Reflecting on Group Project in LDT 502

     As my first Learning Design Technology course comes to a close, I wanted to take time to reflect about the group project I had the pleasure of participating in. Throughout the project the peers I connected with were so kind, professional, collaborative, resourceful and knowledgeable. I enjoyed working with and learning from them in our bi-weekly zoom meetings. Tacking our first graduate group project together was certainly daunting but it was a great experience overall. The project certainly mirrored what I imagine a learning design work environment might be. Leading into the training/course mockup via google sites (i.e. final project), we had the opportunity to work together to create a task analysis, writing instructional objectives, detailed design document (DDD), and other deliverables to contribute to the final product (assessment, deliverables within the modules). The group assignment required mock-up learning module/s to be created for an imaginary school. I will focus on several areas in my personal evaluation of this project. These areas include instructional alignment, targeting learners, goals being met, and opportunities for improvement. 

    To begin, let’s focus on instructional alignment. The assignment developed with my teammates targeted learners who were faculty from a university. The goal was to teach them how to edit, upload, and export a specific video from a media file to Canvas LMS. Throughout the assignment my peers and I considered technical strengths and weaknesses the faculty of the university may have to create a solid learning experience for them. We considered different learning styles in our development of each module. Examples of this show within each module in the form of visual aids and reading/writing options such as screenshot guide (module 2), image references with note (module 1), checklist (module 2). A discussion board was also incorporated to be moderated by the hypothetical department (Department of Online Instruction and Training) implementing this training for faculty so that there are conversations about the learning content further than just the training alone. It also serves as a point of reference for faculty to collaborate and provide support to one another should there be additional questions about editing, uploading, and exporting. 

    When examining goals outlined in the design case it is clear they were met. One need that was met that required bridging included faculty presence in online courses. The creation of this module has a central goal to improve faculty to student interaction by focusing on the instructor’s introduction video for students being leveraged in this training/assignment. Another necessary task to meet as our team played the role of learning designers for the University of Skaro included creating guidelines and resources for faculty to produce effective video introductions. This goal met through each of the modules and further support provided by discussion board implementation. Furthermore, the goal of developing an instructional module for faculty on editing, exporting, and embedding introduction videos was satisfied as each team member tackled a portion of this. For example, module one focused on using the DaVinci Resolve software to edit the video, whereas module 2 focused on taking that video file and uploading it as an unlisted video to YouTube with closed captions, and module 3 centered around taking that link from YouTube and embedding it into the LMS system the university uses. Another goal to be targeted in this project included evaluating success through a variety of different metrics. This task was met as each module contained a quiz or survey that assessed successful completion not only of that module but of the objective within the module itself. Survey (module 2) also promoted student engagement in discussion group in Google Site via Jam-board to prompt faculty engagement about the edit, upload, export and embedding of the video file into the learning management system.

    There are a few changes I would have made personally should I have had more time to work through the project. One of them includes changes to my assigned module (module 2). Within this module I provided learners with 2 deliverables. One included a slide deck that served as a screenshot guide with images and descriptions. The other included an interactive checklist to be referenced during training and beyond when targeting the upload of an unloaded video with closed captions on YouTube. While the checklist was a solid deliverable for learners both via instruction and on theme with the school colors, the screenshot guide could have been more streamlined visually. I would have made changes to this portion by using consistent shapes, arrows and highlighted colors. In maintaining consistency in the screenshot guide, a more professional look would have been achieved. When it comes to learning design, it is as though when color themes and shapes are consistent, learners may take the content more seriously. Should I have been able to do this portion over I may have used the University of Skaro (imaginary school used to create this project) colors, blue and yellow, more consistently (ex: red circle indicating an important part of the screenshot changed to yellow; arrow color changed to blue; highlighted piece changed to yellow). Should this project have been seen further than what was expected to meet criteria for the course assignment, it would have been a stellar option to develop material to follow up on faculty continued professional development in the area of editing, uploading and embedding a video to reach their student audience. To add, assessing how students engaged with the video files and if the faculty introductory videos successfully bridged the gap between their longing to have more interaction in online courses and instructors teaching the course.