Critical Analysis of EDTC 602

(Learning Topic #7: Critical Analysis)

By Elizabeth A. Hustead

A Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Course EDTC 602: Instructional Design

Regis University

June 28, 2011

Critical Analysis of EDTC 602: Instructional Design During this Instructional Design class, I learned how to create objectives and goals, collect and evaluate data, organize, and see the big picture from the start instead of at the end. With this knowledge, I will be able to create very effective lessons for my students. I have always had trouble writing objectives in the past, but the textbook, Designing Effective Instruction (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, Kemp, 2011), and the discussions in the classroom led by the teacher, Pete Dirindin, has made it much easier to create objectives that are concise and to the point. One of the pieces I was missing in the past was the verb and another was what an objective actually was. I was mixing up goals and objectives. According to Morrison (2011), objectives are specifically to select and organize instructional activities and resources that facilitate effective learning. I now understand that a goal is the big picture idea you want to accomplish in the end, but the objectives are the specific steps in how to achieve the goal. Once the data analysis was completed I compared all the information and created a list of needs, prioritized them and was then ready to make my plan. Between the feedback and my previous brainstorming, the idea of creating a website to distribute the information in a more timely and accessible manner was born. When it came to the planning step, I only needed to be organized. I have used outlines for most projects that I create because they seem to come naturally to me. The biggest issue with this project became the time it took to create all of the pieces for the website. I needed pictures, videos, forms, and information for all the different pages on the website. I had to learn how to upload pictures, edit them, create a slideshow and then embed them into the website. I also had
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to learn how to upload videos on the internet and then embed them as well. This took a lot more time than I thought it would, but I can now do this with a couple of different programs. During the planning process I also considered design elements and principles, especially with color and layout, how to keep the audience coming back for more, and how to achieve my objective. I believe from the response I received from the class during the presentation, I was successful with these pieces of the design project. Since this project is a website, it will be constantly changing. As new developments occur, it can be changed to stay as up to date as possible. One of the concerns that the class had was how I would be able to handle the updates without making too much work for myself. I plan on giving the team captains editing rights for the website and calendar. This should alleviate some of the time issues for me personally and still keep the site current. Adding a blog section for comments on the site and accept input from staff emails, I will take suggestions as to what we can add or take out to make the site better. This continual evaluation will make this site as effective as possible. The implementation of this site will be fairly simple. I will demonstrate the site to the staff during a staff meeting in the fall. They can in turn, show it to their seminar classes so everyone will know where to find the site, why it is there, and how to use it. Once we begin to form teams, I will have a captains meeting to explain the proper use of editing and activity signups for them. This will allow them to take ownership of the project, fine tune their leadership skills for their team and their future, and use many of the 21st Century Skills to navigate the site. I really feel this project is going to achieve the objective of organizing the Relay for Life information into one easily accessible place, a website, for all DRHS community members to

access with ease; creating more interest and earning more money than the past years event. I am looking forward to evaluating the summative numbers next year. Throughout this class, Dirindin allowed us to discuss, create, and bounce ideas off each other. With a class made up of seasoned teachers, the ability to use each other as sources, to collaborate and brainstorm is extremely enlightening. I really enjoyed his questioning techniques because they made us use our brains and think! The Socratic seminars were interesting to practice as well. I had heard about them, observed then once before, but I had never participated in one. My biggest issue with these was the fact that since you were not supposed to interrupt anyone, it was hard to get your turn. If I use this in my class, I may try some sort of pattern for speakers, number of times allowed to speak, around the circle, or other method to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. I also enjoyed most of the textbook. Some chapters were a little repetitive from previous classes, but review is always good. I liked the examples they used to explain the instructional design process as well, even though many were written for business, it made you think outside the educational box and understand how this process works everywhere. The Casebook was good, made you reach down deep to critique the studies and created interesting discussions. Unfortunately, I was not real happy about purchasing the book for only three studies. I think examples could be given to the class or the study could be read out loud from the teachers edition and then the discussions could still be completed. When thinking about the other presentations, I felt I connected most with Fayes. She had to create and upload videos, survey people for input, produce Google forms, and get approval from her administrative boss. I thought the humor she added to her videos personalized

the presentation and will make the veteran trainers more willing to participate in this training even though they may think they know it all. The step by step process she needed to use to figure out how to determine which student would be in what category was similar to how I had to determine what pages and attachments I needed in my website. I thought she did a really nice job presenting and will be very successful with this program for their trainers. I am anxious to hear how it works next winter. This class was very helpful and I know I will use the information in many areas of my life as well as teaching. One thing I really liked about the class set up was how we were able to present some of the projects on each of the last three classes. This allowed the class to give a more in-depth analysis and evaluation for each presenter. When the class design requires every person to present one after another on the same day, it makes people lose their focus towards the end and the feedback becomes watered down. Everyone just wants to be done. I hope this can be worked into the syllabus for this class next time. The students can be presented with the project idea the first week and told to make a decision as to which week they would like to sign up to present by the second week. According to the course syllabus, this course focuses on the process of solving instructional problems by analyzing and applying instructional design models and principles to meet educational and training goals in K12 education, higher education, and / or corporate education. This objective was successfully reached within this course. I feel confident I can use these methods and techniques to create an instructional design plan for school or the corporate world when needed.

References Ertmer, P. A., & Quinn, J. (2007). The ID casebook: Case studies in instructional design. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall. This textbook allowed me to understand the instructional design process better by reading examples from others. Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2011). Designing effective instruction. Hoboken, N. J.: John Wiley & Sons. This textbook was used for reference throughout the class, for my project, and for my paper. NETS for students. (2011). Retrieved June, 2011, from International society for technology in education website: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx NETS for students were used to evaluate the preparation of this project and paper.