Synthesis Statement

My role ended as Director of Library Services three weeks prior to the fall 2019 semester. My
plan was to attend part-time while integrating new skills into my role. Instead, I transitioned to being
a full-time graduate student, which I had not been since 2000 during my first master’s degree. My
goal was to learn more about instructional design and decide whether to return to librarianship or
take the “other fork in the road.” I am still at the intersection, but with a lot more opportunities
available.
In the pursuit of both a graduate certificate for online learning and a master’s in instructional
design and technology, two themes emerged constantly. The first was empathy in understanding the
target audience or user. How would the user feel, think, recall prior knowledge, and use a new
product successfully? The second was motivation. Thinking about different ways to engage the user
and offering a variety of learning opportunities were critical in designing curriculum. Understanding
the motivation of the user was crucial in planning and creating learning objects. Does the user need
this learning object to perform their job? Is the user overwhelmed with a busy schedule? By focusing
on motivation, I learned that a constructive approach works best to get the user to apply their prior
knowledge, pursue their own learning, and stay engaged through the learning process.

Professional Foundations
In gaining the empathy of the user, an instructional designer must learn to communicate
effectively. Understanding how to communicate new concepts without using too much jargon or
introducing new concepts in a way that is not threatening or condescending is key in reaching the
user. As a former library director, my communication to each stakeholder was very different.
Management wanted to hear about return on investment and meeting mission goals. The IT
Department needed to understand what the library needed and if the technology existed at the
school. Students had to understand the difference between a database, a book catalog, and an
integrated library system. Understanding their motivation and learning how to communicate with
each stakeholder was the key to my job.
Design Thinking became a part of my studies. I was the Graduate Research Assistant for the
Design Thinking Minor doing marketing and planning a faculty workshop and Designathon that
unfortunately the pandemic canceled. In courses, I used design thinking for two assignments. Dr.
Seshaiyer encouraged me to take COS 600 Multidisciplinary Problem Solving in S.T.E.A.M. Leadership.
Through this course, we learned different problem-solving techniques through different frameworks,
like the 5 Whys, affinity mapping, and Debono Hats. Our final project dealt with creating a prototype
based on the Sustainable Goals 2030 and with design thinking. The most valuable lesson through this
process was the emphasis on the user and gaining empathy through various techniques. This aspect
repeated what I had learned in creating my ESL lesson plans.
Design Thinking has officially been at Mason as a minor for three years. The program is
growing, and faculty seem eager to learn more. With that in mind, I created my e-learning module on
teaching faculty design thinking in order to incorporate their teaching in EDIT 611 Innovations in e-
learning. While I learned the current research and trends in e-learning, the fact that online education
is different reverberated throughout the creation of the module. I wanted to incorporate a
constructivist model with the student controlling the learning. Instead, I created an objectivist
approach with the instructor leading the way in the module. While the training was asynchronous,
faculty took the module and reached out to facilitators as needed. Motivation was another important
lesson in creating the module. Faculty needed an incentive to take this module, which was met with
professional development requirements and/or inclusion in Stearns Center Innovations in Teaching
and Learning Conference. Learner engagement was another important factor, so to keep the faculty
motivated through the module, I varied the learning activities with short videos and active learning
through reflections and lesson creation.

Planning and Analysis

My greatest challenge as a Graduate Research Assistant occurred in 2020. Project E-Ignite has
received its grant from the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Education Program in the United States
Department of Education since 2014: “Project E-Ignite Project ExCEL (Experiences Cultivating
Exceptional Learning) - Ignite (E-Ignite) is a program devoted to the discovery of underrepresented
populations of Gifted and Talented (GT) middle school students.” Project E-Ignite trains and assists
teachers to implement Problem-Based Learning, a student-centered instructional strategy where
students solve ill-situated problems in an authentic context. While researching a platform to acquire
in the next budget cycle, the COVID-19 pandemic created a new challenge of delivering professional
development to three school districts. Federally funded grant programs run under strict budgetary
restrictions. Monies cannot be moved between line items under any circumstances. In an ironic
twist, Project E-Ignite now had to solve the problem of how to deliver professional development
online by converting its own in-person program. I was tasked with finding an online platform
immediately without a budget to invest and creating a meaningful online learning experience for
teachers and professionals in the role of students. After researching various online content platforms
and many software programs for interactive learning, the program leadership and I designed an
online course using guided discovery as an eLearning architecture following Mayer’s three principles
for successful programs. Principle 1 is focusing on “explicit teaching of job-relevant thinking skills”
and principle 2 is to “design lessons around authentic work tasks or problems” (Mayer, p. 349-350).
Here, Project E-Ignite modeled Problem-Based Learning (PBL) by having professional participants
solve a conflict raised between schools in implementing PBL. Participants were presented with a
memo from the principal about another school’s difficulty with PBL. This employed Mayer’s principle
3, “define job specific thinking processes” (Mayer, p. 351). Here, Project E-Ignite employed critical
decision making for professional participants to collaborate on finding a solution. Later, participants
worked with other peers to reflect on the exercise. The Project E-Ignite team did their best with no
financial resources and available software for participants to use from three different school districts.
While creating a different instructional intervention, I learned free technologies offered
limited functionality and time to learn how the software took away from the lesson. The solution
became to use graphic organizers with Google Docs. The class did activities as one group, not smaller
groups as in the face-to-face instruction. A team presented instead of one person. One person
controlled the slides while other people took turns presenting. Scripting and practicing the lesson
were essential for successful instruction.

Design and Development

While the Director of Library Services, I had collaborated with faculty and librarians to create
English as a Second Language Information Literacy Lesson Plans by Reading Level. When attempting
to teach our standard hour-long information literacy lesson at Virginia International University, the
librarians noticed the ESL classes were having great difficulty in demonstrating mastery of these new
skills. After noticing this population struggle with locating and using library materials, our team
employed a user-centered approach and designed eight lesson plans based on scaffolding in a social
constructive instructional design. As Novak (2016) states about scaffolding, it is “the distance
between a learner’s actual developmental level and her potential developmental level as determined
by the guidance of a more knowledgeable individual (you!)” (p. 107).
With this theory in mind, the librarians redesigned the information literacy lessons based
on the eight ESL reading levels (100-800). Each redesigned lesson was twenty minutes total and
allowed students to demonstrate mastery by focusing on acquiring a single skill each time.
For example, in our reading level 400 lesson, the librarians created stations in the library
for exploration of a particular resource, i.e. a book of idioms; a picture dictionary; atlas or a
graphic novel. Moving at their own pace, the students visited each station in order to complete
worksheet to demonstrate what they learned. Librarians monitored the activity and worked one-
on-one with students who needed assistance. In applying this learning theory, the librarians were
able to better assess students’ understanding of the lesson.
With my assistant librarian, we presented our new approach at the 2018 Virginia Library
Association Annual Conference.

Evaluation and Implementation

In EDIT 705, I learned about an effective assessment theory originally designed to measure
and assess training. The Kirkpatrick Model provides a simple, but thorough framework. Private
industry has utilized The Kirkpatrick Model to evaluate its training in all four steps (Reaction, Learning,
Behavior, Results) for over 70 years. I like the Kirkpatrick Model because it assists in creating and
reaching evidence-based goals. Combined with backwards design, the Kirkpatrick Model can be both
a planning and an assessment framework. The first steps in planning would be to start with the
fourth level in connecting measurable goals to the organizational goals. As Petrone (2017) outlines,
planning with backwards design is to:
4. Create measurable objectives for desired results.
3. Determine how to produce the behavior to achieve the goals.
2. Identify knowledge and resources necessary to learn new performance skills.
1. Motivate the employee to engage and react with approval to the training.
After creating the plan, training occurs and then the Kirkpatrick Model can evaluate following
levels 1-4. For my education research study proposal in EDIT 590, I discovered academia underutilizes
the Kirkpatrick Model. I suggested that academic libraries use the Kirkpatrick Model in evaluating
student success in implementing library skills into final work products. Please see this excellent paper
in my artifacts section.

Management
The Kirkpatrick Model will be an excellent framework for working on future project
management. Using backward design with the Kirkpatrick Model will help align the organizational
goals, identify the behavior desired from training, and provide a way to evaluate.
Problem-solving techniques provide a non-iterative, non-hierarchical framework for assisting
with collaboration, planning, and management. Design thinking is a problem-solving technique used
in industry and education. Teams work through five stages to find a solution. In working through the
process, the designer learns to understand the target audience (empathy); articulate the problem
(define); think of a solution (ideate); create a product or solution (prototype); and apply the
prototype (test).
I have used design thinking in three classes (COS 600, EDIT 732 and EDIT 752). Each time, the
framework provided a map to reaching a goal, which was developing a Community of Practice for
assisting Mason faculty in learning online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and creating an
app to assist former inmates transition back to society. For the latter, we used design thinking in two
rounds of data collection and in the creation phase as well. For each stage, the team used different
methods to create and process data from IDEO.org activities.
My favorite activity used in creating the Community of Practice was the 5 Whys. The activity is
to ask why 5 times and find the root cause of the problem. One famous use of the 5 Whys was to
solve the problem of excessive bird droppings around the Washington and Jefferson Memorials.
Asking why, the researchers discovered the birds were attracted to insects, which were attracted to
the lights used at night to keep the monuments visible. After working with insect experts,
researchers found a light bulb that did not attract insects. After applying the discovery, the birds
disappeared to other areas.
AGILE is another framework used in attempting to solve problems and manage projects. In
this process, the development team works in short iterations, called sprints, and tests the product at
the end of each sprint instead of just at the very end of the process like design thinking. AGILE is
usually used for software development, but our group created multi-media training modules to
improve airline inspections for a company from India.
In EDIT 706, I chose to address a project that I attempted in my previous role. Textbooks
became increasingly expensive, and students refused to purchase. Then grades suffered. The
university spent a great deal of money to purchase e-books for students, but students did not like the
format nor the “learning curve” that came with using this resource. With my Business Case, I wrote a
very formal proposal for upper management to consider with three options: do nothing, do a little, or
full integration. Evidenced-based research was a requirement for my reasoning. I found two
different universities already conducting a similar effort of integrating Open Education Resources into
the curriculum. I used these universities’ successful examples as a basis suggesting OER materials
would lead to greater use, grades, and retention. Also, I suggested using similar metrics for our
summative evaluation. In the end, I was able to answer affirmatively that “this problem could be
solved through training.” What I learned was that the answer was available through evidence-based
research and appropriate application to the context I sought.

Conclusion
The instructional design and technology program at Mason has provided an excellent balance
of practice of theory and practice. As I graduate, several career paths exist including returning to
librarianship, creating educational programs for government agencies, or project management. In
addition to offering a strong work ethic and integrity, I offer experience in using problem solving
skills, a breadth of education learning theories, development of asynchronous and synchronous
modules for online as well as face-to-face environments and implementation of the aforementioned
into popular training software. This program has been a good boost to my career.
In closing, instructional design involves thinking about the user and understanding his/her
needs foremost while considering whether training can solve a problem. Learners can master
learning with an organized, engaged, and consistent design. Dr. Williams van Rooij has demonstrated
these principles the best and it is not a coincidence that three of my artifacts’ examples come from
her courses.
 References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for
Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. Center for Creative Leadership, Wiley-
Blackwell, Pfeiffer.

Horak, A. K., & Shaklee, B. D. (2019). Project E-Ignite. 37.

https://www2.ed.gov/programs/javits/2019apps/s206a190025.pdf

Kirkpatrick Partners. (2020). The Kirkpatrick Model. Kirkpatrick Partners. Retrieved December 9, 2020,
from https://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/Our-Philosophy/The-Kirkpatrick-Model

Novak, K. (2016). UDL Now! A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today’s
Classrooms. Wakefield, MA: CAST, Inc

Petrone, Paul. (2017). The Best Way to Use the Kirkpatrick Model.
Retrieved June 13, 2020, from https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/learning-thought-
leadership/the-best-way-to-use-the-kirkpatrick-model--the-most-common-way-t