Week 3 Blog Assignment

Three Forms of Communication: An Experiment and Analysis
This week I was given the same message in three different formats and asked to analyze my understanding of and reaction to the message based on the mode of delivery. The message was as follows.

Hi Mark,
I know you have been busy and possibly in that all day meeting today, but I really need an ETA on the missing report. Because your report contains data I need to finish my report, I might miss my own deadline if I don't get your report soon. Please let me know when you think you can get your report sent over to me, or even if you can send the data I need in a separate email.
I really appreciate your help.
Jane

Text Only

When I first read the email, I automatically assumed that Jane and Mark were co-workers. If any hierarchy exists between the two, then Jane is the subordinate. Her tone in the email is almost apologetic. If she had any authority instead of explaining why she needs Mark's overdue data ("I might miss my own deadline"), she would have placed more emphasis on him missing his own deadline. Also, Jane mentions that Mark is "helping" her, but really Mark is slacking at work and needs to get his information to Jane ASAP.

But, despite Jane's apologetic tone, this email is a paper trail that Jane could use to prove that Mark is to blame for her own work being late. If I were Mark, I'd worry about who Jane copied on the email and I'd be sure to respond in a timely manner.

The major flaw I see with the email is that it's not organized well. She rambles a bit about another meeting that Mark may/may not be involved in. Dr. Stolovitch, in his video program Communicating with Stakeholders, says that written communications should begin with a clear purpose. Jane's email starts with casual small talk. She doesn't end with clear action items for Mark. She doesn't break her information into separate sections.

Audio Only

When I heard the audio version of this message, I sensed urgency in Jane. If I were Mark and got this voice message, I'd still respond quickly. Jane took the time to call me and her voice sounded concerned. I'd be less worried about a paper trail that could be used to point the blame in my direction.

In Person

Upon watching the video of Jane, she seems polite and apologetic. The actress is smiling, however, which makes me think that she's not as concerned as her voice mail and email made me believe. The informality of the drop-in request makes me think that she's being cautious about her deadline, but isn't overly worried. As Dr. Stolovitch points out in his video "Communicating with Stakeholders," tonality and body language are important elements in communicating in person. If her body language was less relaxed, perhaps her message would be better received.

Analysis

If you had asked me which form of communication was the most effective before this experiment, I would have said that in person communication. Body language, I thought, was the most important element to effective communication. But what works best in my personal life isn't always the most effective for a project. Written communication allows for easy documentation between parties, thus avoiding ambiguity.

Jane's face-to-face drop-in meeting with Mark seems to meet Portny et al's qualifications for an "informal meeting" (2008, p. 357). In fact, if I were Jane I'd take Portny's advice and follow-up this in person meeting by confirming, "in writing the important information that was shared" (2008, p. 357). Dr. Stolovitch agrees that oral communication should always be documented. So even if Jane's personal meeting was powerful and dynamic.

Though the email wasn't wonderfully organized or clearly worded, it was still a better means of communication in this instance.

Resources

Multimedia Program: "The Art of Effective Communication"

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Video Program: "Communicating with Stakeholders"

Post Mortem Analysis and PM Interventions

Employee Training: Post Mortem Analysis
After months of persuading, our company’s HR department finally agreed with my ISD department that our annual employee training would be much more effective if delivered as online interactive courseware.  Previously, all of our training was sent out via email as a PowerPoint file.  Employees were supposed to view the slides, then print and sign the completion certificate at the end of the presentation. As I’m sure you can guess, all the employees learned to just skip to the last slide, print the page and sign the form.  There was no instruction, just pointless paperwork. 

As the lead instructional designer, I was given the pilot course to build.  I was excited and creatively stimulated.  The kicker? The training had to be designed, developed, and implemented in a week.  Seven days(!!!) to create an interactive course and build an online LMS for all of our future training?

The Downsides

Portny et. al. define the “Define Phase” of the planning process as the creating of “detailed plans to describe how the project team will make [the project] happen” (2008, p. 78).  With such a time crunch, this project’s define phase lasted about an hour.  Many elements that Portny calls for (e.g., details, descriptions, schedule, budgets, and documentation) were done casually and quickly (2008, p. 79). Because of this lack of planning, decisions were placed in my hands and I didn’t have time to consult others.  The communication that Dr. Stolovitch argues is essential was completely absent.

The Upsides

In the end, the training was very well received and much talked about. Our HR department decided to slowly convert all of our training to online courses. While Portny says, “the success of a project depends on how clear and accurate the plan is,” I think we were lucky to have achieved some success despite the extensive confusion and disorganization of the entire project. 

Recommended PM Interventions

Having a project manager oversee this project would have avoided a number of the aforementioned downsides.  First of all he/she could have argued for a more realistic delivery schedule.  Also, the planning phase of the project would have been given more attention. Finally, the PM would have been able to facilitate communication between the instructional designer (myself) and the other stakeholders, rather than leaving me to my own devices. 

Resources

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Video Program: "Project Management and Instructional Design"

Online Teaching FAQs

Online Teaching: FAQs
Many trainers find that making the transition from strictly traditional classroom into hybrid or blended courses confusing. The following FAQs are meant to serve as a guide for those instructors who are about to take this plunge.

What are some of the pre-planning strategies I need to consider before converting to hybrid courses?

The trainer certainly needs to assess his/her students’ technological ability to access both the online training modules and the documents stored on a server.  While many office employees are familiar with servers, there will still be some minor training involved prior to beginning the courses. 

What aspects of his original training program could be enhanced in the distance learning format?

Building asynchronous discussion opportunities into the trainer’s course could certainly improve classroom communication.  Shy and reticent students often feel more comfortable sharing with peers in an online setting. By adding more voices to the conversation, the trainer may find the increased dialogue he was originally searching for. 

How will my role, as trainer, change in a distance learning environment?

In a distance learning environment the trainer may have to learn how to take a back seat.  Some traditional face-to-face instructors build courses that are teacher-centered, where the students are observers and recorders of the teacher’s knowledge. Distance learning, on the other hand, is student-centered.  The trainer will act as coach, guide, and counselor but it will be the student that creates (not records) the knowledge.

What steps should I take to encourage my trainees to communicate online?

Online communication can be encouraged through positive reinforcement by bringing the online communication into the classroom discussions.  Online communication can also be encouraged by building it into the syllabus and assessing the quality of the contributions, like we do in our Walden courses.

OpenCourses

Exploring OpenCourses at UC Berkeley
This week we were asked to investigate OpenCourses for their instructional design techniques.  I took a course in something I never heard of before: UC Berkeley professor Greg Niemeyer’s Art 23 lecture on “Onomastics: Names as Media.” (You can access this course by clicking here.)

My Experience
The course does have an outline, which Professor Niemeyer refers to around 1:15 of Lecture 1. However, it is very clear that he is talking about an overview which is written on the syllabus; a syllabus that the distance learners are not given access to. While the course appears to be full of interesting and new information, it is very clear that the distance learner was not considered in the design of this course. UC Berkeley must have decided to record their lectures and place them online for free as “OpenCourses.”
I love learning and think that OpenCourses are great ideas in principle. But the type of courses that UC Berkeley is labeling as “distance education” is like a case study in “what not to do.” The lectures are painful to listen to, provide no visualization of the professor and absolutely no interactivity. We even have to sit through technical difficulties like audio clips not playing (Lecture 1 at 04:00). 
I remember taking courses like this in college, and I loved them. But I loved them because there was something about the ambiance of being in the lecture hall, of seeing the professor’s physical expressions, of raising your hand and asking a question.  Watching a digital recording of the projector screen takes all the activity out of the learning experience.

Summary
I will not be returning to UC Berkeley’s OpenCourses. Not unless I need help falling asleep.

Distance Learning Technologies

Selecting Distance Learning Technologies
Scenario 1: Collaborative Training Environment
"A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration."
Analysis
The basic elements required by this scenario are:

• asynchronous delivery of instructional materials
• asynchronous collaboration
• document sharing

While any one of the online technologies listed in this week's Multimedia Program, ""The Technology of Distance Education" would not suffice on its own, when combined together a number of these technologies can solve the problem.
The trick of tackling this problem is to realize that the scenario isn't really a problem at all. We simply can't approach this scenario by thinking about how we can convert our typical face-to-face materials into online format. Instead, we have to design a course that contains the following technologies:
Technologies
The three most helpful Technologies, which can all be hosted on the same CMS, are:

• Discussion Technologies
• Media Sharing
• Blogs

I would tackle this scenario much in the same way that Walden teaches its courses. These students can use an online discussion forum to post ideas and respond to topics. They can also share their images and documents using media sharing technology. Finally, students can complete projects in the form of their own blogs, that other students will visit and comment on.

Distance Learning - Week 1

Distance Learning

What Is Distance Learning?

My definition of distance learning involves the combination of an asynchronous environment and a formal curriculum that is actively monitored by an instructor.For more details, refer to the mind map below.

Before This Week....

I thought that distance learning was a much broader concept. I used to think that it encompassed any form of online or non-traditional learning (i.e., anything outside of a classroom).  This included self-paced solo-courses, unevaluated information sessions, and online degrees.

After This Week...

After watching Dr. Simonson's especially helpful video in this week's resources, I realized that true distance learning must share the same rigors and standards or a traditional course.  The curriculum must be held to the same high standards and the students must perform at the same level. In order for the education to have any credibility, the students must be held to the same standards and must pass the same rigorous assessments as traditional students.  As Moller et. al argue, distance learning (or e-learning) must focus on quality of instruction (2008, p. 71)

The Future of Distance Learning...

The future of distance learning must first begin with imposing rigorous standards on what we choose to call distance learning.  Part of my own confusion stems for the ambiguity of the name. "Distance learning" would seem to imply any learning done from a distance.  I would suggest a more accurate term be used to refer to rigorous academic distance learning. Perhaps "distance education" would impart the professionalism and respect that distance learning deserves; people do seem to bestow the term "education" with more scientific credibility than "learning." Finally, Moller et. al. focus the summation of their article on the customization properties of distance learning.  Learners, they argue, "will come to demand greater customization of the learning process to cater to their individual interaction needs" (2008, p.75).  They realize that as distance learning progresses, it will behoove instructional designers and distance learning educators to embrace the rapidly evolving technological developments and implement these new technologies into their courseware.

Distance Learning Mind Map

Learning Theories: Final Reflection

Throughout this course, I was constantly surprised and enthused about the sheer volume of information one can find in blogs. When I was a teenager, I had dismissed blogs as narcissistic ponderings and never really gave them a second chance. I never really thought that people could learn effectively from a website. But, as I furthered my knowledge of learning theories, I began to realize that there is a time and an occasion for everything. Blogs can be great teachers, if you go to them at the right moment in your education. In the past when I’d approach learning something new, I had always started with a Google search. I’d find myself quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of disconnected information available. I’d give up. From these experiences, I truly believed the only way to learn was in a physical classroom.

But now I know that online instruction can be meaningful and just as guided as classroom learning experience with the right design and understanding of learning theories. The vast amount of information available in the ISD community of Blogs and Websites can help me further my knowledge with just the right amount of guidance.
This course has deepened my understanding of my own learning process by complicating it. Jacob Burkhardt once said, “The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity.” Prior to this course my views on the learning process were tyrannically simplistic. You were either a visual, aural, or kinesthetic learner. This course helped me understand how painfully simplistic this viewpoint it. The sad thing is that prior to this course I was no stranger to analyzing learning styles. When I was studying to become a teacher, we took various assessments such as Myers-Briggs. But I was never asked to consider so many interconnected aspects of my learning process. The Mind-Mapping assignment we did revealed the multiple nodes that affect my information processing. I never before thought about just how many diverse and complicated experiences affect my learning.

When asked what “type” of learner I was in week one, I said that, “my style of learning changes depending on the subject or skill I’m learning. If it’s a basic skill, something that Jonassen would call ‘introductory,’ then I need the more structured repetition of one of the objectivist approaches…when the concept reaches advanced or expert levels, I find that I learn best using constructivist approaches” (Ertmer & Newby, 1993)

Then, in week six, Dr. Ormond suggested that thinking about learning preferences isn’t as important as thinking about learning strategies. Preferences or styles, she says, are often vague and self-reported. While self-evaluation is important, designing instruction around self-reported data only (the way I was taught in some of my education courses) now, in hindsight, seems silly.

Now, if you asked me what “type” of learner I am, I would agree that my learning process does change based on the material being taught. But it also depends on my phase of life, the amount of previous knowledge I have about the subject, my motivation for learning, the instructor’s interactions with me, and the level of independence I am granted in the course. In week one, I never imagined that things were that complicated.

Learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation are all interconnected; you can’t just change your theoretical approach without reconsidering how you will address various learning styles, use emerging technologies, and how your theoretical approach addresses learner motivation. The learning theory matrix we constructed revealed this to me.

Now in the final week of this course, I feel like I learned enough to know that I have a lot more to learn. In other words, I feel as though I’ve only scratched the surface of the multiple theories of learning. My beginner’s knowledge of these learning theories will make me a better instructional designer because I have learned to think of instruction as multi-dimensional.

 
References

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 50-71.

Ormrod, J. (n.d.). Learning Styles and Strategies.