Second Reflection

Blog #2

My progress in learning the instructional design process began very slowly, while I ingested the terminology and logistics of analyzing a situation from a completely different viewpoint than that to which I was accustomed. As I absorbed the material via the avenues of reading the text, listening to the chapter presentations and reviewing the examples and postings by my classmates, I slowly began to understand the perspective.
Writing the Instructional Goal was a challenge to me, because I still struggled with finding a way to write it such that its outcome was measurable. With some help from Dr. Byers and good feedback from class and my group, I was finally able to see how the instruction I was go give must be measurable for two reasons: One, to verify that the learners actually learned the material, and two, to give the learners material that will result in a useable product after the learning, even if that product is knowledge and understanding.
Another hindrance to my initial progress was my inexperience with the technology, i.e., blog, a new email program, maneuvering through Blackboard, setting up the homepage and communicating with the group to name a few. Now that I have experienced each of those, I am not as intimidated and the use of them becomes second nature, and the real purpose of each can be appreciated.
Reading the active learning articles was stressful, because the material forced me to label information in such a way that I had not before, and then I had to think about the material and share those thoughts using the new labels, which was awkward initially. Additionally, now that our group has experienced the process of group review and assembling a posting representing our thoughts, I am able to use the information I learned, instead of being intimidated by the procedure we are to use to evaluate it. It has been interesting to me to see how there are several active learning methods incorporated into our class, and how they each reinforce our learning of the material.
The factors which have influenced my learning progress are those which I mentioned above. The procedure seems to follow a series of steps, including my initial exposure to the material, my work to learn the material, my requirement to use the material to produce a product, my requirement to work with others regarding the product, and then my requirement to formulate my thoughts about the material. This rhythm works! All of the components are overwhelming at times, I think I may never get through the chapter and review and be able to produce my product, but it all starts to come together. Now talking about it with my group and writing about it seems so much easier and comfortable.
My understanding of the learning theories was slow at first, because I was required to ‘think outside the box’ to use a cliché, but now that I have begun to master that thinking process, the theories are logical and feel more natural, and I am able to incorporate them into my work more readily.
As my understanding develops, I have begun to explore the relationship of the learning theories and instructional design. Because I come from a corporate background, it is hard for me to imagine utilizing the design process from an educational standpoint, because it is so work intensive. I assume schools have two main objectives, the first being to demonstrate that the students are learning, and the second to do so in as frugal a manner as possible. The corporate track seems to focus more on the financial bottom line, using the question, “Will this instruction result in improved performance which will result in a more profitable outcome?” This instructional design process appears to me to be very labor intensive and time consuming, which may not be a problem for a corporation, that is willing and able to provide the initial outlay with the anticipation of favorable results.
In the educational environment, because this process takes more time and labor, I imagine it would be entirely up to the individual teacher to take on the process, and then independently convince the administration to utilize the product, since resources are acquired not by increased performance but by taxes, and increases in funding must be voted on and approved. Since I understand teachers are already heavily burdened by NCLB requirements and teaching to the test, it doesn’t seem feasible for a teacher to take on this design process on a routine basis.
However, the active learning process makes so much sense, and while it again would depend on the motivation and initiative of the individual teacher to incorporate these valuable techniques into the classroom, the cost would be minimal and according to the research, the benefits significant. Since the teacher is working to ensure that the students learn as completely as possible, using active learning has a direct impact on the outcome, and utilizing these methods are not that difficult (as compared to undertaking the instructional design process) is worthwhile.
With the corporate track, the designer would be able to utilize the design process to pinpoint the material necessary to learn to achieve the best bottom line, and use the most up to date methods to get the best results and again achieve the best bottom line. So, whether the instructional design process is used or not, it is beneficial for instructors in both the corporate track and educational track to use the learning theory methods, and it is not unreasonable to expect instructors to do so.
The only suggestions for improvement I might have with regard to the course, would be to somehow organize the course materials more clearly, or provide a list of all of the resources and their particular locations as an addendum to the course materials. I have read everything, but when I go to try and find what I need to know, for example what to put into a blog, I have to go through pages of material before I find it.
The class schedule is nice, I like to check off each assignment as I finish it, and it gives me a sense of relief, but when I go to do a particular assignment, it is sometimes frustrating to try and find where the description of the assignment is, and there is often more than one location for the material. It would be helpful to have a short note on the Class Schedule about where a particular thing is (i.e., for the chapter quiz, write *Chapter 3 Quiz (found in Blackboard/Assignments); *Chapter presentations (found in Blackboard/Course Materials); Posting for Peer Review (found in Blackboard/Discussion Board or Blackboard/Communication/Discussion Board): * Instructional Goal Analysis (based on Chapter presentation, text book, examples, list in class syllabus and class discussion), etc.
Also, this class has a HUGE amount of work associated with it, and I have heard some rumbling of frustration about the workload. I don’t have anything to compare it to, and I see the benefit of each of the assignments, but there is a very large amount of work as compared to the other class I am taking. I don’t know if there is necessarily a suggestion for improvement, other than emphasizing at the beginning of the class that there will be a lot of work.