My Personal Statement, Part 4: Finding the Right Blend
As a participant in the Instructional Technology Certificate program, I designed and developed a number of eLearning modules to support users of our software at Avilar using Captivate, Photoshop and other tools. Since this was a key learning objective for me at the outset, I bought a student edition of the Adobe e-Learning Suite and signed up for additional online classes through lynda.com, which proved to be very helpful in learning how to use the tools. Not helpful enough for me to be fully satisfied with my output, though. While I learned the basics through my three courses in instructional technology, I need far more knowledge on designing for e-Learning, practice using the tools, and feedback from a mentor.
Through my studies in e-Learning development, I learned that selecting the right blend of delivery methods is critical for a successful learning strategy. Brief, well-designed e-Learning courses can be very effective embedded in performance support systems, introducing new topics, products or programs, and as just-in-time references. While e-Learning development is no longer at the top of my career plan, I do want to master it.
Through my studies in e-Learning development, I learned that selecting the right blend of delivery methods is critical for a successful learning strategy. Brief, well-designed e-Learning courses can be very effective embedded in performance support systems, introducing new topics, products or programs, and as just-in-time references. While e-Learning development is no longer at the top of my career plan, I do want to master it.
The Manager's Guide to Assessing Employee Skills
This is a segment of the first eLearning module I created during my graduate studies in EDUC 681: Introduction to Instructional Technology. I did not want a typical "page turner" program, and I know from working with managers who are conducting skills and performance assessments that they too often allow their biases to impact their assessments. So I created a branching scenario in which a behavior is described, and the manager/learner needs to select the skill level demonstrated by the behavior. The feedback for each question depends on whether the learner has underrated, overrated or correctly rated the level of performance indicated by the behavior.
Click here to launch the module.
Click here to launch the module.
The Manager's Guide to Giving Performance Feedback
During the course of my studies at UMBC, my employer, Avilar Technologies, launched a new performance management module. Since we need to launch eLearning modules for management training, my group and I chose the second course in the series, Giving Performance Feedback, for our project in EDUC 683: Multi-Media Project Management. I served as project manager, graphic designer, subject matter expert and part of the design and development team. David Ziffer served as lead programmer and Bruce Emmerling led the design team and contributed to development and QA. Most of the time in the past, I've been the lone designer and developer. In this project, I learned how important it is to create a full design plan and storyboard prior to starting development and to communicate fully with people who aren't directly involved with the client or subject matter. I also learned how effective use of audio can be. Click here to launch the course. Use the username: chipple and password: chipple.