Unit 7 lecture (n.d.) made the point that change tends to be resisted and applied Kotter’s (1996) model for change to project management. The unit also looked at quality management and challenged the idea that quality can only be assessed by seeing if the end product is ‘good enough’.

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I found the initial information regarding executing the project to be pretty straight-forward but have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed with all the templates and areas that needed to be managed and controlled. It was reassuring to realize that not all aspects of the project management apply to my personal and, in the end, it was great to have the templates as resources for future projects as it really does help you to make sure that all aspects of the project are being addressed. As a physical therapist, I found Kotter’s (1996) model very applicable to my wanting to motivate my patients to exercise. I can certainly attest to exercise programs that failed because I did not communicate a vision or remove barriers for my patients. Because of my interest in Kotter’s work, I have included a resource below that develops Kotter’s model in career and business development. I also found the discussion on change management very interesting as it seemed be focusing both on the challenges that come with getting people to change in general (‘getting with the program’) and also with change that occurs within the project as quality is assessed. Quality is also a challenge when you have no standard to compare it to. I personally will need to rely on expert opinion to assess quality throughout my project.

Cox, D. (2009). Project management skills for instructional designers. New York, NY: iUniverse, Inc.

Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Unit 7 Lecture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.coursematerials.net/edu/edu627/unit7/index.htm

Resource: Kotter’s 8-step Change Model. (n.d.) Mind Tools. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm

Planning the Project and Communication

For the last couple of weeks, we have been getting into the “meat” of the course, covering the important process of planning the project and also the importance of communication.

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Our textbook author makes the statement that 40% of a project is about planning for it (Cox, 2009)! Our challenge last week was to work through part of this planning with a specific focus on defining the scope of our project (what it will do and, equally important, what it will not do). This included looking at the time and cost of the project. I found the information from Li and Shearer (2005) helpful because it addresses the issue of timing when transforming an in-class course to an online course, which pertains to the course I teach. Our second project put together a project proposal and a work breakdown schedule for our specific project. This past week, we looked into communication and the important place it has in the success of our project. Cox (2009) names perceptions, values, beliefs, attitudes and noise as the main barriers to communication in a project. In applying this information to our own project, we were required to identify a communication barrier that we anticipate will be an issue and brainstorm with our classmates about possible solutions.

I have to admit that last week’s assignments were difficult for me. I am the type of person that just wants to dive into the content of the project so this idea of taking the time to plan is a bit foreign to me. When I started going through the templates for the project proposal and work breakdown schedule, it was like it was talking in another language. However, I did find it very helpful to consider what aspects of this project are under my control, which aspects are not, and the associated risks and obstacles that can occur. As communication is an important aspect of my profession (Physical Therapy), I found that most of the information in the communication section a review. However, considering communication barriers with respect to my project was very helpful as it made me realize the importance of making sure that certain communication and understanding is taking place to guarantee the success of my project. As a resource, I have included an article that looked at cross-cultural communication where identifying beliefs, perceptions, and values is especially important when trying to communicate.

Cox, D. (2009). Project management skills for instructional designers. New York, NY: iUniverse, Inc.

Li, D., & Shearer, R. (2005). Project management for online course development. Distance Learning, 2(4), 19-23. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=507964620&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Resource: Toprak, E., & Genc-Kumtepe, E. (2014). Cross-Cultural Communication and Collaboration: Case of an International e-Learning Project. European Journal Of Open, Distance & E-Learning, 17(1), 134-146. doi:10.2478/eurodl-2014-0009

Moving forward with Project Management and Instructional Design

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In the past two weeks, we have been learning about the similarities/differences between Instructional Design (ID) and Project Management (PM), learning how to set up a Project Charter, identifying a project to work on and its stakeholders and then moving forward into needs and task analysis with the idea of putting together a design document. We read a few papers arguing for the teaching of PM to students of ID. They focused on the added benefits of incorporating PM in that it helps to clearly define the project, manage change, operate in an organized and efficient manner and manages the skills (often seen as ‘soft’) outside of ID (van Rooij, 2010). This past week, we took a close look at needs and task analysis and sequencing and how they are incorporated into the design document. We saw similar terminology between PD and ID as the “gap” of knowledge/skill needs to first be identified and then it needs to be determined if training is the right tool to be used to close that “gap”. This was then made into a needs analysis and broken down into tasks that were identified as primary, main and supporting tasks so that all aspects of the “gap” could be addressed. I have included a resource for some tools for doing task analyses. Developing construct performance measures and learning strategies round out the design document (Cox, 2009).

I think that I, along with many of my classmates, are still in the process of trying to figure out what makes PM important to us as instructional designers, as it is obvious from the literature that not all ID curriculums have courses in PM (van Rooij, 2010). As we go through the process of learning these PM skills and combining the ADDIE process with the PM process, we are seeing overlap in concepts, such as needs/task analysis and sequencing. However, I think we are all starting to glimpse some of the advantages of utilizing PM in our instructional design as it seems to take in the bigger concept of the whole project. One point that seems to be coming out is that, the more complex and diverse the project, the more PM skills are needed in order to direct the collaboration of a diverse group of individuals. For me, personally, this brought up the question of how good a project manager I would be considering I have such a hard time delegating and leading. Maybe I should stick to ID!

Cox, D. (2009). Project management skills for instructional designers. New York, NY: iUniverse.

van Rooij, S. (2011). Instructional design and project management: complementary or divergent? Education Tech Research Dev, 59, 139-158. DOI 10.1007/s11423-010-9176-z

Resource: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/needsalt.html

Instructional Design and Project Management

Welcome to my blog for another course for my M.Ed.! This one is called EDU627 and is called “Managing Instruction and Technology”. I will be putting together 4 blogs over the course of the next 8 weeks, discussing and reflecting on what I am learning.

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I was not really sure what to expect with this course and so I came to it with some questions. What skills would I be learning? How would they make me a better course designer? After the reading from this week, I am starting to see some answers. Cox, the writer of our textbook, states that an instructional designer “must use the process steps in instructional design with product management methodology” (2009, p. xv). She has developed the “four step combo” which unites the instructional design process (previously discussed in my blog as ADDIE) and project management to produce the best course possible. Haughhey (2011) points out that “project management is about creating an environment and conditions in which a defined goal or objective can be achieved in a controlled manner by a team of people” and that it reduces risk and increases the likelihood of success. The resource (Austin, et. al. 2013) listed at the end of this blog discusses how the principles of project management may benefit higher education.

One of the first thing that is discussed is what makes something a project. According to Cox (2009), it must be temporary (have a beginning and an end), produce a unique product or service, and the details need to be revealed as the project progresses (meaning you do not know everything you need to know at the beginning of the project). This first idea, of it being temporary, seems like it is a challenge to me. As the coordinator of an online course, I have made small changes to the course “here and there” but have seen it as an ongoing project. I can see how this may not be a good thing as the focus tends to wander about many different areas at the same time. However, the idea of a focused project with definite objectives and goals has great appeal and I look forward to the process of applying the methods of project management to the instructional design process.

Cox, D. (2009). Project management skills for instructional designers. New York, New York: iUniverse, Inc.

Haughhey, D. (2011). Introduction to Project Management. ProjectSmart.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-to-project-management.php

Resource: Austin, C., Browne, W., Haas, B., Kenyatta, E., & Zulueta, S. (2013). Application of Project Management in Higher Education. Journal Of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance & Marketing, 5(2), 75-99.

Final reflections on EDU625

Welcome to the final blog for EDU625 – “Integrating Learning and Technology”. I have been asked to put together some summary statements about the course and how it has impacted my teaching and learning.

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I have not always been sure that the specialization of “Instructional Design and Technology” has been the right choice within my M.Ed. study. As my focus has always been on learning for caregivers, Baby Boomers and older adults, the focus on instructional design was obvious but the integration of technology was a challenge with the population I work with. However, I am happy to report that I do believe this direction has been a wise choice for me and this course has been instrumental in “cementing” that decision.

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My personal learning philosophy, up to the point of starting this M.Ed., has primarily been defined by my own positive learning experiences. Organizing and presenting information to students in a way that they could understand was my objective in my teacher-centered classroom. Certainly, this objective has been challenged by most, if not all, of the courses in my M.Ed. program. Specific to this EDU625 class, I feared that this class would both frustrate me with its focus on new technology and also have limited value in my classroom. I have what would be described as a “love-hate” relationship with technology – love what I use and am familiar with and hate how “old” if makes me feel when someone mentions something I know nothing about. What I have experienced in this course, in actuality, is that I actually can learn how to use something new and current. So, this class has helped me with some of my own fears in learning something new. It has also introduced me to some technologies that are applicable to my learning situation. This course has also has confirmed again the focus on knowing your audience – my responsibility is not to utilize the latest and greatest technology UNLESS I can see obvious benefit to the objectives of my learning activities.

I feel that the key issues of using technology to enhance learning revolve around knowing your audience, knowing your learning objectives, and knowing the technology. If you have a thorough and clear knowledge of all three, then you can make the decision as to whether or not utilizing that technology will enhance learning. Knowledge of your audience will help you design a learning activity that will engage them and address learning that has meaning to that audience. Knowing your learning objectives (and your audience) gives you a starting point and an ending point and directs learning towards that ending point. Finally, knowing the technology makes it possible for you to see applications of that technology that could enhance the learning of the objectives.

The greatest personal challenges that I have to technology and learning continue to revolve around my own sense of incompetency and being “out of date” and the challenge of knowing what is best for my audience. I have gained much confidence during this course in my abilities but I still feel like I have only touched the “tip of the iceberg” of what is out there. What we were able to experiment with during the course definitely opened my eyes but also showed me how much more I have to learn, as well as how aggressive I need to be in learning it if I want it to be useful to me. I also continue to be challenged by the audience I have chosen to work with – caregivers, Baby Boomers and older adults. It is well-researched that these populations are less accepting of newer technologies (Xie, Watkins, Golbeck, & Huang, 2012). I also will need to consider training them on the activity as part of my instruction if I feel that the technology may be unfamiliar to them (Thiele & Mai, 2014).

As far as my own personal plan for advancing my integration of learning and technology, I feel that I need to commit to learning about available technologies on a regular basis. I have to be honest that it is the only way that I can learn them and become familiar enough with them to use them in my teaching. If I am committed to making the best learning activity possible, I need to be willing to consider technologies that could enhance that learning and engage my students more fully in learning. I look forward to continuing this journey.

 

Thiele, A., & Mai, J. (2014). The student-centered classroom of the 21st century: Integrating Web 2.0 applications and other technology to actively engage students Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 28, 80-95.

Xie, B., Watkins, I., Golbeck, J., & Huang, M. (2012). Understanding and Changing Older Adults’ Perceptions and Learning of Social Media. Educational Gerontology, 38(4), 282-296. doi: 10.1080/03601277.2010.544580

 

So what new things are coming?

The topic of this week was emerging technologies. This is when we try to take a glimpse into the future and predict the impact that these technologies might have on our classroom. This was an exciting chapter as so much of it was new and interesting. Our mission was again to explore the technology and see for ourselves both the benefits and challenges that might occur as these technologies make their way into our classrooms. The EDU 625 Unit 8 Presentation (2014) made the point that some of these technologies make it less critical to remember information and open up the possibility of focusing on higher, critical thinking skills.

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I first explored the information about Google Glasses or “glass”. It was so interesting to see that some places are already banning them (IBTimes TV, 2013) even before they had come out. I actually thought that Brin’s (2013) reasoning about the advantages of Glass over cell phones was good: display that allows eye contact, hands free, and ears free, not to mention a more normal body posture. However, a recent article (Prigg, 2014) reported that Glass is still controversial and is getting a makeover before its launch in 2015. I also was intrigued by the advances technology has made in medicine described in the Kraft (2011) video, especially the area of wearable monitoring as this would have many applications to the elderly population.

There were other technologies that were also intriguing. Overall, it was very interesting to see what might be part of the future of education. In our discussion, we looked at how it might affect our class if someone came in wearing some of this new technology. Would it add to learning or take away from it? I think this will continue to be a challenge in education. It seems to be our responsibility as educators to familiarize ourselves with this emerging technology, utilize it if we feel it would benefit our learning activities, but also acknowledge the challenges it might present in our classroom. Perhaps anticipating these issues will make them not so difficult to handle when they do appear.

New technologies will continue to be developed and should be encouraged, especially if their focus is to benefit education. Personally, I do not see much application for me as an educator of caregivers and Baby Boomers as these generations are usually not the first ones to “jump on” new technology. An exception to this was the advances in wearable monitors, which I do feel will help greatly in the care of the elderly. I have even read of the possibility of a SmartHome someday where activity and safety could be monitored continuously.

Brin, S. (2013). Why Google Glass? . Ted. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sergey_brin_why_google_glass

EDU 625 Unit 8 Presentation. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228750-dt-content-rid-20995595_1/xid-20995595_1

IBTimes. (2013). Google glass already banned in many places ahead of release . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsQe4GIi7AQ

Kraft, D. (2011). Medicine’s future? There’s an app for that . Ted. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kraft_medicine_s_future

Prigg, M. (Dec 1, 2014). Google Glass to get a makeover: New version of controversial eyewear using Intel chips set to go on sale next year. Mailonline. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2856654/Google-Glass-makeover-New-version-controversial-eyewear-using-Intel-chips-set-sale-year.html

To be mobile or not to be

This week, we delved into mobile technologies. So, what do you think that means – “mobile”? Cell phones, laptops, ipads and more – our focus is not on the technology itself but on what the word “mobile” brings to learning environments. According to the EDU625 presentation (2014), we need to consider the following advantages and challenges when utilizing mobile technologies for learning activities: accessible anytime and anywhere, whether learning activity or not; communication anytime and anywhere, whether about learning or not; the fact that not everyone owns the same device; and the fact that these technologies are part of our young people whereas they may be foreign to us. Again, our challenge seems to be to consider and experiment with this area of technology, while keeping in mind the question of is this the best way to teach our learners.

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I have to admit that I love the convenience of mobile technologies. I do all my schoolwork on a laptop that I take everywhere and have had a smart phone for about a year now. The fact that I can instantly see the weather, email, Facebook, news and find answers to my questions at my convenience has made my phone a part of me. Not like it is for a teenager or a 20-something but, still, very real. (I do remember when the glove compartment was full of maps and doing research meant going to the library.) Most of the articles in this unit were addressing the issues of utilizing mobile technologies in the K-12 classroom where there are, indeed, many challenges and benefits. Part of this experience was the challenge of building our own app. I found this fun but also frustrating as I was not able to complete what I started due to the steep learning curve associated with it. In the end, I found the concept of building an app that would benefit my students to be exciting but a bit daunting still.

I did note that many of my classmates seem to make their apps easily with some sophistication. My guess is that this is partly a reflection of the fact that most of them grew up with their phone whereas I did not. Again, I appreciate the benefits that my phone and laptop bring to me and it is hard for me to consider life without them for an extended period of time. However, I do share many of the concerns that my generation has about the impact of mobile technologies on our young people and society. Sherry Turkle made the point in her 2012 video, “Connected, but alone?”, that she sees people wanting to interact with many people but all at a distance and all within the control that technology allows – the “goldilocks effect”. We may not see the real consequences of this for years. With this come the concerns in taking a technology so ingrained in our society as a form of entertainment and communication and trying to apply it to education. It just seems hard to believe that the distractions will not outweigh the benefits. However, I am older and I look forward to being proven wrong. I do know that, for now, the older population I serve is not very interested in most of the mobile technologies (Xie, Watkins, Golbeck, & Huang, 2012).

Mobile technologies are here to stay. It is what people think they need and what they demand. Whether or not education becomes a mainstream participant in the use of mobile technologies, the future will have to tell. In my eyes, it will depend on teachers’ attitudes towards the technology as well as the development of tools like Educreations. However, it may depend most on whether or not young people will be willing to learn on the devices they turn to for fun and communication.

EDU625 Unit 7 Presentation. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228764-dt-content-rid-20995594_1/xid-20995594_1

http://www.Educreations.com

Turkle, S. (2012). “Connected, but alone…” . Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together#t-339115

Xie, B., Watkins, I., Golbeck, J., & Huang, M. (2012). Understanding and Changing Older Adults’ Perceptions and Learning of Social Media. Educational Gerontology, 38(4), 282-296. doi: 10.1080/03601277.2010.544580

Learning in 3d

So, this week we were asked to consider the role that virtual 3d environments might play in education. As we all know, they are a popular form of entertainment but have been utilized effectively in the military and in healthcare for training purposes (EDU625 Unit 6 presentation). As 3d programs have developed that are easier to use and create with, the possibility of creating engaging learning activities is important to consider. Our challenge was to learn about these 3d environments, experiment with them and consider how they might be effective in our unique learning environment.

Courtesy of Second Life

Working through the material provided, I was interested to see that the developer of Second Life (secondlife.com) is working on a completely new version (Baldwin, 2014) and intends to incorporate the use of “oculus rift”. (I had to look that one up – according to a Google search, it is a new virtual reality headset that is going to be available in 2015.) It was interesting to read some of the comments from the article as most seemed excited for the change, but some were wishing they would leave well enough alone as they liked it as it was and others even admitted to not being interested either way as they had ended up playing it once. I also looked at detail at the “Learning in Virtual Worlds” link (2014) as it had a page with links to health-related sites, particularly ones that were in Second Life. Not all of the links worked but I was able to explore some areas of Second Life that were specifically focused on health literacy and also found a link to a video about an effective training in Second Life about learning various heart sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJY2Iwbzop4.

As far as observations, I think there is some good potential in 3d environments for engaged and effective learning in healthcare. The interactivity aspect makes it more useful than videos, especially because it allows the student to try the skill immediately and get feedback. Another student shared a tweet from the founder of Second Life that showed how it was helping a woman with Parkinson’s as she was able to move and be something that her current body could not be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyiiWxNguGo#t=256 . That was exciting. However, there were some concerns expressed by our class. I noted that the dates of most of the articles were from the time of the original Second Life and the question came up as to why it has not gained more momentum in the meantime. Many students also talked about the large investment of time required by the teaching creating the learning environment but also by the user to effectively use Second Life. In the end, the potential for distraction within Second Life was huge and most classmates felt that directed learning would need to be incorporated so that students do not just spend their time “flying around” for fun.

In conclusion, I think there is potential for the use of 3d environments for effective and engaging learning activities. However, there are still issues that limit it in reality for teachers (time investment, distractions). As my main area of interest is Baby Boomers, caregivers and older adults, my experience tells me that this would not be something they would be willing to put such a large investment in. I believe that 3d environments need to become more “mainstreamed” and used by many before they will be accepted by my population. However, there is always the exception as proven by the lady with Parkinson’s.

Baldwin, R. (2014). A new version of Second Life is being built from the ground up, with a little help from Oculus Rift. Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/06/24/linden-labs-building-new-second-life-scratch-woo-new-users/

EDU625 Unit 6 Presentation. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228757-dt-content-rid-20995593_1/xid-20995593_1

Learning in Virtual Worlds. (2014). Wikispaces [webpage]. Retrieved from http://learning-in-virtual-worlds.wikispaces.com/Health

But has it got “game”?

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Unit 5 in this course was about the concept of “game” in education. Did I mean “games”? No, the EDU625 Unit 5 presentation (2014) makes a specific point that it is not about adding games to learning to add a sense of play but it is about identifying the key elements of the experience of games and considering how these could utilized to create more engaging learning activities. These elements when applied to learning include the use of stories to bring meaning and value to a learning activity, allowing students to make decisions that have an impact on the outcome of the learning activity, allowing students to fail and learn from failure while practicing perseverance, encouraging students to imagine as part of the learning activity, and making it clear what is necessary to succeed at the learning activity (EDU625 Unit 5 Presentation, 2014).

While looking at the material in the unit, some points came across to me stronger than others about where “game” might fit in when looking at education. I appreciated how an article about best practices for gamification (Kapp, 2014) had balance as its second criterion was the importance of considering other alternatives with the reasoning being that the author has seen too many learning activities that could have been solved with simple solutions but, instead, ended up bad due to utilizing the latest instructional fad, like games. I also enjoyed the McGonigal video (2010) as it posed the question as to whether or not the energy and time of gamers could be harnessed to address some world problems. I ended up showing the video to my son who is a gamer to get his opinion. However, he was pretty dubious about the idea, stating that the need for escape and engaging in fantasy makes it unlikely that it could be applied to medicine. Although I saw some applications of gaming in the course I teach online, I wanted to challenge myself to see how it might work for caregivers and older adults as a way for them to learn. After viewing the examples of how the free software is utilized, I decided to use it to teach a procedural task – using a cane safely and correctly. The software was fairly easy to use, although the initial tutorial did not explain adequately. Once I got used to using it, it was fairly intuitive in its use and I felt the finished product accomplished its purpose. Uploading it for others to see was not easy, though.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles and freedigitalphotos.net

As far as questions, I was left with the one – “did I really create a game?” A classmate called it more of an interactive quiz and I had to agree with her. Looking at the game elements listed above, it was hard to say that I had utilized any of them except for the allowing the students to fail and persevere. I still thought it was a good reinforcement of the learning and easily could be used in conjunction with motor training fairly effectively. But was it really “game” in the way we defined it?

In the end, I had to consider my audience (Baby Boomers, caregivers, older adults) and ask what is most important to them. What is most important to them is that they learn a usable skill from a credible source that they can apply immediately that will benefit the person they are caring for. In my opinion, yes, a game can be used to reinforce material with this population but it is my opinion that it could not “stand alone” as the primary way to teach given the needs and expectations of the audience.

EDU625 Unit 5 Presentation. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228744-dt-content-rid-20995592_1/xid-20995592_1

Kapp, K. (2014). 10 practices for implementing gamification. ASTD. Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/Learning-Technologies-Blog/2014/02/10-Best-Practices-for-Implementing-Gamification

McGonigal, J. (2010). Jane McGonigal: gaming can make a better world [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

To present or not to present

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This week, our class departed from investigating the amazing amounts of data and information available and turned towards putting together an authentic learning experience that engages our learners. As we are going to be looking at various approaches to learning, we dealt this week with the most common approach: the presentation. The first thing someone might think is “boring”. The challenge was to not look at the presentation as necessarily a “bad” way to teach but that it must be: 1) the best choice based on the learners’ needs; and 2) engage the student. The first thing people think about with presentations is Powerpoint but the reality is there are other good options that also have their strengths. In the end, we had to grapple with the question of when is a presentation the best way to teach and how can technology enhance those presentations so that they engage the learner, including their emotions (EDU625 Unit 4 Presentation, 2014).

I spent the first part of the unit looking at the articles and videos. I felt there were some useful guidelines in the Mandel Communications article (2009) to apply such as being “audience centric” and using storytelling as a framework. I also enjoyed tremendously the “Dance vs. Powerpoint” video (2011). As a musician who believes that music can powerfully engage and tell a story, I have often been jealous of the way that dance not only has the music aspect but the human aspect. It was amazing how dance could be used in this video to convey real technical information but still keep the human connection. For our learning challenge, I decided to use Powtoon (www.powtoon.com) as I had not had experience with it yet. It turned out to be relatively easy to learn to use although I was frustrated with the limited options for music and characters if you were not willing to purchase.

I struggled most with choosing the material to present as the website I was utilizing from the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/adultfalls.html) contained much more information than I needed. As the Mandel Communications (2009) article pointed out, we need to focus on the “must know” information. I originally hesitated in utilizing Powtoons for the presentation as the animation seemed childish and young. However, after working through the presentation, I came to the conclusion that it seemed to actually be a fun, non-threatening way to introduce a rather sobering topic. I also realized that the population I wished to teach (Baby Boomers and older adults) actually grew up with comics and animation so that it could actually be an advantage, at least in the area of attracting interest in the topic. So I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Here is the link if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9f3aVKHImY . It seemed that most students in the class related a good experience with developing these presentations.

We also seem to all come to similar conclusions regarding presentations. They seem to have their place in learning and many mentioned the need for them when introducing subject matter or context. I think we are all being challenged to look at presentations as a viable approach, especially considering the new technology of today, but also realize that there needs to be a reason and a choice to utilize them and that it should have everything to do with what is best for our learners.

Bohanon, J. (2011). Dance vs. Powerpoint, a modest proposal [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/john_bohannon_dance_vs_powerpoint_a_modest_proposal

EDU625 Unit 4 Presetation. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228771-dt-content-rid-20995591_1/xid-20995591_1

Mandel Communications. (2009). Best Practices for excellent presentation in the virtual world. Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228772-dt-content-rid-20995566_1/xid-20995566_1

Utilizing data from the global community

Image courtesy Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This week we took a look at vast amount of internet resources available within the global community. It was truly amazing to see all the resources for data collection that are available both in “real-time” and collected from the past. The thought process is that utilizing these kind of resources allows us to create learning experiences that are “authentic” and also gives us opportunities to present confusing or dull topics in a way that has meaning to our learners (EDU625 Unit 3 Presentation, 2014). So, for example, I was able to take data available about the Air Quality Index (AQI) and use it to empower caregivers to recognize when pollution might be causing breathing problems for their parent. It was also reinforced with the lesson that we also had to keep in mind the same concerns as last week in realizing that there are risks associated with data usage and so one of our main concerns has to be teaching how to differentiate between credible and non-credible data.

My own experience in the unit was fun and informative but, in general, the resources for current health data was limited when compared to the sciences, humanities and arts. I continue to enjoy exploring the health education available, in general, such as what you see at Khan Academy (2014). I looked up how to interpret the blood tests that doctors do routinely and viewed a video about fighting cancer systemically. I also continue to be intrigued with TED education videos (2014). I went to many of the websites listed and marveled at the amount of information that is available and free of charge.

Courtesy of American Lung Association website

As I mentioned in my learning experience, though, the amount of day-to-day data available regarding health is limited, in part because it often is measuring something not objective (quality of life, as an example), health information protection policies, and the uniqueness of every individual’s situation. After being a bit discouraged in this regard, I was able to identify a health-related problem in older adults – breathing difficulty – that was related to day-to-day data on air pollution that was reported on the Environmental Protection Agency website. That data, along with the information on the American Lung Association combined into an authentic learningexperience for caregivers who are interested in knowing how day-to-day changes in pollutants affects the health of their parent. From that information, the application would be that they can make good choices for activities on days in question.

We also discussed the credibility of data collections such as these. I think we all agreed that there needs to be no evidence of bias by the data collector. There was advocacy for using certain domains, verifying data with other sources, staying away from opinions, providing guidance when there was data overload, and making sure that the information provided is evidence-based. There continue to be many challenges in teaching this skill to young and old people alike. Even if good data is available on the internet about healthcare, there is no guarantee that it will be trusted. Indeed, in a study of parents whose child had been diagnosed with cancer, parents avoided the internet for “fear of what they might find out, uncertainty about the accuracy of information online, being overloaded by the volume of information online and having been told not to go online by oncologists” (Gage & Panagakis, 2012, p. 44). However, this same study did show that they did turn to the internet for social support.

It is so encouraging to see the continuing growth of resources for teachers in this area. As someone who enjoys working with data, I know I would have found assignments (even learning confusing or dull material) engaging and interesting if they had been this “authentic”.

“EDU625 Unit 3 Presentation”. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228738-dt-content-rid-20995590_1/xid-20995590_1

Gage, E., & Panagakis, C. (2012). The devil you know: parents seeking information online for paedeatric cancer. Sociology of Health & Illness, 34(3), 444-458.

Khan Academy – https://www.khanacademy.org/

TED Education – http://www.ted.com/talks/tags/education

Data to information to meaning to learning

Hello! This week in our unit in “Integrating Technology and Learning”, we were focusing on the resources available for collecting data from our communities and then on how to make sense of the data collected. The thought process is the idea that collecting this data can help us to know our audience better. From there, we need a mechanism for making sense from that data – something that turns “raw data into information, turns information into meaning and turns meaning into learning” (EDU625 Unit 2 Presentation, 2014). The unit here focused on the use of mind mapping. Lastly, the unit focused on the ability to evaluate the credibility of the data collected in our communities and how we can teach our learners to be critical consumers of the data available to them.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My experience in the unit was thought-provoking. I certainly have seen many surveys posted in Facebook but have routinely ignored them as most seem to be for entertainment purposes. It was interesting to consider them as a research tool. The resources on mind mapping were interesting. I originally thought it was similar to outlining but came to agree with Murley (2007) that mind mapping does a better job in keeping the main topic central, showing relationships between topics and also encourages more creativity. It seemed like my classmates were also enjoying both the survey-making and the mind mapping. I also had not been familiar with Pinterest prior to this unit and was intrigued by how it could be used both socially but also for educational purposes. I continue to learn more about how blogs, social networking and games can be used to facilitate learning in the classroom (West, 2012).

As far as my own observations, I enjoyed putting together a survey for my Facebook community. As I have professed many times in this blog, I enjoy research and finding things out by gathering data and analyzing it. Survey Monkey was easy to use and set up, although sometimes frustrating due to limitations of the free version. The first important challenge was determining what questions to use. This made me think of what I really wanted to know from my responders and also how important the wording is in getting accurate responses. A few of my classmates had the same conclusion. Once developed, the second important challenge is the survey audience. I chose my Facebook community due to the ease of distribution, the knowledge that most were Baby Boomers, and because I knew I could get a good response rate, especially if I made a personal appeal. However, this sample of convenience has bias and is not representative of all Baby Boomers so my results have a skew and limited applicability. This is definitely an area of concern in using this method of surveying. I utilized XMind for mind mapping the results from my survey. Originally, it felt awkward and there were a few aspects of my mind map that need more work but the finished product did convey well the information gathered and the questions for further consideration.  I also found it easy to look at the mind maps of my classmates and get a real sense of the information they gathered in a short period of time.  This furthered my interest in utilizing this tool in the future as a way to display data, as well as develop ideas and directions for learning projects.

Finally, our discussion this week revolved around how we can educate learners about the credibility of their own data and other people’s data. Most of my classmates had similar responses, somewhat based on the criteria and tools utilized to evaluate websites (Engle, 2014). I was encouraged to see that this discussion is reaching the K-12 community and am hopeful that teaching this skill will become a priority in our educational system. If teachers will model and address these issues early on with their learners, perhaps the internet will be perceived as a safer place to go for education.

EDU625 Unit 2 Presentation. (2014). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228726-dt-content-rid-20995589_1/xid-20995589_1

Engle, M. (2014). Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools. Olin & Uris Libraries – Cornell University Libraries. Retrieved from https://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/webeval.html

Murley, D. (2007). Mind mapping complex information. Law Library Journal, 99, 175-183. Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2228727-dt-content-rid-20995558_1/xid-20995558_1

Pinterest. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.pinterest.com

Survey Monkey. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.surveymonkey.com

West, D. (2012). How blogs, social media and games improve education. Governance studies at Brookings, Apr 24. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/4/24-education-technology-west/0424_edu_media_west.pdf

XMind. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.xmind.net

Social networking

Hello! So now I am in a course entitled “Integrating Learning and Technology” and will be blogging each week about what I am learning as I apply it to my learning situation (health education and working with Baby Boomers, caregivers and older adults). So I hope that, along the way, you will also learn a thing about how technology can be utilized to help learning.

The first blog is about technologies relating to connecting, interacting and sharing with our personal communities and networks. In other words, social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus. However, there are many more and I was amazed at the development of ones developed just for education (Kapuler, 2011). Educators are interested in utilizing social networking to benefit learning and our challenge for this week was to picture ourselves using these tools in our specific learning situation (EDU 625 Unit 1 Intro, 2013). There is little doubt that the collaborative nature of the social networking and the opportunities to teach about diversity are remarkable utilizing social networking. In addition, various types of social networking allow us to move up through the levels of Blooms taxonomy. For example, mind-mapping as a type of analysis, a blog as a form of evaluation and a Youtube video (similar to what we did for an intro for this unit) as a form of creativity. However, there continue to be concerns about privacy and teaching students the risks of sharing online and in a “public conversation”.

I enjoyed exploring the various technologies in this unit although I did have a lot of hesitation in downloading the programs due to fear of malware and viruses. I started by working with Screenr (no download) but realized I had a similar program already on my computer. I went ahead and downloaded Powtoon and it was fun and Prezi definitely has some advantages over PowerPoint for presentations. My son had experience with Audacity as his professor at college developed it but it seems to be most appropriate if audio manipulation is important. I did not end up downloading Muvizo but watched their introductory unit where they animated a cowboy. It was pretty amazing all the various aspects they allowed you to control even down to his eye movement. Most of these programs all had a basic free download but you could also see that there were upgrades available at a cost.

Although all the technologies presented were fun and interesting, I did not see a tremendous amount of direct application to my interest in teaching Baby Boomers, caregivers and older adults. This is primarily due to the lack of acceptance by older adults of current and new technologies. A qualitative study involving use of an existing social networking sites found that “understanding the internet as a dangerous place, and social networking sites as places of socially unacceptable behavior, hinders the use of social networking technologies” in the Baby Boomer and older generations (Lehtinen, Nasanen, & Sarvas, 2009). That is not to say that all technologies have been rejected by Baby Boomers. A recent study linked internet/e-mail activity to less cognitive decline (Xavier et al., 2014) and Baby Boomers’ acceptance of certain technologies is increasing (LeRouge, Van Slyke, Seale, & Wright, 2014). There is little doubt that learning benefits older learners and that adult learners benefit from an intrinsic motivation to learn interesting things and contribute to society (Phipps, Prieto, & Ndinguri, 2013). The authors of this same article go on to say that keeping adults motivated is central to their learning and that encouraging and maintaining confidence in their ability to learn is important as self-efficacy must be maintained in order that they “achieve the learning outcomes to which they aspire” (Phipps et al., 2013, p. 21). Therefore, these are the qualities I look for in technology. My EDU 624 presentation included a Facebook page as an ideal way for collaboration and establishment of a community of caregivers with similar interests in home modification. However, the question of how well it would be accepted by these generations was still a question unanswered.

In conclusion, I realize that I need to keep an open mind when evaluating these technologies. The easy way would be to just dismiss them and say they would not be accepted by these older generations. There is no doubt that there is more resistance to technology and change in the older generations. I think they often feel “left behind” by advances in technology or just do not feel they are worth learning in the first place (Lehtinen et al., 2009). As I mentioned, Baby Boomers will be more accepting of technology than elderly learners but will still be challenging as, according to research, technology aimed at Baby Boomers needs to be familiar, useful and easy to use (LeRouge et al., 2014). I am looking forward to learning about more technologies and am hopeful that I will discover ones that will contribute towards older adult learning.

References

“EDU 625 Unit 1 Intro”. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0kPuoWhJw
Kapuler, D. (2011). Top 20 Social Networks for Education. Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero. Retrieved from http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-20-social-networks-for-education.html
Lehtinen, V., Nasanen, J., & Sarvas, R. (2009). “A Little Silly and Empty-Headed” – Older Adults’ Understandings of Social Networking Sites. Paper presented at the BCS-HCI ’09 Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology UK.
LeRouge, C., Van Slyke, C., Seale, D., & Wright, K. (2014). Baby boomers’ adoption of consumer health technologies: survey on readiness and barriers. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(9), e200.
Phipps, S., Prieto, L., & Ndinguri, E. (2013). Teaching an old dog new tricks: Investigating how age, ability, and self efficacy influence intentions to learn and learning among participants in adult education. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 17(1), 13-25.
Xavier, A., D’Orsi, E., Oliveira, C., Orrell, M., Demakakos, P., Biddulph, J., & Marmot, M. (2014). English longitudinal study of aging: Can internet/e-mail use reduce congitive decline? J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 69(9 ), 1117-1121.

Final reflection for EDU624

As I come to the end of my current course, “eLearning Design for Diverse Learners”, I am being asked to reflect on what I have learned. I started this course thinking that I might be “ahead of the game” as I have lived abroad, brought up 2 children with disabilities and have worked with underserved health populations. Although all of this life experience has and will serve me well, I have learned many things from this course as well.

The challenge is, of course, that we design instruction for what we know, which is ourselves. I live in a fairly well-off condominium community and I watch people daily who are in the process of aging. Although there are some generational differences between myself and some of the older adults, I feel that it would be relatively easy to design a course for them or for their caregivers as this would include my generation. So, I decided to design an eLearning module on home safety fall prevention, figuring that it would be easy to work with material I was familiar with.

Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where this course starts making an impact is when you start applying theories about eLearning, diversity and global populations to this module. I learned about the advantages of making it student-centered, addressing issues of motivation, utilizing cognitive theories, identifying gaps in the knowledge/skill of my learners, and considering the advantages/disadvantages of utilizing rich media (think video or maybe animation), games or even virtual worlds as tools for learning. However, the “take-home” point was that, in the end, the module must be learner-centered and decisions made on its design need to be the best to foster learning for those learners.

Then came the challenge of designing my module not just for my next-door neighbors but for the low income/education learner (a passion of mine) or the learner in Iceland (another passion) or for the learner that has trouble seeing or getting around – these are our diverse and global learners. As I have worked through making my module for ALL learners, I have seen both the benefits and challenges in designing eLearning environments for them. On the positive side, I have seen what technology can bring to the learning environment and been challenged into thinking creatively about how to reach populations not similar to myself. It has put me in touch with my own ethnocentrism in the design and made me focus on what is best for my learner instead of what is best for myself. It has forced me to research differences in caregiving across cultural divides and realize that even something as simple as recognizing that falls can be prevented can be perceived differently in other cultures. On the challenging side, I have seen the amount of time and work that making things accessible to diverse learners requires. I also continue to be frustrated with the “digital divide” created around technology, with health education that could help the people who need it the most not accessible due to lack of familiarity, funds or literacy appropriateness.

Lastly, I felt this course impressed upon me the responsibility I have to facilitate learning for all learners. I used to think it was good enough to teach to the average. Now I know that it is not and that I have the responsibility, the ability and the privilege of reaching all learners with health education.

Teaching a skill – what I need to know

Hello! I’m back and now working through a course entitled, “eLearning Design for Diverse Learners”. It has been great as I have been reading about what motivates learners while keeping in mind all types of learners. Our first blog is asking us to connect some of the concepts we have been learning about to our own educational environment which, for me and this course, is working with health information for caregivers and older adults on preventing falls in the home.

As my project for this course is going to focus on teaching a skill to my audience, a couple of concepts stood out for me in my readings.
I need to know my learners. This includes knowing:
a) what they want;
b) how are they motivated;
c) what do they like;
d) what do they already know; and
e) how they are different than me (Dirksen, 2012).
Dirksen (2012) goes on to suggest that the best ways to get to know my learners is to talk to them, follow them around and try “stuff” out on them. This is obviously important in every educational setting as, without this, it is doubtful that my teaching will have any impact or its desired result. What is the point of offering a caregiver a course in how to modify their home to prevent falls if the caregiver has no concerns about falls? Or if they cannot understand the material because it is written with complicated language? Or if they cannot access the information because they do not have internet? These are just a few of the pieces of information that I need to have beforehand so that I can design a course for them. The great news is that I live and volunteer in a community of older adults and caregivers so I have opportunities to talk and observe them. Obviously, knowing my learners also means taking into account that they may have disabilities (visual, auditory, mobility, cognitive – all of concern in the older adult population). A challenge to consider is that older adults have been found to not always be interested in modifying their home to reduce their fall risk (Kruse et.al., 2010) and there are additional concerns for caregivers of older adults with dementia who report confusion or irritation when the home is modified. There also may be differences among caregivers due to cultural values. A study in 2009 asked a diverse group of older Americans what it meant to “age well” from the point of cognitive health and came to the conclusion that understanding the views of the intended audience was required for the development of relevant and culturally appropriate health communications (Laditka, et. al.) .

The other concept that stood out to me was the importance of practice and feedback when learning a skill.
I was really challenged when Dirksen (2012) wrote, “a lot of learning experiences purport to teach a skill, when really all they do is introduce the skill” (p. 193). Looking back on my own experiences in learning the violin (a skill), I can see how vital daily practice and feedback from my teacher and parents was to developing the skill. This connected to my own learning environment as I want to teach caregivers the skill of observing the environment and implementing changes. My natural tendency is to want to give them knowledge (which they do need some of) but my real focus needs to be on creating opportunities for them to practice the skill and receive feedback on how they are doing because that is how they will learn the skill. Some challenges that I will face in developing this course for diverse learners is that I may run into different cultural attitudes towards feedback. A 2013 study demonstrated that traditional feedback from teachers to Chinese students studying for the first time in Britain actually caused cognitive challenges and emotional struggles until they adapted to the change (Tian & Lowe). I will have to consider carefully the kind of feedback I use when creating the course for diverse learners.

References

Dirksen, J. Design for how people learn. Berkeley, CA: New Rider.

Kruse, R., Moore, C., Tofle, R., LeMaster, J., Aud, M., Hicks, L., Minor, M., Canfield, S., & Mehr, D. (2010). Older adults’ attitudes toward home modifications for fall prevention. Journal of Housing for the Elderly. 24, 110-129. doi: 10.1080/02763891003757031

Laditka, S., Corwin, S., Laditka, J., Liu, R., Tseng, W., Wu, B., Beard, R., Sharkey, J. & Ivey, S. (2009). Attitudes about aging well among a diverse group of older Americans; implications for promoting cognitive health. The Gerontologist, 49(51). S30-S39. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnp084

Tian, M. & Lowe, J. (2013). The role of feedback in cross-cultural learning: a case study of Chinese taught postgraduate students in a UK University. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 38. 580-598.

Question(s) posed: Considering the fact that I am trying to teach a skill to caregivers that requires both observation and implementation, what other things do I need to know about my population before I put together this module? What are some creative ways that I can get feedback from learners about the modifications they have made to their homes to prevent falls? How might I meet the challenge of providing feedback that is culturally sensitive?

Reference for you: I found the following article useful in considering cultural differences and online learning success.

Cortés, A., & Barbera, E. (2013). Cultural Differences in Students’ Perceptions towards Online Learning Success Factors. Proceedings of The International Conference On E-Learning, 555-564.

Light at end of tunnel

So, this is final installment of the ADDIE blog as our 8 week course in “Creating Learning Environments” comes to a close next week. If you want to see my final project for this course, you can click on “EDU 623 Project” although it won’t be there until next week (or sooner, I hope!)

In the last two weeks, we have covered the second half of Development and Implementation. (Evaluation is in the last week of the course but is occurring at every step of the way.) We looked at Authentic Assessment (AA) during Development. AA starts with the question of what the student should know and/or be able to do at the end of the course. These determine standards and then the idea is to think of authentic tasks that measure that knowledge or skill to use as your assessment (Mueller, 2014).

Image courtesy Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Being a physical therapist, I think of it in terms of function – if I am utilizing leg strengthening exercises as part of a program with the goal of having you walk 200 feet, what does it matter if your muscle strength increased a grade if you still can’t walk 200 feet? Physical therapy is lucky that way in that so much of what we do is about function because it is authentic! And we can set up criteria in the form of measurable goals – like 200 feet – that let us know we got there. Education is not as lucky as we are often trying to measure constructs like intelligence, confidence, etc. One of my objectives is to have our instructors be more consistent with their grading and an example of an AA would be having them grade some papers, don’t you think?

This week we are talking about Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation. He set forth the idea that there are four levels of evaluation and they make a lot of sense to me. In the course I am developing, I have the goal of increasing the confidence and ability of my instructors. If I was developing an evaluation according to Kirkpatrick, I would have questions like these for each of the levels (Chapman, 2014):
1) reaction: What did you like about the course? Was the time well spent?
2) learning: Were my 3 learning objectives realized?(familiarization with course, learned about creating effective online environment, got experience and feedback grading assignments)
3) behavior: Did the instructors improve their online interactivity with students? Did the grades across classes become more consistent?
4) results: Better instructors, better course and more satisfied students as indicated by student feedback
I agree that these would be great evaluations and results from my course!

I have included a resource below that are student-selected GREAT resources for instructional designers and I hope to explore most or all of them. As I wrap up this course, I am glad that I took the direction I did with Instructional Design and Technology.  I see so many challenges and applications of what I am learning. And I am excited to actually use my new course with my instructors and they are already letting me know that they are looking forward to it. I am still not exactly sure where this road will lead me as I want what I learn to eventually help older adults and their caregivers. But I trust that will become clearer as this journey continues. Thanks for being a part of it!

Resource: 37 Great Resources for Instructional Design

Chapman, A. (1995-2014). “Kirkpatrick’s learning and training evaluation theory”. Retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm

Mueller, J. (2014). “Authentic Assessment Toolbox”. Retrieved from http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/howdoyoudoit.htm

This is getting REAL

So we continue with our learning about the instructional design process known as ADDIE. These past two weeks we have covered the rest of the Design element and the first part of the Development element. I would sum it up in saying that this is all getting very real!

One of the big challenges in the Design phase was writing objectives for our proposed course. I have to honest that I inherited the course I am currently teaching and coordinating so the objectives were already written and set for the course, and were also linked to program objectives. When I started teaching, I looked them over but really had little context to judge if they had a defined Audience (specific as to who is learning), Behavior (observable and measurable outcome of learning), Condition (context of learning and evaluation) and Degree (level of mastery of learning outcome) (ABCD) as described by Hodell (2011, pp. 82-87). At some point, I added an assignment to my course and was asked by the instructional design technologist to link it to the objectives. I now have a much better idea of how those objectives were put together, why they are formatted the way they were and the importance of linking objectives to assignments and evaluations. I hope to spend more time with them in the near future.

How not to plan a lesson for learning

As I said, this is getting real and Development is the reason why. It is here that all the resources start to come together and the course begins to take shape. To me, this is both scary and fun. Scary – because what seemed pretty easy to do in theory may be a lot harder than I imagined. And fun – because it is really cool when everything starts falling into place. What seems to be really important in the Development phase is keeping your learning objectives “front and center” so that everything you choose (whether it be learning activities, aids to help remember information, delivery system, learning materials) addresses the learning outcomes in the BEST manner. Once you have it altogether, you can start the fun task of pilot testing to evaluate if your learners are learning. And then start revising….

Consulting and working with SMEs is part of Development. I mentioned in an earlier post that it had surprised me that I did not need to be the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for a course I design. I had always assumed that I needed to know everything about the course material if I was designing a course. I think many people in my generation and older think this way as we see teachers as experts and the one who is doing it all. As liberating as it is to think I do not need to know it all, I also realize that it may be hard for me to design a course where I am not the SME. I wonder if other instructors struggle with this as well and so I looked at various websites that talk about “the division of labor” when putting together a course. Some of them do better than others, I think and I have posted links to them below. As I said, something I will have to work on….

Final installment of this 4-part blog in two weeks and final project in place in 3! Wow, time flies!

Resource for faculty on how to develop online or blended course http://www.missouristate.edu/fctl/124135.htm – seems to be doing a lot as an SME

Resource for faculty at same place about instructional design http://www.missouristate.edu/fctl/instructionaldesign.htm

Resource for division of labor for online course: net.educause.edu/ir/library/word/EDU07104D.doc

References

Hodell, C. (2011). ID from the Ground Up (3^rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Why I love Analysis….and need to work on Design

So we have spent the last two weeks of “Designing Learning Environments” looking into the first two steps of the ADDIE model. If you remember, ADDIE stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation so we were looking at Analysis and the first part of Design.

I really like Analysis because I like research. (I know… 😉 what can I say?) Curiosity is “key” in the Analysis stage and Hodell (2011) states that it is impossible to ask too many questions (p. 34)! I just find this stage so interesting – finding the need and making sure that training can help and determining the root cause of the need are so important because teaching/training is not always the answer to the problem (p. 34). Then looking at your population and finding out things like how much they already know, how old they are, where they live and how their culture affects them, how motivated they are, how they feel about technology – the list goes on and on. Hodell suggests some ways to find this information but the “take-home” message is the more you know about the population, the better. Next is the “task analysis”. This is taking the job/assignment and breaking it down into the skills required to get it done. This can be hard – I have played the violin for years but it is so “second-nature” that it is hard for me to break it into skills and subskills. I think this will be the most challenging part of analysis for me when I start designing a course. Then there is how the training is going to be done and delivered. In the old days, lecture was almost the only instructional method but today there are so many to choose from, including case studies, gaming, brain-storming, on-the-job training, etc. The delivery of the instruction these days primarily has to do with if and how technology is being used. Hodell (2011) states that matching the instructional method with the delivery method is the best choice (p. 47). Finally I need to analyze how often I need to revise and it will depend on how fast my data becomes obsolete. I really do find all of these steps exciting – makes me want to just stay in Analysis!

However, this week we have moved into Design although we are taking two weeks so this was more of an introduction. I am sure this will be more challenging to me than the analysis phase which came easily. I did think that Hodell (2011) had some great practical ideas for the Design Plan in Chapter 10. The design plan is supposed to explain the project fully and consists of a rationale, target population, description, objectives, evaluation strategy, participant prerequisites, facilitator prerequisites and deliverables (pp. 105-113). Hodell (2011) also really sees Design as the most important aspect of the ADDIE model and sees the course designer in the primary role of coordinating and directing the course development (p. 56). I am not sure I agree with him completely. It is true that someone needs to be in charge but I really like courses to be centrally driven by the learner’s needs and, therefore, I like the idea of revisions at all stages based on learner/user feedback. I have included here a model developed by Debbie Morrison (2013) as I think it gives you an idea of what I mean and a link to her slideshare at the end of this blog if you are interested.

Looking back on what I have learned so far, I am pretty excited. I especially enjoy the overall concept of breaking down the design of a course into a systematic process because, for me, designing a course can be pretty overwhelming if you look at it as a whole. So this makes a lot of sense to me.

For those of you wondering what this all has to do with taking care of your elderly parent, I am learning the skill of instructional design to apply it to older adult learning. It looks like my project for this course will be more focused towards my teaching job at a community college but I promise that future projects will be something you can use! Stay tuned!

Resource for you: http://www.slideshare.net/debbiemorrison505/how-to-design-an-excellent-online-course

Hodell, C. (2011). ISD from the ground up (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press

Morrison, D. (2013). How to design an excellent online course. Presented at E-learning Strategies Symposium. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/debbiemorrison505/how-to-design-an-excellent-online-course

Introducing Instructional Design

Sorry that it has been a while since I have been active on this blog. My M.Ed. required me to take a course about assessments, which required a lot of “number crunching” and not a lot of blog writing. However, I am back now and taking my first course in the Instructional Design and Technology focus and it is appropriately called “Designing Learning Environments”. Over the next 8 weeks, I will be writing 4 summaries of the ideas we are considering and, hopefully in the midst of all this, a course for older adults will be developed as my final project. I’ll keep you posted!

So, this first summary is about our introduction to Instructional Design (ID) or Instructional Systems Development (ISD), the ADDIE model (more later) and the various models that have been developed.

Instructional Design – We are using a book by Chuck Hodell, the third edition written in 2011, called “ISD from the ground up”. We read what he refers to as “the basics” this week which included a brief “unofficial” history of ISD, ISD principles and an introduction to the ADDIE model. I was impressed by how much psychology has affected the development of ISD when talking about the history.

Instructional Design office? Image courtesy of Feelart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The principles of ISD were pretty straight-forward – “a system that provides a reasoned and tested approach to developing training and education solutions regardless of the individual variables within a specific design scenario” (p. 19). Or, in other words, a way to make sure that you, as the learner, are learning what you should be learning.

The ADDIE model – ADDIE stands for 5 elements of design – Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. As it is the focus of Hodell’s book, I am sure I will be writing a lot more about it. You can think of it in terms of analysis being the input into the course design, design, development and evaluation as the process, and that implementation is the output or course itself. A couple keys points stood out for me in this chapter – that we, as instructional designers, do not need to be subject matter experts of the course we design (Hodell, 2011, p. 22) and that analysis and evaluation are often the most overlooked and abused elements of the ADDIE model (p. 29).

Various models of ID – We also read an article by Gustafson and Brown (2002) that summarized some of the models used in ID. Models have been developed as ideas of “how to” implement the elements of ADDIE. With my interest in adult and older adult education, I found myself drawn towards models that focused most on using the learner as the “driving force”. The Nieveen model uses multiple evaluations at various levels, all with a focus on quality, defined as valid, practical and effective for the learner (p. 39-41). Another model by Dorsey, Goodrum and Schwen (pp. 52-54) utilizes rapid prototyping (testing and evaluating over and over within a short period of time) but, again, I like it because the user was central to the process at all stages.

We were introduced to many other models as well. I did note the Gustafson and Brown seem frustrated that many of the models have been suggested but never tested, meaning we really do not know if they work or not (p. 63). Their suggestion to ID professionals is to acquire a working knowledge of several models and be ready to use the best model for the job. They also suggest that the future of ID is going to be about utilizing technology to make better design and delivery tools. Looking forward to it!

Lastly, I liked Bates model (Gustafson & Brown, 2002, pp. 37-38) as it had direct applications to my teaching online, including the importance of having everything ready ahead of time, making sure the technology utilized was the best fit for the learning activity, and considering issues of resources such as tutoring while in the online environment. I have included a link to his website  who has a special interest in distance education.

http://www.tonybates.ca/2011/05/21/instructional-design-the-times-they-are-achanging/

References

Gustafson, K. & Branch, R. (2002). Survey of Instructional Development Models (4th ed.). Syracuse, NY: ERIC. Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/courses/EDU623.901099044174/Documents/Survey%20of%20Instructional%20Models.pdf

Hodell, C. (2011). ISD From the Ground Up (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.