Qualitative Considerations

This semester I am taking EDPR 8562 (Designing Qualitative Research). As I travel through the chapters and class discussions, I am going to use this blog to make note of things I want to remind myself to consider and revisit as I prepare my prospectus for my dissertation.

When discussing the planning phase of qualitative study, our professor shared this list of questions to consider. Thank you, Dr. Nordstrom.

• Who am I including in the design?  
• Are all stakeholders being represented?  
• How do I ensure all stakeholders feel like they actually have a stake to hold in the project?
• How do I facilitate a design to ensure people feel like genuine stakeholders?

IDT 7095 15/5: Week March 21

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week March 14

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week March 7

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week Feb 29

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week Feb 22

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week Feb 15

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week Feb 8

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IDT 7095 15/5: Week Feb 1

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Getting Started

Team Tasks:

This week my tasks were more informal than related to my eventual role on our team. We are still getting started. I contributed my availability to the spreadsheet developed by our project manager (Aaron). I created our Google+ Community so our team has a place to document discussions and Hangouts. I contributed to the forming of our team name: BYTS Design. BYTS are the initials of our last names and also happens to sound like "bites" and since we are doing a project for Terminix, "bites" seemed appropriate. I also developed several prototypes of a logo for our team. After team discussion in the Google+ Community and tweaks of elements locations and font selection, the following logo was finalized.

We still haven't held our first meeting but will be doing so prior to Saturday's deadline. 

Reflection:

The course is one I find very interesting and I am pleased with the team assignment. I think we have a good mixture of strengths on the team. I was happy to have received my choice of role, Lead eLearning Developer. I hope to find out early on the requirements by Terminix for the format of the final product. I feel confident in my abilities regarding the various possibilities (HTML, WordPress, Captivate, Articulate) but if they have a custom system, I want to get in there and start getting familiar with it. I know that while I will be able to do some work early on in the process (template design, color selection, fonts, etc), the meat of what I do can't be done until the instructional content is developed. I am hoping that I will have a chance to push my abilities in the areas of interactivity and visual design.

Getting a solid start as a team was our goal and I think we have met that goal. We have clear roles but have all demonstrated a willingness and ability to lend a helping hand and work together.

Following our initial team Hangout, I will have a clearer insight into the details of our project. I look forward to hearing what our project manager has learned from our client.

IDT 7095: Developing Interactive Learning Environments II

A new semester is underway and one of the three full-semester classes I am taking is IDT 7095 (Developing Interactive Learning Environments II). The class website, available for viewing by anyone, is located at http://idt7095s2016.weebly.com.

This blog will be used for posting some of my assignments for the class including reflections on the project.

I am excited to be working with a talented team and am looking forward to the creative work we will be doing.

Team Name: (not yet finalized)

Team Roles: While we all contribute in all areas, these are our primary roles. You can read more about the various responsibilities of each role here.

• Project Manager: Aaron Jon Spann
• Lead Instructional Designer: James Albert Barnes Jr.
• Lead eLearning Developer: Wanda Terral
• Lead Evaluator: Billie Johnson Young
• Lead Team Site Manager: Aaron Jon Spann

I requested the role of Lead eLearning Developer but have also offered extra assistance to Aaron in regards to the team website, especially since he is taking on dual roles. I definitely feel like my strengths are in these two areas so I am confident I can contribute to the team's successful completion of our instructional design project for Terminix.

What is our project? Well, here is what we know so far.

Project Title: E-Learning Development and Alignment for Customer Care Centers

Project Proposal:

ServiceMaster is focused on increasing the development of new and current associates. As we move towards supporting our continued growth and development, we are also focused on aligning our training materials and delivery to support the next level of learning.

In order to achieve our objectives, we are focused on redirecting all of our instructor-led training (ILT) to a more interactive, associate driven training experience. The new training experience will include a mobile platform for eLearning, simulation, gamification, micro-learning and performance support. In order to achieve this goal, additional support is necessary to migrate/develop/move our current training material to a mobile environment. The top priority will be development of eLearning(s) based on the existing ILTs. A critical component with any training project involves subject matter expert (SME) interaction to understand the impact of the learning and the environment of the training. This project will allow the student worker SME interaction at both corporate and branch-levels. Student workers will focus on supporting the creative and innovative learning environment and translating that goal to the learning materials using a variety of deliverables, e.g., video, HTML5, animation, etc. Moreover, student workers will experience working in a corporate atmosphere while interacting with senior leaders to branch leaders to individual contributors.

Additionally, new materials are needed to support new training initiatives within the customer centers. We are aligned to supporting the identification and retrieval of the information needed to create the necessary training. Further support is necessary to create the eLearning and learning guides to support the training teams.

As Lead eLearning Developer my responsibilities are as follows:

The lead eLearning developer will lead the development of the eLearning product.  This includes the prototypes, graphic designs, and interface designs.  The lead developer must work closely with the lead instructional designer to ensure that all content, media, and assessments are of high quality and aligned to the curriculum map. The eLearning developer must work closely with the lead content developer and the lead evaluator to ensure the quality of the eLearning product. 

As I assist the Lead Site Manager, I will also be able to help him document the progress of the team, the project management, and the development of the eLearning product as well as design and develop the team site in Google Sites (We have also been given the option to use Weebly or WordPress).

Expect more posts on this topic over this semester.



Location of our team members (click to see larger version):