Reflection 1

(08/29)

The online Master program in our department has successfully enrolled four cohort groups of students in the past three years, and I am really interested to do some projects on it. I talked with Dr Truluck, the coordinator in our online master program last week before we exchanged several emails. She indicated an orientation/introduction of the online M.Ed degree program to the newly registered students is very in need. By now, she rely on email to direct the inquiried students the right place and what to do.The page about this program in the department website provides limited and unsystematic information. If I could help her develop a short online orientation to introduce the learning procedure, technical tools, resources and supports, it could be useful for new students to start their online leanring right away. There seems definitly a need from both the instructor and the students for the instructional design.

After consulting with Dr Choi about this idea, I plan to develop 30 minutes orientation to the M.Ed program. The content of this course includes three modules. The first module is on the learning procedure(application,courses, graduation); the second is on the WebCT learning template(access, tools and uses), the third module is on the supports and resources(faculty, library and other useful suggestions for online learning). I am thinking of using graphic webpages to introduce the first module, using Captivate flash for the second module and web pages again to discribe the third module. There will also be a "welcome" video clip from the coordinator to motivate the learners and a build-in quiz to invite interactions and allow the students to self-test their learning effects (3 items for each modules).

The other possibility is focus on the WebCT module to develop a WebCT tutorial from the students perspectives and based on the courses of adult education. Dr Chio encouraged me to think about this. I plan to use it as a second choice. Since the students only use some fuctions of WebCT(posting for discussion), I am afraid there is not enouge content for the project design.

In the following weeks, I will specific these ideas and explore the content, resources and tools for this project. It will be a exciting learning experience for sure!

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Reflection 2

(09/07)

I continue to work on my project this week and found many useful information. In trying to view the whole picture of my work, I have tried to find more examples or similar works.I found the following WebCT tutorials could be good examples for my work:

http://www.coe.uga.edu/twt/tutorials/webct-discussion-board-1.htm

http://www.coe.uga.edu/twt/tutorials/webct-discussion-board-2.htm

http://www.coe.uga.edu/twt/tutorials/webct-discussion-board-3.htm

These short tutorial were made by Captivate, which I heard from our last week meeting. I also check macromedia website to understand more about this software. The demo is really helpful. I know I have to use it if I want to develop a nice interactive simulation for the WebCT session of my project. Here is the link: http://www.macromedia.com/software/captivate/productinfo/features/brz_tour/

I also checked some other students' project. Cutshall's project of using PsychInfo to searching articles is one of the good example. This work was awarded Blue Sock in Spring 2003. I may reference it for my first and third session of my project. Here is the link of this excellent work: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~cutshall/edit6200/psycinfo/index.html

No everything is peaceful as I expected. I tried to contact my Clint Dr Truluck since last week, to asking her opinions of the two possible plan, but have not got any message from her. I don't know because of her busyness in those days or don't want involving more to "my work". I was worrying if I could do it all by myself. There are some resources there, a text-based plain website, some email messages, and a WebCT course. The WebCT part need her assistant least, I know pretty well about the system, but how about the others? I am now facing the dilemma which has troubled my colleagues in Studio in many cases before: How can I work alone by myself?

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Reflection 3

(09/14)

I got an email surprisingly from my client Dr Truluck the next day after I posted my last reflection. She asked me to stop by her office and talk about the project. I went to see her on Friday afternoon and knew that she went back home to the small town in South Carolina for a whole to taking care of her mom, who got a sick and need to stay in the hospital. We talked about the project for one hour and she gave me some materials and resource about the online program.

She did not really care too much about which plan is better and let me make a decision. I said I want to do the first since it will be more useful for the online learners. I also asked her to help to look over the main steps to complete this online degree program, what are the learners must know. She told me the following topics are critical for online learners:

1. Register to get their students online ID.

2. Know their courses and requirements about Master's applied project.

3. Register the courses and remember to waive their facilitate fees since they are not in campus.

4. Know from where they can buy their textbooks.

5. Learn how to use WebCT tools.

6. Know how to contact the faculty when they meet a problem in their learning

7. Know how to use library.

8. Some principles or suggestions for time management for their self-directed learning.

She assigned me as a TA in her introduction course EADU7020 so that I could get more information about their teaching and learning. Before leaving, I also showed her some examples I could use as models for this project.

Tasks for next week:

1. Continue to work on the plan and materials.

2. Find more Studio works to get a full sense of what kinds of technology and format I can use for my project.

3. Learn how to use Captivate software.

4.Read the textbook and attend Growdaugs activities and serivces

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Reflection 4

(09/22)

Last week on the board meeting, Dr Chio guided us going through the topic of prototype design and he presented some interesting examples of prototype and we discussed why it is important for a instructional design. As a no-IT student, I think this unit of knowledge is useful and informative since I haven't design any instructional project with technology. Later when I read Alessi and rollip's book of Chapter 13, I found many prototype design models (see pp.471-479). Even though that, I felt it was very difficult for me to design a even brief prototype for my project from two aspects. In content, I still need to collect more information and summarize them; In technology, I need to learn how to use Captivate and flash to develop my WebCT tutorial session.

From Monday to Wednesday this week, I was completed occupied by a big event of my family. My daughter was born in Athens Regional and I have to accompany my wife to stay in the hospital and take care of her and the little newborn. I brought my textbook but have almost no time to open the pages.

In tonight class, we presented our prototypes to the whole studio. It was great to see some many talent ideas and designs, but it is sad when I find my rush work in the morning need major revised. I talked with Dr Choi about my lag behind because of the family event and he generously give me more time to speed up my homework. And worth to mention, the presentation on game and education by Dr Rieber and Dr Nash is very inspiring. I haven't heard such a great presentation for a long long time. They make me believe that a great presentation is not how attractive is the topic, what kind of method and technique it's employed, but how much it could inspire the audience to participate, to think of it.

My task in the this week:

• to revise my project prototype
• to finish 15/5s journal reflection
• to finish the required chapters of book review
• to complete project documents includes the goals,objectives, learners analysis and content analysis.

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Reflection 5

(09/25)

I have worked on prototype this week. The original one I sumbitted last week was very unsatisfied. I found other classmates made better works. The orginal work(see following image) was simply a text-based format, which I listed the parts of content on a table.

I redesigned this prototype today and made the following changes:

1. Decide the background colors as black and green, to match the department webiste colors. Thus, this orientation could be better incoporated into the departmental style. It looks more formal too.

2. Design the header of the first page, looks like department homepage too but change the content.

3. A welcome page show the video clip from the coordinator, my client Dr Truluck.

4. A learning procedure session display the process and requirement to this program.

5. A WebCT tutorial demonstrate how to log on WebCT, read files and participate discussion

6. A quiz session use 10 items to test how the audience have learned from this orientation.

I think this update prototype is more concrete and looks much better. It is still very rough though. My next step is to continuesly work on these pages and to specify the content in each session.

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Reflection 6

(09/29)

Referencing to the examples from the textbook, I designed the flowchart for my online orientation project (See flowchart image). There are five main parts, including the title page, the welcome clip, the learning procedure, the WebCT tutorial and Quiz. Among them, the learning procedure and WebCT tutorial are the key sessions, each of them comprise of a series of learning content and task. I would say these two sessions are relatively parallel; you can start from either one. My suggestion is to read the learning process first, which could give students a whole picture at the beginning. WebCT is an online template which students rely on to learn their online course. Limited by the time and budget, I plan to focus on the basic skills, by which students can find their courses and other classmates, download course materials and discuss their questions. WebCT tutorial will be developed with Captivate.

The welcome page is a short video clip from Dr Truluck, which she greets to the new students and motivate their learning to the program as well as to this orientation. There was a audio file and a one page text message available used to serve as an introduction. I will develop the video based on these materials.

The 10 items quiz invites students to test their learning and participate to the interaction. I plan to use such effect that when students click one option, there will be a pop-up to present a feedback.

What's missing from this flowchart? the Q& A session, the help session, the useful links session, these supplement files need to find a appropriate place in this flowchart too.

In general, my flowchart is still a simple one. I try not to make it too complicate. However, it needs to be further specified and refined. I will keep on working to it to make it better.

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Reflection 7

(10/06)

I discussed my prototype with Dr Chio this week and he gave me some great suggestions. The three major revisions based on his advice include:

First, to add some suggestions on discussion strategies in the WebCT tutorial session, such as using word to edit their message before posting, writing short and substantial posts, and avoiding login expired, etc. He also suggested me to use some simulations in this tutorial so that students can better interact with the learning materials.

Second, to specify the quiz session and indicate how the pop-up feedback works. Since this session is also a part which students can get interactions, I need to show how the process will happen. I can also use the 10 quiz items for pre-test and post-test a group of three sampling students to evaluate the learning effect.

Third, to learn to use Captivate as soon as possible and don't wait for the seminar. After coming back, I contacted with Yi-Chun, one graduate student from IT department, to guide me through the software. She replied that she was supper busy this week but could meet me sometime in next week.

I also emailed my prototype to my client Dr Truluck. The response from her was quite positive. She did not give any detailed opinions and just let me go ahead to complete my work. She thought my project will be very useful for those students.

My tasks in the following week:

1. revise my prototype according to Dr Choi's suggestions

2. Learn how to use Captivate software from Yi-Chun.

3. Continuing prepare the materials for this project.

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Reflection 8

(10/13)

I have finally learned Captivate this week and made a trail for my project as following. In fact, this software was easier to learn than I thought. It is a little bit like powerpoint, you work on the slides the computer automatically captured. Once you done with the slides, you can play to view the effects.

Yi-chun guided me through it for a hour on Tuesday. I downloaded the trial version of 30 days Monday night and viewed it demo for two times to get some senses. Yi-chun showed how to fit the window for the capture, edit slides and published it in different kind of files. I came back and try it several times.

I went to Aderhold 616 this morning to make the following WebCT tutorial since my laptop is a kind of slow which affect the effect. The computers in the lab 616 are much faster. It took me 1.5 hours to record it and edit it. It is still very simple, I will work on it to make it more professional.

Click here to view the WebCT Tutorial.

In the following week, I need to consider these tasks:

1.Specifiy this tutorial and add more content into the slides. It should be a 5-10 minutes movie.

2. Record a matched audio file in Editing Suite in Aderhold and add the audio part into the Captivate file.

3. Contact my clinet Dr Truluck to ask her suggestions on this part.

4. Consider to add Simulation part into this tutorial.

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Reflection 9

(10/20)

We had a wonderful seminar last Thurday in our Studio meeting. Two guest speakers, Michael Gardner & Ben Rockwood from Cingular Co. came to our class and presented on how they develop instructional program in their high tech commpany. The two young men graduated from IT department at UGA several years ago. The studio instructor still use Ben's one course assignment as an good example of design. During the presentation, they talked about the softwares they used, the process of their course design, the compromise from budget and time limited, and they also used some of their real courses as examples. They kindly answered the questions from our passinated students after the presentation. I think their presentation is fantastic, it brush the fresh air of how instructional design happen in the real world. It was attacking me as well as the other students for the 1.5 hours.

I did not make much progress in my project this week. I sent the trail work of WebCT tutorial I created last week to my clinet Dr Truluck, and asked her suggestions. In specificly, there are three main questions I want to listen to her opinion before I continue:

1. Should I use my ID or her ID or a fake one to log on in the demonstration?

2. Which course can I use for the demonstration? I am trying to keep it simple, in focusing on the three functions: download files, type to communicate, and submit assignments. Her EADU7020 seems too much content on the course page to be used as an example.

3. There is still no audio in the above tutorial. I want to record an matched audio and then integrate it into the tutorial. There is a Audio Record and Edit Suits in Aderhold and it open to students. Does she think the audio part is important and necessary?

In the last question, I actrually want her help on recording the audio part. But I did not ask directly since she probably can't go with me to record the audio. I need find a American student to help me with. This is also a tough job, and I am looking for someone who is willing to help me on this job.

Woo. I need to speed up my project since there is only one and half month left in this semester. I think I have enough preparation for it, and it is time to put everything on the real.

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Reflection 10

(11/03)

It was great to have a fall break to take a rest, but I did not go anywhere last week. Since my baby was just one month and I need to stay at home to take care of her most of the time. I received an email from my client Dr Truluck during the break. She did not give me any direction but let me myself to make decisions how to do the project. She think it is fine with no audio on the WebCT tutorial for her.

I started to work on my project again from this week. The two major works I did and was in processing were creating the template page for the project and re-planed the WebCT tutorial.

The template page was harder to do than I expected. Since I already have my prototype created by PowerPoint, I need just create the page on the web with Dreamweaver based on the prototype. However, Dreamweaver tools are harder to manipulate than PowerPoint. I need to put the images, lines and words into different zones and blocks. They can not move as easy as using textbox in PPT. I tried to use layer to do the same works but they always change to other place when viewing the effects. Anyway, after two days working on this template, it comes to looks like the prototype. Check the link see my template.

After carefully thought about it, I changed the name of WebCT tutorial to Intro WebCT since my work does not match the full meaning of tutorial. I redesigned this Intro into three modules and each modules includes several steps:

I drafted the text guideline for the Intro WebCT and try Captivate software again last night, but I did not get a time to create the files. I probably can do it after I came back from AAACE conference next week. A brief overview tells me the creation of Captivate file may be easier but the modification and refurbishment will take a lot of time.

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Reflection 11

(12/02)

Reflection 11

It was a long long time that I did not update my reflection journal. I was so much occupied by my dissertation data collection, doing interviews and data transcription. I did not spend enough time to my project. I have to summarize what I have done for this project in the past November.

I attend the last Studio meeting in Nov 17--Showcase Dress rehearsal. I did complete two WebCT tutorials, two web pages on learning procedure, the welcome page, and the index page before this meeting. All of these pages comprised of the basic structure of my project. The feedback from this meeting was very positive, about 7-8 classmates came to view my project and gave me some suggestions. I found some students almost competed their project in this Rehearsal.

In the following three weeks, I did the following things for this class:

Then I received a warning email from Dr Chio tonight, reminding me I was delayed on many assignment and I need to speed up my work. I have one week left to complete my project and the related documents. I plan to use the whole weekend to do my work. I have the following tasks to accomplish:

In summary, I have a lot of works to do in the following week. I plan to contribute all my time to this course project. Luck enough, this is my only course and the only project this semester.

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Reflection 12

(12/06)

Through working on all days and staying up to midnight, I almost completed my project by tonight and sent out the evaluation surveys. Let do house keeping things first, I did complete the following jobs during this long long weekend:

Added explanations and title pages to the three WebCT modules. They looks good now. I checked three one time after another to find the errors and problems, they are at least much better than their first version.

Implemented the video clip into the Webpage. This task was harder than I expected, since it need writing some codes which was unfamiliar to me. I called Xiaopeng, a friend in Instructional Technology department helping me to do it. It took him 15 minutes to accomplish it. He told me he found the codes from the Internet, not he himself write it actually.

Completed the Quiz session. I used Tag Inspector/behaviors to create the pop up responses. It works well with me now. A technical issue I found and solved was to turn the action to "On Click". Other wise, they will pop up each time you open the page.

Found beautiful images from the Internet from my web pages. I just found using real images are better than clip art. So I replaced them all to real pictures.

Developed evaluation plan and sent the surveys and forms to six experts and 3 target audience- the students. By tonight, I have received two reports back from experts, and two reports from the students, I need at least one from each of the group to complete my evaluation.

Tomorrow, I will begin to write my evaluation report as well as other required writings. Hope I can finish everything by Thursday afternoon.

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Reflection 13

(12/8)

The showcase will be start in two hours. Here are some important things I have learned from EDIT6200.

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