Scenario
Position Title Key Responsibilities Working Context Need for IDD&E in Context Tasks/Responsibilities Related to IDD&E
I have recently acquired a full-time position as a Curriculum Developer & Trainer for Southwest Key Programs, a large ($700m annual revenue) Non-Profit headquartered in Austin, TX and responsible for providing programming, education, and legal representation to unaccompanied minors throughour the southwest United States. The national headquarters for which I work oversees management and operations at over 6,000 locations in California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas.
My key responsibilities include Designing Instruction and Developing Materials aimed at equipping site managers with skills in management, leadershp, communications, and customer service.
Notably, this small department of 4 instructional designers was created in 2018 in direct response to a company-wide assessment that indicated a high degree of employee dissatisfaction with their managers. The working context is primarily remote but with frequent travel, as I am also tasked with the job of implementing new training modules created by my department by traveling to sites and presenting the materials to their leaders.
The need for IDD&E in this context is clear - managers are not performing to the standards desired by Southwest Key, and so they are tasking my team with analyzing the gaps in manager performance, developing new training modules for them, and implementing that curricula by training those managers. The particular delivery method will be determined based on our established curriculum, which will also impact evaluation thereafter.
This need can be best described as a performance gap necessitating an instructional intervention, and my team has ample resources to plan on implementing the best system for solving it.
My key responsibilities include Designing Instruction and Developing Materials aimed at equipping site managers with skills in management, leadershp, communications, and customer service.
Notably, this small department of 4 instructional designers was created in 2018 in direct response to a company-wide assessment that indicated a high degree of employee dissatisfaction with their managers. The working context is primarily remote but with frequent travel, as I am also tasked with the job of implementing new training modules created by my department by traveling to sites and presenting the materials to their leaders.
The need for IDD&E in this context is clear - managers are not performing to the standards desired by Southwest Key, and so they are tasking my team with analyzing the gaps in manager performance, developing new training modules for them, and implementing that curricula by training those managers. The particular delivery method will be determined based on our established curriculum, which will also impact evaluation thereafter.
This need can be best described as a performance gap necessitating an instructional intervention, and my team has ample resources to plan on implementing the best system for solving it.
Apply IDD&E Principles In Practice
Define Performance Issues Propose Solutions Specific Problem
Intervention Description of Approach Evidence of Credible Application
Intervention Description of Approach Evidence of Credible Application
Unfortunately, I have only just started with Southwest Key and cannot provide extremely clear information on the performance gap that my team will be addressing. However, I can surmise from the interviewing process the following things:
First, the primary performance issue is that of poor management and leadership skills among managers and site leaders. Southwest Key is a large non-profit, making the diffusion of training and onboarding difficult to control across its 6,000 locations. One specific problem that my team will have to tackle, therefore, is how to develop materials that can help ensure quality of training at different locations and with different circumstances or personnel.
Our approach for solving these types of problems is to begin with assessment data and analyze the most cost-effective measures we can take. Thanks to nearly a year's worth of work in collecting employee data, we already have a lot of information about what our employees are excplicitly requesting from their managers. We can then design instruction around those desired traits and consider different learning activities and materials for distributing that information.
One such solution would be build an interactive online training system that provides managers with the ability to encounter training materials at their own pace and with the ability for perpetual review. This would need to be combined with proper activities in case studies, collaboration, or self-reflection in order to ensure that our recipients retain and practice their newfound knowledge.
Another more consturctivist approach is to create guided focus groups with managers and their employees in order to help each site define their values and expectations in a common area. This could help improve the sense of ownership and community that managers and their employees might feel while potentially improving satisfaction and productivity.
Regardless, it will require a strong foundation in instructional design to wade through the complexity and scale of this project and find systematic ways to produce effective materials for the target audience, therby supporting the company's overall mission.
First, the primary performance issue is that of poor management and leadership skills among managers and site leaders. Southwest Key is a large non-profit, making the diffusion of training and onboarding difficult to control across its 6,000 locations. One specific problem that my team will have to tackle, therefore, is how to develop materials that can help ensure quality of training at different locations and with different circumstances or personnel.
Our approach for solving these types of problems is to begin with assessment data and analyze the most cost-effective measures we can take. Thanks to nearly a year's worth of work in collecting employee data, we already have a lot of information about what our employees are excplicitly requesting from their managers. We can then design instruction around those desired traits and consider different learning activities and materials for distributing that information.
One such solution would be build an interactive online training system that provides managers with the ability to encounter training materials at their own pace and with the ability for perpetual review. This would need to be combined with proper activities in case studies, collaboration, or self-reflection in order to ensure that our recipients retain and practice their newfound knowledge.
Another more consturctivist approach is to create guided focus groups with managers and their employees in order to help each site define their values and expectations in a common area. This could help improve the sense of ownership and community that managers and their employees might feel while potentially improving satisfaction and productivity.
Regardless, it will require a strong foundation in instructional design to wade through the complexity and scale of this project and find systematic ways to produce effective materials for the target audience, therby supporting the company's overall mission.
Reflect On Identity & Competencies
5 Competencies How 5 Competencies Solve Scenario
Strengths & Weaknesses: Work Field Strengths & Weaknesses: IDD&E Contributions
Strengths & Weaknesses: Work Field Strengths & Weaknesses: IDD&E Contributions
Below are the 5 Competencies that I believe are the most important for this scenario. They are ordered in ascending numerical order and not by order of importance:
1. Communicate Effectively in Visual, Oral, and Written Form.
At least half of the skills that my team is attempting to impart to Southwest Key's managers would fall under the umbrella of effective communication. No matter the situation, there is value to be gained in improving the degree to which managers at each site can write emails, speak publicly, build presentations, or manage workers. In turn, then, it would be essential for my position to require clear and useful communication in all its forms.
Even more importantly, this position involves a significant degree of work in several different communicative forms. Collaborative work with the other members of my team will be almost entirely remote, relying on written or digital communication. Implementations of training will likely involve public presentations and team-based collaborative workshops. Active listening will be a strong part of conducting front-end analysis and understanding employees' needs and desires.
No matter the situation, effective communication will be very important. As a representative and spokesperson for the national headquarters, my competency in this area reflects directly upon the company that I serve.
8. Select and use Analysis Techniques for Determining Instructional Content.
As I am entering this position, I have the benefit of receiving a large amount of assessment information previously conducted by the organization. What my team will first be tasked with is investigating and deciphiring that information for themes that we can respond to with instruction. This form of coding and abstraction involves analysis that will shape our instructional content.
It is possible that employees are dissatistfied because of the way that their managers treat them on an interpersonal level. It might have to do with their professional development, incentive system, work environment, or any other reasons that could negatively affect their performance. By using front-end analysis models such as the Behavioral Engineering Model, my team can systematically consider both instructional and non-instructional solutions to the given problem.
10. Use an Instructional Design and Development Process Appropriate for a Given Project.
Since my department (in curricular development and training) is fairly small and brand-new, it will be pivotal for my team to select appropriate procedures for designing and developing the instruction that the company will use as a whole. Part of this includes the process for iterating through instructional content and ensuring that it is aligned with the company's values and goals for training. Another part of this must consider the project management and implementation of the materials. Further still, our process should include a focus on how an evaluation plan would be implemented to assess the success of our work.
It can be daunting to think about constructing an entirely new model for stablizing the work of instructional designers in a brand-new environment, but it is helpful to consider how previous models can be sculpted and combined to form new variations that respond to a certain context more precisely. With ADDIE as a foundation, I am confident I will be able to work with my team to develop a process that will follow Southwest Key's mission and goals for successful training.
15. Develop Instructional Materials.
Based on the job description that I received, my role at Southwest Key will involve a large degree of instructional materials development. This excites me because I am very comfortable with videography, photography, web design, audio editing, Powerpoint, Google Suite, and designing live learning activities for instruction. The key issue will be determing the best and most appropriate materials for facilitating learning on different topics and in different environments.
I am usually very optimistic about technology in training situations, but this scenario is mainly focused on teaching more "human" skills in leadership and communication. It is likely that more traditional materials in instruction (such as workshops and simple media) will be more effective than interactive websites at equipping managers with their needed skills. However, one challenge I have not faced is developing specifications that dictate media production. Since I usually made make all of my materials myself, it will be challenging to learn how to instruct others to complete that same work. Only time will tell, but I look forward to being a part of the development process.
19. Implement, Disseminate, and Diffuse Instructional and non-instructional Interventions.
Also included in my job description is the hybrid role of implementing our new curricula through training and coaching roles at each of my assigned sites. Since I will certainly not be tasked with travelling to each of my 1,000 locations, it is clear that my most critical role will be in designing an implementation plan that can meaningfully disseminate my team's content in a way that can reasonably ensure it is received by its intended audience.
My practical experience in project management (combined with my studies in the M.S. program) will help make this challenge easier. Thanks to my knowledge of managerial theory and the tools and processes that aid implementation plans, I should be able to draft clear systems for diffusing interventions to their appropriate sites. Since monitoring and assessing those materials are not my resonsibility, this will give me more freedom to focus on the content itself and how the audience might respond to it.
In the end, this step is vital because it singlehandedly determines whether or not my work was worthwhile. Without meaningful training environments or a receptive audience, my team's curricula will fall on deaf ears and provide no value to the company. As a result, a clear and strategic plan is integral to my success in this new role.
Strengths & Weaknesses: Work Field
Generally speaking, my greatest strengths will come from my natural gifts and refined experiences in communication, presentations, and development of materials. These are all things that I have done (more or less professionally) for almost a decade. As a result, these skills transfer well to competencies that are relevant to corporate training and non-profit onboarding. From creating slideshows to speaking before a boradroom, I am very comfortable providing interesting and useful content that serves the purpose of the organization.
In contrast, my greatest weaknesses will come from an underderveloped (or naïve) understanding of how instructional theory or project management are applied to large-scale systems. As someone that prefers to think ambitiously or creatively, I will no-doubt experience moments when I receive unexpected push-back or regulatory oversight when approaching a problem. Professional experience is required to really understand how stakeholders make decisions, how to communicate with them, and how to practice discipline in creative work spaces. I expect to learn these elements as a simple product of time passing in my first full-time job.
Strengths & Weaknesses: IDD&E Contributions
When I consider my role in IDD&E, I am quick to assume that my greatest strengths will mostly fall in technological integration or innovative educational psychological practice. This is because I have the most experience and passion for how technology or gamification will impact learning at a grand level - I am interested in being a catalyst to that form of change and I have the understanding of economics, business management, and entrepreneurship to provide insight into how instructional design can benefit from those particular fields of discovery.
However, I think that my greatest weaknesses will fall under research and literature review of learning theories. As someone obsessed with building solutions, I doubt that I will make great contributions int he form of validating other theorists' statements or conducting research to establish relationships in instructional design techniques. While I care about data and how it impacts instruction, I am more likely to simply try new ideas than to test them first. This is a weakness I must outgrow, but it does give me greater adaptability and flexibility to work within rapidly-changing environments.
Conclusion
I could not have asked for a job better-suited to help me transition from life as a full-time student to that of a fully-employed adult. Not only does the job description include explicit references to the phases of ADDIE that I will be focused on (Design, Development, and Implementation), but it comes in a work context for which I believe I am best equipped - a corporate setting seeking a systematic overhaul of its training protocol.
This essay only hints at the many ways that I will be using my M.S. in Instructional Design to serve my new company. In turn, this curriculum will aid managers in their process of helping unaccompanied minors in their education and justice representation. I am excited about having this kind of cascading impact thanks to my understanding of instructional design, and I hope to help others as a direct result of the training that I received.
1. Communicate Effectively in Visual, Oral, and Written Form.
At least half of the skills that my team is attempting to impart to Southwest Key's managers would fall under the umbrella of effective communication. No matter the situation, there is value to be gained in improving the degree to which managers at each site can write emails, speak publicly, build presentations, or manage workers. In turn, then, it would be essential for my position to require clear and useful communication in all its forms.
Even more importantly, this position involves a significant degree of work in several different communicative forms. Collaborative work with the other members of my team will be almost entirely remote, relying on written or digital communication. Implementations of training will likely involve public presentations and team-based collaborative workshops. Active listening will be a strong part of conducting front-end analysis and understanding employees' needs and desires.
No matter the situation, effective communication will be very important. As a representative and spokesperson for the national headquarters, my competency in this area reflects directly upon the company that I serve.
8. Select and use Analysis Techniques for Determining Instructional Content.
As I am entering this position, I have the benefit of receiving a large amount of assessment information previously conducted by the organization. What my team will first be tasked with is investigating and deciphiring that information for themes that we can respond to with instruction. This form of coding and abstraction involves analysis that will shape our instructional content.
It is possible that employees are dissatistfied because of the way that their managers treat them on an interpersonal level. It might have to do with their professional development, incentive system, work environment, or any other reasons that could negatively affect their performance. By using front-end analysis models such as the Behavioral Engineering Model, my team can systematically consider both instructional and non-instructional solutions to the given problem.
10. Use an Instructional Design and Development Process Appropriate for a Given Project.
Since my department (in curricular development and training) is fairly small and brand-new, it will be pivotal for my team to select appropriate procedures for designing and developing the instruction that the company will use as a whole. Part of this includes the process for iterating through instructional content and ensuring that it is aligned with the company's values and goals for training. Another part of this must consider the project management and implementation of the materials. Further still, our process should include a focus on how an evaluation plan would be implemented to assess the success of our work.
It can be daunting to think about constructing an entirely new model for stablizing the work of instructional designers in a brand-new environment, but it is helpful to consider how previous models can be sculpted and combined to form new variations that respond to a certain context more precisely. With ADDIE as a foundation, I am confident I will be able to work with my team to develop a process that will follow Southwest Key's mission and goals for successful training.
15. Develop Instructional Materials.
Based on the job description that I received, my role at Southwest Key will involve a large degree of instructional materials development. This excites me because I am very comfortable with videography, photography, web design, audio editing, Powerpoint, Google Suite, and designing live learning activities for instruction. The key issue will be determing the best and most appropriate materials for facilitating learning on different topics and in different environments.
I am usually very optimistic about technology in training situations, but this scenario is mainly focused on teaching more "human" skills in leadership and communication. It is likely that more traditional materials in instruction (such as workshops and simple media) will be more effective than interactive websites at equipping managers with their needed skills. However, one challenge I have not faced is developing specifications that dictate media production. Since I usually made make all of my materials myself, it will be challenging to learn how to instruct others to complete that same work. Only time will tell, but I look forward to being a part of the development process.
19. Implement, Disseminate, and Diffuse Instructional and non-instructional Interventions.
Also included in my job description is the hybrid role of implementing our new curricula through training and coaching roles at each of my assigned sites. Since I will certainly not be tasked with travelling to each of my 1,000 locations, it is clear that my most critical role will be in designing an implementation plan that can meaningfully disseminate my team's content in a way that can reasonably ensure it is received by its intended audience.
My practical experience in project management (combined with my studies in the M.S. program) will help make this challenge easier. Thanks to my knowledge of managerial theory and the tools and processes that aid implementation plans, I should be able to draft clear systems for diffusing interventions to their appropriate sites. Since monitoring and assessing those materials are not my resonsibility, this will give me more freedom to focus on the content itself and how the audience might respond to it.
In the end, this step is vital because it singlehandedly determines whether or not my work was worthwhile. Without meaningful training environments or a receptive audience, my team's curricula will fall on deaf ears and provide no value to the company. As a result, a clear and strategic plan is integral to my success in this new role.
Strengths & Weaknesses: Work Field
Generally speaking, my greatest strengths will come from my natural gifts and refined experiences in communication, presentations, and development of materials. These are all things that I have done (more or less professionally) for almost a decade. As a result, these skills transfer well to competencies that are relevant to corporate training and non-profit onboarding. From creating slideshows to speaking before a boradroom, I am very comfortable providing interesting and useful content that serves the purpose of the organization.
In contrast, my greatest weaknesses will come from an underderveloped (or naïve) understanding of how instructional theory or project management are applied to large-scale systems. As someone that prefers to think ambitiously or creatively, I will no-doubt experience moments when I receive unexpected push-back or regulatory oversight when approaching a problem. Professional experience is required to really understand how stakeholders make decisions, how to communicate with them, and how to practice discipline in creative work spaces. I expect to learn these elements as a simple product of time passing in my first full-time job.
Strengths & Weaknesses: IDD&E Contributions
When I consider my role in IDD&E, I am quick to assume that my greatest strengths will mostly fall in technological integration or innovative educational psychological practice. This is because I have the most experience and passion for how technology or gamification will impact learning at a grand level - I am interested in being a catalyst to that form of change and I have the understanding of economics, business management, and entrepreneurship to provide insight into how instructional design can benefit from those particular fields of discovery.
However, I think that my greatest weaknesses will fall under research and literature review of learning theories. As someone obsessed with building solutions, I doubt that I will make great contributions int he form of validating other theorists' statements or conducting research to establish relationships in instructional design techniques. While I care about data and how it impacts instruction, I am more likely to simply try new ideas than to test them first. This is a weakness I must outgrow, but it does give me greater adaptability and flexibility to work within rapidly-changing environments.
Conclusion
I could not have asked for a job better-suited to help me transition from life as a full-time student to that of a fully-employed adult. Not only does the job description include explicit references to the phases of ADDIE that I will be focused on (Design, Development, and Implementation), but it comes in a work context for which I believe I am best equipped - a corporate setting seeking a systematic overhaul of its training protocol.
This essay only hints at the many ways that I will be using my M.S. in Instructional Design to serve my new company. In turn, this curriculum will aid managers in their process of helping unaccompanied minors in their education and justice representation. I am excited about having this kind of cascading impact thanks to my understanding of instructional design, and I hope to help others as a direct result of the training that I received.
