EDAE 629 - Instructional Design & Program Development
Course Grade - A+
As with other classes in my degree program, this course formally covered a facet of Adult Education that I had practiced in the past without the benefit of formal training. At Richmond American Homes, the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, and Professional Builder Training, LLC, I had created classes and programs to meet the needs of my stakeholders using a common sense, needs-based approach. This class reinforced that approach while teaching me the formal steps to follow when designing curriculum through the development process from start to finish.
For my project, I chose to work with the Valley Christian Center (VCC), a faith-based charity organization serving the spiritual and economic needs of the less fortunate in South Phoenix. Among the many ways the VCC serves its customers, the Center participates in a consortium of organizations including the United Way and the Maricopa Skills Center, a division of Gateway Community College, that provides and/or promotes job skill and employment training to people of low socioeconomic status. After meeting with the VCC's leadership and other central players in the consortium to identify an educational need that I could fulfill, I formulated an instructional design plan and created a class to be taught at the VCC's underutilized computer lab teaching the basic computer skills necessary to apply for work online. Applying and demonstrating the principles of instructional design, I systematically developed the class using each step of the design process. Those steps include:
1. Needs Analysis - Is there an educational gap or need that can or should be met through the creation of a curriculum?
2. Audience Analysis - This tests the accuracy and validity of the perceived need by asking the stakeholders themselves.
3. Written Learning Objectives - This step defines the measurable learning objectives of the curriculum being developed.
4. Learning Assessments - These are the activities that determine whether or not knowledge was gained.
5. Formative Evaluation Plan - The Formative Evaluation Plan analyzes the effectiveness and accuracy of the teaching materials and course content as it relates to the learning objectives.
6. Summative Evaluation Plan - The Summative Evaluation Plan uses stakeholder feedback to gain a big-picture perspective of the success of the course in terms of favorable learning outcomes.
My final project incorporated all the steps of this process into a comprehensive instructor's manual for the course, which is attached below along with the course syllabus and other course materials.
For my project, I chose to work with the Valley Christian Center (VCC), a faith-based charity organization serving the spiritual and economic needs of the less fortunate in South Phoenix. Among the many ways the VCC serves its customers, the Center participates in a consortium of organizations including the United Way and the Maricopa Skills Center, a division of Gateway Community College, that provides and/or promotes job skill and employment training to people of low socioeconomic status. After meeting with the VCC's leadership and other central players in the consortium to identify an educational need that I could fulfill, I formulated an instructional design plan and created a class to be taught at the VCC's underutilized computer lab teaching the basic computer skills necessary to apply for work online. Applying and demonstrating the principles of instructional design, I systematically developed the class using each step of the design process. Those steps include:
1. Needs Analysis - Is there an educational gap or need that can or should be met through the creation of a curriculum?
2. Audience Analysis - This tests the accuracy and validity of the perceived need by asking the stakeholders themselves.
3. Written Learning Objectives - This step defines the measurable learning objectives of the curriculum being developed.
4. Learning Assessments - These are the activities that determine whether or not knowledge was gained.
5. Formative Evaluation Plan - The Formative Evaluation Plan analyzes the effectiveness and accuracy of the teaching materials and course content as it relates to the learning objectives.
6. Summative Evaluation Plan - The Summative Evaluation Plan uses stakeholder feedback to gain a big-picture perspective of the success of the course in terms of favorable learning outcomes.
My final project incorporated all the steps of this process into a comprehensive instructor's manual for the course, which is attached below along with the course syllabus and other course materials.
| instructors_manual_-_basic_computer_skills_course.docx |
| basic_computer_skills_course_syllabus.docx |
| basic_computer_skills_-_part_1.pptx |
| session_1_learning_assessments.docx |
| basic_computer_skills_-_part_2.pptx |
| attachment_-_employment_history_data_sheet.docx |
| attachment_-_resume_template.docx |
