Rokaw Practicum Final Reflection June 15, 2013 Freddi Rokaw, Purdue University Jennifer Richardson

EDCI 57300 Dr.

EDCI 573 Rokaw Practicum Final Report and Reflection

The LA Winds Registration Guide for Pierce College (practicum/final project) can be found at this link: LA Winds Registration Guide Project Goal By using this training product, students will be able to successfully register for music classes at Pierce College. The intent of this training is to make the fall registration process for music classes easier to use and less confusing. The overarching goal for this project is to have at least 34 students register for music class in order to meet the departments average class size goal. The instructional goal has been met. As of the writing of this paper, of the 9 responses to the post-guide survey (see Appendix), 5 have registered for a Fall 2013 music class and 1 participant has registered for a Spring 2013 class. This initial response is better than expected. The final numerical goal is to have 34 people register for music class by August 2013. I, and the Project Supervisor, feel confident this goal will be met. All responses to the question Did you find the guide helpful? were positive except for one. The response came from someone that was not computer literate - which we anticipated to be a potential issue from the Learner Analysis. This was a cause for great consternation to the Project Supervisor. An email went out to allay the members fears stating that all personnel will still be allowed to be in the ensemble, regardless of their registration status. Original Tasks vs. Completed Tasks Original Task
Pre-proposal Proposal & Sign off Learner Analysis

Completed Task
Completed Task Completed Task Completed Task Approved

Notes

Approved and signed off Realized that incentive needed to be added to project design based on the Learner Analysis. Ran into opposition from SME/Project Supervisor about the Pre-Test.

Pre-Instruction Questionnaire

Not included as part of the process

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Original Task
Design Prototype

Completed Task
Completed Task

Notes
Realized I could not include all scenarios as laid out in the original proposal. Individual issues would have to be addressed separately in person. Created a workflow chart that really helped to clarify the direction of the project.

Development of Materials

Completed Task

Captivate turned out to be more of a learning process than expected. Also learned SnagIt and Camtasia for this project. Received excellent feedback from a cross-section of testers. Feedback was incorporated and modifications were made to content and delivery of project. Survey has been distributed as a part of the initial email. As of the writing of this paper, only 9 responses have been recorded. Final Project was delivered to all members of the LA Winds by email on June 13, 2013. Waiting for more results to come in to create a summary and recommendations. This will take place after this course has been completed.

Pilot of preliminary instruction

Completed Task

Post-pilot survey

Completed Task

Deliver Final Project

Completed Task

Summary and recommendations

Task not yet completed

Finished Product Students in the music department at Pierce College were able to use this product to help navigate the colleges existing registration process. Because of the many complex steps to the registration process (based on the previous experience of the student) it was not possible to map out all scenarios due to the time and scope of this project. These issues will need to be handled on a personal level. An email has gone out to members to explain this. Otherwise, the Project Supervisor, the majority of participants (so far) and I are all pleased with the product and the positive impact it has had on the organization. Lessons Learned

Rokaw Practicum Final Reflection June 15, 2013 Freddi Rokaw, Purdue University Jennifer Richardson

EDCI 57300 Dr.

Based on the Learner Analysis, specifically the following, many lessons were learned throughout the process: Level of computer/Internet experience: Ranges from some experience to highly experienced. General aptitudes: Not motivated to try hard or spend a lot of time with the registration process, impatient attitude, weak focus, but generally intellectual. Specific prior knowledge: Varied prior knowledge based on the length of membership with the ensemble. Some musicians have been with the ensemble for more than 25 years. Anyone who has been a member for more than a year has been through the registration process before. Motivations to learn: Registration yields parking passes, which are necessary for rehearsals on Monday nights or else a monetary fine will ensue. Some musicians feel a responsibility to pay the college for the resources provided (director salary, rehearsal space, equipment, etc.). Some ensemble members are interested in receiving academic credit. Others are more motivated by the lifelong learning concept. Attitude toward learning: Eager to make the registration process easier to use, cautious attitude, mostly willing to try using a guide. Attitude toward subject matter: Previously frustrated and confused with the registration process. Firstly, in the design phase, accommodations needed to be made to include learners that were frustrated with the existing process. Motivation was included in the design by adding a fun slide with parking passes highlighted with audio and visual cues. Also, music and a band photo was included to provide participants with a personal connection to the guide (and hopefully pride). From the post-pilot feedback, we learned that the method of delivery needed to be streamlined to accommodate those participants with little to no computer literacy. After all, what good is the guide if the target audience cant easily access it? We thought this had been taken care of by making appropriate modifications to the delivery method, but found out in the participant survey (see Appendix) that these modifications werent sufficient to allay the fears and frustrations of ALL the members of the ensemble. A small majority (1 of 9) still found the process upsetting (see entry #3 in Survey Results in the Appendix). This caused great consternation for the
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Project Supervisor, so a follow-up email needed to be sent out. Since that time, there have been no similar issues. As previously stated in the artifacts presented along the way, from a personal level, I learned how to take constructive criticism and turn it into productive changes without taking it too personally. Along the same lines, I learned how to appreciate the point-of-view of the participants that were inexperienced with technology. Making sure you know who your learners are, and what entry skills they possess are the key to evaluating the delivery/implementation method. I also learned that its not necessarily a good idea to use your own personal experience, (including sensitive information like social security number, credit card number, student ID, etc.), to create project assets. Not only does it have the potential for security risk, but its an awful lot of work to black out all that data! Having a neutral person create the voiceovers for the videos would be beneficial on two levels: their words would have to be scripted by me which would force preparation; and it would allow me to remove myself from the task at hand which would be a more objective point-of-view helping to better align with the participants/learners. Finally, I experienced the fallibility of professional software applications even if they ARE considered industry standard! I was very frustrated with Adobe Captivate, as it was not as intuitive as I had hoped it would be. It is also very buggy and their customer support was not helpful. Compatibility became a big enough issue that the project just needed to be re-designed and re-built. The silver lining to my software issue was the help I received when I reached out to my classmates on Facebook. Several peers were there immediately with helpful tips, examples and advice. My collaboration with one former classmate in particular, Rita Kuzmenko (she graduated in May), ultimately helped me solve my problems. She walked me through the smallest details and stayed up until all hours testing every experimental version that I published. My community of learners is one of my most treasured resources.

APPENDIX
LA Winds Registration Guide SURVEY:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15icWrqh8iuEmJukwm5HxvJw9CyptRykj_eZFULBy54/viewform)

LA Winds Registration Guide Survey RESULTS (as of June 14, 2013):