Hello, Beautiful People !
I'm ShametaNicole (aka Alchemy Design)♑︎ An Instructional Design (ID) student who's new to WordPress and the "blogosphere". Alchemy Design is a blog site created as a part of my academic journey. However, the more I learn, the more I feel Alchemy design will be here to stay.
If you are reading this, thank you for your support!
Remember we all are alchemist designing our reality...
A Portfolio of Works Created from Novice Perspective
“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.”
― B.B. King
Guess What? I Made It!
I’ve made it to the end of my Instructional Design program.
I am so proud of myself for tackling and accomplishing this GREAT milestone.
I’ve pushed through a number of setbacks but here I am.
Below are samples of works created throughout my ID program. From an Animated Video using www.vyond.com, to Infographics and Learning Objects.
I have learned, grown, and became more confident throughout this program. I am super excited for what the future holds as I move into the profession of instructional design.
Wish me luck !! more like ‘wish me success‘ …(lol)
Professional Statement:
Optimistic professional with a BA in Psychology and a MS in Instructional Design, with pursuits of a post graduate certification in Human Performance Technology. Possesses the ability to design, develop, and deliver training through variety of formats and mediums (i.e., face to face, blended, online). Transferable skills include establishing rapport, building trust, organization, working with teams, and writing skills.
With career goals and objectives of:
Moving into a position of designing and crafting instructional material as a trainer, design consultant, or transitions into the learning and development department within my current organization.
Advancements in technology allows anyone to create unique works and quickly obtain and modify existing works of others. Alongside technology, the internet has become a vast informational portal. This informational portal has all types of intellectual properties, i.e., documents, pictures, books, audio recordings, videos, music, etc. When it comes to the internet, You name it, and the internet has got it.
But can you use it? Maybe? If you use it, will you be penalized? IDK? Check out some quick facts and resources below.
What is Copyright?
“Copyright gives the owner of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period, including its publication, distribution and adaptation” (Mann, 2009. p. 5).
As an Instructional Designer, your work can and will become a part of the vast informational portal. It is better to error on the side of caution. Learn your right and review Copyright Law (Title 17).
In addition to copyright laws, initially geared toward the music and movie industry during the piracy era, Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA (1998), and with criticism of “granting too much power to copyright holders at the expense of the public interest” (Mann, 2009. p. 7), it provides a double layer of protection for instructional designers.
Remember, you want to protect yourself as well as protect others by covering your work.
Also, not knowing your right to protect your work can hurt your pockets if you don’t take the proper steps. In this digital age, everyone can generate a passive income by monetizing their creations. Let’s not miss out. Get your seal of copyright protection.
References
Copyright.gov. (n.d.a). Copyright law of the United States (title 17) and related laws contained in title 17 of the United States code. Copyright Law of the United States | U.S. Copyright Office. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.copyright.gov/title17/.
Copyright.gov. (n.d.b). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act | U.S. Copyright Office. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.copyright.gov/dmca/.
The front-end analysis is the most significant step in any instructional design model. As an instructional designer, theFEA phase is the best use of your time when gathering information. A well-conducted front-end analysis identifies the target audience, learning gap, goal and type of learning, context, learning and performance, and design constraints. New instructional designers often see constraints as limiting or hindrance to the design process. However, changing one’s vantage point toward ‘constraints are necessary for innovative instructional design.
Designers should realize the importance of constraints as they yield innovation and ideation. “Constraints form the design problem, and…they may only become apparent as attempts to create the solution progress” (Lawson, 2006. p.109). Taking from Lawson’s 2006 ID model, he categorized types of constraints as
Instructional Designers work in various settings and contexts. Consider the different locations and their constraints the designer may encounter.
Military and Governmental Context
Funding (designing within fixed budget guidelines)
Varied technological range (i.e., network, configuration, large scale design)
Diverse delivery context (i.e., face to face, aboard ship, and field)
Health Care Setting
Designing against the internet “Web 2.0 social tools” (Reiser and Dempsey 2012)
Time and cost constraints
Considering the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act when designing.
Business and Industry Context
Design for cultural differences in the workplace
Learner or End User barriers
Organizational culture
K-12 Educational setting
Considering the digital divide when designing.
Designing with minimal resources (i.e., technical support)
Attitudinal barriers (i.e., teacher buy-in)
References
Biskjaer, M. M., Christensen, B. T., Friis-Olivarius Morten, Abildgaard Sille, J. J., Lundqvist, C., & Halskov, K. (2020). How task constraints affect inspiration search strategies. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 30(1), 101-125.
Lawson, B. (2006). How designers think: The design process demystified. Oxford, UK: Elsevier
Reiser, R., & Dempsey, J. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall Publishers. ISBN 978-0-13-256358-1
Working with subject matter experts, SMEs is a universal function as an instructional designer, ID. This part of the job requires collaboration and effective communication to ensure the content is of the best quality. IDs work with all types of individuals with different personalities, cultures, and experiences, including levels of professionalism. The latter, levels of expertise and professionalism, can hit you right in the gut and ego. Most SMEs are very knowledgeable and have years of education and experience under their belt. As an instructional designer, you are very much an SME in your given field, but providing insight and feedback may have you timid or a default ‘yes man.’
As taken from one of my favorite movies with a bit of a tweak, SMEs are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get. With all these variables, i.e., cultural, personality, and professionalism differences, it is important to consider the following to sustain your working relationship with SMEs and your confidence as an instructional designer.
Communicate from a receiver-based approach – SMEs are likely to communicate from a sender-focused approach as they focus on providing the content to the ID rather than communicating for understanding. (Sellnow et al., 2015) As an ID, it is crucial the SMEs understand your interpretation of the material and thought process to how you plan to deliver the content.
Be cognizant of cultural differences – As Richardson et al. (2019) point out, organizational cultures are a part of cultural differences. These organizational differences may “impact or support a project” (p. 868)
Learn from the mistakes – Every collaboration with a SME may not go according to plan. Remember, there are several internal and external factors and constraints that can affect your collaborative efforts. (Richardson et al., 2019)
References
Richardson, J. C., Ashby, I., Alshammari, A. N., Cheng, Z., Johnson, B. S., Krause, T. S., Lee, D., Randolph, A. E., & Wang, H. (2019). Faculty and instructional designers on building successful collaborative relationships. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 67(4), 855-880. http://dx.doi.org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9636-4
Sellnow, D. D., Lane, D., Littlefield, R. S., Sellnow, T. L., Wilson, B., Beauchamp, K., & Venette, S. (2015). A Receiver-Based Approach to Effective Instructional Crisis Communication. Journal of Contingencies & Crisis Management, 23(3), 149–158. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12066
These phrases are contemporary vernacular utilized by a speaker in a conversational dialogue to clarify or establish a shared understanding. In this instance, it’s the speaker who is initiating clarification from the listener. The overarching goal is to establish a shared meaning through a sender-received communication model during the communication process.
But what about when you are conducting an interview? What if the interviewee is a stranger? Who may or may not have time to sit with anyone for a meeting due to their busy schedule.
Lol, the former is a tad bit dramatic but very real for many instructional designers, IDs who need to conduct interviews with clients or subject matter experts, SMEs. In these types of situations, the role reversal leaves it up to you, the listener, the ID, to take the initiative in establishing a shared understanding of project ideas and goals.
Your interview can be successful when you create well-thought-out questions, build rapport, and take notes. I know this it’s ‘easier said than done’. Below are some tips and a cheat code that can help.
Tip 1: Develop a skillset to include interpersonal, intrapersonal, and critical thinking skills.
These skills will allow you to become aware of your biases, establish a critical eye for verbal and non-verbal cues, and effectively analyze the current situation.
Tip 2: Develop a Rapport
If you can, try introducing yourself with either a quick meet-and-greet before your scheduled meeting or utilize thefirst 10 minutes of your scheduled session. This way, you can get a sense of the client or SME’s personality, style, and level of openness to interact. You can now adapt your questions and interview style to accommodate the interviewee.
Tip 3: Research, Prepare, and Prepare
A two-for-one, research and prepare before your scheduled interview. Research your interviewee and their position. Try LinkedIn or your company’s intranet to get some insight into your interviewee’s background. You can use your findings as talking points to build rapport.
Tip 4: Take Notes
Note-taking is the key. You don’t want to interrupt the interviewee’s train of thought with a clarifying question. Hold your point, write it down, and use your critical thinking and interpersonal skills to know when to interject. Additionally, you can use your notes to assist in paraphrasing the interviewee’s thoughts for better understanding.
Cheat Code: Active listening
Use Active listeningas a communication strategy during the interview process. Try not to veer off or blank out during the interview process. Remain in the present moment and give the interviewee your undivided attention. Giving the interviewee uninterrupted attention reflects a sense of respect for their time.
References
Richey, R.C; Klein, J.D & Tracey, M.W (2011) The Instructional Design Knowledge Base. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis. ISBN978-0-4158020
“It’s bigger than hip hop,” a quotable taken from underground rap group Dead Prez ( Dead Prez – Hip Hop), which identifies the role of music and its connection to African American liberation and an anthem in its own right. “Alright” and the History of Black Protest Songs – TeachRock, an open education resource (ORE), is taken from the OERcommons.com repository for an up-close look at its effectiveness and to provide a critique of how it could be re-imagined. In essence, the teachtrock.org lesson, “Alright” and the History of the Black Protest Songs, takes the statement of music being bigger the just entertainment and transforms it into a practical standalone lesson.
This Learning Object (LO) pulls in past and current musical art and provides instructional material and resources to immerse the learner. The learner critically examines lyrics and compares them to the social movements of the era. Prior knowledge or prerequisites are not needed as additional information about the artist or song presented is embedded in the Distant Learning Packet (DLP) lesson as an all-inclusive LO. “Alright” and the History of the Black Protest SongsLO design incorporates the institutional production model of integrity, “where the OER are very similar to the original material and as complete as possible (Spector et al., 2014. p. 784)”. The OER is a facsimile of the original lesson with all supplemental material and links in tacked.
Having well-developed objectives and a master goal, “Alright” and the History of the Black Protest Songs“instructional design is planned in the preparation of accomplishment as objectives and goals give the route that how to evaluate student’s skills and ability (Ashfaq et al., 2017. p. 3)”. It lays out the instructional material in an organized process where the student can lead themselves within an online environment or as an instructor-led face-to-face setting. Having the instructional flexibility of either online or face-to-face and the ability to break-up or re-imagine the LO into further mini lessons by pulling out one component or artist to examine adds to the effectiveness of the LO. “Education is cradle to grave continuous process as it describes extremely significant and permanent property of every individual (Ashfaq et al., 2017. p. 2)”. As a well-designed LO, the overarching goal of knowledge construction by utilizing critical thinking to interpret and evaluate both songs and protest movements is designed to “build awareness or provide information as an informed program (Clark et al., 2016. p. 19)”.
The re-imagining of this LO incorporates one central area. Since the LO has a goal of knowledge construction, assessment of this construction is vital; more specifically, formative assessment as summative is already ingrained into the LO design. Re-imagining this lesson with embedded formative assessments allows the instructor to address misconceptions by revising instructional material and strategies before the summative assessment. Spector et al. (2014) critiques, “there does not appear to be a single initiative dedicated to creating and sharing openly licensed assessment items in standard formats for use with existing open educational resources (p.787)”
Embedding formative assessments throughout the lesson by re-imagining the summative constructed-response questions into a few formative constructed responses as a small group or class discussions during face-to-face or a discussion boards for e-learning environments provides the instructor the opportunity to gather data to then apply the results from the data to revise the lesson. Incorporating formative assessment paired with timely and effective feedback creates a learning environment of self-efficacy for the learner, especially disadvantage and low-achieving learners (Spector et al., 2014. p. 314). “If open educational resources are ever to reach their potential, they will need to be paired with open assessment resources that can serve formative and summative assessment roles for learners (Spector et al., 2014. p. 787).
References
Ashfaq, M., Ajmal, M., Iqbal, M. J., & Mehmood Ch., T. (2017). A compact instructional design solves learning problems and creates learning opportunities. Bulletin of Education and Research, 39(3), 1–17.
Clark, R. C. & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-Learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Spector, J. M., Merrill, M. D., Elen, J., & Bishop, M. J. (2014). Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (Vol. 4). Springer New York
One e-learning tool that has intrigued my curiosity is Online Educational Resources or OERs. My interest may be due to the rise of virtual learning for K-12 due to the COVID pandemic. Also, teachers’ overwhelming stress to develop effective “e-learning” or virtual material in a short period. I wanted to understand the current trend of OERs; and are teachers technologically savvy to implement OERs as supplemental instruction to teacher-led instruction in the virtual environment. After speaking to a teacher assistant to students with special needs, I was privy to the development of “worksheets” for students to complete virtually. I wondered how a worksheet in a virtual learning environment could yield positive results for these students.
Initially, I needed to determine if OERs and LOs are the same, and to my understanding, LOs are a type of OERs. LOs have some restrictions as they can not be modified or revised; however, they can be reused and shared. OERs are defined by what Community College Consortium for OER (n.d.) calls 5R activities: 1) Retain; 2) Reuse; 3) Revise; 4) Remix; and 5) Redistribute. If teachers can use OERs, they would be able to revise these resources specific to their learning objectives or local school district standards. Since both LOs and OERs are public domain and fall under creative commons licensure for fair and free use, educators can use their revised versions and share them within their school. (Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, n.d.) (Community College Consortium for OER, n.d.) (Van Allen & Katz, 2019)
The use of OERs can also trickle down to student learning and engagement. Having students revise and sharing their created OERs shifts the teacher-student interaction into a more constructionist relationship. (Van Allen & Katz, 2019) In the case of students who face challenges with specific material, teachers implement LOs to nail down critical components to key topics. OERs and LOs are great tools to use, especially in K-12, as the curriculum follows a specific standard state by state. In this digital age, being considered a creator should not just be associated with social media. Students can become a content creator of their education as it is the new wave post-COVID.
Community College Consortium for OER. (n.d.). Why Open Education? Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://www.cccoer.org/learn/
Van Allen, J., & Katz, S. (2019). Developing Open Practices in Teacher Education: An Example of Integrating OER and Developing Renewable Assignments. Open Praxis, 11(3), 311–319. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1234940
How do you design without bias? How do you design without creating a product based on your own concepts and interest? You design without projection by using user personas. Designers use personas to “avoid projection, create empathy, and focus on the few rather than the many (Wick, 2017)” when designing a product. Some may define personas as archetypes that characterize the need, goals, technical experience, accessibility requirements, and other personal characteristics of a larger group of people (Lilley et al, 2012). When I started my E-learning course, based on the feedback I would receive for my peers and instructor, I wondered if my designs where based on my interpretation of design concepts rather than the end user. I now understand personas are used to incorporate focus and empathy and basically provide a prototype of fictitious users to keep all parties involved on the same page. (Nodder, 2016) (Wick, 2017) As Lilley et al (2012) states personas “… provides a richer account of learners and makes it much easier for designers and developers to keep the learners in mind when they are working.”
Designing my personas this week, I now understand the importance of having background and demographic information. I developed both of my personas based on “Ad-hoc (Lilley et all, 2012)” personas or as Nodder (2016) calls it “assumption” personas. This allowed me to create these personas based on my perceptions because I did not have acceptable data, however it was a starting point. The next step, if this was in real-time, I would need to used “data gathering questions, learning platform data, and demographics (Baumann, 2018) or online surveys and interviews as mentioned in (Lilley et al, 2012). Overall, the use of personas is a great tool to use when developing products such as training learning objects as “…persona helps shift the e-Learning design process away from what will best suit the business to a more learner-centered approach and what will best fit the learner (Gutierrez, 2013).
Lilley, M., Pyper, A., & Attwood, S. (2012). Understanding the Student Experience through the Use of Personas. ITALICS: Innovations in Teaching & Learning in Information & Computer Sciences, 11(1), 4–13. https://doi-org.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.11120/ital.2012.11010004
Visual design in in our everyday life. We see visual design in adverting and social media, education, and fashion. When we as consumers, are triggered to buy a new brand of shampoo solely because of the bottle’s aesthetics instead of the formula’s ingredients we must understand that it is all by design. That is visual design. Visual design is compromise of three foundational components: 1) Elements of design, 2) Principles of design, and 3) Laws of Gestalt theory. (Hagen and Golombisky, 2013). These design tools are strategic to elicit a feeling or emotion that produces behaviors to buy or in education, an emotion to create connections for learning.
Visual design uses theories, elements, and principles to strategically produce the visual cues to have an emotional effect. Using specific colors, placements, and theories such as Gestalt law of proximity to create movement of the eyes which triggers the brain to make specific interpretations, associations and evokes emotion to solidify the connection. Norman (2004) makes the point of colors such as red and the idea of symmetry is at the visceral level of emotion which in design is related to Attractiveness. Design principles and elements provoke visceral connection base on the attractiveness of the images, or product. Norman (2004) later makes the distinction of behavior and reflective levels of emotion as usability and meta-cognition in his theory of emotional design. Visual design is tools to foster to all three levels of emotion as “emotion prepares us for action (Norman. 2004)”.
Overall, visual design revolves around using visual cues to create synaptic connections through cognition to trigger emotions and behavior. It incorporates these external factors i.e. visual cues and internal factor i.e. mental cognition to produce a desired behavior and emotion. This desired behavior or emotion can trigger you to purchase items, wear your hair in a certain style or behavior can look like engagement in learning environments i.e. “usability or functionality (Norman. 2004)”.
References
Dirksen, J. (2016). Design for how people learn. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, Pearson.
Hagen, R. & Golombisky, K. (2013). White space is not your enemy. Burlington, MA: Focal Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Instructional Design: Up Close (A Novice Perspective) 