LTEC 5210 Instructional Systems Design I- Fall 2016

Think about instructional design in general. What have you learned this semester about instructional design and development? I have learned a lot about instructional design from this course and from my classmates.  I have particularly learned a lot from the posts and comments from other students.  I am always amazed at all the different perspectives in this field.  Seeing other people’s project has had a good impact in the way I design content.  I saw some great work that made me rethink my own work to the point where I started two of my assignments over because my work was of lesser quality.  I also learned that the process can be tedious and at times redundant but you must keep moving forward to meet those deadlines. What about the process? The process can become overwhelming and confusing when paired up with the wrong client.  Fortunately for me, this time around, my client was very cleared with me about her needs and what the whole project was ab...

Reflect on the outcome of Project B. What worked? What did not? Why? Did you use your peer for feedback? If so, discuss the feedback your peer provided; if not, explain why? Discuss your clients feedback? What did you use? What did you reject? Why? I enjoyed working on project B.  I had originally contacted Dr. Taylor for a project he had in mind but he couldn’t meet with me early enough for me to develop his project so I contacted Dr. Holyfield who was in need of finding an electronic option for a portfolio all dental students are to keep for the four years they are dental students.  The reason for the portfolio is that the dental school gets accredited every seven years.  Part of the accreditation process requires the school provides the committee examples of works in which students have been introduced to some specific standards.  In the past, students were keeping a binder with paper copies of specific assignments. Due to having 400+ students and only one facu...

What does it mean to design instruction? To design instruction means to create, organize, develop, and deliver instructional material for learning purposes.  Part of the design process includes determining the pedagogical needs of the learners.  Because students have different ways of learning, the right pedagogical method should be used to accommodate all students.  Instructional material is usually designed and used to achieve course learning goals and objectives.  When designing instruction, there are many design models one can use.  One of the most common and well-known models is the ADDIE model.  ADDIE is an acronym of the five phases of this method, which includes analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.  This model is known for its flexibility as it can be used and modified to work with other models.  Other well-known modules include Dick and Carey, Kemp Design Model, and Instructional Systems Design ISD (Inst...

What does it mean to manage/regulate yourself (self-regulate) and others? Self-regulation and self-management are crucial in all aspects of our lives.  It is even more important when taking online courses and working full-time.  Is vital to managing one’s time so that at the end of the day, all things that needed to be taken care of are crossed out the to-do list, to stay on track.  This is even more important with courses in which there are no hard deadlines, such as this course.  It is so easy to go off track or put things off and before you know it, you find yourself trying to catch up.  When working with clients, like we did for these two big projects, it is also important to manage not only our time with our clients but also regulate our communication and interaction so that the project stays on track.  Having said that, instructional designers need to be flexible enough to accommodate all kind of clients’ personalities and schedules.  Ho...

Reflect on your experiences creating Project A from start to finish. What can I say about Project A other than that I am completely relieved that is completed.  Although I have been working with online courses doing just about all kinds of jobs related to eLearning, I had not done a project where I had to analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation, using the ADDIE design model.  This was a new scary territory for me.  I think if I had seen examples of each step of the ADDIE model, it would have been very helpful and some of the anxiety could have been avoided.  I know that every project is different because we are all working with different clients and with different topics but still, seeing any example could have made a difference. What worked and what did not? I wish some assignments could have been easier to understand.  I had a really hard time with the analysis documentation and it was mostly that I wasn’t sure what I needed ...

For week 8, activity 6, we are asked to blog about our thoughts on the Method of Loci.  This is a mnemonic visually filing system that is used by many to memorize content for exams, sales presentations, stage performances, etc.  Simonides of Ceos, a Greek lyric poet, is attributed to coming up with such method. The story goes that Simonides had attended a dinner and after leaving the feast hall, it collapsed, killing everyone inside.  Using what would be the beginning of this method, he was able to identify all the bodies (Cohen, 2010).   The mental activity was very interesting.  At first, I didn’t really cared for it but after a few minutes of practice, I got intrigued.  I actually got the method to work for me and now I want to be able to put it to use, particularly since I seem to become more and more forgetful about my to-do-list as I get older. I work with dental students, I can see how this method would come in handy for dental procedures students...

For week 6 we are to reflect about are thoughts on instructional design.  Instructional design has been more complicated than what I expected.  I have come across many challenges for the design project.  My biggest challenge has been understanding the client’s needs.  It has also been difficult scheduling our meetings as she is a very busy person and is traveling a lot this semester.  Another issue for me has been my reluctance at working with the design document.  I am so used to ‘just going for it’ and not having to do any documentation, therefore it has been a very big challenge for my brain to make the metal switch.  One of my weaknesses is writing lesson’s goals and learning objectives.  I do not have a teaching background and I find this area so confusing.  I have read and watched videos on these subjects and while looking at the information it all makes sense, but when it comes to me writing my project goals and objectives, I get v...

Part 1 What have you learned from analysis? When I first approached my client about this project, I was very excited and thought I understood what this client was wanting and what she was envisioning.  We had our first meeting and after gathering information, I was left with more questions than answers.  I thought maybe I had not controlled the flow of the first meeting in a way that would have been more beneficial to the both of us.  During my second meeting, my client seemed overwhelmed with the situation.  I left that meeting with a pile of old paper forms and documents and after analyzing the paper content, I was reminded of the black box diagram, where the designer is left to deduce the purpose of the black box by comparing the input (old course documents) with the output (what the instructor needs to happen).  What are you planning to do with it? By our third meeting and through back and forth emails, we seemed to be in agreement in the di...

How learning takes place Learning is ubiquitous. Some of us like to learn by experience while others learn through reading.   No matter our learning preference, the learning process is the same.   We learn when new information is transferred and stored in our memory and is organized in a meaningful way so that we can retrieve this information at a later time to be used for other tasks.   As Shuell stated, “learning is influenced by many factors from many sources, the learning process itself is constantly changing, both in nature and diversity, as it progresses” (Shuell, 1990). Some factors that influence how learning take place may include previous life experiences, social interactions, curiosity, challenges, feedback, practice, repetition, the environment, analysis, mentorship, and training, the learner’s age and the willingness to learn. There are different views on how learning takes place. Behaviorists focus their learning theory more on the design of the e...

For week 1 of our blog reflection, we were to go out into the world (e.g. grocery store, mall, etc.) and locate two examples of instructional design in which I, as a viewer/reader, was expected to learn something. Then I was to decide the goals of the instruction, how effective it was, and three things I learned.  The first instructional design example is of Scrubbing Bubbles.  While grocery shopping, I was in the cleaning aisle and it dawned on me that most of the cleaning supplies have instructions.  The goal of this content is to teach the user how to properly use this product in order to keep their toilets clean and stain free.  The instruction set comes with illustrated instructions and written instructions.  The illustrated instructions are that of three simple images that the user can easily look at and understand how to use this product.  The written instructions are simple, very well organized, and to the point. The second instructional ...