Final Blog!

Final Blog
My progress in learning the instructional design process was bumpy, but I believe successful in the end. I began feeling intimidated as previously mentioned by the terminology used, and at times, during most steps of the project. In the Needs Assessment, I was confused until I heard the phrase from Dr. Byers, “You’re not even thinking about any instruction right now, you’re trying to justify whether there even needs to be instruction,” When doing the Instructional Goal, I couldn’t quite imagine what my learners would be “doing” within the confines of the instruction I had in mind. I am a little shaky on that, but I have a general understanding and I know where to go for help if I need it. It is my goal to cement this understanding of each of the steps in the instructional design process when I take Advanced Instructional Design.
Following the Instructional Goal came the Instructional Goal Analysis, where I had to break down the steps to achieve the Instructional Goal, I began to feel as though I was thinking backwards, and not doing so very well. I was not terribly confused when developing the subskills analysis, but determining if they were in the proper order was a challenge. It seemed to me that there were some discrepancies between what the text was showing and what was eventually required to do. The method of determining whether a decision box or a verbal information box is required is still just a little cloudy for me even at this point.
I was confused again on how to do the Performance Objectives. I still feel a little unsure about determining the behavior and the criteria, and the Terminal Objective. I think it would be beneficial to have some live lecture concerning each of these, and have the recorded lecture available for reinforcement. When the recorded lecture is listened to, it is not possible to ask questions, and sometimes those questions don’t resurface during class time due to the huge work load and other requirements, my mind is overloaded! When working on the Assessment Items, I continuously wondered how, in my instructor led instruction to parents wishing to know how to give allowance to their kids, I was to assess whether the learners had achieved that particular step of the Performance Objective. I think I finally understand that part. The Sullivan and Higgins text was very helpful in that area.
The only real frustrating part after that was formatting the Instructional Materials. One of the posted examples had a navigation bar included, and an example in class had one which was noted and praised. I spent a significant amount of time constructing and then placing one in both of my guides only to learn that they were not appropriate for instructor led materials. Removing them took considerable time. Other formatting problems were incurred with the table format of writing the Instructor Guide; fortunately I had assistance in repairing those, but they caused severe frustration and a significant time cost as well.
The factors influencing my learning progress for the course were my motivation to get all of the work done as correctly and completely as possible, and my drive to do my best and to achieve the objectives of the assignment as well as develop a clear understanding of everything required. I believe I came very close to achieving each of those goals, with some room for improvement with the last. The writing requirement influenced my learning progress in a positive way by forcing my to think about what I was doing and how things were coming together. I was able to analyze the structure of the ID class and compare it to both the learning theories and my personal project design as well.
My understanding of the learning theories went from zero, other than how they compared to my experience and observation that I had already internalized, to significant. Having to summarize them, and post responses to others’ summaries reinforced my understanding significantly, even though I felt like doing that was a chore. I am glad I learned what I did, although some of the ideas of some of the theories, constructivism comes to mind, did not seem completely reasonable to me. It was interesting to see how inter-related they all were.
The relationship of the learning theories and instructional design as my understanding developed was significant. I often felt as though I was an investigator, comparing the ideas in the learning theories with the way our ID class was structured and thinking about how I would structure my instruction. It was interesting to connect the similarities. Knowing those helped me to accept some of the teaching methods used for this class.
This leads me to suggestions for improvement, and I think as familiarity with the student body, the institution, and the goals for the instruction are more precisely defined, this class will continue to have an increasingly significant impact on the students who take it. I believe that if the requirements for the projects are more clearly defined, correct examples are provided, rebrics are provided for each step of the project, and additional live lecture with back up from recorded lecture is used, with ample time for ensuring understanding, the class will be much improved. Additionally, if students are informed from the beginning that the work load will be extremely heavy, so students can prepare, the frustration levels will also decrease.
It would also be helpful to have documentation of hints on how to do basic formatting for this project using Word. The syllabus and Class Materials are extremely helpful, but the organization of them is often confusing, and there seems to be some redundancy. If there is a way to pare down the requirements for the learning theories so that while they are important, some of the additional work such as grading others on their postings, is eliminated which may not reinforce understanding.
This class was without a doubt one of the more challenging that I have ever undertaken, including advanced college chemistry and mathematics, but mainly due to the confusing text, instructions and tremendous work load. That said, this is one class which I feel proud to have achieved what I did in, because I worked hard and I was able to get the assignments done. I feel accomplished and confident about what I have learned, and I have respect for the job my instructor has undertaken, I know it must be a challenge as well. The support was obvious and the instructor’s desire to do right by the students was clear.