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.
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