Progress

Today we met with Judy Rannow during class and received really good feedback about our prototype. There are minor changes we need to make but Laura and I will be working on them this weekend as well as our presentation for class next week!

Updates!

Laura and I met with our client again last Thursday, were able to get a survey going for the other librarians, and now may have another part for our project to strengthen it (as a part of another class project)! We talked about it and decided that for our LTLE 378 class, making an online tutorial through Camtasia could really help those database users at the library learn how to use the databases by watching exactly what to do. We are still going to be making two different brochures, with surveys on the back of them, to provide even more guidance as the users are utilizing the Find It Virginia database.

Goals and Objectives of Library Project

Goal: Learners will be able to search on the "Find it Virginia" database.

Objectives:
1. That a diverse group of adults and children will know how to conduct a basic search on their own or with the help of the brochure in five minutes or less.

2. That a diverse group of adults and children will know how to conduct an advance search on their own or with the help of the brochure in twenty minutes or less.

Assessment Techniques:
True/False Questionnaire
Observation
Multiple Choice Questionnaire (to evaluate things like time it took to use the search engine, etc.)

New Project confirmed

I will now be working on the project with Laura Spinks. We met last week to discuss the project and to work on the draft. I am excited about working with her and on the project for the local library!

New Project

I have decided to go in a different direction and choose a new project to work with. I will know by Monday which project I will change to and get all caught up by next Thursday! More info. on new project will be posted soon

Project Brainstorming

Who is the SME?

There are two SMEs for my project. The first one is the owner of the company and the other SME is one of the trainers of the SmartBuy company. I have to make sure to get any input from the owner of the company to see what he wants to have included in the abridged form of the training manual; input of what he thinks is most important and other information that can be left out. I also need to talk to one of the main trainers of the company. This person has a lot of experience and background working with SmartBuy and also has a lot of experience training new employees. This particular trainer, Crystal, knows even more about the information used to teach new employees and also what information is mandatory for all employees to know.

Who is the Target Audience?

The target audience is the new employees that will be hired in the future to work at SmartBuy. This newer and smaller version of the training manual will be geared towards highlighting the most important information of the company and what they have to know about working for the company.

What model of instructional design seems most appropriate for my project and why? (p. 2-20)

         I think Kemp, Morrison and Ross’s instructional design plan is most appropriate to use for this particular project. The nine elements laid out to follow seem not only organized yet easy and appropriate to use and follow to lay out my plan. It gives me a good idea of what steps I need to follow to organize the plan and also includes all the details I need to remember to pay attention to when designing my plan that I otherwise might have forgotten. I also like this model because its laid out so that at any time you can go back to any of the nine steps at any time in the development of the design plan and that it’s not strictly following each step one after another. I think this flexibility is useful and will be helpful for my project because I will be able to go back an address a specific step if I found out I am leaving certain information out or if one of my SME’s decides I need to redirect one of the steps I have prepared for them. Although I think it’s important to have some sense of order in the steps, I think this model will be very useful for my project.

What perspectives on learning will likely be addressed- cognitive, behavioral, constructivist- and why? Give specific examples.

(p. 22-37)

         I think the cognitive and behavioral perspectives will be addressed within this design plan. First off I plan on producing an abridged version of the current training manual so the new employees will be expected to read that manual to get familiar with the company, its policies, and its training steps and aspects. After the cognitive aspect is done, a test may be possibly given to those employees to ensure they understand and know the rules and policies of the company; those rules and policies that are most important.

What strategy will I use to conduct a needs analysis? What products will be created to show I have conducted a full needs analysis? (p. 40-55)

         I think Morrison, Ross and Kemp’s strategy towards conducting a needs analysis is most appropriate for this particular project. Because this problem isn’t necessarily one that is completely detrimental to the company itself, I think that following the four phases of this specific approach will serve will in doing a needs analysis. It covers the basic needs of planning what information needs to be gathered and in what ways that information will be gathered. It also touches base on the actual collecting of the data and after the data is collected analysis is done. The final step of the strategy is compiling a final report, in which for my project would ultimately be the abridged version of the training manual. These steps make the process seem simple enough to accomplish while at the same time covering all the bases I need to make sure to pay attention to in making a newer and shorter manual.

What approach will I use to conduct a task analysis? What products will be created to show that have conducted a full task analysis? (p. 57-69)

         I think Morrison, Ross and Kemp’s topic analysis approach fits the best for my project. Since the project is based on taking and highlighting important information and displaying it in a way that new and current employees can understand and learn easier and quicker….This particular strategy concentrates on “1) the content that will make up the instruction and 2) the structure of the content components,” (Brown & Green, 60), which I think will help me in coming up with a clear and successful new training manual. The book mentions that with this approach you sort of make an outline of the big topic at hand and slowly work your way down to all the details, and for this case that is exactly what I am going to try and do. I want to take the big manual and learn about everything within it and then break it down into sections and pull out the most important pieces.

Class Project

I am working with the company SmartBuy. The training manual for new employees is really long and doesn't do an adequate job of highlighting the most important parts that new employees need to know. I am wanting to put together a sort of mini-manual that new and exisiting employees could look at to get more of a feel for the information they have to know in order to help the company be successful. I was also thinking about maybe putting a guide together that could be turned into a video that employees could watch to further instill the most important information and aspects about the job. I chose to work with this company because I had personal experience with going through the training and if I didn't have my dad there to ask questions then I definitely would have been lost in some areas of the manual. I also wouldn't have known what the most important information was and what other stuff wasn't as crucial to know.