15/5 for week of 3/23

1.      I am the Instruction Designer for the project.  So my task this week was to finish writing the Instructional Strategy, meet with the team on our path forward, record the Instructional Strategy screen cast.  I spent about six hours on all of that and am 100% finished.  At our team meeting, I also committed to reviewing the outlined content for at least four pages of our course.  I reviewed, edited and approved the outlined content for the first several pages of our course and posted that update for my teammates.  I estimate that I am about 1/3 of the way complete reviewing the outline.

2.      Reflection:
What did I do?  I completed the editing work on the Instructional Strategy and got the document and screen cast both posted by the deadline.

What was important about what I did?  This is important because the strategy document allows further design elements to be accessed and considered by the client and teammates. 

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?  I have written many planning reports on various documents, but this was the first report where I identified and justified a specific teaching philosophy for a project.  This process could be used for any instruction design project for which any number of instruction models could be used.  This provides a black and white way of evaluating the potential of a model vs what deliverable is needed. 

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?  Writing in stages over time helps me identify what works well vs what works badly before I am deeply committed to a given path forward.  For example, I was not committed to the Direct Instruction model this time two weeks ago.  It was the process of thinking, reading, writing, and reflecting that brought me to that choice.   

How well did I do?  What worked?  Improve?  I did a good job of writing a first draft, and letting it sit for a few days; when I got back to it, with my teammates feedback, the needed edits were more obvious than they were previously.  I researched the model some more and developed a better explanation and rationale for my choice. 

What should I do next?  What’s my plan / design?  Our team’s task now is to prepare the instruction content and the course’s interface.   As the Instructional Designer, I am reviewing the outlined content, and editing where I see appropriate.  I want to avoid being a bottle neck to the development process, so I will work hard this week and next to finish reviewing the outlined content. 

15/5 for week of March 16

1.      I am the Instruction Designer for the project.  So my task this week was to finish writing the Content Analysis, including the feedback from my teammates.  So I spent about three hours on that.  We also had a 1 hour team meeting.  Lastly, I have spent about an hour drafting the Instructional Strategy.  The Content Analysis is complete, except for the client sign off.  The Instructional Strategy is about 30% complete.

2.      Reflection:
What did I do?  I completed the editing work on the Content Analysis and began work on the Instructional Strategy.  I got both posted by our team’s goal deadline.

What was important about what I did?  This is important because the project design has to be well laid out so the client can understand our intentions and the developer and evaluators can complete their portions of the project according to the client’s expected progress.

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?  I have definitely written various reports in stages, pursuing feedback from various teammates and knowledge sources along the way.  So this process is similar to past projects and works well for me.  I would likely pursue the same writing method for future projects of any topic.

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?  This works really well for me as far as getting out a good to best quality document.  However, it is time consuming.  People don’t have instantaneous time availability, an I likewise am juggling multiple commitments.  So writing a draft, posting it online, getting feedback, editing, sending to client, editing if needed----that is a long process.  All of the parties are busy, so it is hard to be efficient about it.  Unfortunately, that is the exact same pattern that the process followed in past work life settings.

How well did I do?  What worked?  Improve?  I did a good job drafting and incorporating specific feedback.  I also think I did a decent job of brainstorming ideas to address some of the feedback around needs.  Brainstorming is definitely a time consuming process because so much of what comes to the surface is not valuable.  So I brainstorm a list of 20 thoughts to get a few worthwhile.

What should I do next?  What’s my plan / design?  I will finish my Instructional Design tomorrow night and post for feedback.  Hopefully we will get it finished for the client by Wednesday.  I like to have plenty of revision time because trying to come up with solutions when I am under the gun is super difficult. 

15/5 for week of 3/9/15

15/5 for week of 3/9/15

1.      I didn’t have any official assignments, but we had a team meeting Thursday night and as the Instruction Designer.  I had agreed to have the report ready for final feedback by then.  So I spent about 3 hours incorporating early feedback, fleshing out 2 additional instruction goals that were suggested and revamping the curriculum map.  I estimate that it is 80% finished or more; there will be 1-2 hours of work left to do—to incorporate any last feedback and add the aesthetic formatting.

My teammates have posted more feedback on the documents, so I will add that and send it to my team leader Monday or Tuesday of this week so that he can forward it to the client for approval.

2.      What did I do?  I had completed almost all of my goals by our team meeting.  I had incorporated the additional instructional goals and other feedback into the report, but had not added them to the curriculum map.  So I was about 80% complete for our meeting.  I finished the last bit by Saturday night and posted to our Google drive and team community. 

What was important about what I did?  Did I meet my goals?  The Content Analysis and Curriculum Map are important documents to ensure that the client, Project Manager, eLearning Developer and Instruction Designer all have the same understanding of what the lesson will be.  I incorporated the feedback into both the report and map and reviewed it with my team mates Thursday night.  So I met my goals.

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?  I am actually following a similar analysis process for my first project for the MD2K center here at UofM.  I am not “dressing up” my documents as well as I have for this course client, but am writing a Learner Analysis and Content Analysis at the same level of detail as in this course and will send them to my internal client for review on all of my plans and assumptions.

Do I see any patterns in what I did?  This assignment was similar to the Analysis Report in that I started out with a vague idea and the process of writing helped me better understand my plan; I suppose the plan evolved as I thought through the information; the writing process helped me through that thinking process.

How well did I do?  What worked?  What do I need to improve?  So I worked and got most of the edits done, but would have liked to have had the curriculum map completed for our team meeting.  Otherwise I think I did ok.  It was all good quality writing.  I would like to have the documents edited and posted to our Google drive and team community a day or so ahead of our team meeting, but that is a difficult goal.

What should I do next?  What’s my plan / design?  Next I will consult our WBS timeline and get a feel for what is the timing, expectations, etc for the next phase of our project.  I have already adopted the WBS to my work life.  I had my first work week with the MD2K organization and was given my first two work priorities on Wednesday.  I take direction from an out of town researcher, so I think having my projects on a project management site will help my progress be transparent to him and also to the organization’s leadership here in Memphis.

15/5 for week of March 2

15/5 for week of March 2

1.      My task this week was to catch up on some reading and review some of the material for which I previously skimmed through too fast.  Also, my team has decided that we would like to have our content analysis written a week or so ahead of the 3/22 deadline so we can get it to our client and returned hopefully with approval by that deadline. 

So as the instruction designer, I am using this week to get a strong start on it.  It took me about three hours to sketch out what I wanted along with comparing it to Chapter 8 of the Dick, Carey and Carey text.  I estimate that it is mostly complete, 75% or so.  However, I also know that I overestimated my completion of my previous writing assignments.

2.      What did I do?  I wrote the first draft of the instruction strategy.  I got the draft to a reasonably good quality, and got feedback from our team leader by our team meeting

What was important about what I did?  Did I meet my goal?  Yes.  My goal was to have my a draft with all of the instruction goals and an outline of the instruction.  This was important to flesh out the details of the instruction so that all team members are on the same page for the project..

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?  Itemizing questions that are specific to each goal (in this case, they were instruction goals) and then answering them as if it were a checklist would be a very helpful strategy for many projects types.  I think that has helped me avoid missing critical details.   

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?  I got started writing early which helped convert some vague ideas into more firm plans.  As the ideas firmed up, I was able to continue adding more detail to the report.  Writing in stages that way has consistently worked for me on many projects and topics.

How well did I do?  What worked?  What do I need to improve?  The draft is good; my team leader has given me good feedback.  The feedback was regarding both the content report and the curriculum map.  I am very glad to have extra eyes helping me process this through.  I will work the suggestions in for the next team meeting.

What should I do next?  What is my plan / design?  Writing things out definitely helps me see what I have vs what I need.  It is also a significant advantage to have someone looking over it and offering suggestions for improvement.  I next need to incorporate the feedback into the document and develop the curriculum map. 

I am sorry for posting this late.

Week of 2/22

1.      My task this week was to read DCC Ch. 8 and as the lead instructional designer, start work on the curriculum map and content analysis.  It is due 3/22, but I wanted to get a strong start.  So I’ve expanded on each instructional objective.  For each of our four objectives, I’ve specified the pre-instructional activities, content presentation, learner participation expectations, assessment strategy, and follow through technique.

I had this prepared in time for our team meeting Sat 2/28 afternoon.  I spent about 4 hours reading and drafting and another 1.5 hours with my team mates reviewing the draft and our WBS.  I estimate that I am 33% of the way through.

I want to flesh out the draft with respect to the feedback from my team mates and also review again the asset materials given to us by our client.  With that material, I will develop a curriculum map and specific exercises to incorporate into the lesson, meeting the objectives.

2.      What did I do?  I read our assigned text which directly related to my team assignment.  I also began work on our instructional strategy/content analysis and got feedback from my teammates.  I did not have a hard deadline on this, but I wanted to have a good draft prepared for our team meeting on Sat., so I met that goal.

What was important about what I did?  Did I meet my goals?  This is important because it is easier to compare goals vs plan in this black/white type document.  We were able to give attention to each individual and specific instructional objective and the strategies that I had outlined.  With each of the four discussions (four objectives) my teammates and I were able to identify contributory features that we could add to the content.  So we met our goals.

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?   I have conducted in depth analyses on other project types, although not for an online training product.  The depth of planning discussion definitely contributes to the depth of the product.  I will be able to use this analysis method in future instruction design projects.

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?  Yes, I had followed my tried and true strategy for times when I am feeling unsure of a project’s directions.  I started documenting the facts of which I was sure, the opinions and facts that I suspected (those grey areas) and included my questions or notes around my grey areas.  In some cases, the grey areas firm up in my mind over the week’s time and I edit the document to reflect that, and in other cases, I put forth my questions to my teammates.  They helped me firm up my vision of the product.  This has been a consistently workable strategy for me---documenting what I know, growing the documentation with moderate quality info and getting feedback.

How well did I do?  What worked?  What do I need to improve?  My write-over-time approach works well for me.  I was able to articulate my reasoning behind my justifications and took notes on my teammates’ feedback.  So I will be able to work all of that in for an improved draft.

What should I do next?  What’s my plan / design?  I have been paying attention to Daniel’s leadership style, and the WBS organization, both of which I value. 

Week of 2/16/15

1.       My assigned tasks for the week were to complete the online survey, team reviews and to write the Analysis Report.

I completed the report, although later than I had originally planned.  I had about 1/3 of the document drafted about 2 weeks ago for our team meeting, and then another 1/3 drafted by our meeting Tuesday this week.  I thought that I was in great shape to finish with plenty of time.

I had a lot work Wednesday, but Thursday Daniel reminded me that we needed our client sign off on the report.  That’s when I realized that I would not be able to take advantage of Friday-Sunday afternoons to finish my writing. 

We got it to her Friday morning, but don’t have the sign off now as we should have.

So it is done, and I think I have done a good job on it, but we are missing that last link.  90% complete and hoping she doesn’t want many edits.

2.       Reflection

What did I do?  I wrote the Analysis Report.  I finished on time, but did not give the client enough time to review it and get back to us by Sunday night.

What was important about it and did I meet my goal?  It took me a while to get my head completely wrapped around it all.  I used a previous analysis report from a prior class as a sort of model.  That and the outline in the ecourseware Content section helped me complete it.  The process of writing, checking against the “checklist”, reading the client’s asset materials, writing some more…  all of that process helped me understand the purpose and expectation of it all.  I think that I did a thorough job of it.

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?  As I said, I had a model report and my report from prior classes to refer to.  But that was quite a long time ago and not in my memory.  I can definitely use this to prepare a professional report, either as an introduction or a summary of an instruction design project.

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?  Yes, I followed the Content list like a checklist and my prior report examples for format and depth of explanations.

How well did I do?  What worked?  What do I need to improve?  Following the Content list and my prior examples definitely worked well for me.  I still am having a problem where I feel like the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny and those that scurry their legs, trying to run, but not actually moving for the first few seconds.  That is the first bit of my tasks, then I get traction and actually make progress.  I really don’t like that feeling.

What should I do next?  What’s my plan / design?  I am going to start organizing the client resources by topic and work on developing an instruction sequence / outline for our course.