In LDT 670, I collaborated with clients to create a learning solution from scratch. I served as a learning designer at Waen Design Co. (WDC) in charge of all design, development, and project management processes. I applied Learning Design Thinking, following the ADDIE with other learning models. 

The final deliverable is a self-paced online course for Community Engagement, which I have learned on the job in my past positions, so I took a chance to bring it all together as a consultancy project. 

    Course Type

The three modules guide learners with the step-by-step process and model cases to find key components in their community and plan long and short-term engagements. With the knowledge acquired in the first two modules, the learner will apply it in project-based learning, followed by reflection in the third module. 

Client feedback process

I acknowledge the time spent reviewing and providing feedback is precious. Before sending the Design Document to the client, I wrote a workflow to effectively collect the most useful feedback.

1.  I estimated the review would take about 30 minutes. Although the Design Document reading time turned out to be 25+ minutes, the document contained the information from the previous State of Work document. I needed to ask my client to focus on the section where her feedback was most helpful.

2. I explained that this was a working draft and specified what I was looking for from her feedback.

3.  I listed up the three questions consisting of two specific and one open question and pasted them in the email and in the comments on the document to draw her attention to get to these points quickly. In the document, I added an open space to write in any feedback if needed.

4. I estimated a week to receive her feedback. I requested her earlier in the week, and after six days, I received her feedback.

Tips

• Estimate the turnaround and communicate the specific date to the client/SME. Bake in a few buffer dates and stay on top of the project schedule.

•  Requesting feedback from clients takes place frequently. Keep the email and questions as a template. 

• Remember—Clients don’t respond in a reasonable time for many reasons, especially during summer break and holiday seasons. When the schedule is tight, plan ahead and have a plan B.

Challenges & Solutions - Scripts

Soon after I requested the client feedback, I started to script the content following the outline, with learning objectives and a module structure I mapped out on Miro, roughly following ADDIE, David & Carey, and Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. However, I struggled to draft scripts because A) I needed to see the vision of the course in a tangible way. B) I also needed to feel learners’ engagement at the granular level.

A)      For the visual, I started to build the module structure and sample pages in Canvas LMS to see how much of the script would be appropriate on one page with relevant multimedia elements.

B)      For the granular level engagement, I looked back at a couple of learning models that might provide me with a guide. I looked into Merrill’s First Principle of Instruction, offering a problem-centered approach with scaffolding with action verbs. When I laid out the existing elements of Merrill’s Principle, I started to see how I could navigate learners throughout the course.

The revision of the Design Document with Merrill’s Principle occurred after submitting the design document to my client. Although the revision didn’t change much of the structure, the action verbs guided me to focus on the intended actions for each unit while writing the script.

In the end

Designing and developing the course entirely by myself while navigating my client and SME demanded more skills and time than I previously identified. Even though I’m not sure how long it will take to gain the skill, I had to stretch and set a time to learn the basics to accomplish the task. My strategy was that after gaining the basics, I put my hands on a First Stormy Draft, which was not a satisfactory level, but at least the first barrier of procrastination was removed. Then, I looked for more tutorials to make the first draft a little closer to the ideal outcome. Repeating this process eventually produced templates that I can keep and reuse later.