Competency 8

Artifact 8.1 – EDCI 572 – Metro Community College Course on Diversity

Artifact 8.2 – EDCI 577 – DJJS Motivational Interviewing Training Evaluation Report

Artifact 8.3 – EDCI 672 – Case Analysis 4 – Iris Daniels

Artifact 8.1 – EDCI 572 – Metro Community College Course on Diversity – This was a group project developed for Metro Community College in Omaha Nebraska. The course was on the topic of diversity and takes the learner through a number of topics based on diversity, tolerance, and dealing with conflict.

Artifact 8.2 – EDCI 577 – DJJS Motivational Interviewing Training Evaluation Report – This is a fully developed evaluation report for the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services Motivational Interviewing Training. It includes evaluation and assessment instruments for 7 online courses, and 8 live classroom courses.

Artifact 8.3 – EDCI 672 – Case Analysis 4 – Iris Daniels – In this paper, I analyzed a case about an international consortium working together to develop new online software training courses. The challenge of the case was that due to varying cultural differences, the various members of the consortium could not come to an agreement on the design and development of the online courses.

Artifact 8.1, is an excellent example of planning and designing a learning environment that is supported by technology. For this group project, we developed an e-learning course that would be facilitated by a live instructor. It was a way of putting the “Lecture and PowerPoint” in the hands of the learner. Throughout the course, there were links they could click on to get more information, videos they could watch on their own or in conjunction with the class, quizzes that they could take during the class, and a number of other things that only this format could accomplish. I believe it was a unique way of using technology to enhance a live course, yet an incredibly effective one. The other thing I really liked about this course, is the fact that it is hosted online so the students can access it at any time, even after taking and completing the course. This is better than simple printouts of the PowerPoint slides that the students can take home with them. This gives them full access to the actual course, videos, and quizzes.

For this sub-competency, I selected Artifact 8.2 – DJJS Motivational Interviewing Training Evaluation Report. The reason I selected this artifact for this sub-competency is that I used a number of technologies to effectively assess learner’s knowledge and to perform training evaluations. Within the paper, I provide examples of the assessment tools that I use during the online MI modules, the evaluation tools that I created, and the automated analysis tools that I used to analyze the evaluation results. I used Adobe Captivate to create the online module courses and the assessment tools for these courses. Within each course there is some kind of non-scored assessment to help the learners gauge their own learning, as-well-as pretests and posttests used to evaluate the level of progress gained throughout the online modules. To evaluate the program, reaction and behavior surveys were developed and analyzed using Google Forms. Google Forms provides a simple way to create effective surveys that can be automatically analyzed to give an overall rating of the course. These were also developed for the classroom course where the learners could simply scan a QR code that would take them to the online evaluation. I have found it incredibly convenient to use technology to implement effective evaluation strategies, and I think Artifact 8.2 does an excellent job of demonstrating my ability to do so.

I think that Artifacts 8.1 and 8.3 do a good job of demonstrating my understanding of social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology. In Artifact 8.1, we were very careful about selecting images for our project that would be safe to use because they were under creative commons licenses. Copyright issues are something that all instructional designers face, and so it is important to find resources that can be used without violating any potential copyright laws. It goes against all the ethical standards of ISD to use plagiarized and copyrighted materials without permission or accreditation. As instructional designers, it is our duty to maintain all ethical standards to the highest degree.

In Artifact 8.3, I wrote up a case study for a design project that involved an international team working to create e-learning courses for software that was used by a number of companies from around the world. In this case study, I focused on solutions that brought the international team together to identify potential cultural issues that might crop up due to various cultural, social, and human differences. It is important to always take into consideration your learners when designing and developing any instruction. That is why one of the most important parts of any projects is the learner analysis process. This helps you to identify any social, cultural, or human issues that may arise due to disabilities, language barriers, or cultural differences. We often times rush to use the newest technology we can find, yet forget to take into consideration how these new technologies might affect someone who is blind and cannot read what is on the screen or someone who doesn't speak the language we have used in our courses, or who comes from a different culture and doesn't recognize the cultural intonations of the course. Keeping in mind that each individual learner is unique in their own way will ensure that we avoid running into social, human, ethical, and cultural issues. For any project, it is important to start with a clear understanding of the social, ethical, legal, and human issues that can arise from using technology.

The name of this program is Learning Design and Technology. I think everyone who joined this program did it because of their love, passion, and understanding of technology. There are a number of other institutions who have instructional design programs, but I believe the focus of this one is specifically why it attracted the people that it did. I hope to continue growing my knowledge of the scientific principles and best practices used within the field of instructional design and hope to continue moving my courses into the future using these new technologies. It is important to me to continue researching new techniques, best practices, and technologies that can enhance my course development and help increase the effectiveness of my courses for the learner. Technology is ever advancing, only those who want to conquer it will be able to do so.