Current Issues & New Directions

The hype of eLearning  has boomed over recent years to become a very popular method of learning. eLearning can be done wherever you have a device capable of doing so. It can fit it in to your schedule, but also save money on the costs of travel. Technology-enhanced learning has evolved both from enhancements to earlier generations of face-to-face teaching and enhancements to earlier generations of distance education. Engaged intentional design of learning experiences has also evolved to promote the most effective design to serve the learners, their life experiences and the opportunities and limitations of the particular environment. For example, many graduate programs have deliberately designed programs for working adults, which are predominantly offered online but also include short-term face-to-face residencies. Currently, I am applying eLearning to my own educational advancements .It has allowed to complete studies in a way that has been efficient, conducive and cost saving as all I need is a device to access the online learning environment. Because technology is so much more powerful, easier to use, and prevalent, we have been able to mix and match content, media, instructional methods, and modalities, in the future, I would like to offer my students some kind of e-book or project that they can access online and complete over a period of time.

Rich Media includes features like video, audio, or other elements that encourage viewers to interact and engage with the content. I can see using rich media to track important elements in real-time such as engagement rates and times, and interaction rates. Students can watch a YouTube video and it helps to gain attention and maintain student interest in the theories and concepts under discussion. Students can see the theories and concepts in action.. This information can be used in other projects and provide administration with tangible data.

Virtual Worlds  is an internet-based, simulated environment where users interact by using avatars, or graphical images that represent people. Using games like Minecraft can sere as a useful tool for engaging students.  These educators know that 3D virtual learning environments are far more than mere games and that their potential to engage students, personalize curricula and develop higher-order thinking skills is worth the fight against fears of time wasting, questionable online influences and doubts about educational value. One of the best things about virtual environments is that they allow the user to build and create. Among the possibilities up for creation are virtual simulations, such as a virtual hospital for training health care workers or a virtual battlefield for military missions. This can help diverse learners create a picture and participate in a non-threatening way.

The learning technologies that I chose to discuss can facilitate learning in a way that allows for student engagement and participation.  By allowing students to think outside of the box and work in a student-centered environment will facilitate learning and gain interest in the subject or topic for which students are learning. Keeping students involved, motivated, and actively learning is challenging educators across the country, yet good ethics and guidance are crucial to successful implementation.  The goal is to look beyond the challenges and seek solutions by confirming what the District’s guidelines are and stay within those parameters.

The technologies that I mentioned earlier enhance accessibility and will assist with diverse learning needs. When students are allowed to use different modalities it strengthens what a user can produce and foster creativity, It will come in handy, especially for that student who has very poor handwriting or who has a hard time getting started on projects or research. Using media requires a complete understanding of copyright law, an appreciation of the workload involved, and some skill in recognizing content that will enhance learning, instead of becoming a distraction. Teachers can sometimes get too comfortable and simply repeat what has worked for them in the past with little or no regard for any new technological tools. However, I also feel that the door swings both ways in this situation, and those students have to be responsible, too, and show that they can use technology appropriately and without any problems. None of the technologies are a  replacement for face-to-face teaching, students still need to be able to discuss any issues they may have with their teacher and in the real world. The technologies should be considered as a complimentary aid to other teaching methods. A student’s safety and privacy, unauthorized access at school, and objectionable materials showing up at school is an important responsibility for teachers that use IDT in the classroom.

Rieser, R.A, Dempsey, J V.(2002).  Trends and issues in instructional design and technology.  Upper Saddler River, N.J.  Merrill Prentice Hall, c2002.

Trends & Issues in IDT

IDT in the healthcare context not only involves the delivery of health services, but also biomedical research. It includes the medical profession and its varied subspecialties plus the professions of veterinary medicine, dentistry, nursing, allied health, and public health. Government health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and clinics train staff internally and often provide training to others. The health science enterprise is very broad, encompassing more than hospitals, clinics, and practice of providing health care. Because of this some of the challenges that designers face are: knowledge and research, costs and managed care, regulations and standards, and convergence. I have worked both for a state government healthcare agency and a pharmaceutical company.  In both instances, it was really important to stay abreast and be up-to-date on trends and issues involving the industry. Trends and standards in medical education often spill over into other domains as a consequence. But there are additional reasons why medical education affects other health professions.

In the military, IDTi s based on an integrated, dedicated, and astute group of individuals who share camaraderie unmatched in the corporate world. Their culture is one born of the ever-present threat of war and the necessity to trust one another with their lives. Among the challenges to instructional designers working within a military environment are: recognizing that ineffective instruction can have catastrophic consequences; creating training that addresses the needs of the military while considering the interests of the individual.  Some of the issues that they face are: funding, technological range, delivery environment, design constraints, people and alternative training solutions.

Business & industry in IDT have established trends that include the growth and expansion of corporations beyond individual county boundaries; demands for design cycle time reduction; and at the same time, for increased effectiveness and efficiency of training itself. There is often a performance gap caused by constraints between actual and ideal practice in instructional design. There are three types of constraints that impact the design process: context constraints, designer-related issues, and project management versus instructional design.

Similarities

All of the contexts share a funding commonality.  Just like in any other field teachers want to compete and be up-to-date with other industries. By keeping cost in mind the designer must be able to come up with cost effectives tools and resources within the given budget parameters. I know that in any industry for which I have been employed, funding for technology has always been at he heart of whether it could be explored or not.

Differences

In the varying fields they each industry has its share of challenges and issues. In the healthcare industry, the education of health professionals is serious business, and that is one reason why clinical problem solving and medical education programs are subject to ongoing evaluation and research. The field is now associated with analyzing human performance problems, In the military field, instructional designers play a significant role in the transformation to accommodate the needs of today’s service members and move the military of today to the military of tomorrow.  . While the business & industry field Instructional design today encompasses much more than simply producing instruction. There are both differences and similarities in the various contexts to that to which I work in.  Budgets are always a factor but the environment and clientele is educating students for the future so they are equipped with the skills necessary to be competitive and successful.

Our current education system in how curriculum and instructional approaches are laid out is helping learners with problem-solving abilities. The impact that technology has had on today’s schools has been quite significant. This widespread adoption of technology has completely changed how teachers teach and students learn. Teachers are learning how to teach with emerging technologies (tablets, iPads, Smart Boards, digital cameras, computers), while students are using advanced technology to shape how they learn. By embracing and integrating technology in the classroom, we are setting our students up for a successful life outside of school. Technology changes by the minute, and as educators we need to keep up with the times in order to best prepare our students for this ever-changing world that we live in. The European and Asian countries have highly sophisticated high-tech industries and highly developed digital infrastructures. Both highly value education and teachers, human contact, and both have attempted to reform their education systems for the twenty-first-century world. Different cultures adapt technology at different rates, but nearly every culture eventually does. I think it would be a great idea for the US to be out front and be a leader in technology.

Rieser, R.A, Dempsey, J V.(2002).  Trends and issues in instructional design and technology.  Upper Saddler River, N.J.  Merrill Prentice Hall, c2002

Evaluating Programs and Human Performance

One model is Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method (SCM) this model is focused on finding out what about training or other organizational intervention worked. The SCM model is a 5-step process. First, you focus and plan the success case (SC) study; Identify targeted business goals and impact expectations. Second, construct a visual impact model. This includes explicating the major program goals and listing all impacts/outcomes that are hoped for or are expected to result from the program; survey a large representative sample of all participants in a program to identify high impact and low impact cases. Third, conduct a survey research study to identify the best and the worst cases; analyze the survey data to identify a group of successful participants and a group of unsuccessful participants. Fourth, schedule and conduct in-depth interviews (usually via the telephone for approximately forty-five minutes per interview) with multiple success cases to document the nature and business value of their application of learning and identify the performance factors that supported learning application and obstacles that prevented it. Fifth, write-up and communicate the evaluation findings; document, disseminate and tell the story. This approach can be used for any type of intervention designed to improve performance, including training, performance support systems, information solutions, communities of practice, improved feedback systems, informal and semi-structured learning initiatives and social learning initiatives. I would use this model to evaluate my instruction by assessing skills that will allow students to face a world that is continually changing. They must be able to think critically, to analyze, and to make inferences. I would take an active role in making decisions about the purpose of the assessment and the content that is being assessed.

Another model is Patton’s Utilization-Focused Evaluation (U-FE) the cardinal rule in U-FE is that the utility of an evaluation is to be judged by the degree to which it is used. The evaluator focuses on use from the beginning until the end of the evaluation, and during that time, he or she continually facilitates use and organizational learning or any other process that helps ensure that the evaluation results will continue to be used once the evaluator leaves the organization. U-FE follows several steps. Because U-FE is a participatory evaluation approach, the client and primary users will be actively involved in structuring, conducting, interpreting and using the evaluation and its results. Here are the major steps:

v Conduct a readiness assessment

v Identify the “primary intended users” and develop a working relationship with them

v Conduct a situational analysis

v Identify the “primary intended uses

v Focus the evaluation

v Design the evaluation

v Collect, analyze, and interpret the evaluation data use multiple methods and sources of evidence.

v Continually facilitate evaluation use.

v Conduct a metaevaluation; be accountable, learn and improve

I would use this model by considering how the evaluation might be conducted in ways that increase skills, knowledge, confidence, self-determination, and a sense of ownership among the students participating in the evaluation.

Yes, a return on investment and management of resources should also be considered in evaluations of instructional programs. This means they need to see a dollar value placed on the benefits of the training, not just that students/participants believe the training to be valuable to them or they enjoyed the training overall. They want proof that the training program benefited the organization/students in a positive manner.

Other measures to be considered are district/student satisfaction and quality, cost, time, and if the metric is appropriate and measures what it sets out to measure.

A performance problem in my area is how to organize and arrange a class of 25 – 30 students, when there is barely enough room for 25 students. One way to solve the problem in a non-instructional way is through classroom arrangement and organization to maximize the available space.  Another problem-solving strategy is when students need more space they can go to the library, outside or to a lab to do projects requiring more space. I see an informal learning environment working better to assist with solving the problem because it creates opportunities to help people/students and organizations achieve learning and performance goals. Because learning happens anywhere, any time. The learner is inspired to learn because of an immediate desire to know how to do something or understand a topic.

Rieser, R.A, Dempsey, J V.(2002).  Trends and issues in instructional design and technology.  Upper Saddler River, N.J.  Merrill Prentice Hall, c2002.