Life by Design

These days, we all have so many options for how to relay a message to one another.  We can employ email, text messages, Instant Messages; voice mail and good old f2f visits.  Each person has a preference of how they prefer to receive information, especially at the work place.   In working on a project that involves team collaboration, it is especially important to learn the preferences of your teammates and key stakeholders of your project.

This blog assignment was interesting as we heard the same essential message delivered in three different styles:  email, voice mail and an f2f visit (filmed as a video).  As I went through the exercise, it was interesting to note the various reactions I had based on the venue of the communication.  Overall, I interpreted the message to mean that a colleague needs some important information from me that appears to be late, missing and if obtained, could help her meet a work deadline of her own.

I preferred the email text format the best and I felt it relayed the essential meaning of the message the best of the three choices.  I experienced a level of respect for what my time demands might be in light of the request of the message sender.  The email option made it easy for me to get the missing data to her in a separate email.  I felt the email was friendly, respectful and to the point.  I like email as I can access it when I have the time in a focused way and I can keep a digital paper trail of the conversation.  I can also re-read the email if I have questions or need to review directions or a special request.

The voice mail simulation gave the impression that the communication was more direct and less friendly than the email.  The sender struck me as a very direct person, with little to no humor and a lack of ‘human touch’.  Her tone of voice made it seem that her needs were more important than what I have been facing in my own work life.

The f2f meeting as simulated by a video seemed most negative to me.  I noticed the gal pointing her finger at times.  There was little attempt to engage me in a friendly manner and her Cheshire style grin at the very end felt insincere and ill timed.  Why didn’t she start with a smile and a friendly, ‘Hello? Is this a good time to talk with you?”

Clearly, content and tone are very important in communication.  The flat tone of the voice on the voice mail was a turn off.  I felt degrees of judgment and blame in the voice mail and f2f communication.

The implications of my personal learning in this exercise has led me to understand the value of understanding what kind of communication my teammates and stakeholders prefer, and to communicate my preferences as well.  Everyone will have his or her own preferences.  With voice mail and f2f visits, you get the added benefit of seeing body language and hearing tone of voice, which may or may not be pleasant!

References

Stolovitch, H. (2010), “Communicating with Stakeholders”.  Laureate Education, Inc. Video production.

Stolotvitch, H. (2010). “Project Management Concerns:  Communication Strategies and Organizational Culture”.  Laureate Education, Inc. Video Production.

Recently, a team member and I were given the assignment of creating instructional videos to show students how to utilize strategies that we have created to help them complete research on the Internet.  My team member and I had no prior training or familiarity with using application like Jing or SnapzPro, which are screencasting applications.  I had learned from my courses at Walden that at the very least we needed to story board our process and I did do that much.

We began in June, 2010,  to create videos demonstrating the steps a student would take to create what we call a ‘digital notebook’ and how to begin to do Web research, creating good search questions, and finally extracting relevant information from the Internet to meet their project needs.

Both of us felt that we were making good progress.  The videos were clear and did a good job of demonstrating our process.

However, when our boss reviewed the work by mid-July, we got the news that the videos were completely inappropriate.  She changed the content, the approach and made a request for a ‘more professional appearance’ with special features such as the ability to highlight text, zooming capabilities and so on.  Six weeks of work was essentially thrown out.  I have to say that my team member and I felt demoralized.  I do give us tremendous credit for stepping into a project cold, learning new applications and devising a strategy on our own to set up a small video production team.

Now, after being introduced to all the steps necessary in professional Project Management, I can see that the first major error was the lack of an initial meeting that clearly and explicitly defined the video project.  My team member and I needed a clear vision of the end product.  One of my favorite guidelines for planning anything is, “Begin with the end in mind.”

If I had to do this over again, or could function more as a Project Manager for the project I would follow the steps recommended by Michael Greer (2010):

1.     Define the project concept and get support and approval from stakeholders. In this case I want specific and very explicit definitions of the expectations of the final product.

2.     Get the team together and start the project.

3.     Figure out exactly what the finished work product will be.  This will be informed by the information gathered in Step 1.

4.     Figure out what you need to do to complete the work products.  Identify tasks and phases.  I would also include here a preliminary testing of various applications of technology, so that we choose the most appropriate tool for the job, and get adequate tutorials to inform ourselves on the process before we begin.

5.     Estimate time, effort and resources.  In our case, we need to define upfront in the initial product scope meeting, if we have adequate computer equipment and facility space to do the projects we are given.

6.     Build a schedule.  I would add that we needed to define from Step 1 the exact nature of the deadlines.  If there is a hard and fast deadline, I want our team to be able to meet the deadline with unnecessary stress.

7.     Estimate the costs.

8.     Keep the project moving.  Have face-to-face meetings with our major stakeholder on a regular basis so that reviews of our work can happen often and early into the project before we do a large body of work that is later deemed ‘inappropriate’.

9.     Handle scope changes.  I am happy to handle scope changes, as I understand that this is part of the territory.  However, the stakeholders need to realize that the time frames are greatly impacted by every content change in a project.

10. Close out phases, and close out the project.

Also, I would let the ID process guide the project starting with a needs and feasibility analysis and continue with all the ADDIE steps.  We needed a clear blueprint, project plan, Work Breakdown Structure, Project Scope Statement, Gantt chart to help schedule the project to meet projected deadlines, and checklists to keep the project moving.

By starting from a good place of planning and communication, I believe our video production would have been successful the first time around.

Reference

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate Custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Stolovitch, H. (2010) “Project Management and Instructional Design”. Laureate Education, Inc. Video Production.

I am looking forward to working, collaborating and sharing new knowledge with all of you in this class.  From what I have seen of actually working in the field, this topic could not be more important!  Best wishes to each of you as we continue to journey forth!

Distance learning is certainly gaining attention and credibility as more and more educational institutions and commercial organizations are turning to technology to help deliver education to a wider population at a lower cost.

Presently, there still seems to be some public perception that distance education can’t deliver the same rigor and content that online courses can.  This perception is partially aided by Universities and other educational institutions that focus on the features of convenience and courses for the ‘working adult’ in lieu of marketing and featuring the high standards of both their courses and faculty.  It is entirely possible to convert a rigorous course offered by institutions such as MIT, Stanford, UCLA, Yale and the like into distance education that would meet the very same requirements as classroom education.  One of the main things that change in this scenario is that the learning goes from teacher-centered to learner-centered.

There will be more acceptance of distance learning in the future as technology keeps becoming more and more user friendly, more institutions jump on the bandwagon and the global community of educators begin to collaborate on distributive learning for the good of the whole.

As an instructional designer, I can be a positive force for change by working in settings such as universities, and organizations and promoting the idea as a ways to accomplish more with less. Also, I am a living example of a consumer of online education.  My cohorts and colleagues can see that this is a viable medium to explore.  Currently, in my community of Eugene, Oregon I am working as a community organizer to try to begin the conversation about educational reform in our county.  I can see that online education can be a way to not only augment the traditional classroom but also address the ever-increasing budget cuts in our county.

I can continue to be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education by keeping up with the continuing changes in technology, software and techniques.  Also, there is a paucity of research that has been done in certain areas, so perhaps I can contribute to the field this way as well.  Evidence based research often helps to move a field forward.

A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new.  With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment.  In addition, he is considering putting all his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.

With this scenario in mind, reflect on the following:

What are some of the pre-planning strategies the trainer needs to consider before converting his program?

What aspects of his original training program could be enhanced in the distance learning format?

How will his role, as trainer, change in a distance learning environment?

What steps should the trainer take to encourage the trainees to communicate online?

Converting to a Distance Learning Format

Best Practices Guide for a Blended Learning Format

Pre-planning strategies a trainer should follow before converting a classroom program to a blended learning format:

• Assess whether or not the learners can embrace the new delivery system.
• Are there sufficient resources for computers and technology in the budget?
• How will the online courses be made engaging?
• How will the facilitator use multimedia resources?
• How will he decide what the learners need to learn?
• What part of the course will be delivered face to face and what part will be delivered online?
• What mixtures of web based technologies should be used?
• Will the course be synchronous or asynchronous?
• How will evaluation be determined?
• Will the learning groups be multi-disciplinary groupings of learners all with different roles and different rankings?
• What is the company budget for such a project?
• The instructor will have to consider creating e-Learning modules that blend with Instructor led classroom sessions, mentoring for each student if needed, and create self-study exercises.
• If the trainer is going to have everything on a server, there must be a privacy issue addressed and all elements of the class must be stored in one folder for streamlined access.

In the case of teaching better communication methods the following aspects of face-to-face instruction could be converted to a distance-learning format:

• Group discussions could be handled online as a threaded discussion.
• Role playing exercises could be done in a virtual environment like Second Life, with Avatars.  In this way there might be less inhibition of acting in certain ways to address communication issues in a role-playing format.

How wills the role of the trainer change in a distance learning environment?

• The trainer will change from a f2f instructor that leads in a traditional way to more of a learning facilitator enabling his students to create their own learning base.
• The trainer will need to move to a student –based learning environment.

The trainer can utilize the following tips to encourage the trainees to communicate online?

• Break the group into small groups of 3-4 people and pose challenging real life work scenarios.  Have the students participate in threaded discussions about how to solve the issue.  They must go out to the web and locate information, tools, web media that would be helpful to a problem.
• Have the trainees keep a blog of their experiences with communication in the workplace (both challenges and successes) that could be shared with other members of the work team.  Comments could be shared.
• Create a project based learning task that team members have to work on collaboratively online to solve.
• Share the idea, which it is often easier to communicate in writing as you have more time to reflect on the situation you are writing about.
• Discuss how shy workers can have a place to ‘speak up’.
• Help employees see that ultimately they will reduce training time and that the students can move through system simulation at their own pace.

References

Simonson,M. , Smaldino, S., Albright, M., and Zvacek, S. (2009)  Teaching and Learning at a Distance:  Foundations of Distance Education.  Pearson.  (pp. 233-234).

When considering best practices for creating a blended learning format,  a trainer should consider several pre-planning strategies to insure success.  Some of the considerations include:  first and foremost, what do the learners need to learn, are the learners ready to embrace an online format, how will the content be divided between a true classroom environment and the online portion, how will assessment be accomplished, and finally what mixtures of web-based technologies should be used?

If the objective is to teach better communication skills, there is no better format for this than the threaded discussions offered in many online LMS systems.    If role playing is required, virtual environments like Second Life can allow participants to don their avatars, and act out the issues in a more uninhibited way.

The trainer converting to a blended learning format will have to adjust to the differences between teacher-based learning systems to student-based systems.

For a blended learning format to be successful, the trainees will need to be encouraged to communicate online.  Some interesting options here include:  breaking the group into small groups of 3-4 people and pose challenging real life real work scenarios.  Students can participate in threaded discussions about how to solve the work related issues.  The learners can research the web, locate information, tools, and web media that would be  helpful to solve the issues.   If communication issues are present at work, learners can keep blogs about their experiences, challenges and successes, post their entries and read their co-workers views.  Other incentives to online communication include:   the learner can have the chance to stop, reflect and refine their responses and ultimately move through the online system simulation at their own pace.

References

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., and Zvacek (2009)  Teaching and Learning at a Distance:  Foundations of Distance Education.  Pearson. (pp. 233-234).