I Need Technical Support. Can't Upload My Work

My Work is done, but I can't upload my files.
I need Technical Support

Life is not easy, especially who is trying to finish the work on time and his mother-in-law is visiting him. I was trying to hide in the garage and work there, but I was not able to upload my files since Wi-Fi signals were quite weak. I sat near the Internet router, but still, it refused to upload the files. Troubleshooting didn’t help, and it looks like the router is sensitive enough to sense the trouble…. And I guess I do not need to elaborate the source of trouble. The picture below will show my good reason for hiding. 

To answer the questions about my strengths as a designer, I would like to say that I have an advanced degree in mechanical engineering. This WTE project was my passion and I offered this to the government of Pakistan some years ago. They were quite excited by my unique idea and agreed to set up the project. They were will to give me free land, 30 years of free trash, five years of no tax incentive but were not willing to invest in this multi-million dollar project. I approached the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development, Canada AID and other investors but failed to raise that kind of money. The project went in the cyberspace. I heard that someone else picked it and is installing it in Pakistan. I am glad that they menace of MSW would be taken care off.

There was no issue with meeting the deadline, as I knew what to write in the courseware. Presentations, videos, pdf, and quizzes were not difficult either. But I had issues with uploading the course due to some LMS issues. Other than that, with the recommendations of my course reviewer, I think I have developed a comprehensive course that will help my audience to learn the concept and help the NGO establishing the WTE plant.

I Wish I Had An Excuse

I still have my home due tonight, and I was wondering what excuse do I have to tell my professor?

I finished my project but……. 

Or I wish, I was a third grader to have this excuse:

 But the best excuse that fits here due to my wobbly dentures...

Beside the excuses of an old man for not doing his homework on time, I would like to add to my blog that, I am about to finish writing the contents of my “Waste to Energy” corporate training. The reading text is completed and some tweaking needs to be done on the PowerPoint presentation. Post-training quiz questions are ready to be typed on the online quiz-maker. I will be uploading the rest of the material this week and hopefully complete the project by Friday.

With my peer’s feedback, I updated the course material, and it looks fine to me so far. Hopefully, I would look to my professor and help me fetch a good grade.

DO I LOOK LIKE I’M INTERESTED IN HEARING SOME POSITIVE CRITICISM?

DO I LOOK LIKE I’M INTERESTED IN HEARING SOME POSITIVE CRITICISM?

Why Feedback is important?

The term ‘feedback’ is used to describe the helpful information or criticism about prior action or behavior from an individual, communicated to another individual (or a group) who can use that information to adjust and improve current and future actions and behaviors (DeFranzo, 2015). Feedback is an essential part of effective learning as well. It helps students understand the subject being studied and gives them clear guidance on how to improve their learning. Bellon et al, state 'academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior...this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting.' Feedback can improve a student's confidence, self-awareness, and enthusiasm for learning. Feedback is an important part of the assessment process. It has a significant effect on student learning and has been described as “the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement” (Hattie, 1999). To benefit student learning, feedback needs to be: Constructive, timely and meaningful. Feedback is valuable when it is received, understood and acted on. How students analyze, discuss and act on feedback is as important as the quality of the feedback itself (Nicol, 2010).

The reviewer of my work was very generous and kind to me (Looks like he was not from my in-law's clan). He did a clear and detailed review of my work and gave me a very positive feedback that is going to help me make improvement in my course. I literally missed mentioning the purpose and scope, along with goal settings of my training in the “Readme first” document.  I will be updating my doc in a day or so. He mentioned in the review that he doesn’t see any assessment of the learning. I guess he missed reading about the “Pre-Assessment” quiz in the first module. The daily online meetings and discussions will help the instructor evaluate his students’ learning as Q&As are mandatory in this session. Moreover, every day’s blog reflections and reply to other’s blogs would also reflect that learning is happening. The course will end with a post-test survey and hopefully, the outcome of that would change the behavior of the participants in favor of the residents of the city of Karachi landfill. The reviewer's suggestions are well taken and I will modify my coursework as per his recommendations.

Presently, I am up to date on preparing the course material and only a few changes need to be done. UNT courses LTEC-52010 and 5510 have been quite helpful in developing this course and the instructional design documents. I sincerely hope that my education will help me in my future endeavors.

The CANVAS and Poor Khan

The incorporation of technology in the educational field, students and teachers interact with each other via online forums, threaded discussions, video conferencing and emails. When all of these features are combined together on one platform, functions like course documentation, class administration, students ‘evaluation, the Learning Management System (LMS) provides that portal to the educators and learners. Among many LMS used in the education field, CANVAS stands quite tall with its robust features for both ends of learning era. For educators, CANVAS LMS offers a platform with which they can create the learning environment they want for their learners. Teachers can offer feedback, merge videos, blogs, wikis, and other channels of education while watching their students’ progress. Whereas for the students, CANVAS LMS helps them to obtain notifications, submit paperwork, and interact with the learning materials given to them on the gadgets they use. They can also combine their CANVAS LMS account with their social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.

Creating a course on the CANVAS was easier than I thought. From the beginning of this class, our professor Dr. Robin gave us very clear instructions on how to set up an account with CANVAS and create a class. After developing the contents of Module-1, I could upload and publish them to my CANVAS class, but I have not been able to view it in the student view. I guess I need to read more instructions on this feature of CANVAS. Presently I am working on developing the rest of the modules and things are going well. I do have an issue though, CANVAS does not seem to have a quiz/test builder. If that feature was included, then this LMS would have been second to none in the market.

The Poor Course Developer

The Poor Course Developer

With the rapid growth and ease of getting an online education, online course developers are the silent contributors to the field of learning. They are not the teachers who are at the front end to deliver the course, but in actual practice,  they may be filling the positions of subject matter expert, instructional designer, media specialist, or even content editor.  To be a course developer, one should understand the cognitive and learning theories as his course would be a tool to invoke learning a new concept. Learners are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in a course when they consider that the content can meet their personal and professional needs. The content developer must recognize the psychological needs of the learner. He has to keep in mind that the course is motivational enough to encourage participation, curiosity, openness, and confidence. The belongingness and relatedness of the topic, promote self-actualization and develops self-esteem in the student, making learning pleasant in an effective learning environment.

Developing a corporate training on the usage of a Municipal Solid Waste to Energy facility is quite a task for me. Being a mechanical engineer, and having field experience in industrial plant commissioning, the concept and working of such a plant is easy for me. I am familiar with the different sections, components, processes of incineration, conversion of thermal energy to mechanical and then electrical energy, but putting all of it together as a course is a tedious and cumbersome process. I can design engineering plants, draw their components, do engineering calculations, but putting it all together as a training is difficult. I am glad that I took a course in Instructional Design earlier, but I am a not naturally gifted writer at all. I have to force myself to write and to be realistic, I am not very successful at it.

The course development started with an ID development document. The technical content is being written and I have to keep in mind the technical and intellectual knowledge of my audience. My students would be comprised of highly qualified engineers, rich businessmen, elected city officials, and bureaucrats. They all are professionals in their respective fields, but very unlikely to be knowledgeable in others. I should develop this training at a level that would promote learning in all of my students, and of course, keeping it interesting for them at the same time. I am glad that my colleague and reviewer is an English teacher. She was very kind and precise on finding mistakes in my writing and suggested corrections to make the material up to standard. 

The CANVAS learning management system is very robust and easy to use not only to instructors but to students as well.  Canvas LMS offers a platform with which I can generate an effective and easy learning atmosphere that I want for my learners. Reviewing the features, I learned that the CANVAS LMS can provide feedback, merge videos, blogs, and other channels of education while tracking students’ progress. The flexibility and customization capabilities of this LMS would make my job easier. The best part is that the students can interact with their teacher by uploading audio and video files.

I am still learning to use the features of this great LMS and hopefully, I would be able to develop a good course for my class.

My Instructional Model

My Instructional Model

Instructional Design! Why should I use one? I am a teacher, a really good one. I know my subject, I have been teaching it for a long time, I am a master of it. These could be the thoughts or may be the voice of a typical teacher, but in today's world, the profession of teaching has evolved big folds. Traditionally, the role of the teacher is to deliver content and in doing so, he builds rapport with his students which help him deliver the knowledge. For a better understanding of a novel concept, an instructional design would present a better resolution. In the real world, it is not the content you deliver as an instructor, it all matters how you deliver the knowledge to your students.

As compared to a teacher’s lesson plan, an instructional design can be defined as the creation of instructional materials, modules or lessons. Instructional design is a technology for the development of learning experiences and environments which promote the acquisition of specific knowledge and skill by students (Merrill, Drake, Lacy & Pratt, 1996). In general terms, the instructional design process consists of determining the needs of the learners, defining the end goals and objectives of instruction, designing and planning assessment tasks, and designing teaching and learning activities to ensure the quality of instruction.

In my previous class of Instructional Design, I came across multiple learning theories and different instructional design systems. Among many instructional designs being used in the educational world today, the ADDIE ID model has been my favorite. ADDIE is one of the leading ID systems being used in the industry. After reviewing the article “Newby, Stepich, Lehman, and Russell (PIE Model) and ADDIE “ by Gutierez (2013), I found that the era of eLearning could be benefitted better with this model of instructional design. The PIE ID primarily was designed in the year 2000 for teachers, especially to implement technology in their classrooms. This model focuses “on classroom instruction created and delivered by the same individual…with an emphasis on using media and technology to assist them” (Gustafson and Branch, 2002). The use of instructional media is stressed in this model in order to assist in student-centered learning.

As compared to ADDIE’s model which is comprised of five phases; Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation & Evaluation, the PIE model is identified by three main segments, which are Plan, Implement, and Evaluate. The Analysis, Design, and Development phases of ADDIE could be compared with PIE’s planning phase. In this phase, the ID designer plans and prepares the lesson/course, which includes reviewing of all the resources and analyzing the environment of learning. Whereas, Implementation and Evaluation phases could be considered the same in the two models. The Implementation phase is used to build up the learning experiences and combines methods/media. Teachers evaluate student learning and overall effectiveness of their lesson in the Evaluation phase. The PIE model has “general rules that it can be adapted to fit each situation, rather than a rigid procedure that must be followed in the same way every time” (Newby, 2001). The great thing about this model is that although it introduces each phase in a particular order, they do not force a particular process, which makes it very useful for teachers, as they can adjust their instruction according to the interaction they receive from the students.

With a comprehensive shift to the student-centered learning, the use of technology has undermined the work of Lev Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory of learning. Social constructivism theory places emphasis on the collaborative nature of learning, with the underlying assumption that knowledge is constructed through the interaction of others. Research on the online environment shows that interaction among students and between the instructor and students is critically important for student satisfaction and retention (Thompson, 2017). As a result, Ludwig-Hardman and Dunlap (2003) state that some students in distance learning programs and courses report feelings of isolation, lack of self-direction, and management, and eventually decrease in motivation levels. It is very much possible that improper application of the PIE’s ID model in lesson development may promote isolation in the student-centered learning paradigm.

In conclusion, I would say that the use of the PIE model in my ID system with more blended instructions. This model would definitely be pleasing to my client since it offers the same advantages as the ADDIE’s model and it synchronizes technology in knowledge delivery. Technology use definitely helps the learners to gain knowledge with the completion of a lesson. The inventiveness of technology use in the PIE model makes the learners stay focused throughout the course with the same zeal and apprehension and that’s what every client is yearning for.

References:

Gustafson, K. L., & Branch, R. M. (2002). Survey of instructional development models (4th ed.). Syracuse, NY: Eric Clearinghouse on Information.

Gutierrez, G. (2013, July 13). Newby, Stepich, Lehman, and Russell (PIE Model) and ADDIE.

Newby, T. J., Stepich, D. A., Lehman, J. D., & Russell, J. D. (2000). Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall.

Youngman, T. (2017, April 6). ADDIE's great but give other instructional design models a look. In CAVIO Learning: Corporate Strategy and Learning Center. Retrieved September 22, 2018, from https://www.caveolearning.com/blog/addies-great-but-give-other-instructional-design-models-a-look

Feedbacks! Do We Really Need Them?

Feedback, Uh! Is it really helpful? Consider the plight of a poor husband, who feels like hanging himself from the ceiling every day. Apart for the poor guy, feedback or criticism about a prior action could be helpful in improving or adjusting current and future actions. Feedback occurs when an environment reacts to a behavior or action. Effective negative or positive feedback is beneficial in making informed decisions. It improves performance, effective listening, motivates and helps in learning. Feedback in education with clear guidance from the instructor is an essential part of the learning process and improves understanding of the new concepts efficiently. Bellon et al. (1991)  state that academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior...this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting. At the same time, effective feedback from a teacher builds a positive bond with the students making learning direct and adequate. In a study conducted by American behavioral scientists, Emily Heaphy, and Marcial Losada, it was found that for the effective learning, the ideal ratio of praise to criticism is 5.6:1 (Zenger & Folkman, 2013), making praise as an important aspect of feedback. In case of my assignment, when I passed my Design Document for peer review, I was a bit confident that my document would be very clear and up to the mark.  I had revised my file prior to submission and after receiving feedback from my professor Dr. Robinson and hoped that I have cleared all of my mistakes. Alas! I was wrong, not 100%, but probably 20%. I had some grammatical mistakes, but this feedback was really very essential for a good course development. Luckily, my reviewer is an English teacher and she gave me a good overview of small mistakes that I overlooked. As long as the design of the document or the goals/objectives is concerned, there were no faults. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and have a good understanding of the subject of power plants, so there were no errors in the learning modules section. Beside minor English grammar issues (English is my third language), there were some formatting issues. Uploading the file via email made a few changes in the reference section, as the indentation was changed, and my reviewer caught that. I have made the suggested changes in my document and hope the end result would be a fine Design Course Document meeting the high standard of this graduate course.
In the end, I would conclude that the feedback was a clear guidance in improving my learning, making me more confident, self-aware and an enthusiastic student.

References:

Losada, M., & Heaphy, E. (2001, February 1). The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business beams. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(6), 740-765. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0002764203260208

Staff. Why is feedback important? Reading University Journal. Retrieved from https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/engageinfeedback/Whyisfeedbackimportant/

Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2013, March 13). Giving feedback. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/03/the-ideal-praise-to-criticism

Instructional Design and Technology: Finding its Roots

The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill;
the willingness to learn is a choice. (Brian Herbert)

Instructional Design is defined as “a systematic process that is employed to develop education and training programs in a consistent and reliable fashion” (Reiser, Dempsey, 2007). In addition, it may be thought of as a framework for developing modules or lessons that increase the possibilities for learning, making acquisition of knowledge efficient and appealing. (Merrill, Drake, Lacy, Pratt, 1996). Dr. Merrill argues that an effective instructional design engages learners in a way that there is a deeper level of understanding and learning happens faster and competently. The authors refer to the incorporation of an instructional design as a technology found in the science of instruction. The scientific approach of IDs leads to discoveries in learning theories, research in human cognition and thought processes, identifying prescriptive & descriptive theories of learning, and empirically implying all of the variables in the instructional model. The article effectively cites that a well-balanced instructional design promotes the acquisition of specific knowledge and build skills in the students. The article further elaborates the difference between a student and a learner and emphasizes that individualized learning is better than group learning. In conclusion, the article favors the technology should be used in the instructional design and particularizes that the unnecessary use of philosophical relativism will distract the learner and delay the knowledge gain. 

As humans, we learn new things every day. Sometimes the learning does not require any cognitive and orderly associations with older concepts as we pick up new ideas with minimal attention in our daily life. But there are times when learning new concepts require fully explained instructions. This type of gaining knowledge makes our mind use our cognition and hierarchical association with the novel concepts. The article “Reclaiming Instructional Design” was written more than half a century ago and shows the vision of the authors on the delivery of knowledge as a scientific approach. They envisioned that a well-designed ID when incorporated with explicit instruction in a learning environment, students were more susceptible to learning and it was easier for them to absorb the new concepts. The learning theories discussed in this article were descriptive & prescriptive models and some disapproval was conferred on the philosophical theory of relativism. Even though no ID model was discussed in the article, but in my opinion, an ADDIE’s model could have been well presented in it. The first appearance of the ADDIE’s model did happen some 10 years after the publication of this article. After reading this article, I could see that the authors were accentuating on the Analysis Phase, like students and their needs, Instructions and Learnings methods, discussed Knowledge and Skills, and application of Strategies in the ID. This article on Instructional Design stresses the importance of the use of technology in IDs. I am sure it will definitely help me in developing quality training for my forthcoming school project for the poor students in Pakistan.

References:

Leidner, D., & Jarvenpaa, S. (1995, September). The use of information technology to enhance the management of school education: A theoretical review. MIS Quarterly, 265-291.

Merrill, M., Drake, L., Lacy, M., & Pratt, J. (1966). Reclaiming instructional design. Education Technology, 3(5), 5-7. Retrieved from http://mdavidmerrill.com/Papers/Reclaiming.PDF