Sub-Badge 2: Design a plan for dissemination and diffusion of instructional and non-instructional interventions

Challenge 1: Create a vision of change that aligns learning and performance goals with organizational goals 

Criteria for successful completion of this challenge: Evidence of a vision change/creation that aligns with learning goals, performance goals, and/or organizational goals (e.g., big picture, company standards, etc.). Reflection must address: How did you arrive at your redesign (i.e., new vision and interventions) and how it aligns with learning goals, performance goals and/or organizational goals–consider the dialogue and negotiation needs that were considered in the planning process during this vision of change?

Examples:  include but are not limited to:

• EDCI 528 – Solutions & Change Management 

• EDCI 564 – Final Project

• EDCI 573 – Full proposal and artifacts from practicum

• EDCI 633 – Project foundations case analysis

• EDCI 672 – Case analysis

Reflection

Paul Lindley Case Analysis (Japanese Internment Camp Game)

This competency and challenge centers around “creating a vision of change that aligns learning and performance goals with organizational goals.” The artifact I have chosen to showcase my competency in this area is the Paul Lindley/Japanese Internment Camp Game Case Analysis I wrote in EDCI 672. This case analysis, in particular, does a good job of envisioning the change necessary to take a basic idea from a stakeholder (Principal Bob) and identify a reasonable solution that aligns learning and organizational goals (i.e. meeting state and federal educational standards for social studies) with performance goals (Principal Bob’s and the teachers’ directives for the game’s design and development).

Instructional Designers need to have creative and critical thinking skills. They must be able to envision tangible possibilities and identify the steps necessary to achieve the goals and needs of their stakeholders, even when they do not have expert-level understanding of a topic, concept, or project. Because Instructional Designers ultimately end up working on a large spectrum of projects, and must be able to adapt their critical and creative thinking skills to various stakeholders’ and organizational goals, it is of the utmost importance that they can competently create a vision of change that aligns with diverse objectives and goals. In this case analysis, it was necessary to fully understand the various stakeholders’ objectives and goals, which were then streamlined into an understanding of their directives for design. This was further refined through research into gaming types, which led to identifying two reasonable options for design. From here, I further narrowed the options into one well-thought-out design (a time travel-themed, first person POV game) that incorporated a vision of change that would ensure the kernel of an idea from the primary stakeholder (Principal Bob) could come to fruition in order to meet all stakeholders’ needs. What started out as Principal Bob’s Japanese Internment Camp baseball game learning module turned into an interactive game, with a time-travel and VR-based theme, that was both motivating for learners and historically accurate along state and federal social studies standards.

My prior knowledge in understanding learning outcomes assisted me in the creation of this Case Analysis artifact. Because of my background in higher education, I have written learning outcomes, I have had to use learning outcomes that were written for me, and I have had to understand and incorporate the accomplishment of organizational goals and outcomes for an institution’s accreditation standards. With this background, I was able to easily understand how to apply my prior knowledge to the stakeholders’ needs in this case. This was especially relevant in making sure that the teachers’ directives about the content meeting state and federal standards for high school social studies was incorporated into the vision of change. In my professional life, I have used these skills on several occasions, including one very important instructional design project where I had to draft learning outcomes for the writing center I was directing, design an assessment plan, and deploy an assessment plan—all to validate the existence of the writing center based on the Higher Learning Commission’s accreditation standards for co-curricular academic programs. During this project, I had to envision the changes that needed to take place and design the steps to get there. I definitely utilized this prior knowledge in my approach to the creation of the artifact I present here for this instructional design competency, and I am pleased with my ability to build on these skills through this case analysis.

This artifact works well for this challenge because it walks the reader through the entire thought process that went into creating a vision of change that would accomplish stakeholders’ outcomes and organizational outcomes (especially if we consider accomplishing state/federal standards as the broader stakeholder involved). I learned a lot from this experience because it allowed me to take knowledge I already had and apply it in a new way. I have never attempted to design a video game, and I have never designed an assignment or module on Japanese Internment Camps in the US either, so it was actually quite a rewarding experience to take my existing critical and creative thinking skills and come up with a valuable and reasonable approach to solving the design problem presented in the case study. From this experience, I will take several things: first, my comfort level working on projects outside of my scope of expertise is much improved; and second, my confidence in my ability to holistically approach a complex problem is bolstered by the positive feedback I received from the professor on this assignment (and the other case analyses I completed in EDCI 672, all of which validate this competency as well). I will continue developing this competency in my future work by being open to learning and to not shying away from projects and topics that are new to me. I feel that my confidence has grown as an instructional designer as a result of this due to the completely novel nature of the project. Lastly, as a result of this project (and the other case studies in EDCI 672), I know that I can seek out other technical stakeholders (e.g. game developers or other software design engineers) who can help me develop these design ideas into realities. This case study has helped me to see that I can design a video game that meets stakeholders’ standards, and I now am more confident in taking the next step in terms of finding the experts who can help me actually develop it.

Artifact 

Case Analysis showcasing all aspects of this competency have been met.