Development

While I believe that each and every step of the ADDIE model is important to creating a sound design, I consider development to be the most unique and critical phase. The development phase is right in the middle of the process and is where the bulk of the time and effort put into a project takes place. It is also the point in which the design comes to life, and a design strongly hinges on the developmental capabilities of the designer. As designers, there are a few things I think we should be cognizant of regarding this phase.

First, there are a variety of development and authoring tools out there. The one that most appropriately aligns with the design is the one that should be utilized. This may not always be Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate. (This is not to say that these are not great tools. They are, and, more often than not, one of these will be sufficient for rendering the design.) The main authoring tool could be a software to create standalone video, an HTML page, animation, etc. I believe that the main development tool to be utilized should be based upon the expectations of the client, the needs of the learner, and the discretion and expertise of the designer.

Next, if there’s a part of the design which is absolutely critical to the learning experience but cannot be created in the main authoring tool, the designer might need to create that asset in a different tool or software. The designer could alternatively partner with someone who has expertise in the secondary tool to create the asset. Once created, the final asset will need to be integrated into the main authoring tool.

When it comes to my goals relative to my work in this program, I wanted to learn how to create an actual learning experience for users. I wanted to go beyond a “pretty” presentation and become more intentional about implementing sound instructional theory and focusing on the needs of my end-users. Therefore, while in this program, I have tried to grow my abilities as much as I could with regard to the development phase. I wanted to and want to continue to learn how to generate different assets from a variety of softwares. I think this helps because it gives a greater pool of tools and asset types that I can draw from in future designs. Instead of being limited to fewer tools, my designs can integrate a wider variety and potentially enhance the user experience as a result.

In almost every project I completed during the program, I tried to explore different softwares and tools that I thought added to the learning experience for my end-users. All of these were secondary tools that I used to create assets to integrate into my main authoring tool (Storyline). For example, in EDIT6190, I created a project about Climate Change. Embedded in this project is a video that I created using Premiere Pro. I used Lynda.com tutorials to familiarize myself with the tool. I used the video I created as a hook to the instruction in the project. Also, in EDIT6200 I created a module for kindergarten students about Famous Tennesseans which is a state standard in Tennessee. I was becoming frustrated with the imagery available in the public domain and creative commons relative to the topic. I felt that many of the images I found were not age-appropriate or would not be interesting to the age group. However, it was important that the learners get a visual sense of what each of these Tennesseans looked like to further understand things like the cultural context of the stories presented. Therefore, I decided to create my own images to use in the project. I used Adobe Illustrator to generate cartoon-like images of each of the famous individuals portrayed in the project. Again, I used Lynda.com tutorials to learn this software. Last, in EDIT7550, I worked with my team to create a “Storyteller” course for Learning Ally, a non-profit specializing in audiobooks for struggling readers. A tool that the client used heavily in their other trainings was Vyond. I had never used this tool before, but I leaned on the expertise of a fellow classmate and generated several videos using this tool to embed in the training. These are only a few examples. I love learning new tools and look forward to expanding my capabilities in the development space further.

Evaluation

The next step in the ADDIE model I’d like to emphasize is evaluation. I consider this to be one of the most important facets of instructional design and am a firm believer in both formative and summative evaluation when completing a project. I think we, as instructional designers, should take the initiative to determine the usability of our design, accuracy of our content, and the effectiveness of our instruction. We need to determine if our instruction is meeting the goals we have set for it. We should then revise based on the data retrieved from the evaluation. This all comes down to creating the best learning experience we can for a user or group of users. I’m certainly not one to settle for a less-than-effective design. I think we owe our learners more than that, and I think we must be willing to continuously improve ourselves and our skills as instructional designers to help reach higher levels of usability and effectiveness.

Referring back to my goals for the program, I wanted to become more intentional about implementing sound instructional theory and focusing on the needs of my end-users. Evaluation is so important to achieving these goals. It provides opportunities to gather concrete data about the experiences of users which helps us understand their impressions of the content and how effective it was at actually teaching the concepts presented. This goes right back to focusing on sound theory and the needs of users.

This program gave me the opportunity to delve into evaluation on a more detailed scale. I honestly think one of my favorite classes was EDIT7350 (e-Learning Evaluation and Assessment). I learned so much in this class in particular. I had never heard of a logic model until this course, and now I can’t help but use them. They are so useful for distinguishing how a system or project should work. We can then evaluate said system or project based on the conclusions drawn in the logic model. Additionally, I enjoyed identifying evaluation questions. I felt that these helped provide a much-needed structure to the evaluation process. In EDIT7350, I worked with a group to evaluate a course that I developed prior to enrolling in the IDD program. I am now in the process of taking the feedback garnered from this evaluation to make revisions to the course. Analyzing things I had created outside the program for a course in the program was a great experience. It helped me bridge the gap even more between the program and applying the concepts on the job.

Therefore, I have also started ensuring that my work outside the program includes an evaluation phase with both alpha and beta testing. As I am currently designing a high school credit-bearing Bible Literature course for a client, I am constantly seeking feedback. I send each unit to a group of alpha testers consisting of both subject matter experts and individuals experienced with instructional technology. Once the first half of the course is developed, I will be implementing a beta-test with potential end-users of the course to garner more insights. Additionally, I am now more conscious about the various stakeholders is serve in my own work. I am cognizant of each of their perspectives are relative to my company’s products and regularly reach out to them for feedback.

Professional Development

While in the program, I’ve tried to expand my professional development beyond the courses I was taking. In 2017, I was able to attend the IDD Conference at UGA. Being my first foray into the program, this allowed me to get to know my classmates face-to-face and learn more from professionals in the instructional design community.

Additionally, I am a member of iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. I am constantly reviewing their research and new publications in the field. I was also able to attend the annual iNACOL Symposium in October of 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. This was a wonderful experience. I was able to learn more about how others were implementing digital learning in and outside of K-12 classrooms. I was also able to experiment with new technologies and capabilities in the K-12 online space as well as spend time with my LMS representative to dig into some advanced techniques available in my system.

Last, I am scheduled to attend the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference in Philadelphia in June of 2019.