About a week after implantation began, we were asked to incorporate an entire grade level unexpectedly. This grade level was about two years ahead my own and one in which I had no experience. In order to give them a project that would meet the same expectations as the previous one, I had to modify templates and rework storage solutions. I had to schedule extra meetings with grade level teachers in order to gather information about their needs and expectations in regard to the new program.

If I had the opportunity to redo this project and maintain my role as project manager, then I would approach the increased project with more grace and less stress. It felt a little overwhelming at the time, but it is clear in hindsight that a few minor tweaks would have created a much smoother transition in project size. Future expansion should have been written into the preplanning stages due to the environment in which the project was going to be implemented. Considering this, it would have altered how storage plans, templates, and lesson plans were created – designed specifically for the initial grade level but with an increased ease for modifications.

Voicemail
The voicemail was also polite, but it felt as if Jane was more stressed about receiving the information or report in a timely manner. In the voicemail, I could hear emphasis on certain words that did not come through in a written email. This led to a slightly different interpretation of the same message.

Face-to-Face
The face-to-face communication was much more relaxed and expressive than the previous two scenarios. By using relaxed body language, her request did not seem demanding or authoritarian.

Synthesis
Although the message was the exact same through each form of communication, I found that the overall emotion and feeling behind the message changed with each scenario.  In some cases, it showed stress. In others, it was friendly and encouraging. This was all due to the tone of Jane’s voice and her body language. The face-to-face confrontation brought forth the urgency and maintained a professional demeanor. For this reason, I believe that the face-to-face meeting was most effective, although I am not discounting the others entirely. The implications for myself lie in the knowledge that the same message can be construed in unexpected manners depending on the delivery method. Communicating with members of a project team should most often be done in a face-to-face setting when possible, as long as I am conscious of the voice tonality and body language.

Successes
This project had many successes, including the creation of detailed hands-on lesson plans and an effective storage location. Student test scores increased significantly that year, which may have been an effect of the project. The overall success was due in large part to having a detailed plan created at the beginning of the planning stages. Having everyone aware of their very specific roles and responsibilities allowed them to be successful and meet one another’s expectations. For students, we saw a drastic decrease in behavioral problems which was due to having the project meet the needs of our “clients” (hands-on activities that held their interests and were on their educational, not grade, level).

Failures
In creating this project, we envisioned it to be a multi-year opportunity that students would experience for many years to come. What we did not foresee is the collapse of the entire program at the beginning of the following school year. Since all of the same teachers and administrators were involved, we anticipated being able to use the same lesson plans the following  year just a few weeks after school began. Unfortunately, outside influences caused a major decrease in buy-in that we were not prepared for. Had we included any contingency plans, I believe that we could have prevented this from happening. These may have included what to do in case of scheduling conflicts or steps to implementing a second year.

In the future, I foresee improved perceptions of distance learning as students begin having positive experiences and sharing those with others. There may be little change in only five years, but we will see drastic movements by 2030 (20 years from now). As students become more experienced in distance learning and begin to have more positive outcomes, we will see general perceptions move away from wariness and towards the positive. This fact is promoted by Dr. Siemens, in that experience in distance education goes a long way in promoting its benefits. Naturally, this will go hand in hand with increased accreditations and publicity, since the general public will demand proof of the high expectations they are hearing about from prior students.

In my own future as an instructional designer, I must be wary of these societal perceptions, both as they exist today and how they will exist in the future. If students are not aware of the ease of communication with professors, then I must be conscious in designing the appropriate availability for this to occur. If I know that the society views online education as inferior to traditional schools, then I must be working to prove them wrong. This includes having high expectations for students that rivals or surpasses that of a “brick and mortar” university.

Becoming a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education is vital for my own success in instructional design. Accepting the field as it would be settling for the bare minimum – accepting the status quo -  rather than working for change. I realize that our ultimate goal is to have an equivalent reputation to traditional schools, a feat that will only be surmounted through continuous research and improvement based upon proven results. I must be willing to modify my own assumptions for the sake of the field, so that our learners, the consumers who will benefit from our product, receive the ultimate program, whether traditional or online.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). The Future of Distance Education [Video].

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

What immediately struck me was the availability of a variety of options for watching the course (flash or download with varying speeds). I appreciated the ability to chose how to watch each course section so that it best suited my current technological situation.

On the other hand, very few resources were offered to me as a learner, other than the syllabus and lecture videos. I understand that the face-to-face learners had no resources other than the texts that were required. I found that this was, unfortunately, a shovelware course as described by Simonson, in that the University chose to “shovel the course onto the Web and say you are teaching online” (2009, p. 248).

There was no evidence of careful pre-planning and designing for distance education.Yale did provide transcripts and a syllabus, but lacked any learning tasks that “encourage interactivity” (Simonson, 2009, p. 127). By failing to do this, they did not follow traditional recommendations for online instruction. Had they done so, the course would be much more interactive with a variety of technologies available to students. Learning was therefore not active for the learner. Instead, it was passive as I (as a learner) only watched videos and read new texts on my own time.

The course I took, The American Novel Since 1945, while fascinating in its content, lacked any real interactive features that I expect an online course to contain. This decreases its effectiveness as a distancing learning course to the point that it is merely a video of a face-to-face course available for viewing by the public.

This course can be found at: http://oyc.yale.edu/english/american-novel-since-1945

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

As I begin to design this asynchronous training module, I would create a series of courses through a course management system (CMS), such as Blackboard (all following information is in reference to release 9.1). Within this system, a series of modules would be created that relate to each of the safety training topics. Each module would contain all of the documents and videos that have been created to assist the trainees in fully understanding the material and then set up using the Training Plans option. Students can access these materials at a time designated by the employers or at any time available to them, as was done by Bent at Newcastle University Library. Within Blackboard, students are expected to be participatory learners, as they are engaged in discussion questions, one-on-one chats, and wikis regarding the information learned in the module. Since the supervisors voiced a need to “be sure that the employees are engaged,” then they will need to be taught about Blackboard’s user statistics. Here, they will be able to monitor the trainees’ activity within each module.

A second distance learning technology that I would consider is a virtual world such as Second Life or Active Worlds. By using this type of program, trainees are able to experience “real-life applications of course content, for example, in problem-solving situations” (Simonson, 2009, p. 246). This would allow the supervisors to properly assess students’ ability to “demonstrate their learning” before having to implement the information at the plant. This is especially prudent in problem-solving situations as it would give the supervisors a chance to see how the trainees would respond to specific safety scenarios. According to Nebolsky, Yee, Petrushin, and Gershman, the use of virtual worlds creates an environment to “immerse learners in a realistic environment to practice skills” (2003). Second Life offers an asynchronous training option that would be most beneficial for this particular training situation.

Bent, M. (2002). Blackboard and staff development at Newcastle University Library. SCONUL Newsletter.

Nebolsky, C., Yee, N., Petrushin, V., Gershman, A., (2003). Using Virtual Worlds for Corporate Training, Third IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT’03).

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Through this week’s readings and course videos, it became apparent that this definition, while accurate, does not encompass the full capabilities of distance education. Not only does effective distance education offer videos and discussion boards, it should give students the option to gather information through these sources as well as many others (interactive displays, written articles, textbooks, audio files, etc).

Within this definition, students must be independent and capable of working on the course material consistently, despite not having a definitive course meeting time. Along these same lines, instructors are conscientious of the different online learning styles and how material can be presented to both match these styles and teach the required information.

Through the past 200 years, distance learning has changed from mail correspondence to highly interactive online programs (Laureate Education, 2010). As each new change is introduced to the public, we are amazed at the abilities that this new technology offers to use as learners and educators, without any inclination as to the greatness that will be offered by the next new advancements. Distance learning has shown no signs of slowing its progression and is going to continue to grow in numbers and importance in the coming years (Laureate Education, 2010).

This ever-changing climate has allowed for a great amount of research and advancements, each leading to the unknowable future of distance learning. We cannot know, or even guess what the future holds, but I know for certain that the advancements and changes will offer students unforeseen benefits to learning at a time and place most suited to their learning styles.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Distance learning: The next generation [Video]. Retrieved Retrieved September 7, 2010 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4442084&Survey=1&47=3976079&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Distance learning timeline continuum [Graph]. Retrieved September 7, 2010 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4442084&Survey=1&47=3976079&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Prior to taking this course, I was confident that two particular learning theories were the most relevant to my own job as a both a teacher and instructional designer. I know, through experience, that learning is social, and so I have been an advocate for social learning for many years. Additionally, I know that students must be able to construct knowledge and build onto their previous experiences, which are major caveats for the constructivist theory. I have learned, through my research, that each learning theory is relevant in situations, which was a surprising revelation. Even though the behaviorist theory may seem outdated, it does in fact have benefits when teaching skills such as multiplication facts.

As for my own learning process, I am more aware of how I learn and process information than ever before. I said at the beginning of the course, and still maintain, I am a visual and kinesthetic learner. I know that my environment plays an important role, but I have come to realize how much of a role technology plays. It is a learning tool in that it provides information and challenges my own thinking. In learning about all of these theories and styles, I know how important it is that my students are given opportunities that will benefit them, regardless of how they process information.

The connection between learning theories, learning styles, technology, and motivation are clearer now than ever before. The various learning theories are educational scientists’ ways to describe how students learn and transfer information. The students’ methods of actually doing this are their learning styles. In our ever changing world, technology is quickly becoming a necessity in the world of education. We must give our students tools with which they can learn, including creating blogs, editing wikis, posting podcasts, and performing webquests. These each help to improve their motivation by keeping their attention and the information relevant to their own lives.

As I approach the field of instructional design, I look forward to using the information I have learned in this course. I must make sure my students are motivated to learn, whether it is through maintaining attention or appealing to their need for achievement. I am also more aware of how the different learning theories and styles affect different students. Each style is beneficial for various students and situations. As an instructional designer, I will use a variety of situations and motivational factors to improve my students’ learning.

Within all of these learning styles, technology plays a vital role in my learning. It is a means to an end – it provides research, discussions, and introductions of information. Technology allows me to create products based on my learning and to further my understanding of concepts. For example, I was recently learning how to use Dreamweaver to slice comps from Photoshop. In doing this, I learned by creating a product. Of course, help was provided and I was talked through each step, but the performing of the action and the learning were synonymous with one another. In a more traditional approach, technology allows me to create documents, spreadsheets, and graphics much faster.