I just completed the final project and it was an interesting task. Creating something as large as a training that could go out to 1600+ employees had its stressful moments. It started out going well and there were not many issues. The clients were people I work with on a daily basis so it was easy for me to get time to talk to them and it was easy to understand what they wanted. I noticed it was easier than the first project because we were familiar with each other's communication styles as well as unspoken communication so it was easier to get meaning from things they said and didn't say.
The module design was not difficult. Getting the pieces in the correct order took some trial and error. We started with two very distinct parts of the training. We had all of Gmail in one and the Calendar after that. When we, the clients and myself, worked through the test modules, it was too much to keep working with the same tool for the entire module. We ended up splitting the tools at natural breaking points to move to something new. The strategy was to keep moving and not stay in one area too long. Hopefully, that will increase engagement which will increase knowledge retention. Once we had these natural breaks, we started developing the content to go into the modules. I tried to use Storyline 3 at different points but did not really like the way it fit into this course. I ended up using a very short piece in the Google Calendar section but it felt too simple for what we were trying to do. I need more time to develop my knowledge of the product to use it effectively. I wanted this course to be interactive and I do not know the product well enough to get it to function in that way. It is something that I could look to use in some sections of training but it did not fit in the ways I knew how to use it.
The modules turned out pretty good. The content was put together well. There are some changes that need to be made if the course is rolled out to the entire staff. There needs to be a way to help with some of the Gmail specific terms. It is something that some of the learners need that are not familiar with technology terms, they just clicked the things a previous trainer told them to click without explanations. I found that to be the case much more often than expected. Some of the low-end users were only clicking things because someone told them to follow these clicks to do a task. There was no why or what each click was doing. This directly led to frustration with the migration because they did not understand the process and could not understand how to set up a new process. I wanted to be very intentional about teaching the why not just the clicks. This added a layer of difficulty to the course but an advantage to the learners in the long run.
The course did meet the client's needs. They were happy with the design and results. They do want to make some changes to the content. They want some more in-depth directions on some of the more complex modules. Other than that, the clients and staff through the course worked well for their needs. We did not really use any low-end users that I know of in the district. That could be an issue with some of those users but we would test that with a few of them before releasing that to that group. There was even talk of creating a different module for them that did not go into as much depth or used different terms. The vocabulary was one of the biggest barriers in the training modules for some of the users we tested.
I do like the course. There were some parts that I wanted to refine. This is the type, of course, that would be constantly under some sort of construction. Because of updates and the nature of the subject material, updates would need to be made. I think it would be good to add in some sort of survey to get the feel of the learners that completed the course to see how they think it could be improved. If enough of them had the same suggestions, that would be something to look into. Overall, I am happy with the course and enjoyed creating it.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Universal Design Standards Blog
The design has taken on a new role than in the past. Designers have to take into account many different things when they are designing anything from an entrance to a building or a graphic for a webpage. Today it is important that all people can access the things that are designed. Universal Design Standards help to create this for designers to follow.
Law, Ji, and Young talked about the issue in their paper focusing on the problem of not clearly defining what users need in technology design (2007). There and many different disabilities and a designer does not have a ready-made list of things that are needed in a design to fulfill all needs. This is something that is evolving as the design continues to develop. Alt tags are something that has been pushed in the past few years to make screen readers able to help users with visual impairments still be able to navigate websites. These guidelines will continue to evolve as what is needed will be better defined.
Universal Design is important to make sure that everyone has access to websites. This is very important in the days of online education. The knowledge needs to be accessible to everyone that wants to use it to learn. Education needs to be available to everyone that wants to have that education. The biggest penalty for not designing for all users is the alienation of entire groups of people because of a design. This can be as small as just losing that group or as large as losing large numbers of users because of that mistake. Law, Jaeger, and McKay talk about Universal Design Standards in User-Centered Design in a paper they authored (2010). If the design is focused on certain users, the design standards for that group will be met but often lacks meeting standards for other groups. When following User Centered Design, the designer must also add in the factors and design for other groups as well.
Universal Design Standards are being defined. They are helping bring design to all users so they can make sure to have an effective use of all things.
Law, Ji, and Young talked about the issue in their paper focusing on the problem of not clearly defining what users need in technology design (2007). There and many different disabilities and a designer does not have a ready-made list of things that are needed in a design to fulfill all needs. This is something that is evolving as the design continues to develop. Alt tags are something that has been pushed in the past few years to make screen readers able to help users with visual impairments still be able to navigate websites. These guidelines will continue to evolve as what is needed will be better defined.
Universal Design is important to make sure that everyone has access to websites. This is very important in the days of online education. The knowledge needs to be accessible to everyone that wants to use it to learn. Education needs to be available to everyone that wants to have that education. The biggest penalty for not designing for all users is the alienation of entire groups of people because of a design. This can be as small as just losing that group or as large as losing large numbers of users because of that mistake. Law, Jaeger, and McKay talk about Universal Design Standards in User-Centered Design in a paper they authored (2010). If the design is focused on certain users, the design standards for that group will be met but often lacks meeting standards for other groups. When following User Centered Design, the designer must also add in the factors and design for other groups as well.
Universal Design Standards are being defined. They are helping bring design to all users so they can make sure to have an effective use of all things.
Blog #7
Instruction is not something that just happens because an educator shows up ready to teach. It is more than just following a lesson plan or a scope and sequence document. It is designed from the ground up with a specific purpose and goal in mind. Even if you did not think of designing your unit or lesson, you made conscious decisions about your unit so the instructional design was there.
Designing instruction is what all good educators do no matter if they have been trained in it or not. They make decisions every time they plan on their own or as part of a professional learning community, PLC. These decisions about what activities to include, how to explain concepts, and how to gauge or test the learner’s understanding are all part of instructional design. It truly means the creating of a learning experience by an educator. This can take many forms. It can be as simple as the way you decide to explain a sport to a friend while at a game or and complex as designing an employee intake program for a Fortune 500 company. In each situation, the educator makes decisions on how and when to present the material that the learner needs to learn. They are different intensity scales but are both designed instruction to disseminate information to a learner.
Many times, the decisions might not be totally thought out and done in a manner that was successful last time, explaining the sport to a friend, but the decisions are still made. Instructional design is everywhere someone wants to teach someone anything. It happens all the time. Only in formalized learning environments are these decisions ever really thought about. Instructional design has a large place in the human resources world that many people do not think about. New employee orientation and training is something where instructional design plays a key role. No longer can you just have employees come in and fill out some paperwork and start their job in the afternoon. They need training on how your company does its business, company policies, and even state and federal policies that are important to their job. These tasks can be done quickly and efficiently if the instruction is designed properly to maximize the knowledge retention and time. These trainings are important to the new employees being onboarded quickly and becoming productive in their new roles for their companies. That is an area that was not designed for a long time and many companies are now realizing the importance of that skill in their human resources departments.
There are several skills that you need to be an effective instructional designer. The first and probably most important is the ability to change tactics if something is not going well. You can spend days, weeks, or months designing a training and then when you start delivering the training, everything goes wrong. You must be able to look at the issues that arose and be able to change them without hesitation. Many people become too attached to their ideas when they spend that much time on them that they do not really want to make any changes. A good instructional designer sees the goal, education their learners, and makes whatever changes are necessary to reach that goal. You also need to be able to think about how multiple types of learners will process information differently. You need to be able to design instruction so all different types of learners will be able to use their strengths in some way to gain the knowledge. This helps you make sure that all of the learners that will be using your instruction will have a chance to be successful. You do not want a learner to feel like they are already working from behind when the instruction begins. You also need to have good communication skills. You might not be the expert in the field you are designing courses. You will have to work with a client or expert in that field to create the courses. Many times, you are the one working for the expert to put their knowledge in areas they cannot. You are the expert in digital learning, for example, and they are the expert in their field. You are designing a course around their expertise. Being able to effectively communicate with them and gather their expectations will be key to a successful project that does not frustrate either party.
Instructional design is in more places that many people understand. It is a key part of educating people in our society from how to brush your teeth or tie your shoes all the way to how to properly solve advanced mathematical equations.
Designing instruction is what all good educators do no matter if they have been trained in it or not. They make decisions every time they plan on their own or as part of a professional learning community, PLC. These decisions about what activities to include, how to explain concepts, and how to gauge or test the learner’s understanding are all part of instructional design. It truly means the creating of a learning experience by an educator. This can take many forms. It can be as simple as the way you decide to explain a sport to a friend while at a game or and complex as designing an employee intake program for a Fortune 500 company. In each situation, the educator makes decisions on how and when to present the material that the learner needs to learn. They are different intensity scales but are both designed instruction to disseminate information to a learner.
Many times, the decisions might not be totally thought out and done in a manner that was successful last time, explaining the sport to a friend, but the decisions are still made. Instructional design is everywhere someone wants to teach someone anything. It happens all the time. Only in formalized learning environments are these decisions ever really thought about. Instructional design has a large place in the human resources world that many people do not think about. New employee orientation and training is something where instructional design plays a key role. No longer can you just have employees come in and fill out some paperwork and start their job in the afternoon. They need training on how your company does its business, company policies, and even state and federal policies that are important to their job. These tasks can be done quickly and efficiently if the instruction is designed properly to maximize the knowledge retention and time. These trainings are important to the new employees being onboarded quickly and becoming productive in their new roles for their companies. That is an area that was not designed for a long time and many companies are now realizing the importance of that skill in their human resources departments.
There are several skills that you need to be an effective instructional designer. The first and probably most important is the ability to change tactics if something is not going well. You can spend days, weeks, or months designing a training and then when you start delivering the training, everything goes wrong. You must be able to look at the issues that arose and be able to change them without hesitation. Many people become too attached to their ideas when they spend that much time on them that they do not really want to make any changes. A good instructional designer sees the goal, education their learners, and makes whatever changes are necessary to reach that goal. You also need to be able to think about how multiple types of learners will process information differently. You need to be able to design instruction so all different types of learners will be able to use their strengths in some way to gain the knowledge. This helps you make sure that all of the learners that will be using your instruction will have a chance to be successful. You do not want a learner to feel like they are already working from behind when the instruction begins. You also need to have good communication skills. You might not be the expert in the field you are designing courses. You will have to work with a client or expert in that field to create the courses. Many times, you are the one working for the expert to put their knowledge in areas they cannot. You are the expert in digital learning, for example, and they are the expert in their field. You are designing a course around their expertise. Being able to effectively communicate with them and gather their expectations will be key to a successful project that does not frustrate either party.
Instructional design is in more places that many people understand. It is a key part of educating people in our society from how to brush your teeth or tie your shoes all the way to how to properly solve advanced mathematical equations.
Blog #6
Managing yourself and others is a very specific skill. That skill can help or hurt almost anything that you are working on in life. Sadly, it is a skill that many think they have but do not actually possess.
I was fortunate to get my start in real-world jobs in the retail management field. I worked for a clothing retailer that required a college degree in management positions but did not care about the subject of that degree. They felt that if you could attain a college degree, they could teach you how to manage a retail store. They had a very good program to educate their Managers in Training, MITs, to learn their business. This included how to manage employees to maximize their potential and their input into the business. After completing the three-month program and moving to an Assistant Manager role, I felt slightly confident in managing people. That skill was practiced during the next few years as I moved up in their company and a few others. I realized that managing people to their strengths helped create a much more productive environment. This is something that many do not really look at when managing others or themselves. They do not allow people to do what they are good at and instead assign roles based on some other definition. This creates some strife in the team environment and does not allow everyone to enjoy what they are doing. At times, people are good at things they do not like doing and this is when a true management test occurs.
By knowing yours, and other strengths when working with a team, allows you to set up everyone for success in projects. These strengths can help create a team that is constantly working towards the goal of a project. By using what everyone is good at, that helps to use their strengths as a strength of the team and moves the project along in much larger steps. It also allows for much less time in reworking parts of the project because it was done well the first time. It was done by your best instead of someone else. This keeps you from then having to reach out to your best person to have them look at and even rework that part of the project done by a weaker team member. By taking these larger steps forward, you can use the time that might be saved to make some changes at the end to further refine your project and allow some of the smaller details to shine.
Communication is one of the most important tools in the management process. You must be clear in your expectations to make sure that you and others are always working towards a clearly stated goal. If you leave some room for the goal, you can get a product that you were not expecting and does not meet the requirements. There is some space for creative paths in the middle of the project but not in the goal. The manager, even if you are managing yourself, must be very clear on what end result is expected and what it must look like. The manager must also check in regularly to see how the project is progression, revisit the goal if working alone, to make sure there has been no miscommunication of the expected result. Proper and clear communication saves time and allows the work to remain productive and keeps any sidetrack behavior from happening.
Communication also takes the form of proper questions asked both by the manager and the team member. They both need to feel comfortable enough to ask key questions at times when there is a misunderstanding. These questions keep big mistakes from happening in the creative process. They can be as small as, is this the proper fold, and as large as, do we really want this on the front of the website. Each has a very different level of importance of the project but can both lead to big-time commitments to fix errors. Even something as small as an improper fold can take hours to fix, just like having to change the front of a website.
Managing yourself and people is a very useful skill to have. It is something that may take years to learn but pays off big dividends in the end. A good manager can help a team reach heights they could never attain alone. It brings out the sum of the team is greater than the parts.
I was fortunate to get my start in real-world jobs in the retail management field. I worked for a clothing retailer that required a college degree in management positions but did not care about the subject of that degree. They felt that if you could attain a college degree, they could teach you how to manage a retail store. They had a very good program to educate their Managers in Training, MITs, to learn their business. This included how to manage employees to maximize their potential and their input into the business. After completing the three-month program and moving to an Assistant Manager role, I felt slightly confident in managing people. That skill was practiced during the next few years as I moved up in their company and a few others. I realized that managing people to their strengths helped create a much more productive environment. This is something that many do not really look at when managing others or themselves. They do not allow people to do what they are good at and instead assign roles based on some other definition. This creates some strife in the team environment and does not allow everyone to enjoy what they are doing. At times, people are good at things they do not like doing and this is when a true management test occurs.
By knowing yours, and other strengths when working with a team, allows you to set up everyone for success in projects. These strengths can help create a team that is constantly working towards the goal of a project. By using what everyone is good at, that helps to use their strengths as a strength of the team and moves the project along in much larger steps. It also allows for much less time in reworking parts of the project because it was done well the first time. It was done by your best instead of someone else. This keeps you from then having to reach out to your best person to have them look at and even rework that part of the project done by a weaker team member. By taking these larger steps forward, you can use the time that might be saved to make some changes at the end to further refine your project and allow some of the smaller details to shine.
Communication is one of the most important tools in the management process. You must be clear in your expectations to make sure that you and others are always working towards a clearly stated goal. If you leave some room for the goal, you can get a product that you were not expecting and does not meet the requirements. There is some space for creative paths in the middle of the project but not in the goal. The manager, even if you are managing yourself, must be very clear on what end result is expected and what it must look like. The manager must also check in regularly to see how the project is progression, revisit the goal if working alone, to make sure there has been no miscommunication of the expected result. Proper and clear communication saves time and allows the work to remain productive and keeps any sidetrack behavior from happening.
Communication also takes the form of proper questions asked both by the manager and the team member. They both need to feel comfortable enough to ask key questions at times when there is a misunderstanding. These questions keep big mistakes from happening in the creative process. They can be as small as, is this the proper fold, and as large as, do we really want this on the front of the website. Each has a very different level of importance of the project but can both lead to big-time commitments to fix errors. Even something as small as an improper fold can take hours to fix, just like having to change the front of a website.
Managing yourself and people is a very useful skill to have. It is something that may take years to learn but pays off big dividends in the end. A good manager can help a team reach heights they could never attain alone. It brings out the sum of the team is greater than the parts.
Copyright and Fair Use
Using another person’s intellectual property is something that has been talked about for years. The balance between keeping the rights of people that come up with the ideas and allowing people to teach and talk about those ideas has always held a delicate balance. How can we make sure that people get credit, and other considerations, for their ideas and work and still teach and talk about those ideas. This has come under so much more scrutiny with the advances in the digital age.
The digital age has made everything much more accessible. This has allowed people much more use of things like pictures, music, and articles. During my father’s masters program at Sam Houston State University in the 1960s, he would have to go to the library to get scholarly articles whereas now, I just have to search the UNT Library database to find relevant articles. Information is so much more accessible. With this increase in accessibility comes the desire to use things such as music and movies in education and other places. Many of the people producing these things do so with a profit in mind. They are creating these things for their livelihood, so when they are used without permission, they lose money.
Education needs some access to these materials for their use without having to pay the sometimes high fees for such products. But we do have to balance this with not abusing this use so that the products are used for free in ways that do not directly benefit education. That is why there are rules in place that guide an educators use of materials so they can use them in class but not use so much of them, that they are abused. In my school district, the librarians at each school teach the students and the teachers about fair use and how to follow the guidelines so that no one's rights are being violated. This allows educators to learn how to use these products and not break any copyright laws. This is important because educators need to model responsible use to their students. There are too many educators out there that just create and use tools that do not take into account any fair use guidelines and use large portions of protected creations for their advantage. This is a horrible example to set for your students.
Fair Use guidelines are important rules set in place to guard people intellectual property. In the digital age, it is more important now than ever to make sure to educate everyone to make sure they know and follow the rules.
The digital age has made everything much more accessible. This has allowed people much more use of things like pictures, music, and articles. During my father’s masters program at Sam Houston State University in the 1960s, he would have to go to the library to get scholarly articles whereas now, I just have to search the UNT Library database to find relevant articles. Information is so much more accessible. With this increase in accessibility comes the desire to use things such as music and movies in education and other places. Many of the people producing these things do so with a profit in mind. They are creating these things for their livelihood, so when they are used without permission, they lose money.
Education needs some access to these materials for their use without having to pay the sometimes high fees for such products. But we do have to balance this with not abusing this use so that the products are used for free in ways that do not directly benefit education. That is why there are rules in place that guide an educators use of materials so they can use them in class but not use so much of them, that they are abused. In my school district, the librarians at each school teach the students and the teachers about fair use and how to follow the guidelines so that no one's rights are being violated. This allows educators to learn how to use these products and not break any copyright laws. This is important because educators need to model responsible use to their students. There are too many educators out there that just create and use tools that do not take into account any fair use guidelines and use large portions of protected creations for their advantage. This is a horrible example to set for your students.
Fair Use guidelines are important rules set in place to guard people intellectual property. In the digital age, it is more important now than ever to make sure to educate everyone to make sure they know and follow the rules.
Blog #5
The first project opened my eyes to working with clients. It had been a while since I worked outside education. There were some issues that came up that do not usually come into play in a school. During the middle of the project, the District Attorney’s office had a big change and the project did not have a chance before it was even pitched to the decision makers. From there, we had to complete the project on the side with tools that could do the job but not in the way originally designed. I was able to work with my client, an Assistant Criminal District Attorney, to complete the project and test it with a small trial of police officers. It was successful but was limited in what we could do since we were working outside of the original plan.
From the feedback we got, it could be successfully run if it was done in the way we originally designed. The modules were planned well and hit the learning goals that were associated with the activities. The modules received positive feedback from the police officers and they stated that they would recommend the course for some of their collogues. There were some parts of the modules that needed to be changed because of some background knowledge that was not as easy to teach. The police officers were to give feedback on others reports during one of the modules. This was something that could work well to help train the officers to help others fill out reports but could not be a successful run in the course that we designed. It is s a skill that needs to be taught and practiced more than the time we had in the course. It is something that could be added as an advanced course for supervisors and senior officers but did not fit in this course.
The design process went well for the most part. The strongest part ended up being the weakest part at the end. We originally had a wealth of material to use for training purposes. We had access to videos and sample reports that could be used during the course modules. There were some great sample videos that ranged from complex to simple. This allowed us to design the course and make some changes depending on the results we got from testing the course. We had plans to try some difficult and complex situations and some very simple and straightforward situations as well. We were going to have a feedback form as part of the last module so we could gather feedback from the police officers and then compare that to their results so we could get a real feel for how difficult it was to complete the course. Once the project was no longer going to be pitched to the District Attorney, we no longer had any access to those materials. We had to scale back what we were doing and use the only materials we could. This limited us but it did not get in the way of completing the design and finishing the course. It was not what was planned originally but it was a course that could get the job done if it was run correctly with the correct materials.
This experience is going to impact the next project. I am going to really look to set up something that will be able to be used even if there are changes in the clients. I am going back to the educational world because it is something that I know much better than the world of law. This will allow me to plan better for any bumps that might come up in the planning and creation path. This will allow me to turn out a better product. I have seen some issues come up that I could not expect and was able to get through them and that gives me more confidence to complete this project. I also understand this project more at the beginning than the previous one. This gives me some more background knowledge allowing me to use that during the design process.
This instructional design process is very helpful in creating meaning lessons. I am looking forward to using this within professional learning communities, PLCs, in my school next school year. One of my goals for the next school year is to attend more PLCs and plan with them more. This process is something I am going to introduce to them to help their planning and hopefully add some meaningful technology into their lessons.
From the feedback we got, it could be successfully run if it was done in the way we originally designed. The modules were planned well and hit the learning goals that were associated with the activities. The modules received positive feedback from the police officers and they stated that they would recommend the course for some of their collogues. There were some parts of the modules that needed to be changed because of some background knowledge that was not as easy to teach. The police officers were to give feedback on others reports during one of the modules. This was something that could work well to help train the officers to help others fill out reports but could not be a successful run in the course that we designed. It is s a skill that needs to be taught and practiced more than the time we had in the course. It is something that could be added as an advanced course for supervisors and senior officers but did not fit in this course.
The design process went well for the most part. The strongest part ended up being the weakest part at the end. We originally had a wealth of material to use for training purposes. We had access to videos and sample reports that could be used during the course modules. There were some great sample videos that ranged from complex to simple. This allowed us to design the course and make some changes depending on the results we got from testing the course. We had plans to try some difficult and complex situations and some very simple and straightforward situations as well. We were going to have a feedback form as part of the last module so we could gather feedback from the police officers and then compare that to their results so we could get a real feel for how difficult it was to complete the course. Once the project was no longer going to be pitched to the District Attorney, we no longer had any access to those materials. We had to scale back what we were doing and use the only materials we could. This limited us but it did not get in the way of completing the design and finishing the course. It was not what was planned originally but it was a course that could get the job done if it was run correctly with the correct materials.
This experience is going to impact the next project. I am going to really look to set up something that will be able to be used even if there are changes in the clients. I am going back to the educational world because it is something that I know much better than the world of law. This will allow me to plan better for any bumps that might come up in the planning and creation path. This will allow me to turn out a better product. I have seen some issues come up that I could not expect and was able to get through them and that gives me more confidence to complete this project. I also understand this project more at the beginning than the previous one. This gives me some more background knowledge allowing me to use that during the design process.
This instructional design process is very helpful in creating meaning lessons. I am looking forward to using this within professional learning communities, PLCs, in my school next school year. One of my goals for the next school year is to attend more PLCs and plan with them more. This process is something I am going to introduce to them to help their planning and hopefully add some meaningful technology into their lessons.
Blog #4
I have heard of this method of remembering and memorizations before. A middle school history teacher told us about how he memorized his grocery list by placing the items on objects in his room or on the path he would take home each day. It allowed him to easily remember lists accurately and easily. The process did not really work for me on lists like he said but it definitely worked better this time around. It might be the developmental differences between middle school and now or the fact that there is much more interest in remembering goals instead of a grocery list. The connection to remembering goals is much high than a middle school student remembering a grocery list. Using familiar objects, rooms, or paths is a memory trick that many memory experts use to help boost their memory. It works because you are forcing a connection with something that you need to remember with something that you already know very well. This allows new connections to be made easily and stick around quicker and easier than just trying to remember the list.
This activity can be used to really help boost short-term memory. It can really help to remember lists of things that have no connection to anything and are important to get correct. It works well when you do not have any other means of copying down the list electronically or on paper. There is an episode of Brain Game the TV show that a memory expert learns the names of 15 or 20 people once before a tour and then recalls their names after the tour is over. He is able to make a connection with them by placing certain clues on their facial structure with something that is similar to their name. This is a similar memory technique as the one we are talking about. By using your special memory to help with information recall, it helps with all types of information recall.
Some minor changes were made from the feedback I received from my client. The biggest change was around the trial we had to run. We got the news that because of some things going on in the office, we could not run the modules through the office. We were going to have to run the modules with some police officers that the Assistant Criminal District Attorney knew and could ask for help. This gave us some people to use in a trial but not a wide disbursement of police officers that we would want if we were going to take this to the District Attorney as an option for training from their office. This caused us to have to use a learning management system that was a bit more scaled back that I would have liked and forced us to use a certain format since it was the only one available. We had to use Google Classroom and to make sure that we were respectful of the time of the police officers that were testing the module, we had to allow access to all of the activities. This is not the way the module was designed. We wanted to lock modules until the police officers were done and completed the activity and the instructor had provided quality feedback. The trial proved that this is an important step and the actual course would require this design piece to be in place to allow the training to be effective.
The Assistant Criminal District Attorney was very active in the discussion of the design of the course so there was not a lot of feedback to really change the final design. I was able to sit down and have a good discussion at the beginning of the project to get what they wanted to be the goal and how they wanted to approach the project. It helped that the Assistant Criminal District Attorney that I was working with had a background in education from a parent and a desire to become an educator before turning to the law as a profession. This allowed for a good discussion and a meeting that allowed for the design and expected outcomes to be set in the beginning and be followed during the entire design. I was also able to share each step to make sure I was on the correct track and was not really veering in a direction that was not desired for the training.
The peer feedback only gave a few minor tweaks that we could not do because of the change to learning management system. It was set around the idea that we were going to use some robust learning management system that was used by the county to deliver the learning. With the change that was made in the District Attorney’s office, those changes were not possible.
This activity can be used to really help boost short-term memory. It can really help to remember lists of things that have no connection to anything and are important to get correct. It works well when you do not have any other means of copying down the list electronically or on paper. There is an episode of Brain Game the TV show that a memory expert learns the names of 15 or 20 people once before a tour and then recalls their names after the tour is over. He is able to make a connection with them by placing certain clues on their facial structure with something that is similar to their name. This is a similar memory technique as the one we are talking about. By using your special memory to help with information recall, it helps with all types of information recall.
Some minor changes were made from the feedback I received from my client. The biggest change was around the trial we had to run. We got the news that because of some things going on in the office, we could not run the modules through the office. We were going to have to run the modules with some police officers that the Assistant Criminal District Attorney knew and could ask for help. This gave us some people to use in a trial but not a wide disbursement of police officers that we would want if we were going to take this to the District Attorney as an option for training from their office. This caused us to have to use a learning management system that was a bit more scaled back that I would have liked and forced us to use a certain format since it was the only one available. We had to use Google Classroom and to make sure that we were respectful of the time of the police officers that were testing the module, we had to allow access to all of the activities. This is not the way the module was designed. We wanted to lock modules until the police officers were done and completed the activity and the instructor had provided quality feedback. The trial proved that this is an important step and the actual course would require this design piece to be in place to allow the training to be effective.
The Assistant Criminal District Attorney was very active in the discussion of the design of the course so there was not a lot of feedback to really change the final design. I was able to sit down and have a good discussion at the beginning of the project to get what they wanted to be the goal and how they wanted to approach the project. It helped that the Assistant Criminal District Attorney that I was working with had a background in education from a parent and a desire to become an educator before turning to the law as a profession. This allowed for a good discussion and a meeting that allowed for the design and expected outcomes to be set in the beginning and be followed during the entire design. I was also able to share each step to make sure I was on the correct track and was not really veering in a direction that was not desired for the training.
The peer feedback only gave a few minor tweaks that we could not do because of the change to learning management system. It was set around the idea that we were going to use some robust learning management system that was used by the county to deliver the learning. With the change that was made in the District Attorney’s office, those changes were not possible.
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