Running head: FINAL REPORT
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Final Report for Digital Prototype
Papia Bawa
EDCI 569
Purdue University West Lafayette
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Final Report for Digital Prototype
Summary of Course and Access Information
The e-learning course, ‘Document Design Strategies for Professional Writing’, is an 8
week, online certification course created to help students of Ivy Tech’s Business/Technical
Writing courses (English 211) fill in the gaps of learning that the current 211 course has in
terms of teaching learners meaningful skills for professional document designing. Although the
course primarily targets current or former English 211 students, any faculty or other students
who seek to gain document design skills via an online course, will also benefit. The actual course
will be delivered fully online, via Ivy Tech’s Blackboard platform. In order to be enrolled,
interested students will contact their advisors or the course instructors (when that information is
available) who will then enroll the students in the class. Alternatively, students can self-enroll
once that option is made available. The prototype/ pilot course will be delivered using Course
Sites by Blackboard. Once the pilot run is completed, the course package will be imported into
Ivy Tech’s Region 4 main Blackboard database. For participation in the pilot course, interested
students will need to contact the instructors or advisors who will send an email invitation to the
students. Upon receiving that email, students will follow the directions given and access the
course. The login for the pilot course is accessed via: https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bbsites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html
Summary of Formative Evaluations of the Digital Prototype
Besides extensive self –evaluation and following Merrill’s 5 Star Rating Chart, two
separate sets of tests/evaluations were conducted to assess the digital prototype’s usability and its
compatibility with the key elements of Merrill’s 5 star evaluation rubric as well as Horton’s
(2011) principles of web design. The evaluation rubric designed to review the certification
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course focused on four core elements of effective e-learning: course website design and ease of
navigation, design and relevance of instructional materials, opportunity provided to learners to
build on preexisting knowledge in a real world environment, and opportunities provided to
learners to interact synchronously and asynchronously with their peers and instructors. The
choice of participants was inspired by Horton’s (2011) suggestions given in the ‘Essentialism’
Appendix, which mention that test subjects must have comparable background knowledge and
experience and must display a variety of age, gender and language skills. A brief summary of
the usability/formative evaluation results are given below. To access a detailed table of
evaluation results please use this link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/147848763/Table-ofEvakuation-Results . To access the completed Merrill’s 5 Star Rating chart please use this link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/147647506/Merrill-for-Final-Digital-Prototype
First formative evaluation results. There were 5 participants for the initial testing
phase, out of which 4 were people with vested interest in the course, including professors from
Region 4 Ivy Tech’s School of Business and the Program Chair of the English Department. The
5th participant was a classmate from EDCI 569. All participants assessed the course’s overall
quality as a 4 (excellent) based on the evaluation form’s rubric. There were some suggestions for
revisions relating to minor typos and some specific information.
Second formative evaluation results. There were 3 participants for this, 2 of whom are
prospective students who have already completed the English 211 course or equivalent, thus
meeting the key prerequisite. The third participant, Dr. Deborah Saks, Dean of Business
Division of Los Rios Community College Sacramento, is interested in using the course for her
department. The net evaluation results were very positive, with a score of 4 based on a scale of 1
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being poor to 4 being excellent. The only suggestion for revision was from Dr. Saks regarding
the slidesnack in module 1 of the course.
Changes made based on self-evaluation and formative evaluation feedback.
1- The ‘Starting Point’ page was modified to
4- The “Audience Analysis for Professional
include information relating to Java plug ins,
Writing’ slidesnack was modified to improve
and the fact that some online files opened in a
the color scheme by changing the red titles to
new window (syllabus, schedule)
yellow.
The improved version:
http://snack.to/b7u32n9t
The earlier version: http://snack.to/bhn5wn9t
2- The ‘Read This First’ document was
5- The color coding of the 4 main folders in
modified to include more specific information
each module was modified. Red was removed
about navigation and how to use discussion
from Assignment titles and 4 different colors
forums.
were added to represent the 4 folders to
facilitate ‘training’ the users’ eyes to recognize
and anticipate each folder’s contents.
3- The information on the draft/peer review
6- The test participants were divided into
discussions forums, the Instructional manual
groups so that they could better understand
and the Marketing Collateral was modified to
what the group space is, what it looks like, and
add more specific details. This was done based
what it contains. This was also done based on
on self-evaluation and using Krug’s (2005)
self-evaluation.
suggestion to design sites that help users ‘get
7- A Message was sent to invite students to the
it’ so that they can find what they are looking
Live Meeting sessions. Based on self-
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for, what the course has to offer, and also feel
evaluation, this was done to display how the
smarter and more in control so that they can
instructor would/could communicate the Live
revisit the site more often and with ease.
Meeting schedules module to module.
What Worked Well and What Did Not
EDCI 569 was a great learning experience and worked really well to help me develop the
certification course. Horton (2011) was an excellent resource, which coupled with the
assessments, discussion activities, and assigned reading resources in the course, enhanced my
preexisting skills in the subject and helped design a course that was well accepted by experts and
novice users, even in the first test phase. The step by step approach of the 569 course created
several opportunities to receive valuable feedback from the professor and my peers. The
emphasis on applying due diligence to write the course objectives was particularly helpful in
developing the course. Having a detailed paper prototype assignment was probably one of the
best activities, as completing it greatly helped with designing the actual digital prototype.
Having several stages of usability evaluation was also very useful in revising the final online
version. A huge positive about this experience was the support and helpful feedback from Dr.
Walker, especially regarding my course objectives. For week 1 we had to post our tentative
objectives and Dr. Walker recommended that my objectives needed to be “clear and concise”.
She gave some great tips on how to do this; tips that I applied to my revisions, with very positive
results.
The item of concern and tension was my initial choice of the course delivery platform of
Purdue’s ICS account. When I reactivated my account I realized that I did not have enough
space in the account. I deleted and moved huge caches of content to make room for my
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proposed course, but after I freed up the space I found out that there were serious issues with the
FTP connections. In order to upload any file, I was going to have to be on campus and use
Purdue labs. I tried doing that and then found out that there was an issue with my ‘www’
permissions. Ultimately, I gave up on ICS and decided to use Course Sites instead.
What I would do Differently and Same
I have developed many new skills and enhanced my knowledge of online course designs
immensely by participating in EDCI 569, so there will be many things that I will do differently
when designing future courses. My developmental experience will be more in tune with
Horton's approach to e-learning design, and will more consciously include things like avoiding
trying to teach too much, including more supporting objectives, desisting from going overboard
with too much fun and ease, especially if this approach takes away from the real learning
experience, avoiding teaching the obvious or the redundant, and creating more people friendly
learning environment that has solutions in place for anything that might make learners feel
awkward or embarrassed.
I will also keep using my competencies developed from previous experiences in instructional
designing, harnessing the skills that have worked for me in the past, and which I used for this
course also with success. I will continue to strive to pinpoint relevant information and present
them in succinct and attractive fashions, since this is a very important element of designing
courses, particularly for e-learning. I will continue to conduct research and be updated on all new
and emerging trends in the subject for which I may be designing a course. I will continue to
interact extensively with the SMEs before starting a course design and while designing it. I will
also continue to interact with prospective students and instructors who are teaching courses I
design to get feedback for future course designs and improving existing ones.
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Applicability of the Project Experience to Future Endeavors
The overall project experience has been overwhelmingly useful and practical for my
future, because I am already in the eLearning industry and hope to expand my professional
experiences in this field. Everything I have learned in EDCI 569 has deepened my
understanding of the intricacies and nuances of online course design and teaching, and created
new perspectives, while improving existing ones. The course also motivated me to do more
research in the field, which brought some interesting facts to light that I may have known about,
but was less aware of till now. Particularly noteworthy are the works of Horton, Krug, Mager
and Guralnick. Tables 1 and 2 in the next section lists my new found perspectives and
knowledge related to eLearning based on the above resources.
Implications of the Experience and Recommendations to Instructional Designers
The experience implied that several strategies need to be utilized to create effective
eLearning course sites and materials. It is not a one step process, nor are there any cookie cutter
methods or one size templates to fit all. Having several people from different backgrounds,
including possible end users, is imperative to creating effective eLearning courses. Here are
some of my recommendations to other instructional designers, based on what I learned from this
class and its main project.
Table 1: My New Views Inspired by Horton (2011)
1- Instead of focusing on what we feel the learner might need to know someday, focus on what
the learner can use immediately or in the near future. Think about developing a course that would
allow the learners to not only build on their existing skills, but to also use their soon- to- be
acquired skills as stepping stones to move on to the next level of knowledge/skills acquisition.
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Remember that learning is an ever evolving process, which means that the complexity of a
subject matter may also evolve over time. No course can cover the entire scope of information
relating to any specific subject; hence focusing on the learners’ immediate needs is an effective
method of nudging them towards getting skills they can actually use.
2- Instead of focusing too much on the theoretical aspects of the subject, try to create a balance
between theory and the practice of associated skills related to that. Remember that theory is only
as strong as the skills it helps produce within the learners.
3- Instead of focusing completely on extremely narrow goals, it is also very important to focus
on items that will increase the motivation of the learners to learn. One good way of doing this is
to explain to the learners why they need to learn or perform a specific process in the course. This
information can be given periodically throughout the course, or introduced during the first week
of the course. Remember that unless the learning process makes sense to the learners, it is
unlikely that real learning will take place.
4- Instead of focusing on creating the course in which the students will have a lot of fun and
would be very easy for them to complete, it is important to think about how the relevant
materials can be taught in as easy and interesting a manner as possible. Remember that the
students are in the course to learn the subject, and not just to have fun. That does not mean that
we should deliberately make the course boring or tedious. The challenge is to create a judicious
balance between the seriousness and depth of the subject and the ease and interest factors with
which learning that subject can be approached.
5- Instead of focusing on teaching everything that there is to know about a process in any
subject, try to think about the learners’ pre-existing skills and build a course that helps them
enhance those skills. Remember that learners will be much more impatient if they're forced to
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repeat or regurgitate things that they already know.
6- Instead of focusing on ways in which we, as teachers and designers, feel that students should
learn, it is better to put ourselves in the students’ shoes and try to think of learning strategies in
which students may be more comfortable in their learning environment. For example, if some
student feels very strongly about working in a group, or if students are facing issues in a
collaborative environment, the course must be designed to have the flexibility of handling such
issues.
Table 2: My New Views Inspired by Krug (2005), Mager (1997,1999), Guralnick (nd, 2012)
Krug
Mager
Guralnick
When creating courses think
Create good learning
Interfaces should focus on supporting
like the user. Mitigate the
objectives: be specific in the
the actions a learner will take while
guess work. Help readers to
desired outcomes, use action
learning; the goal of eLearning should
‘get it’: what the course is
words that are measurable and
be to improve performance, not simply
about, where the important
observable, focus on student
teach things; use media to serve a
information is, and how to get
performances versus instructor learning purpose and not just to add
to it.
actions.
variety; interactivity should have a
legitimate purpose and enhance the
learners’ ability to perform actions.
To conclude “The design and development of effective e-learning is a complex process
that requires a number of analytic activities to help ensure that learning takes place, and many of
these activities must occur several times within the process of developing a product” (CDC,
2013)
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References
CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). US Department of Health, (2013). Cdc’s elearning essentials a guide for creating quality electronic learning. Retrieved from CDC
website: http://www.cdc.gov/learning/local/pdf/ElrngEsstls.pdf
Guralnick, D. (2012, August). David Guralnick: Learning, technology, and design. Retrieved
from http://davidguralnick.wordpress.com/
Guralnick, D. (n.d.). User interface design for effective, engaging e-lea rning . Retrieved from
http://www.kaleidolearning.com/effective e-learning.pdf
Horton, W. (2012). E-learning by design. (2 ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Krug, S. (2005). Don’t make me think a common sense approach to web usability. (2nd ed., pp.
1-216). New York: New Riders.
Mager's tips on instructional objectives. (1999, September 06). Retrieved from
http://www2.gsu.edu/~mstmbs/CrsTools/Magerobj.html
Mager, R. F. (1997). Preparing instructional objectives: A critical tool in the development of
effective instruction. Retrieved from Purdue University’s EDCI 569 website:
https://mycourses.purdue.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=
/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher?type=Course&id=_66967_1&url=