Reflections

What does it mean to manage/regulate yourself (self-regulate) and others? How does it bring you towards goals? How important is communication in this process and what helps/impedes it?

Manage/regulate myself means to be able to self reflect on my own actions (weaknesses/strengths) and be able to identify those and take necessary actions to set goals to achieve them. After setting the goals of a task self regulation is important in order to be successful. It is also important to set priorities for good time management to successfully complete a project. Self regulation helps keeping focus on the task and good time management. It also helps planning achievable goals and systematically evaluates the actions to accomplish these goals.

Regulate other means to me is managing others in a professional way. I do not believe in controlling people. To regulate others it is very important to build trust with those people whom I would regulate/manage. Trust brings everything together to accomplish any task in an effective way.

An effective communication plays a vital role in this process. If the communication is not clear then there will be lots of problem. The tasks need to be distributed clearly with responsibilities and explaining the goals that need to be achieved. Otherwise it will impede the process to reach the goals.

What does it mean to design instruction? What skills do you think you need to have in order to do it professionally?

Design instruction means ensuring learners needs and best method to deliver those needs in an effective and efficient way. In designing instruction, it is important to understand and identify the goals and objectives of an organization and to identify the best method to deliver the training that will fulfill those goals and objectives. As designer is not an SME, the designer has to have the following characteristics mentioned in below paragraph to understand the training settings and complete it based of analysis report. A well design instructions will meet the learner’s all needs.

A good designer is knowledgeable detail oriented, good observer, communicator and critical thinker. Beside the instructional knowledge and skills of a designer, I think the most important thing to accomplish any task professionally is to build the trust between the designer and the client. If the trust is not there then it will be hard to get all the information about a project for analysis and then designing the training. The second thing is to communicate effectively. Effective communication means understanding the goals and objectives clearly about the project and the organization. Without effective communication the project will not be completed on time. During communication the designer has to be flexible and willing to find a client’s suitable schedule to work together to make the project successful and complete in a timely manner. Critical thinking helps to identify all needs for the project during analysis and design phases.

What have you learned this semester about instructional design and development? What about process? What else?

As an instructional technologist I thought I also know instructional design but I realized how much I knew compare to how much I have learned in this course. I have learned a lot about instructional design from this course. After completing the final project two I think every phase in ADDIE model is important to create training or any other type of instructional product. It is a repetitive process of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation to create an effective program. This process helps keep improve an existing program. During this course assignment I have learned that analysis and design parts are very vital to develop any effective training program. The evaluation part is important to keep improving it.

Instructional design is a process that helps to design and develop any training program for face-to-face or online format. ADDIE model provides the step-by-step framework to successfully complete a training product.

What did you learn from the Evaluation of the product? What would you do differently next time? How much did you learn from the process and evaluation that will make you a better future instructional designer?

Evaluation part is important to identify what did not work in the process and what needs to be done for future training to improve the process. It is important to know the effectiveness of the design to analyze and identify the things that need further improvement. It helps to identify whether the design has met the goals of the training or not.

I would also consult with an expert ID as well as client more to analyze more data to identify as many needs as possible. I feel more confident now after going through this process of developing two projects. It helped me to build confidence to be a better instructional designer in the future. Now, I feel I can take any project and make it a better product than it was before.

How would you assess the truth of the claims made in these videos? How would you evaluate the effectiveness of the video? Did you learn anything?

The truth of these videos is demonstrated vey effectively. They presented their movies in a believable way. It seems the stories are true. They did a good job in analysis. They talked to the actual people who have experienced paranormal in their real lives. Some of them truly believed what they see in their paranormal mental state. I could not understand many things at the beginning but later I was able to connect how they have done these videos. I have learn something from the analysis part of these videos.

What do you think about instructional design so far?

Instructional design is making sense to me day by day as I am learning new things from this course. It is a step-by-step process to create a cost, time, learning effective training. As a technology person lots of things did not make sense to me before I took this class. Instructional design process can be used in many aspects in our life. Speaking about professional responsibility as an instructional technologist instructional design knowledge will benefit me more than what I was doing before this class. My conceptual understanding has been changed and reshaped in designing training and or any course curriculum. Even though I have been doing it for long time I feel more confident now than before to do any task in this field. This courses added valuable knowledge to my learning.

After completing the project one I think every phase in ADDIE model is important to create training or any other type of instructional product. It is a continuous repetitive process of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation to create an effective program. This process helps keep improve an existing program. During this course assignment I have learned that analysis and design parts are very vital to develop any effective training program. These two steps work like foundation on which training success is depended on. I spent 70% of my total project time to complete these two phases.

Finally I would like to reiterate with Piskurich’s quote about instructional design to remember: “Give a man a fish———–in the pool. But design a training program that helps him learn how to stock and manage his pool, and there is no telling how far he might go.”

Locate and view the links to videos. Does each employ a form of analysis? How? Why? How does it compare to the process of analysis we use to analyze learning? What would you design with the findings from some of these analyses? How useful is video for analysis?

Yes this is a form of analysis. Video recording is a type of analysis tool. The analyst used observation method to explain different argument to establish the point whether Bigfoot is real or a myth. He also used interview method to get some expert’s opinion about the fact.

Although this process shows some analysis like comparing the size of the creature with the analyst’s height, comparing with other images, hair and muscle analysis for identifying the sex of the animal etc. This process is not as detail and step by step ordered as we use to analyze our project for learning.

I would create a video with clear objectives to make a point that Bigfoot is real or it is not a myth. Although this video did explain detail on foot anatomy but I would do more comparative analysis with anatomy of other parts of the body such as facial structure and bone, hair and muscle of an animal to understand and to establish the fact.

Video is very useful for analysis because it can be repeatedly watch and analyze to find in detail information. If a picture speaks a thousand words then video will do much more than that. Also, video does not only provide information but also provide emotional response.

How are analysis and design related for you? How closely should these two pieces of the model connect? How does the Information R/Evolution affect each of these?

Analysis helps to do the needs assessment which is an important part of analysis. It helps to decide what are the training needs and what not to do in a training as well. Different training needs different types of analysis. A good detail analysis is prerequisite for a good design. By conducting an analysis, a trainer will be able to get the whole picture of what the trainees will need to learn about the job.

Decision making process for an effective training delivery method is important part in the design phase. Training goals and objectives are clarified in this step. In design analysis it is important to find what will work best for the content, what will be the most effective for learner and what is most efficient for the learning environment.  Developers apply the information obtained in analysis step to identify instructional strategies in thi;s phase. At the end of this phase an instructional designer will have a design document in report form.  It is clear from the above discussion that analysis and design are a big part of any design process and these two are very closely related for understanding the whole instructional design process for me.

The video shows the evolution of information. It shows the importance of information creation, storage and sharing. Although this revolution helps acquiring information easily and faster, it created a new reality that is called information overload from cognitive point of view. This is a real example of information overload that Alvin Toffler imagined back in 1970 and mentioned in his book “Future Shock” about how information overload negatively impact people’s decision making process. “George Miller in his PHD Dissertation written in 1956, says that people have finite limits to the amount of information they can assimilate and process at one time. When people go beyond these limits “overload” results. It is under these conditions that people will become confused and are likely to make poorer decisions based on the information they have received as opposed to making informed ones.”. Here is an article written by Alex Hudson recently pulished in BBC news about the age of information overload: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9742180.stm .

Given what you have read about instructional design, how important is it to what your future work goals are?

It is very important to know instructional design for my future work goals. I have read several articles in this course as well as in CECS 6000 course. It has opened my mind about instructional design process. Being an instructional technology specialist lots of things were not cleared to me. Like ADDIE model is a model or just a conceptual framework!  After reading all those articles I personally think ADDIE, whether a model or a framework, is important to develop any training program. In spite of all criticisms, the ADDIE model continues to hold a consensus view as a foundational element of the instructional design field. My job is to design courses, provide training to faculty and staff in blended and online instructions. It is helpful to know more detail about instructional design in developing training program for faculty and staff.

Thank you for using Rapid ID-book as a text book. I am very satisfied with Piskurich’s explanation of instructional design theory and practical examples in his book. It works like a guide book. This book clearly mentioned step by step instructions in developing any type of training. My understanding is Instructional design is a process by which any training can be designed/created with determining training goals.  ID can be done many ways but to make any training successful it is important to use the basic principles of ID process like ADDIE. I also liked Piskurich’s ISD spider model. The advantages of instructional design are cost effectiveness, time effectiveness, learning effectiveness, training effectiveness evaluation, business integration, and consistency.

Merrill’s clearly described the instructional process in his video. I like his explanation about how learning occurs. Involving students in doing something in a real world environment is important for learning to be occurred. Some instructor think video games, simulations, etc. motivate learning. But I agree with him is that these may be bring attraction to learner but real motivation comes when they do something they did not do before in real world. Real learning takes place when we implement basic principle that include at least demonstrating what learner have learned. The best motivation is to do something in a real world.

Real World examples 1:

1)      Fire Safety Instruction at UNT HSC: This fire safety instruction has both text and sketch nicely combined to make it pretty nice.

The goal of this instruction is to demonstrate the safe exit of people while there is a fire alarm or fire incident.

I think the instruction is very clear and concise to express the message. I judge this as an effective clear instruction.

i)                    Remember to use stairs during fire

ii)                  Never take elevator while there is a fire incident

iii)                Remember using extinguisher if you know how to operate it.

 

Silent Hill-Centralia, PA: This video is created by an amateur artist about Centralia town in PA which once a thriving city. The coal mine’s after effect left the city now as abandoned. This video explains how this town has been devastated by coal mine operation. My job is to analyze how this video is from instructional design point of view.

My first reaction about this video is that there were not much analysis been done before the video was made. It is not an well designed product of an instructional technology work. It I take the ADDIE framework to evaluate the video, here is my observation:

Analysis: This video is a real life example of instructional technology application. This video is not effective to covers the outcomes of the instructions. Lots of information is missing from that video. As instructional design requires specific behavioral outcomes, to measure them, and to reviews to make sure the training effectively covers the outcomes. It did not fulfill those requirements. It did not tell the background history of the town.

Design: Even though it is not an well designed work it did deliver the learning objectives of this story. The evidence of it is the number of vies of this video is about 1.3 million.

Develop: The video was developed ok considering the amateur artist. The site scenes, signs, footage of devastations were recorded. There was lacking in story telling quality.

Implementation: The video is rough. No editing has been done. There could lot be done as this has been put for public viewing in you-tube.

Evaluation: After watching this video I can say they did not do a good job or might not have done any evaluation before they put it in you tube.

Overall I would say the video did deliver the message about the Centralia town in PA but it is not a good example of instructional technology work.

 

Ontology: Ontology is the study of being or existence that describes concepts and relationships that can exist in entities.

Epistemology: Epistemology is the study of theory of knowledge.

My personal theory of learning: My personal theory of learning is mixed. I personally believe some learning occurs through an expert by transferring knowledge from the expert to the learner. This belief categorize me as an objectivist. Objectivism is a traditional model of learning which refers the behavioral model of learning. The objectivist model of learning is to understand the objective reality and modify behavior accordingly ((Jonassen, 1993). In terms of learning, the first assumption is that there exists a reality that is agreed upon by individuals. In terms of instructions, objectivist model assumes that the goal of teaching is the efficiently transfer the knowledge from the expert to the learner.  The objectivist model also assumes that the instructor is the source of objective knowledge that is related, rather than created, during class. The instructor should be in control of the material and pace of learning. The lecture method is an example of objectivist model of learning.

On the other hand, being an instructional technologist I have been witnessing how learning occurs in real life situation. I am a strong believer of constructivism learning that learning occurs effectively when an individual strives to learn by him or herself devoting their own time space to construct new knowledge. I believe each individual has their unique style, experience to construct new knowledge. In this process learning is constructed rather than transmitted by each learner. Learning is reflected in “intellectual growth that leads to scientific reasoning, abstract thought, and formal operations” (O’Loughlin, 1992). Learner-centered-instruction is an example of constructivist model of learning. The teacher acts as a creative mediator of the process. The goal of constructivist is truly achieved when learner construct new meaning such as higher order learning. I also believe that cognitive information process model is true for long term knowledge retention. Prior knowledge affects the level of instructional support needed.