Bob Fitkin
29 FEB 04
ECI 761
THE CASE STUDY:
Bob is in a Graduate Degree program in Instructional Design and Technology at Old
Dominion University. Excited about being given this opportunity at free education, Bob is driven
to impress those he will work for at the Chaplains Resource Branch (CRB), which is a department
of the Chief of Chaplains Office for the Navy. The Senior Chaplain at the CRB is Jim Putter. He
requests to meet with Bob in order to ask/direct Bob to create an 8-hour block of Computer Based
Training (CBT) for the Chaplain Corps annual Professional Development Training Course
(PDTC).
THE HISTORY:
The Chaplain Corps has traditionally hired Instructional Design teams to prepare an
annual training event. This yearly training event is a tradition of the Corps and attempts to keep
Chaplains up-to-date regarding ministry in the military. Until recently, it has been designed to be
four days of lecture with dialogue. Practically, this meant three-quarters of the day was lecture
format and one-third of the day was spent in small group and large group dialogue. The new
Chief of Chaplains or the highest ranking chaplain in the Corps felt he heard enough complaints
from chaplains that four days was too long, lecture format was boring, and their input wasn’t
valued enough that he wanted to shorten the “seat time” by one day and have all chaplains,
before they attend the classroom portion of the training, to pass the content/lecture aspect of the
course.
Chaplain Putter is motivated and dedicated person that wants to leave is mark in the
Chaplain Corps. He is also fighting a view by many in Chief of Chaplains office in Washington
D.C. that the Chaplains Resource Branch wasn’t needed or useful to the Corps and consumed
too much of their budget. As a result, he jumped at the chance to show what the CRB is all about
and volunteered his office to create and implement the 8-hour block of CBT for the Chaplain
Corps.
THE DRAMA
Bob walks into the morning and sits down along with Chaplain Putter and the rest of his
staff to discuss the CBT project. As the meeting begins, he puts Bob at the end of the long table
with him at the opposite end. Jim shares with his staff how important his successful completion of
this program is and directs his current ID, Mike, to help Bob get through it without a hitch.
Nevertheless, he reminds Bob, “If you fail, you understand that I will need to find another job for
you out of this office.” Mike assures Bob he will help him navigate a two program in one year.
Then Jim informs Bob he wants the computer based project designed in Macromedia Director to
show the Chaplain Corps what can be accomplished with the proper tools. As Bob listens to Jim
explain in further detail, Bob begins to worry and wonder because he has not used the software
program before and asks, “How am I going to learn this program and complete the rest of the
requirements before May graduation?” When Bob’s attention returns to the meeting, he agrees to
do take on the project as directed/requested.
Jim Putter is a driven man enthusiastic about technology and has volunteered his
corporation to prepare an 8-hour block of Computer Based Training (CBT) for Navy Chaplains.
The other chaplains that work for Jim Putter cringe every time he walks out of his office because
he has too many ideas and not enough time to accomplish them, but it doesn’t keep him from
trying, which means adding more and more the his staff that feels over worked and under paid.
Jim calls Bob and asks him to use this as his project and says, “Bob, if you complete this
successfully, you are assured of great reward. So study hard and make sure you keep me
updated on your progress. This training will be the highlight of the military chaplaincy.” Bob
wonders to himself, “I wonder if I don’t succeed?” Jim also assigns Bob to the Instructional
Design team in Florida to work with those that will design the other 3-days of training for the
Chaplain Corps.
Jim Putter request Mike and Bob to fly down to the kick off meeting for the design and
implementation of the 2005 PDTC. When they arrived in Florida for their meeting, the
instructional design team that consisted of all with doctorates began to ask specific questions
about the Computer Based Training aspect of the PDTC. Neither Mike nor Bob were able to
answer specific questions about the CBT, but it was clear that the contracted instructional design
team only wanted to know when it was going to be ready and how it was going to connect with
their 3-days of classroom training. Tentative dates were set for February to re-exam the process.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
A progress meeting has been set by Chaplain Putter on 5 March 04 in order to discuss
Bob’s progress with the CBT. Jim does not communicate this directly to Bob, but through the one
Bob will replace, Mike Smith. Though, Jim does send a copy of the e-mail to Bob. Bob has also
received copies of correspondence between Jon Frusti (the project manager between military and
civilian personnel) and the civilian contracted design team that is preparing the other 3-days of
training. Jon has requested a meeting in Norfolk VA at the Chaplains Resource Branch in order
to work out any issues that have arisen since the PDTC 2005 kick off meeting that both Bob and
Mike Smith attended along with all other parties involved.
THE ISSUES
During period of time between the kick off meeting last October 2003 and the meeting
requested at the end of March 2004 each group has done its own thing with regards to the
project. Then the civilian instructional design team sent a proposed outline for training that
totaled 64 Enabling objects plus another page of URL sites to be included in the 8-hours of
training. No answers were given, no direction, just information overload. Now Bob is worried that
not only would they like him to produce the template for training, but also decide upon the content
of training. What was a reasonable project for Bob has turned into a overwhelming fear-filled
process to have it completed by the Summer 2004 in addition to graduation requirements from
ODU. As a result of these feelings, Bob meets with Chaplain Putter to share his concerns with
him. He is receptive, but wants me to correspond with the appropriate parties instead of him
even though Bob asked him to do so because of Chaplain Putter’s higher ranking status in a
Military Organization. Then the CRB staff informs Bob that this is Jim’s way of doing business,
i.e. he won’t stand up for his people when it counts. While at the meeting, Bob request a special
8-hour block of training specifically about quizzes as he is not familiar enough with Director MX to
do this without a great deal of extra time that he does not have in such a demanding course load
required by the Navy to graduate sooner than later.
Bob, worried about failure, speaks to his program advisor at ODU who is also a doctoral
level instructional designer to gain insight as to what is reasonable and a direction to take from
this point of confusion, dismay, and disappointment. Bob’s advisor suggest to choose his own
Terminal Objective along with 3 enabling objectives in order to stay on target for graduation in
May and to ask for specific answers to only 24 objectives that can reasonable be put into 8-hours
of instruction via CBT. Bob wrote Jon Frusti requesting this information and Jon agreed and sent
this request to the civilian ID team. The answer should have come this week, but no answer
came. Bob wonders what he should do. The silence is raising his anxiety and making his life
more miserable.