Monday, February 22, 2016

15/5s - Week of February 15 through February 21, 2016

Analysis report is the heart of the instructional design. It helps the organization to identify either the performance gap or opportunities to improvement through context analysis. Once the performance gap is identified, potential alternate solutions are considered to address the performance gap; best possible solution is identified, and finally decide on "if instruction is the best solution?". If instruction is the best solution, we would like to know about the learners and their learning preferences and learners' performance gaps before defining learning goals to address the performance gaps through instructions. Finally, we would like to identify the learning context and its restrictions or limitations besides available resources and media of instructional delivery. Identifying the differences between learning and performance context is essential for devising a path to transfer the newly constructed knowledge through instructions into performance environment for on-job application by utilizing job aid.  
As the lead evaluator  of the project, I worked closely with the lead instructional developer to finalize our analysis report. Our Project manager provided valuable insight and guidance through fruitful discussions and meaningful suggestions. At the end of the day, this was  a great collaborative effort in which our client also played a vital role by providing reliable documentation and by engaging meaningful discussion through conference call and electronic communications.

Analysis report helped us to link the pieces to see the bigger picture of instructional needs, learners profile, and instructional goals. This is a great structured critical thinking process to identify a problem or opportunity for improvement, and to explore and propose a viable solution in almost any working scenario. This process also helped me to learn and excel in collaborative working environment to construct collaborative new knowledge through inquiry of learning. This is always fascinating to learn the internal prospective of the client and its interpretation based on the organizational culture and context.   

Presenting analysis report as a team was a great and enjoyable learning experience. First, we though we would do it over a Google hangout session and I will capture my screen through Camtasia studio, a screen cast tool. Eventually, my lead instructional designer and I met at the main campus to record our presentation. This provided an opportunity to meet my peer face to face and learn about my peer who is great motivating character. Sharing ideas through discussion enhances confidence in the process of constructing new knowledge. I plan to apply this approach in any opportunity I can avail.
Peer evaluation helped me think about self evaluation before judging my peers. I am blessed and grateful to be a part of this dynamic and proactive project team. Learning team survey is a great reminder of group behaviors and identify the room for improvement. These are great feedback and improvement tools and I intend to utilize these tools in my future projects for capturing feedback to just, modify, and improve during and after the end of each project.

Asking questions and learning from the peers and Dr. Weaver is a unique and enlightening experience. This process is continuously helping me to think hard and understand new project management and instructional design concepts with much deeper understanding with a new and different prospective. Finally, watching Dr. Weaver’s screencast provides a clear guideline on how to deal with so many moving parts without getting overwhelmed. I would like to apply the techniques I am learning from Dr. Weaver to utilize in my future teaching profession.

Learning project management process and learning how to work successfully in team set up are two of the essential skill sets for any profession. To master these skill set one needs both pedagogical backbone and practical experiences. I am seeing progress from both of these ends slowly but steadily! Finally, learning is a continuous journey, not the destination! 

My task list for week three:

 Task
Percent Complete 
 Time
Spent in hrs
Weekly Group Meeting
100%
1
Contribute to the discussion in G+
100%
2
Transition to take over the role of Lead Developer
100%
.5
Discussion and feedback on project charter
 100%
1
Learning the basic functions of Asana tool for project planning and WBS
 100%
 1
Keep up with Dr. Weaver's post and screencasts, taking surveys
 100%
 2
Writing Analysis Report
100%
3
Presenting  Analysis Report
 100%
4
Posted 15/5s for my blog
 100%
.5
Worked on a shared Google doc, with the team members, to capture all our questions for Terminix related to Project Charter and Goal Analysis.
 75%
 1.0

Monday, February 15, 2016

15/5s - Week of February 08 through February 14, 2016

Analysis report is the corner stone for any successful instructional development. Knowing the project goal and instructional goals are instrumental in designing any instructional system. Finally, we had the meeting with the client and all project team members. This helped us to understand the scope of the project in a much better way. 
Project charter is completed and reviewed by the project sponsor ; final signoff  will come from the client. Project team agreed to utilize Asana, one of the best cloud-based project management tool, to capture our detail tasks and scheduling. The idea of work breakdown structure is making sense as we are trying to get a complete list of deliverables and associated tasks. Reading chapter 2, chapter 5, and chapter 3 provided pedagogical framework to think about goal statement and context analysis. Finally, group discussions are essential in forming a single path to move forward with the project. Working on communication plan is forcing us to think and identify all communication channels, stakeholders, and means and frequency of communication with different involved parties.
Asking questions and learning from the peers and Dr. Weaver is a unique and enlightening experience. Every one was very involved in finalizing the project charter. Conference call with the client was also very instrumental for ensuring every one is on the same page. Finally, watching Dr. Weaver’s screencast provided a clear guideline on how to deal with so many moving parts without getting overwhelmed.
I am working as the lead developer and lead evaluator for this project. Currently, we are primarily focusing on project planning, and analysis report. This process is helping me to be a better communicator and flexible team member. This is also helping us to work under extreme time constrain and within thin resources. Our clients are well trained in designing and delivering training materials for diverse group of their employees. They shared some of their organizational documents through share point file server. I plan to master some of their documentation and delivery techniques to utilize in future e-course development projects at my current job. Besides that I would like to apply the techniques I am learning from Dr. Weaver to utilize in my future teaching profession and professional presentations.
In team format, continuous communication is essential to avoid misunderstanding and duplication of effort. Asking right and timely question is another top priority. My group is doing a wonderful job through Google community to always stay ahead of assigned tasks. Though I am active in the community, due to time constrain, I failed to visit the Google community more frequently. I would love to post and initiate more discussion if I can manage more time!

Learning project management process, instructional development process, client interactions and expectations management besides learning how to work successfully in team set up are some of the essential skill sets for any profession. To master these skill set one needs both pedagogical backbone and practical experiences. I am seeing progress from both these ends slowly but steadily! 


My task list for week three:
 

 Task
Percent Complete 
 Time
Spent in hrs
Weekly Group Meeting with the client
100%
1
Weekly Group Meeting with team members

100%

1.5
Contribute to the discussion in G+
100%
.5
Worked on project charter

 100%

 1
Identify a cloud-based project management tool for the group: Asana, Tom planner, etc.
 100%
 2
Keep up with Dr. Weaver's post and screencasts

 100%

 1
Read chapters 4, 6, & 7 in Dick, Carey, and Carey Textbook.
100%
2
Watching content analysis presentation and Objective and Assessment review

100%

1
Read Project Management eLearning chapters 3,4,5 and 7,8
100%
2
Started looking into Analysis report

 40%

 1.0
Posted 15/5s for my blog
 100%
.5
Worked on a shared Google doc, with the team members, to capture all our questions for Terminix related to Project Charter and Goal Analysis.

 100%

 1.0

Monday, February 8, 2016

15/5s - Week of February 01 through February 7, 2016

Risk is an essential element in any project, our project team encountered a big surprise as our lead developer had to quit our team due to conflict of interest. My project manager requested me to fill in the role of lead developer at the top of my previously assigned lead evaluator role. We had a team meeting to discuss about the proposed change, and we approved this change following our change management protocols.
Project charter is taking shape and we are looking into identifying the best cloud-based project management tool to capture our detail tasks and scheduling. The idea of work breakdown structure is making sense as we are trying to get a complete list of deliverables and associated tasks. Reading chapter 2, chapter 5, and chapter 3 provided pedagogical framework to think about goal statement and context analysis. Finally, group discussions are essential in forming a single path to move forward with the project.
Asking questions and learning from the peers and Dr. Weaver is a unique and enlightening experience. This process helped me to think hard and understand WBS concepts with much deeper understanding. Finally, watching Dr. Weaver’s screencast provided a clear guideline on how to deal with so many moving parts without getting overwhelmed.
I am working as the lead developer and lead evaluator for this project. Currently, we are primarily focusing on project charter, project planning, and analysis report. This process is helping me to be a better communicator and flexible team member. This is also helping us to work under extreme time constrain and within thin resources I plan to master these skills to utilize in future e-course development project at my current job. Besides that I would like to apply the techniques I am learning from Dr. Weaver to utilize in my future teaching profession.
In team format, continuous communication is essential to avoid misunderstanding and duplication of effort. Asking right and timely question is another top priority. My group is doing a wonderful job through Google community to always stay ahead of assigned tasks. Though I am active in the community, due to time constrain, I failed to visit the Google community more frequently.

Learning project management process and learning how to work successfully in team set up are two of the essential skill sets for any profession. To master these skill set one needs both pedagogical backbone and practical experiences. I am seeing progress from both these ends slowly but steadily! 

My task list for week three:

 Task
Percent Complete 
 Time
Spent in hrs
Weekly Group Meeting
100%
1
Contribute to the discussion in G+
100%
2
Transition to take over the role of Lead Developer
80%
3.5
Worked on project charter
 100%
 2.5
Identify a cloud-based project management tool for the group: Asana, Tom planner, etc.
 10%
 1
Keep up with Dr. Weaver's post and screencasts
 100%
 1.5
Read chapters 2, 3, & 5 in Dick, Carey, and Carey Textbook.
100%
3
Started looking into Analysis report
 10%
 1.0
Posted 15/5s for my blog
 100%
.5
Worked on a shared Google doc, with the team members, to capture all our questions for Terminix related to Project Charter and Goal Analysis.
 75%
 1.0