Practical Application

This is the essay on my practical application of ID competencies where I demonstrate my ability to apply what I have learned in the MS IDD&E program to solve practical instructional and learning problems in my field, reflect on my learning experiences and the role that ID professionals play in the world of human performance, and define and clarify my professional identity.

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Organization

COCO Corporation is a communications company offering language services to a wide variety of language learners through its branches in Japan. In addition to general conversation lessons, it offers courses for students studying for specific English test, EIKEN.

What is EIKEN?

EIKEN is an abbreviation of Jitsuyo Eigo Gino Kentei (Test in Practical English Proficiency), one of the most widely used English-language testing programs in Japan. Most of the students are 15-17 years old who are enrolled in EIKEN (Grade 1) course. It is a highly respected qualification with a wide range of practical benefits, such as its usefulness in applying to post-secondary academic institutions, obtaining academic credits, receiving exemption from the written section of the English section of the National Examination for Guide Interpreters, and studying overseas.

Scenario

Performance Problem

Due to the pandemic, the students hardly attend classes and their participation and performance in practice tests and other activities declined. Most students fail practice test in EIKEN and are not ready to take the actual test as most of them are preferring to stay home to prevent coronavirus infections.

Proposed Solution

The company decided to convert EIKEN (Grade 1) courses into an online format to solve the increasing number of students' absences and the low profit. The students can choose whether to go to the classroom or take classes online using their own devices.

An ID team will be hired to design an instructional management system that will contain the digitized learning content of EIKEN test preparation course. They should possess a versatile skillset in order to create effective learning courses and materials to meet the company's intended goals.

Desired Performance

EFL learners are expected to be able to understand and use the English necessary to participate effectively in a wide range of social, professional, and educational situations. The students should be able to:

understand a wide variety of texts and content from a range of social, professional, and educational situation.
take part in interaction on a wide variety of topics relevant to a range of social, professional, and educational situations.
write at length about a wide variety of topics relevant to a range of social, professional, and educational situations.

I hold a position of an instructional designer and focus on designing English test preparation courses. I research new innovations in both learning design and education and evaluate new eLearning materials. I am equipped with education to meet the rigorous demands of the field and craft lessons and curriculums that are both thorough and meet designated outcomes.

Application of IDD&E Principles

Analysis

1. Learner Analysis

I will identify skills the learner must have before entering the online learning. The learners’ cognitive characteristics (e.g., prior knowledge, digital literacy), affective and social characteristics, and other traits that could influence the strategies and approaches to learning will help developers to understand and serve them most effectively.

What demographic information is available about the audience? Think about the age, gender, education level, and computer literacy level of your audience.

2. Instructional Analysis

I will emphasize the importance of analyzing the skills and subordinate skills required to participate in an online environment and use the digital course materials effectively. I will break down the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to formulate the intended learning outcomes, and instructional goal and objectives. The Instructional Strategies, Objectives, and Media should be considered as they describe the activities and tools needed.

3. Situational Assessment

I will clarify a problem or opportunity to be addressed and the decision to be made. It identifies stakeholders and their concerns and may reveal insight into their preferences. It also can identify key questions to be answered by stakeholders, develop a data gathering plan, gather the data, organize, synthesize and summarize the data, communicate the information, and consider how to proceed with planning.

4. Technical Analysis

I will identify the hardware and software specifications that the online courses must accommodate. This includes the type of device(s) on which the instructional solution will run, operating system(s), media capabilities (audio, video, graphics), broadband access, authoring tools required, and the requirements of learning management systems (LMS). Discussions with the Educational Technology team and Project Manager should be conducted to get the necessary information.

5. Environment Analysis

I will identify the learning environment(s) in which EFL learners will learn or require support. It provides context for learning and support.

Design

In order to effectively design and/ or convert the face-to-face EIKEN course to online, the following questions should be considered:

How much time will learners be able to dedicate to the online course?
What tools are available for course development?
Does the design of the course engage learners with strong visual and audio elements?

Development

In selecting the media, the following questions from the Bates model should be considered:

Students: What are the kinds of students we are trying to reach (e.g., demographics, access to technology, learning styles)?
Ease of use: How easy and reliable is the medium or technology for the instructor and learner to use?
Costs: How much does this technology cost to design, deliver, and maintain the course?
Teaching Functions: What are the educational affordances of the medium?
Interaction: Does the medium provide interactivity between the learner and learning materials, between learner and expert, and between learners?
Organizational Issues: Does the institution support the technology?
Networking: Does the medium provide opportunities to network outside the course?
Security and Privacy: Is this a safe technology for the instructor and students to use?

In producing the materials, we will emphasize the importance of the media specialists to produce and organize the necessary audio, video, and other computer-based materials.

In delivering the course, the administration of materials where instructional activities, assessment, and course evaluation takes place.

Implementation

For the actual implementation, online course development tool should be ready for the instructors and students. We will invite learners via email and track learner progress and results. It will be both a self-directed course where learners log in to the system to take the course you created without assistance from an instructor, and an instructor-led course where instructors are teaching the material. We will provide training to make sure the instructors are familiar with the content and course goals. It may be instructor-led sessions before, after, or in-between self-directed sessions. Everyone can sign in from wherever they are and use built-in group chat or video to communicate during the training sessions.

Evaluation

Formative evaluation will be conducted both with students who have already enrolled to the course and students that haven't, as well as instructors who have facilitated the online classes.

Information gathered from students will include:

whether they felt that the course materials used lined up with the skills they felt assisted them in developing the necessary skills, and
whether they felt that the online content matched with the skills students needed to master.

Information gathered from instructors will include:

criteria for determining whether students have successfully understand a wide variety of texts and content
analysis of whether the students can take part in interaction on a wide variety of topics
broad criteria for determining whether students can write at length about a wide variety of topics

Summative evaluation for this project will be conducted by external evaluators. These evaluators will investigate factors relating to both students’ personal feelings of competence and engagement after completing the course, and the rate of students passing or failing the actual EIKEN test on their first try. Evaluation instruments will include:

post-tests results; and
surveys and interviews containing both open- and closed-ended questions in order to determine whether listening activities were engaging for students and correlated with students’ comprehension levels.

The evaluation methods will provide both qualitative (focus group) data and quantitative (survey) data. Patterns will be identified in both sets of data. Results will be given to instructional designers for revision of instructional materials.

The evaluators will be responsible for collecting and compiling data, and will present their results to the course instructor(s). This will assist the instructors in determining whether the online course materials improved student achievement and engagement, and in deciding what facets of the activities (if any) should be changed in subsequent classes.

Project Management

It allows a project to be planned, resourced, and managed as well as ensures success in a timely manner. Converting a face-to-face course to an online format takes time and effort. The project team will develop an inclusive Project Management Plan (PMP) to design, develop, implement, and evaluate the modified content and activities.

The following personnel resources will be needed:

Instructional Designer- design/develop instructional materials, learning assessment
Evaluators- implement and analyze evaluations 
Educational Technologist (eLearning Specialist)- design and develop web/ technology-based site and resources
Content Expert Trainers- to lead/ facilitate PD workshop

Educational Project Manager- manage the whole educational ID project of providing workshop and online resources

Knowledge Gains

Like in any process, the first step is always the critical stage because it is where you will gather all of the information at the outset of the project to define the problem and the type of approach. Establishing a good analysis will create a solid foundation for the rest of the process. This is the reason why I mostly applied the competencies under 2.0 Planning and Analysis to the project stated above.

Here are the competencies:

1.3 Develop multiple theory perspectives (e.g., learning, instructional design, media, and visual design theories)

As an instructional designer, I must know how to apply different learning theories to the courses. Good instructional designers are always open to feedback and collaboration, and they work closely with other team members and even their students (asking for feedback, surveying them, etc.) to create a course that is truly top-notch.

2.2 Validate performance gaps through multiple analysis techniques

This is when to start considering the needs of the stakeholders and collaborating with them will greatly help to better identify instructional and learner needs. This is very true in my experience as a teacher as I always focus on designing and developing instructional materials, but I often neglect the actual and specific needs of my students.

2.4 Describe working and learning environments for target audience using multiple analysis techniques

As an instructional designer, I have to encompass a vast repertoire of roles and responsibilities such as working alongside subject matter experts (SMEs) to assess and define the target audience’s needs and their learning environment.

2.7 Identify characteristics of technologies and their use to support different types of instruction and learning

The eLearning, and therefore instructional design, is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. New educational technologies are flooding the market at unparalleled speeds. So, as an instructional designer, I need to stay on top of ever-emerging technologies, as I have to learn continuously. It has never been more challenging to stay ahead of the curve.

3.4 Create design plan (goals/obj/ assess/ strategies), evaluation and management plan using gap analysis and learning/design /graphic theory outlining instructional solution

As an instructional designer, I need to familiarize myself with the various learning theories and concepts so that I can refer back to them when I experience new and/or complex design problems in creating a design, evaluation, and management plan.

5.3 Lead, maintain quality, and manage ID projects and deliverables

The development stage involves a lot of research, writing, proficiency with eLearning authoring tools, so there is a need to have graphic design, video production, and sometimes even coding skills. Thus, it is important for an instructional designer to have project management skills to ensure timely completion of the projects, not to mention that IDs can become accidental PMs.

Personal Reflection

I believe that all competencies are equally important in producing instructions for effective learning experiences. I think that most effort is often put into designing and development, but the two most important competencies that are crucial but often less well done are Planning and Analysis, and Evaluation.

I chose these competencies based from the ADDIE model that shows how the first phase is as crucial as the final phase. I think that even I design and develop the best course or instruction, it’s not going to have an impact if it’s implemented poorly. Implementing an evaluation plan can measure the effectiveness of the instruction. It also ensures that issues can be addressed early as I may end up implementing/evaluating the training or instruction and realize it was built on a foundation of errors.

Overall, I think that having a good starting point with a meticulous final testing will lead to the desired learning outcome the instruction should produce.