Graduated, and working

Last May, my entire class graduated and everyone got great jobs. The program was great and I'd recommend it to anyone. That's it for this blog.

Peace & Blessings,
Pamela

Graduated, and working

Last May, my entire class graduated and everyone got great jobs. The program was great and I'd recommend it to anyone. That's it for this blog.

Peace & Blessings,
Pamela

Graduated, and working

Last May, my entire class graduated and everyone got great jobs. The program was great and I'd recommend it to anyone. That's it for this blog.

Peace & Blessings,
Pamela

Week 16, May 7 - 12, 2006

We've been working diligiently on the final presentation. Did a run through with Kevin and Nada this week. Got great feedback. I think once I calm down and practice, the final presentation will be great!

Week 15, May 1 - 5

We are in presentation mode. Tim and I worked on the final powerpoint presentation, which we will deliver to Dr. Clark on May 11th.

I am working on completing my EDIT 590 project, I must tabulate the result of the survey. It is funny. I thought I was not understanding anything from the class, but was able to complete the interim test, which actually proved to me that I do understand what Dr. Kelly was teaching.

Qualitative research can be said to have been used by T/TAC during the needs,task and performance analaysis

Quantitative research can be said to have been used during our learning analysis.

I finally got that. Now, to use it on the job.

Week 14, April 24 - 28, 2006

Things are coming along. We are in the final stages of development. We had several iterations of usability testing or as we say in ISD, formative evaluaiton.

I spent the weekend tabulating the usability results. The testing helped us fine tune the EPSS. This definately a must. Without formative evaluation a system could be launced that is the exact opposite of what is needed. Our testing generated enough comments to help us make changes such as enlarging fonts and logon screen. Adding text to navigation and other functionality changes. We probably would not have implemented most of the changes without the usability testing. It was a step in the model that can be overlooked, but that is why we are in this program to know what to do, and when to do it. We got great feedback.

It's so interesting to see how all of the steps in the ISD process worked for our project. Without the needs analysis, performance analysis, learner analysis and task analysis, we would not have been able to understand fully the needs of the user. Especially since the client was asking for a community of practice. We were on that route for awhile before we finally were able to convince the client that we were not developing a Community of Practice and persuade them that we were actually developing an EPSS or a performance support system. It actually feels good to develop a system that gives the user what they need to do their job. The process works when followed.

Week 13, April 17 - 21, 2006

Sick all week!

Week 12, April 10 - 14

Burn out! Interest paper was due this week. Of course, once I got into the meat of the paper, I found that the books I had, well, only three were really useful. Back to the drawing board, the internet!

I need information that pertains to training ROI and Human Capital Value. I found some good things. Gotta get back to the paper.

Week 11, April 3 - 7

Bummer, I wasn't feeling well this week. I managed to finish the two quantitative research article critiques and develop and send my quesitonairre for EDIT 590.

Dr. Kelly emailed his interim exam, ten essay questions, approximately 20 pages once complete. This will require more reading and research to complete. Quiet week.

Week 10, March 27 - 31, 2006

Great week! I finished tabulating the results from the usability testing and the team is preparing for a iteration of changes. this is the week for our team to get organized and ready for final testing and presenting our project to our client on April 20th. I've never used the word iteration so much before this.

Everyone is busy working on projects that are due in other classes. We have an interest paper and two research paper critiques, questionairre's to send out and the formative evaluation plan was turned in.

My interest paper is about a topick that wasn't covered in class, but is very important to the Instructional Designer and trainers. We studied most topics, but we haven't gone into ROI. This is one of the hottest topics in training. It can make a department or break it. The ISD process is great, but without some understanding of how what you are doing fits into the business you can find yourself without a job!

It is coming together. Most of what has been read is being used. The only course I am not comfortable with is the Educaiton Research in technology. Amon kelly is over the top, but I'm sure by the end, I'll have knowledge that I did not have before. I definately see how this class will help in the future. Not that I didn't know that already. It is very important to understand statistics in training. They are used so much for calculating success rates, spending, and during evaluations, especially level four and five. I wish, roi was included in this course, or that this course was aimed more at evaluation, valuing human capital, roi and the business aspect of training. But, Iwill understand correlations, qualitative and quantatitve research, and scatterplots.

I think mentally we are all a little burned out, but excited about the progress we've made.

Week 9, March 20 - 24

Welcome Back! I am back after a week off for Spring Break.

Lot's to do this week. Although the changes we wanted are not on the site, we are going ahead with usability testing. We have two test group scheduled for this week. we are all excited, or anxious to find out what kind of thoughts our two sets of special education teachers will have. We have designed the site with lots of scaffolding, included all of Dr. Dabbagh's instructional strategies, it's very intuitive and we hope it will live up to our original goal, which is to design a site for special education teachers.

The testing went well, the teachers found the site to very easy to use and all teachers made many suggestion, many which will be implemented. Development is such an iterative process. As I said before, we could probably spend three or more months on usability testing alone. All teachers felt the site flows well, clear and everything is easy to find, except the logon. We all thought that was an issue and will be working on that during this iteration of changes. In Dr. Clarks class we used a book called website usability. My team has worked hard to make sure the site can be used by anyone. We've implemented most of the suggestion in the book, except for the commercial type suggestions. We all thought the book had some great suggestions, although most of my team has experience in web design.

In redoing the usability test, I had to take time to review several text books, which had chapters that included information on usability testing - how to conduct testing, sample questions, and other useful information. I also, found tons of online resources which proved very useful.

Spring 2006, Week 8

Wonderful! That's how everything is going. It's interesting to see how everything is coming together for the TTAC project. We are well into the design phase and all we can think about is usability testing. We've been working with Shuangbao to get changes and updates loaded on the site. Aala'a and Matt are are specialist on data base and flow sheets. Without them we would not be as far along as we are now. It feels good to have a competent team that works together. If this program teachers nothing else, it's teaching me that good communication, negotiation and teamwork is the foundation of a successful team. Oh yeah, I forgot to say trust in your teammates abilities.

Well along with design and development comes usability testing. Our schedule includes about five different rounds of usability testing. We have to do this testing to find out how our site flows, whether the content is usable, and if the supports are adequate. We will also find out if the site works and can do what we want it to do. We feel good and are looking forward to this part.

I am secretly wishing we could do more, but with time constraints, I know that's not possible. we will make the most of the testing we have set up and work with the results to implement a "dynamite" system. We forge ahead!

Spring 2006, Week 6 and 7

The past two weeks have been full. T/TAC has met with our clients twice and each time have found numerous changes to the website that were initiated because of the client input. MHSA has assisted our team with usability testing of the prototype. It was very useful and appreciated. From that testing we found some usage problems that need to be addressed and we were able to discuss these issues with the clients. We are finding this process to be extremely iterative and necessary. One I must say cannot be ignored. After spring break we will begin testing with experts and teachers, this will give us more data that will be helpful in providing a site that will meet the goals of the project, "Helping teachers to develop lesson plans, which generate a score of 3 or 4."

I enjoyed researching and creating the usability documents, but I find that they must be overhauled for this new round of testing. I will have to spend some hours perfecting the checklist and of course (this being an iterative process) have to redesign the document again for round three. The design process went well, but development is where you must spend time and get it right. Clients will make changes and you have to be ready.

I feel good about my teams progress and what we've learned during this the develpment phase.

Oh, I forgot to mention - On March 6th I became a Grandmother! Wow!!!!

Spring 2006 - Week 4 and 5, February 24, 2006

Wow, the team is making great progress. We are in the development phase of the ADDIE Model and development is going well. The prototype is looking good. I worked on creating the content for the welcome page. We have made several changes to the site, but this is to be expected. I think all the changes have gone well. I like working with my team. Everyone is talented and has something to offer to the project and we work well together. Dr. Behrmann gives us just enough information to run with, we could not have asked for a better client/project manager. I believe the final product will be very useful to teachers and administrators. It is a good product.

The first phase of usability testing is planned for next week, then second will be held the week of March 20th, and the thrid will be held on April 20th. I hope we can stay on schedule, at this time we don't have any testers lined up. If all else fails, I'll aks the MHSA team to do a small test, while I work to get teachers, or TTAC staff. I can't wait to find out what the users think. I believe this is one of the most important aspects of the project. The teachers, IT experts and others will help us get it right. I am excited about the testing. I believe this product can be very useful, and once in place, can be used as a template for the VGLA and VSEP.

I found some great information on the usability testing process online. It helped me understand the hows, whys, and what's. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I presented the usability observation checklist and it turned out to be perfect for the first level of testing. I'll begin working on the second document once we have analyzed the results from the first set of test.

I really need to start on my interest paper. My topic is huge, I have narrow it down and see if there is sufficient info available. Emerging Markets: India - what was I thinking. I may have to defer to my second choice ROI in training. Or something like that.

All of the classes this semester tie in to each other. I think this semester will give us good research/writing skills and the beginning statistical skills that are used so much in the training industry. Everyone wants and uses statistics. Information has been rich and related.

Gotta go...