Thanks for checking out my blog!

Week Ten: The party is now over, and what a party it was! Publish date: 8.7.22

We are now finishing up our last week of the summer semester. I cannot believe how quickly it has gone by!

Completing a branching scenario and high-level design document from scratch has been an invaluable experience. While it was quite a time-consuming task, it was also incredibly fun! I am now more anxious than ever to begin working as a professional Instructional Designer.

The resources provided this semester assisted me in delivering a final project. Our textbook, in particular, was of great assistance, as I applied the following principles:

1.) Utilizing trigger events

Clark (2013) states that scenarios are initiated by using trigger events (p.39). Utilizing trigger events sets the scene for the learner so they know what to expect and keeps the learners' attention. Throughout my module, I provide the learner with an interactive "kick-off" event (aka trigger) of having the learner complete a guest pass. The learner is then given several other trigger events throughout the module, testing their judgment calls.

2.) Provide feedback

After each learner is introduced to the trigger events and submits their response, they are provided with intrinsic feedback, even if they have chosen the correct answer. Intrinsic feedback is a "unique form of feedback" that offers "a visible illustration of how the scenario plays out or responds to the learner's action" (Clark, 2013, p.41). The module advisor (named "Bailey") provides the learner with intrinsic feedback, navigating them through their decisions and allowing them to reflect on their choices.

While adding in Bailey as an advisor throughout the module was a last-minute decision, I believe it was a strategic instructional design strategy to do so.

3.) Consideration of learners' backgrounds

The idea behind my module is that it could be used as a sales/marketing tool for a new gym; due to this, learners' backgrounds needed to be highly considered when creating questions and their responses. We should assume that all learners should be regarded as "novices" when completing the module. When working with a novice audience, an Instructional Designer must be careful of the cognitive load they place on learners. To combat this, as Clark (2013) recommended, I limited the overall visual and auditory information to only using computer animation instead of video animation (p.48). I additionally only used multiple choice questions.

Building this project resulted in many "Ah-Ha!" and "Oh-No!" moments.

A particular Ah-Ha moment I had was using creative (and free) resources such as Canva to build out my visuals. I found I needed to actually "see" the course built out via a PowerPoint application to write out the script and complete the storyboard template. Using Canva was helpful as I do not currently have access to an authoring tool.

My Oh-No moment was more of a formatting "oh no" when it came to my high-level design document. As a moral principle, I am not keen on readers having to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of anything I submit. To combat this, I would include bullet points and tables within my document whenever I could.

While I know my module is far from perfect, I am proud to have completed my first branching scenario storyboard. If I were to design this learning object again, however, it would be more complex (with more scenarios), and I would come up with creative answers that are more realistic and less obvious from a learner's perspective.

Please find below my final drafts of my storyboard and high-level design document. Alternatively, the storyboard can be viewed here, and the high-level design document here.

Thank you for your time in viewing them!

Week Eight: An introspective reflection Publish date: 7.24.22

References:

Clark, R. C. (2013). Scenario-based e-learning: Evidence-based guidelines for online workforce learning. Pfeiffer.

If I were asked, "What can you, as an e-learning designer, bring to the table as a business partner?" eight weeks ago, I would have struggled to respond. I wasn't sure I could bring anything to the table because I was new at e-Learning.

While I am still new, I have learned that to become an e-learning designer, you must know how to communicate. The fun part of e-Learning is that you can communicate through a wide array of creative tactics, as seen in our textbook and various readings throughout this course. One of my biggest takeaways from this class was to steal like an artist. The idea was mentioned in a YouTube video by Anna Sabramowicz, referencing a book by Austin Kleon (Sabramowicz, 2014). Essentially, one of the book's premises is to take ideas you have seen in various outlets (comic books, museum infographics, etc.) and use these ideas in your e-Learning. I have since purchased Austin Kleon's book, "Think Like an Artist," and look forward to posting more takeaways on this blog at a later date.

With this newfound knowledge that I will continue to build on, I am confident I can bring creativity and concise communication to the table as a business partner when creating future e-Learning modules.

I will also use the knowledge I learned from making my e-Learning ID project plan, specifically learning how helpful feedback is, especially when starting a new field. Even after thinking through my project plan, I had doubts about the outcome. I was afraid that creating a module designed to be a sales tool would make it too "cheesy." After meeting with Cara, my fantastic instructor, I better understood how to avoid this. Being humble and accepting feedback is a powerful tool I will always use.

References:

Sabramowicz, A. (2014, November 19). Storytelling In Elearning - Part 10: Steal Like An Artist. [Video]. Retrieved December 1, 2021 from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1JXgQUjV20&feature=youtu.be

Week Seven: Reverse engineering: Round two Publish date: 7.17.22

This week we have reverse engineered to further our understanding of workplace branching scenario-based e-learning modules. Instead of creating a reverse engineer flow chart of a module, we have broken down each slide into an actual storyboard template you would show stakeholders.

As this is my first time creating a storyboard template, I officially tip my metaphorical hat to every ID professional. Even though I only went through the first complete branching scenario, creating this document took several hours, even with a previously made module. My top takeaway from this assignment is the perspective it's given me on the sheer amount of time it takes to create a branching scenario.

For this week's assignment, I have broken down the first branching scenario of the e-Learning module, "Communicating with parents successfully: A real life scenario for incoming teachers." The complete module can be found here for your viewing.

Overall I found it to be an enjoyable module to complete. From the scripts, it was clear the designer inserted a bit of their personality into the situation, which I appreciated, as it made it appear more authentic to an actual situation you would experience in real life.

The module was fairly simplistic, although effective. It had the same "next" button navigation patterns throughout the module, the standard "help" button at the top of the page whenever the learner answers a question wrong, and multimedia such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Articulate Storyline software. As far as trigger events, if I were the intended audience (a new teacher), they would be considered effective, as they "triggered" the emotion we all feel at a new job - the need to please. Throughout the module, the learner deals with a difficult parent who, if all goes poorly, decides to take their child out of the teacher's class. I would assume this would be a worst-case scenario, as it would draw immediate attention to the fact the new teacher cannot de-escalate properly. It would also be assumed that the principal or superintendent would be notified of this fault. Providing a new teacher with such a high-risk situation in a safe space does result in an effective online training module.

If I were to change this module, I would increase the complexity of some of its more basic components. For instance, this module only provides right/wrong answers at its core. If an incorrect answer is chosen, the learner is automatically presented with the outcome and asked to choose again. We have learned in our textbook that this is rarely the case, and therefore this module would benefit from a less strict outcome precision model. Rather than clear-cut choices, "the authoring system can give scoring weights to each learner response and then at each decision point or after several decision points lead to a different outcome" (Clark & Mayer, 2012). An additional interactive piece to accompany this change could be implementing a slider bar to indicate the parents' frustration levels decreasing and increasing.

Again, overall I found this module effective, especially as the designer provides background on why it is essential, in their portfolio.

Please see below my storyboard example of this online module. Alternatively, it can be viewed larger, here.

References:

Clark, R. C. (2013). Scenario-based e-learning: Evidence-based guidelines for online workforce learning. Pfeiffer.

Week Six: Sometimes taking three steps back is a good thing Publish date: 7.10.22

Week six, already?! Wasn't it just week two?

The party is indeed continuing this week by learning how to reverse engineer an e-learning module. (I'm not sure if this is common, but for some reason, if I hear the term "reverse engineer," I automatically think of the great Missy Elliot's song "Work It". Anyone else?)

On a more serious note, being given the opportunity to reverse engineer a professional e-learning branching scenario for the first time was incredibly beneficial. I have always found visual aids to be useful in learning core concepts. Mapping out a branching scenario allowed me to understand when to have learners make crucial decisions and how to write out different pathways that initiate learning. It is important for us to study other ID's e-learning objects to seek inspiration, as well as learn industry best practices, especially when you are first entering the field as I am.

For this week's e-learning module, I used a quick 5-10 minute lesson on how to appropriately assist aggravated passengers when you are a flight attendant. This module is called Destination De-Escalation, and can be found within the designers' portfolio, here. The designer (Sean Anderson) additionally provides insight into the process of creating the module, which was invaluable information for a new ID professional, such as myself, to read.

Please find below the assignments for week six: completing a high-level ID review of the e-learning module Destination De-Escalation, as well as the flow chart where this one branching scenario of the module was reverse engineered.

This week's high-level ID review Reverse engineering Destination De-Escalation

Week Five: Storyboards, and scripts, and templates, oh my! Publish date: 7.3.22

We are now in week 5, gearing up toward our final project. To do so, let's review some key concepts we will be using more in the upcoming weeks.

Storyboards

A storyboard is a written document, aka "blueprint," broken down slide by slide, and documents the course contents. This item provides stakeholders/ SME's a basic idea of what content the module will be composed of without putting too much attention to visual displays that will be developed later (Slade, 2018).

Scripts

Scripts are documents in which words are organized and can include a general outline of the program, such as: containing a title, section titles, slide titles, voiceovers, on-screen texts, notes about graphics, navigation text, etc. (eLearningArt, 2022).

Templates

Templates are a great way to assist e-learning designers in creating content faster as the designer can grab pre-existing designs and insert their content inside. Templates often provide interactive tools and navigation to save additional time (Gagnon, 2020).

What's the point in all of this research, anyway?

Finding models of different e-learning ID tools and examples online is one of the most important resources a new e-learning designer, such as myself, could have (other than the wonderful help and experience of the OPWL faculty!). One of the best ways to learn is by doing self-research on topics, as this increases awareness of a large variety of skills and topics that might not be covered in a class. I will take the self-research skills I have learned into the future, as we all know e-learning methodologies and technologies are constantly evolving.

Here is a little insight into the research process...

Compared to last week's assignment of finding actual e-learning scenario examples, storyboard and script templates can be more easily found online via a quick Google search. As my classmates mentioned, I started by searching for what the Articulate Storyline weekly hero challenge community could offer. In one article, they provided 18 examples of storyboards and script templates. Overall the examples were very diverse and visually easy to follow. For additional diversity in my examples, I also looked at a blog from ThinkiFic.com.

Example #1

• Great for any compliance or testing-type projects and corporate clients due to its detailed nature

• Strengths: Covers essentially all types of media one would use in a storyboard

• Area for opportunity: Could be more time-consuming than other templates for the designer to initially complete

Example #2

• Great for any compliance or testing-type projects and corporate clients due to its simplified nature

• Strengths: An easy "plug and play" design

• Area for opportunity: Little opportunity to create complex scenarios

Example #3

• Great for textbook-forward, classroom-type projects and educational institution clients due to its specific language surrounding chapters/modules

• Strengths: Provides clarity for complex lessons

• Area for opportunity: Ideas could easily become jumbled together due to the lack of section delegation

References:

eLearningArt (2022, n.d.). Structure and Script Your eLearning Projects.

https://elearningart.com/development/script/

Gagnon, R. (2020, April 6). 5 Things You Need To Know When Using eLearning Templates. eLearningIndustry.

https://elearningindustry.com/things-need-know-when-using-elearning-templates

Slade, T. (2018, Aug 31). Why You Should Start with an eLearning Storyboard [Video]. Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF-REyym-GU

Week Four: A culmination of e-Learning knowledge Publish date: 6.26.22

Somehow we are already at week four - wow!

This week we have been let loose to find, analyze, and conduct an ID review against the criteria we have learned about for the past few weeks, specifically to find and analyze a workplace learning scenario-based e-learning example.

I have had some experience in both analyzing e-learning objects, as well as conducting ID reviews in the past, as one of the classes I had taken with UC Irvine was meant to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of several popular e-learning tools. I was able to apply the critical thinking skills used in the UC Irvine class to this week's assignment.

For the workplace learning scenario-based e-learning example, I found a branching scenario called "Patient Management". In the scenario, you are in your third and final interview to become a physician's assistant at a hospital. During your third interview you have been "thrown to the wolves" and are asked to analyze, diagnose, and treat multiple patients.

Please find below a complete e-Learning analysis, assessment, and ID review of "Patient Management".

References:

Clark, R. C. (2013). Scenario-based e-learning: Evidence-based guidelines for online workforce learning. Pfeiffer.

Week Three: Branching vs linear scenarios - care about your audience and know the difference!

Publish date: 6.19.22

Over the past several years, I have taken a significant amount of online courses (both academically and professionally), which has given me a lot of time to review each module internally. To sum up my experience, there are many mediocre, linear design scenarios out there. Whether it be for a past university class, or a mandatory e-learning video showing me how to do a job task, I have generally experienced the same format repeatedly:

1.) Learn material

2.) Show competency by taking a test

3.) Repeat

I cannot recall ever being introduced to a branching scenario e-learning module, much less a mobile-friendly branching scenario. My e-learning experience thus far stems from sitting in an office or at home at a desk or a computer and completing similarly engineered modules. I was always able to learn the material, but it became apparent that keeping me engaged wasn't a high priority of the designers.

Let's take a step back and review what branching vs. linear scenarios are and the pros and cons of each one. Please see below a simple graphic I created to explain these concepts further.

To further review branching scenarios, this week, we participated in a brief, 10-minute module on how to have a crucial conversation with an employee from a manager's point of view. Throughout the module, several instances tested whether or not we (the learner) were following the "STATE Strategy," a strategy that guided a resource found within the module. Once the learner has finished the module, an overview of each option is provided, giving the learner either insight as to how they could have better handled the situation or an explanation as to why the answer they had chosen was correct.

To further review this module, I also tested it on multiple devices, ensuring it was appropriately accessible to a wider variety of learners. I was happy to find out that I could complete the e-learning module as easily on my phone as on my laptop. The interface is suitable for both as it is relatively simplistic. Learners only need to click the appropriate box to submit their answers.

References:

Malamed, C. (2013). Ideas for Designing Nonlinear eLearning. The eLearning Coach.

https://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/designing-nonlinear-elearning/

North, C. (2022, June 11). Module 3 Lecture [Video]. Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAUPPl4zGz0

Snegirev, S. (2017, Jan 5). The Branching Scenario Method: Linear Vs. Non-Linear Branching Scenarios. eLearning Industry.

https://elearningindustry.com/branching-scenario-method-linear-non-linear-branching-scenarios

Transperfect (n,d.). Branching Scenarios in E-Learning: What you need to know. Transperfect.

https://www.transperfect.com/blog/learning/branching-scenarios-e-learning-what-you-need-know#:~:text=Branching%20scenarios%20are%20an%20interactive,new%20situations%20and%20new%20choices.

Week Two: Let's get this party started! Publish date: 6.11.22

OPW: 551 is my second class within the OPWL program, and I am excited to dig deep into Instructional Design!

Today we will focus on reviewing and defining various information typically found in design document templates, as stated by the famous Ruth Clark. I found our readings incredibly helpful as I have had minimal experience creating design documents and writing out instructional design documentation sans one online class within UC Irvine's e-Learning Instructional Design certification program.

Here's just a sample of what we've learned...

Click here to view the Blue Beta Facilities orientation module, which will serve as the basis of the rest of this post.

Upon further review, we can see...

• The overall purpose (topic) of the module is to provide a new employee of Blue Beta Inc. with an informative orientation learning module

• Inferred relevant characteristics of the target learner audience include employees who are currently in the process of being onboarded, who additionally plan to work in the office (rather than remote)

• To complete this module, the learner will not need any prior knowledge or need specific skill sets

• The learning domain presented would fall under "Compliance: Policies and Procedures" as "the major emphasis is on the appropriate application of policies" (Clark & Mayer, 2012)

• There is one assessment method that consists of a single five-question test at the end of the module

• A pretty classic, albeit generic, method of "begin this course by clicking "start here" is utilized

• The learner knows what to do next by following the down arrow or utilizing the entire lesson plan via a drop-down menu (check out the images below for a quick look at these features!)

• There are no advisor types provided, most likely due to the simplicity of the module

References:

Clark, R. C. (2013). Scenario-based e-learning: Evidence-based guidelines for online workforce learning. Pfeiffer.