Skip to main content

Instructional Design Project Reflection

The overall project of this assignment was a great journey for me as I did some personal reflections on how I would develop training material for my organization.. Within my organization we have to take a lot of compliance training that is super rigid and at times very time consuming and boring. At the same time  throughout the year I am tasked to teach my peers with less tenure about certain tools and processes as the SME. So as I progressed throughout the class and assignments I kept coming back to what I am learning and applying in this project will get me to my ultimate goal of becoming a Training Manager within my Organization. The outstanding thoughts are what do I still need to learn to achieve the goal and will I need to seek additional training outside of this program to obtain all the skills I need. 


As I reflect on the final product of the “mock up” that we Team Kannapolis created I am very proud of the outcome. So starting with the Needs Assessment I found a lot of value in making sure what the Learning Designer is going to create will be effective, relevant, and aligned with the goals of the learners and the organization. My struggle though was that within an organization like mine the time you wish you had to create a full blown assessment has to be done sometimes in hours not days or weeks. So the ability to understand what is happening within organizations is very important so you can be flexible and agile to the needs of the business. At times or more times than none there is going to be a conflict of the deliverable that is when you have to influence the design makers and key stakeholders. You have to be able to “sell” your reason for why a specific training module might take longer to develop and how the delay will reap benefits to the organization. 


As we started to break down the objective into Content and Task Analysis this where I started to realize that the instruction of building a Talking Head Video was going to be very detailed for the learner. I wanted to make sure that we understood that every learner will come into this training with different skills and might even be scared to attempt the task at hand. So breaking down every step into bite size pieces was a very important task in order for the learner to be successful. I know as we created each section I would see gaps that we missed which is why this step is so important in the development of the training material. Overall I thought we accomplished this task and it allowed us to move the “Scary DDD”. 


Now comes the Detail Design Document. This is where I started to feel a little out of my comfort zone as up to this point everything was making sense and I found similar projects in my organization that connected the dots.  As Team Kannapolis we spent 3 hours on a zoom call on a Friday night where my wonderful classmates took the fear of creating the “DDD”. We just broke it out and worked together to create each section making sure everyone was on the same page and understood what was being done. I try to keep myself in the shoes of the learner, never taking for granted my skills and placing that bias on them. I believe we really understood the learner “aka Faculty Member” and what they need to know in order to create the final product of making a Talking Head Video. 


Now as we moved to bring all the hard work we had done from the Needs Assessment, Content and Task Analysis, and Detail Design Document to life by making a “mock up” into a LMS environment. This would be my first time using Google Sites so there was a learning curve that was easily corrected by watching a few crash course videos and relying on my classmates to bring me up to speed. I want to say my original design idea was what we ended up with but I learned so much from my classmates on how to set up a learning environment that would truly benefit the learner. Also seeking advice from our professor allowed us to make some corrections through the journey of our “mock up” site. 


I wish we had time to be in the presence of a “true” learner who we could have observed them take the training to see if we were successful. Then follow up with questions on what we could have improved on the overall training experience. Then being able to make those changes and doing another test training to see if those changes made a difference in the learners experience. Another area that I would like to improve on is making sure that all training materials that are developed meet a learners need (i.e. closed caption, transcripts & etc). 


Overall the final  Instructional Materials “mock up” we created I think meet the goals that were outlined in the design case. As in any project I believe there are moments that you look back and say I think we could have improved this section or added this to the module. Will a faculty member be able to walk through our steps and create a talking head video in DaVinci Resolve , export it to their YouTube Channel and finally place it into their LMS? The answer is Yes!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Future of Online and Blended Learning

The year 2035 may seem distant, but time moves quickly, and the future of online and blended learning will take many different forms. Its evolution will depend on several key factors, including the specific learning environment—whether K-12 education, higher education, or the corporate sector. Each setting presents unique challenges and opportunities that will shape the future of digital learning. From a global perspective, as seen in the challenges faced by Makerere University in Uganda (NTVUganda, 2022), the adoption of online and blended learning varies based on technological accessibility and government support. Additionally, the readiness of an organization or institution plays a crucial role. At its core, online and blended learning require a financial investment, which must be carefully considered when determining if it is the right direction (Simonson & Zvacek, 2019). Given my experience in the financial industry within the corporate sector, I will focus on how online and b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Inclusive Learning Design Reflection

Impression I always knew there were certain accommodations made for people with disabilities when it came to learning and the use of technology, but it wasn’t until I started this program that I truly began to consider things from their perspective. This course took me from a basic understanding of accessibility and inclusive design—whether in website design or any type of content development for eLearning—to a much deeper appreciation of these principles. My main goal in LDT 508 was to become a voice for change within my organization. What I have learned is that accessibility and inclusive design are essential for developing eLearning, ensuring compliance and removing specific barriers, while also fostering a welcoming and equitable digital environment for everyone. Design When I think about the biggest design challenge I faced in the development of my website, which I called “Beyond the Screen: A Look into Crafting Inclusive Digital Learning with Multimedia,” it was creating transcr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Defining Online and Blended Learning

  If we look back in time—specifically to February 2020—it might not seem that long ago, but it feels like a lifetime has passed since then. At that time, many people didn’t fully understand what online learning was, and terms like 'blended learning' were unfamiliar to most. Then March 2020 arrived, and the world changed drastically. The pandemic placed a spotlight on online learning as much of the world transitioned to working from home. Schools closed, sending children home, and suddenly, we faced the challenge of teaching our children, training new employees, and helping existing employees adapt to an entirely new work environment. While teachers and companies did their best to provide the necessary training, the experience revealed significant flaws in the current system of online learning. One of my own learning experiences with online education—both from a parent's perspective with my children and as an employee—was that while the topics often sounded interesting, the...
Post a Comment
Read more