I really enjoyed the process of putting together a full
training for this class. I think the way it was approached resonates with how trainings
are truly constructed much of the time in the real world. I just took the time
to go back and really look at our site from the eyes of a learner (rather than
as the designer whose team was working at break-neck speed to complete the
project by our deadline) and I have to say, I really like what we put together.
It helped that at least one member of our team, in
this case it was me, has experience creating and running a successful podcast.
I think this may have been harder for those who are not well-versed in the podcasting
world. It also goes to show that as instructional designers, we need to be at
least familiar with many different formats of learning technology or, at the
very least, be very good at researching those processes. My group members created
fantastic lessons that I feel would absolutely benefit the learner, but several
of my teammates had no experience with podcasts at all. It was good that we had
someone to act as an SME when needed, but I think it reflects very highly on
those who were not experts in this topic that they could find and learn enough
about the topic to create a robust training. Something that I have learned from
others in this field is that often, an ID needs to be able to learn something
completely new and then get to know it well enough to summarize and teach it, even
becoming somewhat of the SME themselves. This could be about something like podcasting,
but it could also be about complex mechanical systems or medical practices, etc…
This assignment was good practice for us.
I enjoyed that we were provided with realistic
scenarios from our “boss” with supplemental details, decisions that were made by
the management and parameters. This echoes a real-world experience. As learning
designers, we often must work within the decisions that have been made without
us and with equipment we did not choose, and especially within budgets that may
or may not be ideal. In this course, we could have been given carte blanche to
go wild with the ideal equipment and space. But this is not realistic, so I
appreciate the scenarios that were provided to us.
When I looked back at my team’s modules and our “LMS”
with fresh eyes, I sent a message to them all to thank them for the work and
tell them how proud I am of this training. I think that it is comprehensive and
robust. We thought of many small details that I know that I have learned as a
result of experimenting when creating my own podcast for my job, such as making
sure your recording space is set up and sounds good, testing your audio and
playing it back to make sure it is as close to ideal as possible. I know for a
fact, there is nothing more disheartening than recording an awesome interview
or a full podcast and then realizing that your audio quality is terrible. I am
glad we were able to incorporate practice sessions, best practices and tips and
tricks into the training.
I also think it was very important that we created
different types of learning experiences. For me, I could not imagine teaching someone
to edit their audio without actually showing them. So the videos that we
created were pivotal. But we also realized that not everyone learns best from videos,
so we supplemented with a written how-to guide. We worked to accommodate
different types of learners and their various learning and teaching styles. And
I believe we definitely met the goals that were discussed in the Design Case.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the work we submitted
and feel it could actually be used right now in any real-life setting
