Reflections
Fall, 2011:
Learning - whether it's done with/through technology or by reading a library book in solitude; the difference is how easily and how far it is disseminated. The process by which learning becomes useable and part of a person's daily life should be evident, since we learn from the minute we are born. Part science, part art, there are methods to design and evaluate learning. The process of designing the learning hinges on communication; subject matter experts consult on content and the learner conveys what has been learned. This semester I was focusing on the basics of how the ID process works, how to work in teams, and learning modalities.
Learning - whether it's done with/through technology or by reading a library book in solitude; the difference is how easily and how far it is disseminated. The process by which learning becomes useable and part of a person's daily life should be evident, since we learn from the minute we are born. Part science, part art, there are methods to design and evaluate learning. The process of designing the learning hinges on communication; subject matter experts consult on content and the learner conveys what has been learned. This semester I was focusing on the basics of how the ID process works, how to work in teams, and learning modalities.
Spring, 2012:
Educational research class: massively fun. The thing that makes studying research so great (assuming the methods and data were valid) is that you can, in a short period of time, use research to force-multiply your understanding of a single topic or subject by through others' work. I am especially interested in how the brain learns, and what media works best for different kinds of learners. Learning the whys and hows of different types of research helped me understand how to focus on and compare methods.
Educational research class: massively fun. The thing that makes studying research so great (assuming the methods and data were valid) is that you can, in a short period of time, use research to force-multiply your understanding of a single topic or subject by through others' work. I am especially interested in how the brain learns, and what media works best for different kinds of learners. Learning the whys and hows of different types of research helped me understand how to focus on and compare methods.
Summer, 2013:
My class on web accessibility and design reminded me that nobody sees the same thing the same way. As designers, we are responsible to make our work as accessible as possible within the time limits we are given. Sometimes it isn't possible to do as much as we'd like because we aren't the only ones making the decisions, but knowing what can be done to make accessible sites makes the decision much easier. If the tools are there, why not use them? Using Articulate within a team put more pressure on us to create a professional-level product.
My class on web accessibility and design reminded me that nobody sees the same thing the same way. As designers, we are responsible to make our work as accessible as possible within the time limits we are given. Sometimes it isn't possible to do as much as we'd like because we aren't the only ones making the decisions, but knowing what can be done to make accessible sites makes the decision much easier. If the tools are there, why not use them? Using Articulate within a team put more pressure on us to create a professional-level product.
Fall, 2013:
Team projects - Having different backgrounds and levels of experience is very good, because some of us already know the answers to our project dilemmas and some of us (who are new to instructional design) ask dumb questions that later turn out to be good ones. Incorporating UX into ID forced me to re-think objectives in terms of user requirements; designing the content for apps class helped me understand how a case study can lead to a great subject for constructivist learning, and in the process teach me what I don't know about the subject.
Team projects - Having different backgrounds and levels of experience is very good, because some of us already know the answers to our project dilemmas and some of us (who are new to instructional design) ask dumb questions that later turn out to be good ones. Incorporating UX into ID forced me to re-think objectives in terms of user requirements; designing the content for apps class helped me understand how a case study can lead to a great subject for constructivist learning, and in the process teach me what I don't know about the subject.
Spring, 2014:
My team has become a second family. Knowing what each of us can contribute and having full confidence that whatever needs done will get done is exactly what kind of work environment I want in the future. Besides making life-long friends, we drove each other crazy trying to make our app perfect. (Not happening without a full coding team, but hey, it doesn't hurt to try.) The rapidity of the UX research process went from off-putting to fascinating. Any instructional design I do will have a strong element of UX as part of whole ID process.
My team has become a second family. Knowing what each of us can contribute and having full confidence that whatever needs done will get done is exactly what kind of work environment I want in the future. Besides making life-long friends, we drove each other crazy trying to make our app perfect. (Not happening without a full coding team, but hey, it doesn't hurt to try.) The rapidity of the UX research process went from off-putting to fascinating. Any instructional design I do will have a strong element of UX as part of whole ID process.