Learning Goal #2:
Employs appropriate models for design and development of instruction, learning environments, and/or human performance improvement interventions.
Design and Development
Garrett’s User Experience Model
IT 486, Web Design for Instructions, was the first course I took in the Masters of Education program. From the title, I assumed it would be a simple class since I have been designing web pages for about 12 years as part of my job and outside my job. That was not the case. My initial design for a web site guiding the user through the process of how to make an online lecture using various software. While technically the website was functional, Dr. Thomeczek did note that my site was more informational than instructional. The problem I faced was that I was looking at it from a structural design point of view, not an instructional point of view.
For most websites that I have developed, I have used a modified ADDIE system – analyze, design, develop, implement, evaluate. I would analyze, design and develop what I believed the client wanted. If I had applied Jesse James Garrett’s User Experience Model to my IT 486 project, I would not have concentrated on the look of the website initially but more about how the user was planning to use the website for instruction. 
In the Garrett’s model, the first Plane is the Strategy Plane where we begin in the abstract by understanding the strategy of the site, or in other words, what the user wants to get out of the site. My initial idea for my IT 486 website was to lead users through steps to determine what type of online lecture they wanted to create, and then give them the instructions on how to create it. If I followed Garrett’s model, I would have spent more time on this step to determine what information users might want on the site and how they would use the site. I based my assumptions on what the user wanted by what I would want from a site like this. I did no research into what the actual users might want. My website would have benefitted by my talking to faculty about their needs creating online lectures and using that information to develop the website.
In the next plane in Garrett’s model is the Scope Plane where we decide not only the functioning part of the website, but the content. In my IT 486 website, I immediately started to design the navigation and links, but did not give a lot of thought as to the overall picture of the website and how the user would flow from one section to the next. I also did not consider the content as being part of this section of the project. My website would have benefitted by Garrett’s model because I would have designed the content to be more instructional and less informational. I added it after I designed the pages not designed the pages to fit the content. Designing web pages for my job usually only consists of putting content provided by the faculty into usable web pages, so having to develop the content with usable feature was a struggle for me.
The Structure Plane of Garrett’s model was the easiest part of the IT 486 website for me since I am used to creating step-by-step instructions for tutorials through my job. However, Garrett’s model splits the structure into the physical design and the informational design. For the physical design, I used the Step 1, Step 2… process with corresponding links for each step. If I had followed Garrett’s model, I would have structured the content a little differently. Rather than organizing the steps first and listing the category types, (audio, slides with audio, and video) of recording within each step, I would have selected one category, and created three separate but parallel sections of the website. I was thinking of the structure of the web page rather than the structure that the learner would more easily follow.
In the Skeleton Plane of Garrett’s model is where the physical design of the navigation and interface takes place. Having basically skipped over the Scope Plane and Structure Plane and jumped right into the Skeleton Plane of the design, I found that I had lost the instructional side of the website and was left with information. I tried to redesign one segment with the necessary step-by-step instruction but I should have incorporated that throughout the site. I immediately began working on the physical design before thinking about how the design was going to look.
The final Plane in Garrett’s model is the Surface Plane, how the whole site will look. This plane includes colors, images, and effects. Once I determined what my site would be about, I started with Garrett’s final plane rather than leaving the “decorations” until last. Being a visual person, I automatically think of how a page will look with navigation and layout first and fit the content in last. This is not a practical way to design a web page. Comparing it to the house metaphor, it would be like adding landscaping before the walls have been built. It can be done, but after the construction of the wall, you will probably have to re-plant the landscaping.
Morrison, Ross, Kalman & Kemp Model
In IT 510, I learned about Morrison’s Instructional Design model (Morrison, 2011). This model is circular rather than linear because not every project starts at the beginning of a model and some projects do not need all the steps (p. vii). While my final project did follow the outline in Morrison’s textbook, I’ve used this model for other tutorials. In IT 597, my Studio 2 project was to create a tutorial for the image database software, Gallery. I used Morrison’s model but did not follow the prescribed model exactly as it was written. I eliminated the steps of Identifying the Problem (need to learn the software) and Learner Characteristics (SIUE Faculty and students). There was not really a need to spend much time on these two steps of the model since the problem was identified by the need of the tutorial and the learners were identified by the specific population who would use the tutorial. I considered the Task Analysis and the Content Sequencing as the step by step process of the software. In the tutorials, I concentrated on the Instructional Strategies, Designing the Message, Development of the Instructions and Evaluation Instruments.
The Instructional Strategies was one that I had not concentrated on before. I want the learners to know how to use the Gallery software, so I needed to know that I was creating an instruction design that would achieve this goal. A tutorial falls squarely in the procedure strategy as described by Morrison (2011), but I wanted the learner to do more than recall the procedure so my Generative Strategy would be for the learner to actually preform the action. In my tutorials, I demonstrated how to upload an image file. The Captivate software has the ability to create a guided practice tutorial where the user can demonstrate that user has learned the steps by first observing the steps in the video and then repeating the steps by clicking and filling in the blanks on the screen.
In the past, designing the message of the lesson was the part I always began with so the design came easy to me. From past experience, it is important to design a message with the most basic terminology and simple, rather than complex steps. For example, it would be very easy to create one tutorial to cover the login, create folders and upload pictures to Gallery, and some people would be able to follow and comprehend a longer tutorial. However, breaking the tutorials up into simpler segment, users that have less technical abilities have are afforded the opportunity to go back and review before moving on to the next step and take each section into smaller, more manageable parts.
Developing the instructions for a tutorial is another area that I have experience in. Using Morrison’s model, separating the designing the message and developing the instructions forced me to actually separate the two. The message is what you want the learner to receive and the instructions are how the learner will receive the message. I always considered them one and the same. When developing the instructions, decisions have to be made based on your learner characteristics. Will the user have access to a computer? Would the user prefer to read the instructions from paper rather than a computer screen? For this project I opted to use multimedia playback created with the Captivate software. Knowing that if the user wanted to use the Gallery software, the user would have to have access to a computer. I also wanted to use the guided practice function of Captivate so that the user has the ability to try the steps.
For Evaluation of the Learning step, feedback is used to correct errors in performance. As the learner preforms the steps to upload an image file, if they clicked the wrong link or typed in the wrong text, the learner would get a reminder of the correct steps. This feedback is a way to let the learner know they performed the wrong procedure and how to correct it. Summative Evaluation was performed after the learner completed the tutorial. I included at the end a “quick quiz,” such as: “True or False: The album will not have a cover image until the first image is uploaded.” This would test the learner’s recall of an important fact that included in the tutorial. For the Formative Evaluation, I asked several colleagues to review the tutorials for content, flow and user ability. My colleagues included the Gallery Administrator and colleagues that have never used the software. From this feedback, I was able to tweak the speed of the tutorials and correct an error. This type of feedback is extremely important to get “a second set of eyes” on a product for improvement before it is release to the general public. I regret not being able to Confirmative Evaluation as we have not implemented these tutorials to the general public yet. Confirmative Evaluation will provide me with real use date from a wider user pool and will confirm the effectiveness of the tutorials.
Designing e-Learning
Designing e-Learning, according to William Horton, involves not only good instructional design, but also good development of the course (Horton, 2006). He describes activities to be include in the e-learning as absorb-type, do-type, connect-type, and tests. Absorb- and do-type of activities are Behavioralistic such as repeating facts or actions as they are learned. Connect-type of activities are Cognitivist or Constructive activities such as research activities, original writings, brainstorming activities. Tests are summative evaluation to determine whether learning has occurred.
In "Distance Learning: A Systems View of Online Learning," Michael Moore and Greg Kearsley (2011) go one step further than Horton when they suggest that good distance learning should involve a team, rather than one person designing a course. The team includes the content expert(s), instructional designer(s), production (web page, multimedia, etc.) and a project manager. Horton and Moore & Kearsley have similar thoughts that the designing instruction is more than the structure of the course and it is more than content. A good design includes authentic activities to engage the learner. Good communication between instructor-student and student-student, especially in distance learning is critical for a successful course.
In my job, I meet with faculty as they prepare to transition traditional course to the online format. Not only do I look at the tools that the faulty want to use, but I look at how they want to use the tools. I encourage faculty to look toward activities other than reading a textbook and assessments other than tests. Cognitive activities such as applying the readings to a real life situation and constructive activities such as group presentations are more meaningful to the students. Faculty are the subject matter experts and I am the instructional design expert. We work as a team to create the best possible online experience for them and for the students.
In my IT 540 project, Becoming an Online Instructor, I included a variety of absorb-type activities such as reading an article about Myths About Online Teaching. From that activity, the learner will complete a connect-type activity using the Discussion Board where they reflect about what they read, whether they agree with the author or not, do any of the myths surprise them, etc. This reflection forces the learner to think about what they read and about how it affects their teaching. The discussion between students is a way for the students to interact and collaborate with each other, bringing new ideas and real life experiences to the class. For my IT 598 Final Project, I am expanding my IT 540 project from one lesson to the entire course, I will use the expertise of my colleagues as my content experts, my skills learned during this program as the instructional designer and other colleagues as production experts.
References:
Garrett, Jesse James. (2003). The elements of user experience. Indianapolis : New Riders.
Horton, William. (2006). E-learning by design. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Million, Laura. Assignment in IT 486, (2010). Creating Online Lectures, http://www.siue.edu/~lmillio/IT486/
Million, Laura. Assignment in IT 540, (2012). IT_540_course.jpg
Million, Laura. Assignment in IT 597, (2012). http://www.siue.edu/its/bb/multimedia/gallery_upload1image.swf
Moore, M. and Kearsley, G. (2011), Distance Education: A Systems View of Online Learning (3rd edition). Wadsworth Publishing.
Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2011). Designing effective instruction (1st Ed.), San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.