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Thoughts on Project A LTEC 5210

Reflect on your experiences creating Project A from start to finish. What worked and what did not? What do you think was the strongest aspect of the design process? The weakest? How do you think the experience will affect you on Project B?

Project A, Logons for Newman Smith High School, was certainly a positive learning experience. The fact that is was a real organization that I worked for, and that I had a real client to work was the most exciting part of it and the most difficult. First off, as mentioned in earlier entries, I had a lot of difficulties actually getting a correct project. I tried going to the library looking for a project, but it didn’t seem like they had something I could use. When I came up with the idea of doing student logins, it took a week getting permission to use a survey before moving on.  I would expect that most instructional designers would find similar problems in the “real world”. Next time I will learn to word what I want better.

As for the implementation of the project, I picked a project with an incredibly narrow focus.  It was hard writing learning objectives for it, and the fact that the project seemed trivial made it seem less important to my client. The fact that I never really interacted with my client on a regular basis because they were all super busy, was a difficulty.  Now that I have actually read the book, and I know what better to look for, more complex projects are appropriate.
 
For project B, I picked an organization with a little less bureaucracy and one that I was not an employee of already.  I am also more realistic with my goals for what I want.  The project I have is far more ambitious in scope and it should challenge my instructional design skills more.  I have already written a schedule of what I need to do. The fact that I don’t have someone checking my every step is a little scary, but it should be a good learning experience.

In the end, Project A while imperfect, was a positive experience. The fact that it lacked in ambition did prevent design creep. The fact that it was with my work, was a good thing because it felt very applicable to my life.  Moreover, as already mentioned to Mrs. Dolliver, I am using it on my resume for the digital learning specialist job I am applying for. I feel several things learned in this class will benefit me for that job:
  • Figuring out the learning objectives rather than having them given to me
  • Trying to build lessons in a way that best benefits the client rather than trying to use a set method.
  • Determining what people actually want, not what they say they want.
  • Dealing with people with complicated work schedules themselves.


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