Final Project : Planning an Instructional Design Project

Planning an Instructional Design Project

EDU 120 Principles of Instructional Design

Ashford University

Planning an Instructional Design Project

Understanding your instructional design project is critical to the success of the design. We must understand the material, clear objectives of the project, and the outcome. Identifying clear stakeholders, reviewing expectations, and following up with information that was discussed is required to confirm each person involved is clear on what is expected. At Brown’s Insurance, their employees are transitioning to working at home due to the pandemic of COVID-19. They will be using a virtual private network (VPN), which extends a private network across a public internet connection where employees can send and receive data securely. We are organizing an instructional design project outlining the instruction.

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction includes conditions of learning. These conditions of learning, both internal and external, allow us to outline the instructional design for Brown’s Insurance. We will begin gaining the attention of the employees by presenting an intriguing problem. Brown’s Insurance will be closing its building due to COVID-19. We will submit a funny video showing someone trying to set up their home computer without the instruction of how to connect to the VPN.

Stimulating recall of their prior information will consist of a Q and A session regarding if they’ve ever experienced working from home, using a virtual private network, and providing them with a relatable example that will connect their learning process. This will allow them to understand new information to past topics or current objectives reviewed. We will present the stimuli by using different delivery methods. Providing different examples during instruction, using various delivery methods, and organizing the text will provide employees an effective way to understand learning.

During the instruction, providing guidance for learners will be vital in making sure they are absorbing the information. We will offer job aids, examples, give them opportunities to role-play during the activity, and provide visuals. Once we’ve provided instruction, one of the ways to confirm learning is through eliciting learner performance. In order for learning to take place, you must have learners practice what they’ve learned. Eliciting performance aims at correct understanding and comprehension. It is not used for scoring and is followed by corrective feedback to ensure better learning. Performance can be assessed later by relevant questions or scenarios, giving a feeling of satisfaction to learners when successfully completed (Ullah, Rehman, U, & Bibi, 2015)

Providing feedback includes being positive, objective, and motivating. This will provide learners the opportunity to assess their performance in learning. It’s reinforcing the correct responses, giving guidance, and giving feedback to the answers provided if the student does not fully understand the teaching. Assessing performance is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the learning. This will allow us to determine if the objectives and learning outcomes have been achieved. The types of assessments that will be used are group conversations, surveys, and hands-on activity that will allow them to connect to the VPN. Enhancing their retention of the learning will be given through job aids, providing the appropriate knowledge sharing information where they can contact the information technology department in the event there are technical issues.

Delivery of Instruction

This instruction will be provided in two ways. Employees will have the ability to learn through on-site (place-based) learning with a trainer, who will facilitate the learning. We will also have the same self-paced e-learning instruction available on the company training website. Learner analysis allows us to identify specific characteristics of our audience, their prior knowledge, social needs, and demographics. We have defined this information below regarding how we will conduct the learning activity for Brown’s Insurance.

Age

The age range is adults 21 and older.

Gender

The genders are both male and female.

Educational Background

The educational background includes persons who have a high school degree and higher.

Physical Abilities

The employees are able to access the learning online through the Brown’s University (training website) or in person during a training course scheduled at work.

Prior knowledge and Skills

The employees have no prior knowledge based on company knowledge of using this software. Employees have previous experience of the use of computers in the training environment (Brown’s University) where this training course can be accessed. Our employees have a standard degree of technical skills which are required when completing the training.

Attitudes and Motivational Levels

Employees are intrinsically motivated to complete the training course. The course is geared towards the goal of being able to complete their daily work abilities and servicing agents while working from home. Attitudes towards taking the course are positive because employees can work from home.

Preferred Learning Styles

Employees learning styles vary in several ways. The VARK model is a frequently used method for understanding learning styles and breaks down learning styles into four types: Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Kinesthetic (Elrick, 2018). The learning styles used during training were Visual and Auditory. Employees were able to go into a training room and do a hands-on training or through a virtual e-learning video.

Learning Theories

The learning theories that are being exhibited in this activity would be behaviorism and constructivism. Behaviorism is a theory where human behavior can be explained through conditioning (classical and operant). Constructivism, which is a variant of cognitivism, is centered around the principle that an individual constructs his own understanding of the environment they are in reflecting on their experiences (Brown & Green, 2016). The employee’s learning environment is changing unexpectedly due to COVID-19. The transition of working in the office to working from home can be hard for some who have never experienced this change. Constructivism is also being considered because while employees are performing the learned behavior (transition to working in the office to working from home), they are creating a personal understanding of how to practice that same behavior at home.

Instructional Learning Objectives

Learning objectives will advise specifically what measurable terms describe what the learner will know, or be able to do at the end of the instruction. The learning objectives are:

These objectives will provide understanding to their learning process. It will provide useful knowledge, provide organization to thinking and provide a baseline for learning success.

• The employees will understand how to connect to the VPN to work from home.
• The employee will know basic knowledge of the VPN.
• The employees will know basic functions of the VPN.

Choice Tasks

The specific tasks related to the instruction will allow employees to understand the instruction successfully. Defining the sequence in which instruction should occur will allow for successful learning (Brown & Green, 2016).

The tasks are:

Gather information for VPN instruction

Identify platform for creating instruction

Speak with SME

Outline steps on how to use VPN

Compose instruction for VPN

Slide 1 – Introduction

Slide 2 – What is a VPN

Slide 3 – How to use the VPN

Slide 4 – Check internet connection

Slide 5 – Open Google Chrome

Slide 6 – Type in address (vpn.brownsinsurance.com)

Slide 7 – Enter username/password

Slide 8 – follow prompts

Slide 9 – Welcome to VPN connection

Evaluate comprehension for VPN.

Hands on activity

Surveys

Online activity (e-learning activity)

These tasks were developed based on using the ABCD method (LearningDctr, 2013). The audience is composed of men and women, ages 21 and over. The behavior includes the action, which is learning the instruction of how to connect to the VPN; while working from home. The performance conditions are either in a classroom setting where an instructor will step by step instruct how to connect to the VPN. The other choice would be to take the online instruction via Brown’s University training website. The degree standards for an acceptable performance would be that everyone has the necessary knowledge and understanding of how to connect to the VPN.

These tasks support the learner’s characteristics by allowing each employee to interact in the classroom and also do a virtual game where you can connect to the VPN while learning. Employees completed the training either through e-learning or in a classroom setting. The member check method was used in these evaluations.

References

Brown, A. H., & Green, T. D. (2016). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://redshelf.com

Elrick, L. (2018, August 9). 4 Types of Learning Styles: How to Accommodate a Diverse Group of Students. Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/types-of-learning-styles/

LearningDctr. (2013, January 2). Instructional objectives ABCD. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/6b9ahqnC8Xc

Ullah, H., Rehman, A. U., & Bibi, S. (2015). Gagné’s 9 events of instruction—A time tested way to improve teaching. Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal, 65(4), 535-539. Retrieved from www.pafmj.org

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