Reflecting on Design

Performance requirements are not as challenging as they appear.  Performance requirements are developed from information collected during the project analysis. In fact, most of the information will come from your TA and TRA. Performance requirements contain three important elements (OPWL Instructors, 2020, pg. 163):

1. What the learner will be able to do in the workplace.

2. The circumstances under which the learners will be expected to complete the specified performance in the workplace.

3. The standard that defines acceptable performance of the behavior on the job.

By developing performance requirements, you will be able use them to help develop your performance assessment and job aid.

My team found that creating the performance requirements before the Job Aid and PAI was very helpful. Having this information all in one place as we moved on to create new deliverables was one of the major benefits. We were able to use the information from the PR to outline and develop both our JA and PAI, specifically the assessment checklist. The image to the right, shows a portion of our PR.

Determining the mastery skill level of a performance can be challenging and take time. “Mastery level refers to how many times or at what level the learner must perform criteria to be judged successful” (OPWL Instructors, 2020, pg. 193). This decision cannot be made solely by the ID team. So, it is important that you collaborate with your client to determine what they view as mastery level for their organization. Then you can work with your client to determine what is the passing score on the assessment and how many trials will be needed. Discussing this with the client will also help you determine what the remedial action will be if someone fails and ensure the organization can support the remediation moving forward.  

Initially our team tried to work through the exercise of determining mastery with our client via email because she was on vacation. Although the client was helpful, we ultimately needed to have a meeting with the client to a discuss this topic and brainstorm out loud. Having a live meeting is much more effective so the client clearly understands what you are looking for and the ID team listens to the client describe the performance. Through this collaboration, we are able to make a decision and determine what is the mastery level of performance. The image to the right, shows an example of how we described mastery skill and the remediation from the PAI.

Determining how the JA will be used by the performer is critical when determining the type of JA to develop. Not all JAs are the same. JAs can come in many different styles to include reminders, checklists, steps, or worksheets. Each JA has a different purpose, so it is important to know why and how your performer will use the JA. Determining the use of the JA should be done during the analysis phase, but determining the design will require client and ID collaboration during the design phase.

By collaborating with our client, we determined that the performers for this performance would need something to ensure they knew the sequence of steps and how to perform them. Therefore, our team identified a step-by-step format as the most appropriate format. A step-by-step format “Provides step-by-step instructions to complete a procedure or process.” (OPWL Instructors, 2020, pg. 141). During our learner analysis, we also identified that the learners like to have documents that incorporate visuals they could relate too. Therefore, we used actual pictures from their worksite in the job aid. The image to the right, an example of how the first few steps.

My Ah-Ha moment was when our team decided what tool we would use for developing our JA. It was a process. Initially, our team decided to use Canva as our development tool. We all have had experience using Canva so we eager to get started. As we started to use Canva, we immediately had issues. The formatting was very challenging, creating difficulties as we tried to create something that would be user friendly. As a team we asked ourselves, why are we not using PowerPoint or Word? We all agreed Canva was not the right tool.

After this Ah-Ha moment, we shifted our efforts to PowerPoint and things were going much smoother. But due to the nature of this job aid and the tasks, PowerPoint still was not the easiest tool either. So, we shifted again to Microsoft Word and everything started to come together. Formatting was much easier and we were able to capture what we had all envisioned. We also have a great formatter on our team!

While Canva is a great tool with so many graphic options and capabilities, it is not always the easiest or best option. We chose to “work smarter, not harder!”

The Oh-No moment, was finding out our client would be out of town on vacation for two weeks. This could impact our collaboration and overall project timelines. Our client graciously offered to continue meeting during her vacation and responded to all of our email. However, as a team, we decided we could address most of our concerns via email and we would only have a meeting if absolutely necessary. This worked out ok. Our team had done a great job at taking notes during data gathering so we were able to mine the data we had collected to develop the PR, PAI, and JA. We sent very intentional emails to collect any outstanding information and the client was very responsive. Additionally, we will be meeting with our client right when she returns to answer any remaining questions and discuss some of the products we have developed. This was a great learning experience for real situations that will happen in the workplace.