Analyzing Scope Creep

Monitoring scope, the “deliverables or work process as outlined in your original project plan” (Greer, 2010, p. 35), is critical to project management because it is one of three key variables affecting overall project success (Lynch & Roecker, 2007). Although the project Statement of Work outlines the project scope, all of what can, should, and will be included, there will inevitably be changes (Laureate Education, 2009). As the project moves into the start phase and work begins to be accomplished, many factors may change what work the project stakeholders want done. Also known as “scope creep” (Lynch & Roecker, 2007, p. 96), these uncontrolled changes to project requirements are ubiquitous in all fields of project management.

As a Department of Defense contractor working as a performance consultant for the Navy, I experienced scope creep first hand while working on an organizational development project. As part of an organizational culture change initiative, a client hired our organization to provide a 3-day standardized training to all of their staff on a knowledge management process. The training was an “off-the-shelf” option we offered and delivered to over 15,000 people in other client organizations prior to our involvement with this project. When we contracted with this new client, the Statement of Work and corresponding Contract Data Requirements List prescribed us to deliver the training to all 2,000 of their employees with minimal customization for their organization. The documentation described the customization as things such as incorporating their logos and industry-specific examples into our facilitation.

When the project moved into the start-work phase, and the training pilot was conducted, the client realized the training was not “exactly” what they required in terms of customization. The scope immediately changed as the client asked us to rework the entire introduction model, design and develop new review activities, and remove a half-day of content and integrate a 4-hour off-the-shelf training they designed within their organization. Our project manager consented to all of the requests, tasked our staff, and ultimately delivered a satisfactory product. In the end, the project was delayed almost four months, missed one of the original major milestones, and tremendously ate into our profit margin as the money had already been awarded.

If I had been in the position of Project Manager, instead of an individual contributor, there are several things that could have been done to better manage the issues and related scope creep. First, communication on the project was completely inadequate, as the issues a lack of training customization would have caused should have been identified prior to the training pilot. Second, a key stakeholder was not identified and did not see the training live until the pilot. Finally, there was no scope control process in place, which could have required formal approval for all changes to the statement of work (Greer, 2010). Overall, the changes to the training were what the client truly needed to be successful, but that work should have been included in the original plans in the analysis phase.

 

References

 

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Practitioner voice: Overcoming scope creep [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Troy Achong, Vince Budrovich, & Petti Van Rekom.

 

Lynch, M. M., & Roecker, J. (2007). Project managing e-learning: A handbook for successful design, delivery, and management. London: Routledge. Copyright by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Communicating Effectively

One of the critical roles of a project manager and the key to project success is ensuring effective communication (Laureate Education, 2009), otherwise put as “sharing the right messages with the right people in a timely manner” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p. 357). Unfortunately, effective communication, in general, is challenging since the way we choose to communication a message (i.e. media and methods) can change the meaning and the interpretation on the part of the receiver. The following accounts my personal interpretations of the same message in three different modalities: written text, audio, and video. 

Written Text (Email)
Many of the factors of this written text make the tone empathetic, positive, and almost apologetic. Jane gives Mark the benefit of the doubt that he may have been in a meeting all day, concisely explains why the report is so important to her because she may miss her deadline, gives Mark multiple options to fulfill her request, and offer a conciliatory salutation to close the email.

Audio (Voicemail)
While my interpretation as the receiver of this message was mostly the same from text to audio, I did detect slightly more of an abrupt or worried when Jane was saying how she needed an ETA. With an audio message, the communication is lacking the body language factor, which can make it difficult to interpret the meaning of certain tones of voice.

Video (Face to Face)
The interpretation of the meaning of the video face-to-face message was even more positive than the written text email and certainly taken better than the audio voicemail message. In the face-to-face interaction, I felt like I would have been able to ask Jane questions, which alleviated some of the pressure her request put on me. Also, I had the added benefit of body language, including facial expressions, which gave me another factor to base my interpretation on. Certainly, face-to-face communication conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message here best

While it is obviously impractical to expect to communicate every project message face-to-face, or even verbally for that matter, this activity shows there are potential consequences for not communicating with people directly. In the oft quoted study, Mehrabian (1971) revealed when people are discussing their feelings and attitudes and the receiver is unsure of the meaning, they gain 55% of the meaning from body language and 38% from tone of voice. Issues arise in audio-only and text-only communication because there is much more room for interpretation.

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Project management and instructional design [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Harold Stolovich.
Mehrabian, Albert (1971). Silent Messages (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Learning from a Project Post-Mortem

In my previous employment as a government contractor working as a consultant for the Navy in a human capital and organizational development capacity, I was an individual contributor on a project for a client that was not as successful as planned. In an effort to undergo an organizational culture change, one client hired our group to develop a change management initiative with a three-pronged training approach: 1) An introduction to the disciplines and principles of a Learning Organization (Senge, 1990; Senge, Ross, Smith, Roberts, & Kleiner, 1994), 2) an application workshop for teams with specific performance challenges, and 3) a facilitator development program to create a cadre of performance improvement workshop leaders. As part of the project, we had to design the three training offerings and then implement them within the organization. Prong 1 became a 3-day training offering that all employees were required to take, Prong 2 was offered to specific teams selected by the performance improvement division, and about 200 facilitators were selected for the development program. Over the course of 3 years, we trained 5,000 of the 10,000 employees in the 3-day program, approximately 500 team members, and all 200 facilitators.

Unfortunately, at the conclusion of our third year, the contract was not renewed in full and instead reduced to 1/4 of its original value. The client opted to redesign all three programs and develop in-house trainers to take over. The remaining part of the contract was simply to help them in the transition period and provide minimal consulting on the new direction and developments.

In a post-mortem view, there were many actions taken and project management tools used that contributed to success in the 3-year stint, and there were many actions and tools lacking that lead to the project’s unsuccessful end. In the beginning, we had consistent and constant communication with all stakeholders in the process and developed the all-important “sincere commitment by senior management” (Murphy, 1994, p. 9). We frequently consulted with subject-matter-experts in our clients’ organization throughout the instructional design process and tested the training program many times before the official implementation rollout. As for internal measures, we had a dedicated project manager on the contract that oversaw our work and the project’s progress.

As the project progressed, however, we suffered the consequences of not keeping all of our stakeholders active and engaged (Greer, 2010). As the Prong 1 program delivery peaked, we were training approximately 90 people per week, and even our project manager was being pulled in to conduct training sessions. The sheer amount of delivery of collateral work was overwhelming for our small team. Thus, our focus narrowed to rapid implementation and we lost sight of our communication plan and evaluation program. For the senior managers funding the project, we failed to keep them adequately interested in the program and prove to them why an external consultant was so vital. After pouring literally millions of dollars into the project, they began to wonder why their internal staff could not take over since we had reached the 50% training saturation point. In addition, we realized post-mortem we had failed to recognize some internal instructional designers and performance improvement experts within the client organization as stakeholders. To our surprise, they became a vocal group against our involvement in the project and persuaded senior management to allow the take-over. Overall, a more project-focused approach, dedicated communication plan, and better understanding of stakeholders upfront may have saved this project.

 

References

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Murphy, C. (1994). Utilizing project management techniques in the design of instructional materials. Performance & Instruction, 33(3), 9–11. Copyright by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Used by permission via the Copyright Clearance Center

Senge, P.M. (1990). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency/Doubleday.

Senge, P.M., Ross, R., Smith, B., Roberts, C., & Kleiner, A. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York: Random House Publishing.

Reflection: The Future of Distance Learning

The Sloan Consortium reported the United States had over 6,000,000 students enrolled in at least one online course in the year 2011, which represents an increase of over 5,000,000 students since the year 2002 (Allen & Seaman, 2011). No doubt such an exponential growth of enrollment in 9 years marks an important trend for the field of distance learning and a positive evolution of associated educational methodologies and practices. As distance learning continues to increase in prevalence in our society, it has a fascinating potential future and could benefit from the influence of sound instructional design.

 

Future Perceptions of Distance Learning

Currently, the perceptions of distance learning embody a vast range of feelings. Despite its growing popularity among students, use at all levels of education (K-12, universities, and industry training), and recognition as a way to attain a certified degree (Bachelors, Masters, Post-Graduate, and Doctoral), skeptics still abound in the field and society in general. General stereotypes still exist that frame distance learning as a lower quality educational method or less rigorous for the student to complete. As distance learning reaches its “critical mass” (Simonson, 2009) in society and continues to grow in all fields of education, these negative perceptions will continue to fade away and be replaced with more positive notions. Most likely in the near future, five to ten years from now, distance learning will be an acceptable way to receive any institution-based form of education. Societal factors such as the growing competence with technology, increased quality of online communication, and practical experience with online applications will further the positive reputation of distance learning overall (Siemens, 2009). In general, distance learning, especially web-facilitated courses, will be the new normal in all types of education.

 

Improving Societal Perceptions of Distance Learning

Core to instructional design is the principle to put the learner first, focusing on their needs and how to best achieve the desired learning outcome for them (Morrison, Ross, Kemp, & Kalman, 2009). When designing instruction for distance learning, the focus should be no different. The instructional designer, therefore, will play a key role in making the negative perceptions of distance learning disappear completely and helping the method to actually reach critical mass and find a common place in the field of education. If instructional designers maintain their focus on the learner and promote sound learning and teaching strategies in distance environments, then the field will continue to grow in a positive manner, just like any other education method. Overall, effective education, even in a distance environment, is about sound instructional strategies and not just presentation of information (Moller & Huett, 2012). To improve distance learning, instructional designers must see themselves as creators of learning experiences that authentically create all of the positive qualities of traditional learning and further educational outcomes through the use of technology.

 

Continuous Improvement for Distance Learning

            Besides continuing to have a focus on the learner in my career as an instructional designer, there are many other ways I can be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance learning and teaching. First, I can have an open mind towards technology and be willing to harness the power of new online applications that may have a positive influence on the field. For example, Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) note little attention was given to course management systems in 1998, and yet, as they write the fifth edition of their book, whole chapters are being dedicated to that exact topic. This type of growth and change of technology is exactly the kind of feature an instructional designer can be a proponent for. Second, instructional designers can be champions for distance learning as an instructional solution. Especially in the business and industry training field, instructional design consultants can promote the use of distance learning options to answer calls for training if that method is deemed most appropriate. Third, we can be a force for improvement by continually revisiting distance courses we have designed for revision, and reviewing existing traditional course to see if they can benefit distance learning options. Since the field is growing exponentially, it is important to revisit courses often, even if they were created recently.

            As an instructional designer, distance learning is an exiting notion that presents many innovative solutions to learning and teaching. As the field continues to evolve from its humble roots centuries ago in mail correspondence courses to a billion dollar global business in all areas of learning and teaching, there is a remarkable future ahead for distance learning (Simonson, 2009). Certainly it will shape my career as an instructional designer, and I am excited to be a part of the movement.

 

References

Allen, I., & Seaman, J. (2011). Going the distance: Online education in the united states, 2011. Babson Survey Research Group.

Moller, L., & Huett, J. (Eds.). (2012). The next generation of distance education: Unconstrained learning. New York, NY: Springer.

Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kemp, J., & Kalman, H. (2009). Designing effective instruction (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 

Siemens, G. (Director). (2009). The future of distance education. [Motion Picture]. Laureate Education.

Simonson, M. (Director). (2009). Distance education: The next generation. [Motion Picture]. Laureate Education.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

 

Converting to a Distance Learning Format

The following scenario was used to prepare this post:

A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new. With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment. In addition, he is considering putting all of his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.

In a response to this scenario, I have created a Best Practices Guide for Translating Traditional Courses to a Blended Format. The guide answers the following questions:

• What are some of the pre-planning strategies the trainer needs to consider before converting his program?
• What aspects of his original training program could be enhanced in the distance learning format?
• How will his role, as trainer, change in a distance learning environment?
• What steps should the trainer take to encourage the trainees to communicate online?

The guide is complete with best practices, tips, and suggestions in the form of narrative, tables, lists, and check-sheets. The guide is available for your use here: Wk7AssgnRingerC.

The Impact of Open Source Courses

     Distance learning provides a unique education outlet that opens up learning opportunities for many students that otherwise could not access education due to various constraints. As distance learning grows, it continues to make education more accessible, as seen with the current trend of Open Course websites. Open Courses offer a way to participate in distance learning for no price (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). Often, prestigious universities and institutions offer and manage these free courses and some even come with institutional credit or certifications. Coursera is one such site that offers Open Courses. Coursera manages various types of distance learning offerings from universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This site boasts it helps students master knowledge through courses utilizing solid pedagogical design and interactive learning methodologies (Coursera, 2013). This blog addresses one of those courses, called “E-Learning and Digital Cultures” (Knox, Bayne, Macleod, Ross, & Sinclair, 2013). 

Course URL: https://www.coursera.org/course/edc 

Planning and Design

            The course, originally offered through the University of Edinburgh, explores how the digital age and learning cultures interact. In a five-week timeframe, students learn about digital teaching and learning practices and digital influences on culture and education. It appears the planning and design of the course is thorough, as the description claims five experts in instructional design and distance education, who run the eLearning Program at the University of Edinburgh, created the course. The course has video lectures, readings, and collaborative discussion boards associated with each week, as well as a final course project. This breadth of learning methodologies and media suggests careful planning went into preparing the course. The instructors seem to have also considered the needs of their learners, as they have integrated multiple styles of teaching to appeal to various learning styles, and have also structured the course in a very open format, using simple applications such as YouTube.

Online Instruction Recommendations

            Not only does the course appear to be well planned, but it also factors in many distance learning design recommendations and best practices. First, they appeal to the recommendation that many forms of visual media should be used verses simple text reading, as they employ videos and narrated lectures (Simonson et al., 2012). Second, to appeal to Foley’s (2003) recommendations, they vary the teaching and learning strategies used and offer an experiential learning opportunity in the form of the culminating activity. Finally, the course offers many opportunities for participation and collaboration, which is a critical element of a successful distance learning experience, as Bates (in Simonson et al., 2012) expresses in his 12 golden rules for distance learning.

Course Activities and Active Learning

            Based on the course description, it appears the course will have much interactivity, both instructor to student and student to student. The first interactive method used is what the instructors call a “film festival”, where students view several short video clips of classic movies during one of the first lectures and collaborate in discussion boards about the movies’ references to a digital culture. Considering that all of the course lectures are delivered through video as well, it seems the designers are embracing the concept that visual stimuli are an essential feature of distance learning since the instructor and students are separated (Simonson et al., 2012).

            In addition to videos and discussion boards, the instructors ask students to post their course work to shared documents sites to obtain feedback from their peers, which further encourages collaboration in the course. The culminating activity for the course, a “visual artifact”, asks the students to create a graphic, picture, or short film to represent the themes they have learned and post that to a shared space for discussion. This activity is both active learning and interactive, while also tapping into higher order thinking methodologies, as it asks for evaluation and synthesis of course content (Forehand, 2005). Overall, the course seems to have elements of careful planning and sound design, which would appear to lead to a meaningful educational outcome.  

 

References

Foley, M. (2003). The global development learning network: A world bank initiative in distance learning for development. In M. Moore & W. Anderson (Eds.), The handbook of distance education. Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.

Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom’s taxonomy: Original and revised. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Knox, J., Bayne, S., Macleod, H., Ross, J., & Sinclair, C. (2013). E-learning and digital cultures. (The University of Edinburgh) Retrieved from https://www.coursera.org/course/edc

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance. (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

Scenario: Collaborative Training Environment

A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by 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. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration.

Introduction

This scenario describes a situation that requires an asynchronous learning solution delivered to participants at different-times in different-places with embedded methods for learner collaboration. Two distance learning technologies would be effective in meeting these parameters: wikis and a collaborative document sharing application.

Wikis

In order to achieve learner collaboration and the ability to share information, screen captures, and documents, a Wiki is one tool of choice. A wiki is an online space that is typically created and edited by a group of people, and is an effective tool for asynchronous collaboration and combining information into a single resource (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). Wikis have the following characteristics that make them ideal for collaboration:

• They are dynamically organized; meaning content is grouped by topic, can be put on specific pages, and can be hyperlinked together at the discretion of the wiki members.
• Wikis can share practically any type of information including text, video, and pictures.
• Wiki edits are a community project that involved collaboration from the team.
• Wikis are designed to promote a shared concept of a subject through group planning, research, and critical thinking.
• Wikis can be used to create a shared document or resource (West & West, 2009).

Overall, wikis are an excellent tool because they not only create collaboration in the moment of training, but they become a lasting resource for the team. At Universitas 21 Global (U21Global), wikis have been successfully used in their mandatory new faculty-training program, which is a three-week online course (Gullett & Bedi, 2007). Throughout the course, the new faculty who are required to complete this training before teaching, work together to create a shared wiki of the information they are learning. In one cohort group that worked together for three weeks, they amassed a wiki with 180 pages that was collaboratively edited over 3200 times. Successful deployment of a wiki in the automated staff information training scenario would encourage group collaboration and give the organization a lasting resource after the training.

Collaborative Document Sharing

In addition to the wiki, a collaborative document sharing application would be a beneficial tool for this automated staff information system training scenario. One such collaborative application is Basecamp, which is a multifaceted, web-based, project management tool (Turnbull, 2012). Basecamp provides several collaborative tools including document sharing, multi-user document editing, discussion boards, shared calendars, task lists, and document version control (Basecamp, 2013). This application allows group members to simultaneously share documents, edit documents, track document changes, talk about documents, assign tasks, review calendar timelines, and track projects. The online training could use basecamp as a collaborative project-based application for group assignments.

The Minnesota Department of Health (2012) is currently using Basecamp as a collaborative peer-to-peer sharing and learning application. This health care improvement network spans across the state of Minnesota and gains input from all local pubic health and tribal government entities in the Department of Health. Their Basecamp is segmented into seven topical forums that feature discussion boards, shared calendars, shared documents, and tasking. Site members can share ideas, add resources, and edit documents, all in an effort to encourage and inreasing peer-to-peer sharing and knoweldge management across this organization.

References 

Basecamp. (2013). Basecamp is famously easy to use. Basecamp. Retrieved from http://basecamp.com/easy-to-use

Gullett, E., & Bedi, K. (2007). Wiki: A new paradigm for online training and development of faculty. ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. ascilite Singapore 2007.

Minnesota Department of Health. (2012). Guide to basecamp for local public health and tribal governments in minnesota. Office of Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives. Retrieved from http://www.health.state.mn.us/healthreform/ship/docs/eval2/basecampguide.pdf

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance (5th Edition ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Turnbull, C. (2012). Using basecamp for your web design project management. Webdesign Tuts Plus. Retrieved from http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/workflow/using-basecamp-for-your-web-design-project-management/

West, J., & West, M. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Defining Distance Learning

With a past dating back as far as 1833 with the use of mail correspondence to deliver composition, language, and civil service examinations in Europe, distance learning has a rich history and profound impact on the field of education (Laureate Education, 2009). As the world has evolved over the years since distance learning’s inception, so has the definition and implementation of distance learning. Prior to enrolling in this graduate course on distance learning and examining various resources on its history and definition, I would have defined the topic as any learning where the “teacher” is physically separated from the “student”. My personal experiences of participating in undergraduate asynchronous, online courses and various types of corporate asynchronous and synchronous webinars led me to develop that extremely simplistic view of distance learning.

More detailed definitions of distance learning can be found as far back as 1967, such as Dohman’s assertion that distance education is a “systematically organized form of self-study in which student counseling, the presentation of learning material and the securing and supervising of students’ success is carried out by a team of teachers…by means of media which can cover long distances” (as cited in Keegan, 1996, p. 41). More recently, Keegan (1996) offered the following five criteria to define distance learning: the separation of teacher and learner, influence from an educational institution, the use of technical media to facilitate interactions, the use of two-way communication, and the separation of the learner and learning group. Synthesizing those definitions, Simonson (2003) asserts distance learning is an “institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors” (p. vii). Personally, I would prefer a further synthesis of these definitions and offer distance learning is an institution-based, formalized method of learning and teaching where the learners and teachers are separated by time and/or physical space with the communication between them being facilitated by some sort of synchronous or asynchronous planned media. These various definitions demonstrate the evolution of the field of distance learning.

As the field of education progresses, its facets, including distance learning, will evolve. As change in this case is inevitable, it is important to not only recognize that there is impending growth for distance learning, but to understand what factors are influencing and driving that growth. As Moller, Foshay, and Huett (2008a) assert, this understanding is critical for instructional designers, as we are responsible for both contribution to the positive evolution of distance learning and creating sound instructional products that live up to the change efforts. One of the first change factors that warrants recognition is the economy. A lessening of corporate budgets is pushing professionals to look for ways to stretch their training dollars, and distance learning provides them that opportunity. Distance learning options alleviate travel costs, as both the teachers and students can potentially remain in their respective areas. In other words “letting the electrons do the traveling” (Moller et al, 2008, p. 70). The same budget restrictions are being felt on the individual-learner level as well. Various institutions and universities have incentives to develop distance learning options for their courses, as they may be more cost-friendly for the learner.

A second change factor influencing distance learning is the rise of the “non-traditional” student (Moller et al, 2008b). According to the National Center for Education Statistics (Gerald & Hussar, 2012), there are 17.6 million undergraduates, of which thirty-eight percent enrolled in higher education are over the age of 25, a share that is projected to increase another 23 percent by 2019. As older, more experienced, full-time employed people who may have children and other daily responsibilities become the majority population of students, they drive a need for more flexibility in the learning environment. Distance learning answers that call for flexibility and new forms of distance learning are being created and adapted to answer that need.

As the definition and field of distance learning evolves, an intriguing future lies ahead. Intriguing because distance learning seems to be providing solutions to problems that seemed to not have answers. For example, consider the Verizon-VGo collaborative robot, a revolutionary “telepresence” device (Verizon Foundation, 2012). This human-height robot features a video screen mounted to a wheeled base that is performing amazing acts such as allowing terminally-ill children to attend school and “move” from the class to class via the robot’s wheels and learning specialists to discretely view student behavior and communicate with the teacher in real-time. The robot is also being used for what Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) labeled “telemedicine” where doctors can remotely examine patients and perform some of their duties from a distance. The Verizon-VGo robot recently allowed wounded warriors to participate in a government conference and “move” from seminar to seminar. While I do not believe brick-and-mortar educational institutions will ever be obsolete due to learning preferences and demands of certain parts of the population, I do think the scale will eventually tip to a distance-learning-heavy environment as technologies progressively evolve to authentically recreate the features of traditional education.    

References

Gerald, D. E., & Hussar, W. J. (2012). Projections of education statistics for 2012. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002030.pdf

Keegan, D. (1996). Foundations of distance education. (3 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Distance learning timeline continuum. United States.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

Simonson, M. (2003). Definition of the field. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 4(1), vii–viii.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Verizon Foundation.(2012). VGo robot: Making education accessible to those who need it most. Retrieved from http://responsibility.verizon.com/education/vgo

Welcome!

Hello & Welcome!

My name is Chris Ringer and this blog has served as a feature to enhance my learning throughout my Master’s program in Instructional Design and Technology at Walden University. Throughout the next few weeks, I will use this blog in conjunction with a course about Distance Learning. Please enjoy!

Fitting the Pieces Together

After 6 weeks of in-depth exposure to the various learning theories that exist, my view of how I personally learn and which learning theory ultimately appeals to me has obviously changed. In the initial stages of the course, I commented on the personal appeal of Cognitive and Connectivist theories. From an adult learning and corporate training perspective, the active participation of the learning through understanding and engaging their personal learning processes is key, as stressed by the Cognitive model (Ertmer & Newby, 1993). In addition, corporate trainers are constantly trying to make connections between prior knowledge and experiences for adults in the classroom, which is the core component of Connectivist theory (Davis, Edmunds, Kelly-Bateman, 2008). While I still stand by my support of these two theories, I would add support for Constructivism and Adult Learning theory to help better explain how I learn and how my future students will probably learn. Constructivism seems to build on the Connectivist theory by stating learners actually create meaning from their past experiences and prior knowledge, instead of having knowledge “mapped” onto them (Ertmer & Newby, 1993). In addition, the tenets of Adult Learning theory, or andragogy, as proposed by Malcom ((Merriam & Caffarella, 1999) have always appealed to my profession as a corporate trainer. Our training programs consistently integrate the adult as a self-directed learner, rely on the reservoir of life experiences present, and emphasize the immediate application of training content (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999).

I have previously emphasized my personal need to physically and mentally interact with the learning environment and the content to successfully retain information. My study habits include highlighting text, annotating margins with previously learned information, and merging notes together in the form of outlines. All of these methods seem to appeal to Adult Learning theory, Constructivism, and Connectivism. From a technology perspective, annotating information and merging previously learning content can be facilitated by the use of technology. The notion of “smart objects” with “tags” and links could make the process easier and more effective (Edutopia, 2008).

References

Davis, C., Edmunds, E., & Kelly-Bateman, V. (2008). Connectivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Connectivism

Edutopia. (2008). Why integrate technology into the curriculum? The reasons are many. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction

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