Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

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Terminology Tuesday: ADDIE

Within the realm of Instructional Design, the term ADDIE is often tossed around; Love it or hate it, it looks like ADDIE will be around for awhile, so you might as well brush up on your terminology! Some folks may wonder what ADDIE stands for, and for those folks – here you go!

ADDIE is an acronym used to encompass an Instructional Design model of: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. Love it or hate it, if you work within the teaching and learning industry, you will become quite friendly with these terms as most Instructional Design models tend to be some variation of the ADDIE model. Below I will further breakdown each ‘step’ in the ADDIE model:

Analysis – Analysis is the highest level of course development. In it’s recommended format, this phase seeks to compile all information relevant to the project and 1) determine which delivery method will best display the content in a meaningful manner, (2) whether more information is required and from whom, and (3) high-level project goals.

Design – Within the design phase, the Instructional Designer will take information compiled in the Analysis phase and will outline (typically in design documentation) how the learner will learn the content. This often includes the specification of learning objectives, determination of instructional strategies, task analysis. At this point, some clients may also wish to have assessment items specified, instructional tasks further broken down into a task analysis, or high-level media descriptions.

Development – This phase involves the Instructional Designer taking the information outlined in the Design phase and putting it into practice. What do I mean by that? Well. This is where all of the content creation will occur and may include storyboards, media development and implementation, assessment item development and implementation, authoring, and/or rapid prototyping, just to name a few. Few Instructional Designer (in larger organizations at least) get down and dirty within the Analysis and Design phases, but all Instructional Designers gain experience within the Development phase. This is my favourite phase!

Implementation – Once the content has been developed, the Instructional Designer will implement the course. This may mean exporting it to a SCORM package for installation on a client’s Learning Management System (LMS) of preference or delivering the course as a complete package. This is where all of the testing occurs, as it is important to ensure that the developed product functions in the manner necessary to achieve the client’s project requirements.

Evaluation – Finally, the evaluation phase seeks to determine whether the developed product achieves the project goals specified in the Analysis and Design phases. Does the product facilitate learning in the manner for which it was intended? Can the learners achieve the outlined learning goals? Once evaluation has been completed, Instructional Designers may be required to further revise the product, as specified by the client.

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3 Ways of Enhancing Critical Dialogue in Online Courses

This week I stumbled upon a position paper titled Digital Critical Dialogue: A Process for Implementing Transformative Discussion Practices within Online Courses in Higher Education, by Jason T. Hilton, and coming across this article happened at a good time. Right now I am working to develop a model course structure as an introduction to teaching online, and the article prompted me to really consider my suggestions for enhancing discussion practices. Albeit, they may not be as transformative as Paulo Freire intended – I would just like if faculty members leveraged the technology available to create critical dialogue within their online courses. Additionally, B-School has taught me a thing or two about critical dialogue, and I think I can marry these two resources to develop a fairly comprehensive suggestion list for enhancing critical dialogue in online courses, specifically within higher education.

  1. USE YOUR FORUMS! – And by this, I do not mean just using your forums. Use them responsibly! You should build discussion posting requirements into your course outline. For example, adding a 5-10% participation mark that is awarded based on 1 unique post (usually to a question posed by the instructor) and 2+ responses to peer posts. Quality can be rated based on criticality of the dialogue – “Great post!” is not a quality response to a peer post – I’m sorry. Right now I am seeing many green professors grading based on participation, but while the forum is present in their course, they’re grading students based on attendance in VOIP sessions, and in online courses, it’s not always possible for students to attend all VOIP sessions – there’s usually a reason students are taking online courses.
  2. Assign group work – Most students aren’t a huge fan of group work; I certainly wasn’t – I preferred to go it alone and not have to rely on others for part of my grade. However, group work, when structured properly (more on this in a moment), can create critical dialogue by inciting a collaborative approach to learning. What do I mean by ‘structured properly’? Well – Create group environments (e.g. forums specific to only group members) where individuals can discuss aspects of the assignment amongst themselves. Within the assignment specifications, dictate that students must respond (usually at a minimum of 500 words) to each group member’s submission and indicate that there will be peer evaluations – doing this may enhance honesty and integrity, allowing students to understand that not only will their cooperation within the group be graded by the instructor, but also by their group members.
  3. Use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – Most institutions have some form of VOIP (e.g. Collaborate or Adobe Connect); you should leverage these technologies for two main reason – 1) to provide students with a variation of traditional face-to-face learning, which is critical for students who prefer this type of learning, but are hindered in their ability to commit to a physical classroom, and 2) to enhance critical discussion by allowing students to critique one another or ask questions within a more traditional style lecture. I have found these sessions to be incredibly effective when used as a forum for oral presentations. As a student who hated giving oral presentations, VOIP sessions allowed me to hone my speaking prowess, while reducing my associated anxiety.

Other ways of enhancing critical dialogue may be through the implementation of Learning Management System (LMS) database functionality (e.g. students may upload material, view peer uploaded material, and comment on peer uploaded material), allowing students to use blogs or curate wikis, and assigning annotated bibliographies (less of a focus on collaborating with peers, and more of a focus on critically considering the literature).

In any event, you don’t want to create page-turner courses, especially in higher education – you want to show of the passion of your discipline and perhaps make students passionate and engaged with their studies. While many instructors may be resistant (or afraid) to changing their teaching methods, it is essential to understand the technologies available for leveraging your online courses and engaging your students, especially with students coming from a digital age. If you’re afraid of technology, as your resident Instructional Designer or Ask Me – I would love to help!

Follow these tips, and I’ll be a very happy gal!

 

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E-Learning Challenge #27: Visual Storytelling with Photo Collages

The goal of this week’s challenge was to create a visual story using photo collages as a means of moving away from the urge to display slides and slides of bullets within your e-learning modules.

The Concept

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon this article by the CVU, outlining the state of online university education in Canada, and it really struck a chord with me. As someone who is extremely passionate about Instructional Design and increasing accessibility, it seemed baffling that we could be lagging so far behind other countries. However, after since working for a university, I have a bit more context into the why of how things are – you can’t really force professors to put their courses online, you can only provide them with gentle encouragement. In any event, I thought it was important to disseminate the information in this report, so I did it once in a paper for graduate school, and I did it again within this challenge.

The Method

I thought an infographic-style of approach would best display the statistics I wanted to illustrate, so I downloaded and cropped the infographic elements in Adobe Illustrator, imported them into Storyline and organized them appropriately.

Then, I added a layer for every element, and applied hotspots on the base layer so that when the user hovered over each element, the appropriate statistics would display. When the user moves their mouse away from the element, the base layer returns to its original state.

While not a traditional infographic and not the most attractively organized (Hey! I’m not a graphic designer!), I was happy with the end result.

The Result

Infographic_Large

To view the complete interaction, click here.

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Terminology Tuesday: Storyboarding and Rapid Prototyping

Alright, folks! I’ve got a new feature – Terminology Tuesday. As someone with a background in Linguistics, this is clearly up my alley, but it should be up yours too! Why?! Two reasons: 1 – As Instructional Designers, it is important to be able to define the terms you will be working with on a frequent basis so that you can properly explain these terms to a client instead of fakin’ it til’ you make it; 2 – As a potential client, I want to know that the cash I’m shelling out is going to something productive and meaningful to my project.

This week we’ll be discussing Storyboards and Rapid Prototyping.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a process wherein a sequence for the product is laid out visually or textually. You may be most familiar with this term as it applies to animations – where the story is depicted scene by scene prior to development.

Within Instructional Design, storyboarding lays out the course or module to indicate screens, topics, teaching points, onscreen text, and media descriptions. There are many variations; however, the previously mentioned elements are most commonly represented within the storyboard. Other elements may include audio narration, assessment items, filenames for media assets, source or reference images, or screenshots exemplifying the anticipated media asset or screen to be developed.

Pros: Allows the Instructional Designer to organize the content and provides an encompassing document which may be reviewed prior to entry into an authoring environment.

Cons: Is an extra step in the development process and may be considered an unnecessary expense by clients or as storyboards do not depict the finished product, reviewers may have difficulty reviewing content as they cannot contextualize the content without seeing the final product (this is typically an issue for visual learners). Storyboarding can also hinder the ability to adequately convey branching scenarios.

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is a process wherein the Instructional Designer takes the content and commits it to the chosen authoring environment to develop a prototype of the final deliverable/product. Here, reviewers can assess the prototype, visually, and propose revisions prior to the delivery of the final product.

Pros: Provides reviewers with added visual context, limits time spent developing paper-based models (e.g. storyboards), and may reduce review and revision cycles.

Cons: Rapid prototyping may not be ideal for projects developing complex interactions, as these projects may result in length review and revision cycles until the ideal design has been achieved, holding up production of future courses or modules.

Both approaches have clear advantages and disadvantages, and as an Instructional Designer, it is your responsibility to assess the content and guide your client toward an appropriate approach, based upon the client’s project requirements, scope, and budget.

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My SME and Me

I cannot tell you how long I have been wanting to write this post – years. I’m sure a musical will follow shortly…After reading an insightful article by fellow Instructional Designer, Nicole Mellas, entitled 3 Steps to Get MORE out of Subject Matter Expert (SME) Interviews, I was prompted to share my tips and experiences.

Dealing with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can be tricky. Often times, they have trouble placing themselves in the shoes of their audience and/or Instructional Designer, and on particularly frustrating days where communication has come to a standstill, I call this relationship “My SME and Me.” In the darkest moments (re: sobbing over my keyboard), it renews my faith in humanity.

As Instructional Designers it is our job to figure out how to communicate effectively with our SMEs. Effectively in the sense that you get clear (or somewhat clear) answers to the questions you have in order to ensure the most accurate content, and you do this in an efficient manner. The phrase ‘time is money’ is a very accurate one in this respect. There are often many other tasks that you could devote your time and effort to in the instructional development process, so it is critical to be able to streamline the approach you take when it comes to communicating with your SME. Another phrase I’ve come to appreciate in recent weeks – “Everything is figureoutable” – Marie Forleo – allows me to recognize that each SME is their own person and as such, they are entitled to their own manner of communicating and disseminating information and the Instructional Designer will eventually figure out how best to communicate with that particular person.

When I reflect on my annual performance, I often cite communicating with SMEs as one of my greatest challenges. While I still consider this task challenging, I walk into my SME interactions with a different attitude – one that appreciates where the SME is coming from and their area of expertise – they’re a SME for a reason, after all. This is step one.

Go into your SME interactions prepared. Pinpoint the specific content areas you want to discuss in an agenda, that you submit to the SME ahead of time, and bring relevant reference material to the meeting (or include it in the agenda email) – this will help streamline your meeting by giving the SME an opportunity to prepare themselves ahead of time.

Always keep your eye on the prize. The prize is engaging, accurate content or copy, and you need to steer the ship of conversation! If your SME begins to go off on a tangent, diplomatically get them in check, and proceed with your agenda (e.g. “That’s an incredible story about how you built the rocket, but could you tell me more about how to launch the rocket?”). Accurate content is essential for many training programs. I would say all, but something like soft skills training may be more subjective than something more specific like air traffic control training. It is imperative that you keep your SME on point.

Finally, respect your SME. When you are especially frustrated and feel like you’ve talked circles around yourself, always be polite and ensure you are respectful to your SME. In many industries, you will likely have to interact with this individual again, and not burning bridges will go a long way in your next interaction.

To summarize, my tips for successful SME interactions are:

  1. Get your attitude in check
  2. Come prepared
  3. Keep the content in mind
  4. Direct your SME and keep them on point
  5. Respect your SME and build rapport

What have your SME experiences been like? Have you experienced cases of My SME and Me?

6 Running Must-Haves

Not too long ago I mentioned that I had registered for the Bluenose Half Marathon. I ran this race last year, and really enjoyed the course, so I registered as a motivator to get out and ramp up my running again.

At the end of summer I had a nasty running injury. After several x-rays and being checked out by an orthopeadic surgeon who specializes in running-related injuries, I found out that I have pes cavus (my arches do not look as extreme as the wiki photo). What does this mean? Well. For me it means that I often experience metatarsal pain after running, no matter how much stretching or post-running care I attempt. Initially I thought it was a shoe issue, but my surgeon told me that no matter which shoes I purchase or which gimmicks I try out, I will just need to find ways of managing the pain and impact if I want to continue running. Now that my foot no longer throbs and I’ve registered for the half, I’m trying to get my butt in gear and get ready for the race. What better inspiration than to share my favourite running items?!

 

Running Must Haves

From top to bottom, left to right:

Lululemon Wunder Under Crops – These are my all time favourite workout pants. They keep everything feeling secure and have a gusset, which is CRITICAL when purchasing any tight-fitting pant.

Nike Free Run+ 2.0 – This particular style of the Nike Free Run is my favourite and has since been discontinued. None of the newer versions have fit quite as well, so I’m guilt of having ordered several pairs off eBay. Typically, I fit into a size 5 shoe, which in our city is near impossible to find in a woman’s shoe. Most sneaker retailers in our area offer size 6 as the smallest size, and kids shoes won’t cut it for long distance running. I find the size 6 in this style of shoe to fit me particularly well. I never feel like they’re too loose, and they’re extremely lightweight and flexible.

Lululemon Power Y Tank – There are few things I purchase from Lululemon, but they make a pretty good (and affordable) workout tank top. I have a few different styles, but the Power Y is my all-time favourite. It doesn’t ride up into my armpits, and the shelf bra offers enough support for my purposes.

GapFit Breathe Long Sleeve – This is a fantastic lightweight long sleeve that I love wearing on my runs. It isn’t too heavy and it’s breathable, so sweating doesn’t get uncomfortable. I often toss this over my tank top when I’m on the way to the gym, or will wear it at the beginning of a race if it’s a bit chilly to start.

Nike+ Running App – I’ve only recently begun to use this app, but I’ve been enjoying it so far. I like that it starts within seconds and I don’t have to wait as long for my GPS to configure. The battery life is dependent on my iPhone, so if I leave with a full charge, I can run the app and listen to my music for at least 3 solid hours before it craps out on me. And, it’s FREE! It has a lot of settings that you can configure based on your preferences, and even has a social media hookup if you want to report your results/progress or in the event that you need some social media cheerleaders.

Garmin Forerunner 10 – This is a great little garmin that is fairly affordable and has done me well for many of my long runs. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be phased out by the Nike+ Running app, but we’ll see – I’ll report back in a few months. I love this device for the run/walk feature, but the battery drains quite fast, and I always worry that it’s going to die before the end of my run. I really do love my forerunner 10, but another negative is that it takes FOREVER to configure my GPS location. I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem, but I more or less need to stand still for 10 minutes on my doorstep to get it to make any progress. Once it’s set though, we’re good to go!

Any readers out there who are also runners? Have you dealt with injuries? Have any advice to share? Which products are you loving?