I did the bad blogging thing, I dropped off for several weeks and am now diving back in with the hopes that my few gentle readers will forgive me and again read my posts.
Interestingly enough, my last post talked about how I was thinking about starting my next instruction project with a colleague and between then and now, we not only taught one workshop but are gearing up for our second on Monday!
The first workshop we taught was on RefWorks, a bibliographic management tool. We ended up following through on simultaneously editing a Google doc, each creating our own specific outline, and then practicing once before the workshop together. Of course we each prepared on our own, but knowing that we worked well together, the one practice together was enough. And the workshop went well! It was a program we were both fairly familiar with so we were able to get smoothly through the tech parts and trade off well. Another great part of practicing, at least, was working with my colleagues. We were able to provide ample and productive feed back to one another both during the practice session and after the workshop which was helpful. It was also helpful that we are both very able to take constructive criticism so that we could help each other improve.
Monday is our next teaching session, this time on instructing Microsoft Word for Dissertation. This program is quite a bit more complicated and there are always things that can go wrong with not a lot of explanation. Because the first session went so well, we decided to use the same planning method as last time. EXCEPT, we practiced more. We have had different levels of feedback during each session - all of which have been very helpful in thinking about our session on Monday. It's been very useful to have the different levels of feedback; by levels I mean our levels of preparation paired with different levels of novice/experts.
During our first practice session, an expert in instruction and Word for Diss helped us through and showed us how she generally teaches the workshop (effectively). It was so useful to have this during our first run through because we inevitably forgot content or needed refreshers on the "why" we do this or that. During our final practice session, we had observers who were less knowledgeable about the program (though still experts compared to the workshop constituents) and who were not experienced in instruction. Their feedback on the content specifically was very helpful.
This planning workshops thing is getting easier, but no matter how experienced I get, I'll always remember the planning process, and even more importantly as I move forward, the evaluations.
Getting evaluations from the first workshop (which only had a few people) was very exciting because no matter how we thought we did, if our participants didn't learn something, our workshop was less successful. In the future, after I have more of the workshop content and know-how down, I think it would be interesting to re-look at the evaluations and see if there are questions I'd like to incorporate or take out. All comes in time, but this instruction thing is pretty interesting.
Oh, and happy summer!
Showing posts with label ADDIE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADDIE. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Working Together
So, I finally have a workshop scheduled to teach! All on my own! Well, wait... not all on my own. In fact, I'm team teaching... with a colleague... who is teaching his first workshop too...
We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this. I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop. My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done. I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more. Now, where to start with that?
In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion. Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like? So that's what we decided to do. Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch. However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this. I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop. My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done. I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more. Now, where to start with that?
In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion. Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like? So that's what we decided to do. Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch. However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Learning Methods, Tutorials, Modules, and how it all comes together
This weeks readings provided a very interesting way to think about instruction and learning methods. Building from week ones readings about how people learn, it was helpful to read and consider how many different tools and resources are available to help people learn in a variety of ways.
With the aid of technology, there are now so many ways that people can choose to both provide instruction and learn. Online modules and tutorials, and infinite types of software are available for people to use in their learning and teaching process. As Yelinek says, teaching software is a matter of teaching procedure (p. 101) but that the learner's procedures will yield different outcomes based on their reasons for wanting to learn. Instructors will need to take into account materials and learners as well as research on instruction. As well, instructors and learners will want to consider the variety of software that is available to aid in their learning process; that is, sometimes free resources do not always provide what is necessary for the learning. While free resources are flexible and can be used in many online spaces, they may not have everything that the instructor wants (Griffis). As Johnston's collection of research points out, there are many ways that students should learn, but that accessible, usable and useful information to learn information literacy is crucial. This should all be considered when creating a workshop in a (library) instructional atmosphere.
The one-shot library workshop article considers all of this as well as the educational psychology involved in creating a workshop. It asks how instructors want to and do create workshops (e.g. via making an outline, students ask questions then instructor answer?, lecture and demo?, use a colleagues outline and wing it?, create a worksheet and shape workshop around it?). The article focuses on systematic instructional design, ADDIE - analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation.
Analysis: background work - why does someone want this workshop?
Design: Content areas, objectives, ongoing assessments
Development: Workable lesson plans
Implementation: Tested and implemented
Evaluation: Evaluate feedback and redesign (parts) if necessary
This instructional design method allows for long term use, flexibility, stakeholder input, consistency, training, professional development, and quality. It also helps an instructor think about whether to design a workshop individually, individually with feedback, with a group, or with a partner. Time and money are also factors to consider.
This information is extremely relevant for me; I am going to begin observing library workshops and am on track to begin instructing by the end of this term. As well, I am creating and editing tutorials that focus on current software that the library has. Currently, I am editing a RefWorks handout that helps U of M students and faculty use the bibliographic software. I found particularly interesting, then, the piece about how research shows that users want more graphics and less written text (Yelinek, pg. 103). I will incorporate this into my edit of the tutorial. Further, when I am observing workshops over the next few weeks, I will think about how the idea of information literacy is embedded into the subject of the course. Tomorrow, Jan. 24, I am observing an English 125 workshop on library usage and know that the idea of information literacy will come out in a group of second semester freshmen. It will be particularly interesting to think about their age group (18-19), current information literacy skills (probably high) paired with their knowledge of the library system (probably very little). Hopefully, the workshop will give the students tools they can use when they leave, that it will be student-centered. It will be interesting to see if the instructor balances face-to-face interaction suggestions with online tools (such as remote chat or email reference through Ask a Librarian).
As the semester progresses and I consider developing workshops, I will think about the ADDIE structure. I may even try to ask librarians who have developed current workshops their method of instructional design. Having many ideas of how this happens will be useful to my learning and career. Personally, I have always found that getting input from those who the workshop is for, and focusing on evaluation are critical to successful learning. If the instructor doesn't know what the learner wants, they cannot effectively teach. And, if assessment isn't taken on the success of the workshop, the instructor will never know what they could do differently or better. I will consider these as I move forward as well.
With the aid of technology, there are now so many ways that people can choose to both provide instruction and learn. Online modules and tutorials, and infinite types of software are available for people to use in their learning and teaching process. As Yelinek says, teaching software is a matter of teaching procedure (p. 101) but that the learner's procedures will yield different outcomes based on their reasons for wanting to learn. Instructors will need to take into account materials and learners as well as research on instruction. As well, instructors and learners will want to consider the variety of software that is available to aid in their learning process; that is, sometimes free resources do not always provide what is necessary for the learning. While free resources are flexible and can be used in many online spaces, they may not have everything that the instructor wants (Griffis). As Johnston's collection of research points out, there are many ways that students should learn, but that accessible, usable and useful information to learn information literacy is crucial. This should all be considered when creating a workshop in a (library) instructional atmosphere.
The one-shot library workshop article considers all of this as well as the educational psychology involved in creating a workshop. It asks how instructors want to and do create workshops (e.g. via making an outline, students ask questions then instructor answer?, lecture and demo?, use a colleagues outline and wing it?, create a worksheet and shape workshop around it?). The article focuses on systematic instructional design, ADDIE - analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation.
Analysis: background work - why does someone want this workshop?
Design: Content areas, objectives, ongoing assessments
Development: Workable lesson plans
Implementation: Tested and implemented
Evaluation: Evaluate feedback and redesign (parts) if necessary
This instructional design method allows for long term use, flexibility, stakeholder input, consistency, training, professional development, and quality. It also helps an instructor think about whether to design a workshop individually, individually with feedback, with a group, or with a partner. Time and money are also factors to consider.
This information is extremely relevant for me; I am going to begin observing library workshops and am on track to begin instructing by the end of this term. As well, I am creating and editing tutorials that focus on current software that the library has. Currently, I am editing a RefWorks handout that helps U of M students and faculty use the bibliographic software. I found particularly interesting, then, the piece about how research shows that users want more graphics and less written text (Yelinek, pg. 103). I will incorporate this into my edit of the tutorial. Further, when I am observing workshops over the next few weeks, I will think about how the idea of information literacy is embedded into the subject of the course. Tomorrow, Jan. 24, I am observing an English 125 workshop on library usage and know that the idea of information literacy will come out in a group of second semester freshmen. It will be particularly interesting to think about their age group (18-19), current information literacy skills (probably high) paired with their knowledge of the library system (probably very little). Hopefully, the workshop will give the students tools they can use when they leave, that it will be student-centered. It will be interesting to see if the instructor balances face-to-face interaction suggestions with online tools (such as remote chat or email reference through Ask a Librarian).
As the semester progresses and I consider developing workshops, I will think about the ADDIE structure. I may even try to ask librarians who have developed current workshops their method of instructional design. Having many ideas of how this happens will be useful to my learning and career. Personally, I have always found that getting input from those who the workshop is for, and focusing on evaluation are critical to successful learning. If the instructor doesn't know what the learner wants, they cannot effectively teach. And, if assessment isn't taken on the success of the workshop, the instructor will never know what they could do differently or better. I will consider these as I move forward as well.
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