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For this week’s assignment we were instructed to choose one of three examples of a distance education problem and post a Blog to identify one to two distance learning technologies we would use to provide the best solution. I chose to focus on Example 1: Collaborative Training Environment
In this example, a new automated staff information system was recently purchased by my employer (a major corporation) and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. I assume this is due to geographical time differences. As an instructional designer for the corporation, I have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, I was advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration.
For this I turned to the course resources. I learned from "The Technology of Distance Education" (n.d) resource that media sharing sites allow for sharing of text, picture, videos, presentation, screen captures (graphics files), documents and audio files (Technology, n.d.). Sites such as YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) are an example for video sharing. Prerecorded media, such as videos, posted on these site can be viewed and commented on by any of the collaborators. Other sites such as SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net/) allow presenters to share presentation and users to comment and share their own ideas (Technology, n.d.). Beldarrain (2006) states that Web 2.0 tools take interactivity to the next level with the likes of Blogs (Weblogs), wikis, and podcasts. These can be implemented alone or in conjunction with applications to create engaging learning environments (Beldarrain, 2006).
Also from the course resources and assignments came my second choice which would be discussion technologies. These are utilized in a Learning Management System (LMS) or Course Management systems (CMS) (Technology, n.d.). With this technology, fully asynchronous communication can take place 24 hours a day and seven days a week (Simonson et al., 2012, p. 125)Simonson et al. (2012) also offer some suggestions on how to select the appropriate technologies for online instruction. They state that there are two basic categories of instructional technologies, telecommunications and instructional (Simonson et al, 2012, p. 115). Telecommunications involves computers, the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Computers also have the capability to offer instructional media on their own. In this light, we get the best of both worlds. Simonson et al. (2012) add that often to determine the best methods for delivering content the Instructional Designer (ID) must determine the Lowest Common Technologies (LCT) by discovering the sophistication of the computers and software of all learners as well as the capabilities of the telecommunications (Simonson et al, 2012, p. 116).
In the example I chose to focus on I made a couple of assumptions. I assumed that since this is a large corporation that it has highly capable telecommunications with large bandwidth pipes available for streaming content. Secondly I assumed the staff was highly computer literate and connected electronically in most aspects of their work day.With these assumptions on hand, I thought it would be easier for all involved to keep up if the content was all in one location. Therefore I would default to a LMS/CMS where I can not only allow for discussion but users can also share content such as videos, screen captures (graphics), word documents, etc.
I found a couple of sites that were able to use these successfully. They are listed below:
Georgia Tech Online Master's Degrees: http://www.dlpe.gatech.edu/dl/
Philips Healthcare System Administrator eLearning Curriculum: http://www.healthcare.philips.com/us_en/products/hi_pm/products/IntelliSpace/Event_management/solution_overview/education_and_training/sys_admin_training/online_training.wpd
Georgia Tech is just down the road from me in Georgia. I used to pass this everyday on the way back and forth to work at the second site, Philips Healthcare. I know a couple of students that have attended Georgia Tech and they have told me about how helpful the online classes were. The curriculum at Philips Healthcare I actually experienced myself on a regular basis. Philips is actually the treason I wanted to get into instructional design. Though I was pleased overall with the results of their online curriculum, I did see areas for improvement and I wanted to be part of that improvement.
In closing, the options for this example were varied. However, I chose to go with the CMS/LMS mainly to get everything ion one place, to allow for asynchronous online discussions and to give the offices a place to share their screen captures and files.
Thanks
References
Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education, 27(2),139–153.
The Technology of Distance Education. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
