All good things must come to an end

I’ve had an incredible experience as an instructional design (ID) intern but my time is up. I’ve had a chance to see both the micro and macro workings of ID, and this experience will have an indelible impact on my professional career. Since I graduate this month, I hope to put all this to good use very soon.

Summary

The key activities of my internship involved 1) working with a nursing professor who was designing two pharmacology related lessons that incorporated branching logic (using WordPress with Formidable Forms plugin & SoftChalk) and 2) shadowing (in-person and via video chat) the instructional design assistance given to another professor by the instructional design department and 3) blogging about my internship experience.

I also had the unique opportunity to shadow Joni as she assisted various professors on an ‘as needed’ basis. This experience was a particularly insightful and valuable since supporting others with technical assistance is so key to being a successful ID.

Throughout the internship, I was faced with many new technical issues and was relied upon to learn and then immediately use that software to create learning experiences. In order to accomplish all my tasks, the new technologies I learned were WordPress with various add-ons, SoftChalk Cloud and Create, TopHat, CarmenConnect and BuckeyeBox. Additionally, I used Google apps, Word, Outlook Web Access and Mind Meister (mind mapping) which I have  quite a bit of experience using.

Space and parking challenges

I spent about 75% of my 150 hours remotely since there was not a good location for me to work oftentimes. Also, I had to pay for parking which turned out was not cheap. These were issues that discouraged me from staying on campus any longer than necessary. Thankfully, I was able to communicate via video chat meetings and email so my work was not overly impacted. If these obstacles had not existed, perhaps I would have preferred to spend even more time on campus though.

I want to thank…

I’ve got to give a shout out to a few people who helped make my internship so fruitful. Again, I can’t thank you to Joni Tornwall enough. She was so generous with her guidance and time and I don’t think I could have asked for a better mentor! I want to thank Professor Mary Alice Momeyer for the excellent collaboration experience working on the pharmacology lessons. I want to thank Tim Lombardo, from the Office of Distance Education and eLearning, for teaching me about OSU’s ID processes. And, a final thanks to Dr. Connie Wanstreet for recommending me for this wonderful internship experience. 

I couldn’t be happier with my experience at OSU. 

Go Bucks!! 

 

If at first you don’t have the best solution, then try, try another one

formidable  vs     softchalk

Right turn?

Although Formidable Forms is a workable solution which didn’t hit us with any additional costs for building the branching logic lesson project, it looks like there is a better solution. SoftChalk, another lesson authoring tool, appears to be where we will put our efforts going forward.

Check it out

This week, Joni asked me to take a look at this new potential software and give her my thoughts about using it for our project. I watched about 10 short video lessons from the help files about how to begin building a lesson and the many types of tools that they offer. They provide 35 training videos that are all under 3 minutes long. Additionally, I found a couple helpful videos on YouTube, too. These helpful jumpstarts led me to confirm to Joni that this was a viable option and that we could get up and running with SoftChalk quickly.

How is this going to work?

In SoftChalk, creating the functionality of branching logic is possible through the use of bookmarking pages and then creating hyperlinks to those pages. So, for instance, given a multiple choice question, a student will click on an answer choice that is hyperlinked to a particular bookmarked page. That destination page might offer the student another question or feedback, then lead them to the next page in the logic. Although navigating from page to page sequentially is built in, it  can be disabled for this purpose. Creating bookmarks and hyperlinked text are incredibly easy!

There are many types of Activities, and other elements that sound engaging such as, TextPoppers and QuizPoppers. Instructors can keep it simple or give students a variety of question formats, feedback display types, point value options, lesson templates and other options which makes this a very flexible lesson authoring program.

Thumbs up!

I like the ease of getting started with this program and feel that it offers a lot of flexibility and plenty of enhanced features. I think that  teachers can work confidently with SoftChalk much quicker than they would with other alternatives, such as Articulate. Also, creating branching logic with SoftChalk  is less cumbersome and more intuitive than it is with Formidable Forms which is really intended to be used for form creation rather than lessons. 

Keepin keepin on

Although making this change in software will mean starting over again, in terms of the software build, the work refining the curriculum design that has been done throughout our work has not been lost. Our past work will make the build all the quicker and should result in a better product in the end.

Personally, I love learning new tools so I really don’t mind a bit. I just hope that in the weeks that I have left in my internship, I’m able to get enough built that the project is substantially moving toward completion. This sidestep demonstrates that development in a large organization is not always a straight line and does not assure that plans, first conceived, are taking through to completion intact or speedily.

Getting started with Formidable Forms, a WordPress plugin

What can I do with Formidable Forms?

Use Formidable Forms, a WordPress plugin, to create forms with a simple drag-and-drop interface. Create input fields that can incorporate conditional logic which can respond differently based upon the users entry. Embed forms into pages or posts.

Just a few examples of conditional logic responses:

  • If the student enters the correct answer, a “Correct!” message or the next question is displayed
  • If the student enters the incorrect answer, a “Try again” message or a link to a website is displayed

User activity reports are available via email, onscreen graph or in .csv file format.

What you will learn

Printable Step-by-step directions and videos below will show you:

  • How to install the plugin
  • How to create a form
  • How to build a conditional logic into a form
  • How to embed a form into a page or post

Instructional videos

Installing Formidable Forms plugin

Create first form and fields with Formidable Forms

Embedding a form into a page with Formidable Forms

Test your knowledge

(Note: do not hit Submit until instructed to do so)

When you have chosen the correct answer(s), then your next question will appear.

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

 

One and a half steps forward

It isn’t easy to run a race when you are also learning how to use your legs. I’m trying very hard to make every moment of my time count by producing something of value for the department, but it’s been a bit of a spit and a start to get rolling along.

I’ve had a chance to experience a little of each of the projects I’ll be working on and I’ve had a chance to meet with a number of professors and instructional designers, both in-person and in online video chats. I’m starting to feel a bit more comfortable in the environment and that is mostly due to how Joni introduces me and guides me along. When you are an intern, it’s easy to feel like a 5th wheel because you aren’t an employee and you aren’t a student. The mentor is key to overcoming this discomfort in short order.

The branching logic project is where I’ve been putting most of my time. I was given access to the videos and then we met with the professor to gather a better understanding of the project goals. When we met I wasn’t sure what my role was to be during the meeting so I tried to follow Joni’s lead to some extent. I understood enough to ask a number of clarifying questions. We left the meeting with some action items, and I always like that! But it wasn’t until Joni and I debriefed the meeting together that we formulated a plan.

  1. create a mindmap that showed how we can display the logic we want to use
  2. research tools that we can use to build the branching logic course that integrates video clip scenarios and allows us to track student responses while allowing for students to have multiple “trys” and giving feedback for every “try”

Initially, we thought Storyline would be the tool of choice but there were other products on the market too. I posted some questions with various groups and with an expert I know. And, I wanted to do some more research to understand the types of branching logic used in instructional design because, as I thought, there is more than one. 

Somewhere in the mix, Joni let me know that perhaps we should also look at the capabilities of using a WordPress (WP) with an add-on, Formidable Forms, as a possible solution because it allows for conditional responses. There was very little online to help me learn about how to use the add-on and I am new to WordPress, so it felt like the learning curve was pretty steep. But, since I’m sort of a techie, it wasn’t overwhelming. Using this set of tools, which is already available with no additional costs, seemed to offer what we needed. It might just do the trick.

Based on one of the example questions that the professor gave us at the meeting, I was able to create a simple mindmap, using MindMeister, which I shared with her and Joni. And, I included a couple of examples of different types of branching which I hope she will find helpful as she builds out the other problems in the project.

I built a prototype on WP using Formidable that was based on that question too. It included a video and conditional questions.

I asked Joni for a bit of time to review this information prior to the next meeting the professor. I prepared some talking points to be sure our discussion was on point and fruitful. Joni was able to help me with a few WP functionality questions and we worked through the mindmap and prototype together for awhile. I felt good about our discussion and spent the rest of the day tweaking with the prototype to make it operate more smoothly.

I’m enjoying learning more about these tools and the process of ID here. I’m glad that maybe I have made a valuable contribution to the project already. I can’t wait to see what my next day holds!

…here we go!

After a short time shadowing my mentor, Joni Tornwall, the other day I was energized by all the activity! Joni is the Manager of Instructional Services for the College of Nursing, and she is a woman on the go. Every hallway we passed and everywhere we went people were stopping to ask her various technical, project or policy questions. Scheduled was a meeting with one instructor to discuss the use of Top Hat but we also stopped at another instructor’s office to give some assistance with Google Apps. The variety, activity level, number of people helped and Joni’s attitude mirrors what a great day at work looks like to me! 

I was referred to Joni by a former professor. (Thank you Dr. Wanstreet!) Just two weeks ago, Joni and I met remotely. It was an encouraging and productive discussion about what I was looking for in an internship and what projects she could use help with. It felt like a match so I began working on the internship proposal for my school. We emailed back and forth a couple of times to be sure we had a workable contract, then Joni began to facilitate getting me setup with an email account, Carmen login, etc. She also sent me information regarding the projects I’d be involved with. 

Although this may change over time, here are our estimates for the amount of time on various activities with an average of 10 hours/week:

  • 7-8 hours/week: Storyline based project with a professor helping to develop a case studies based learning program using videos and branching logic.
  • 1-1.5 hours/week: The ODEE course development project that is developing two new online degree programs for the College of Nursing. Most likely just shadowing Joni to see process in action. Exposure to PIEmatrix and QualityMatters.
  • 1 hour: May or may not assist with a Top Hat project

I’ll also be journaling my experiences and complete a final reflection paper. Since I do not have experience with Storyline, I have purchased (on-sale) a course from Udemy to help me pick up skills quickly.

In December, I will be the first graduate from the Master’s of Professional Studies in Instructional Design from Fort Hays State University’s virtual graduate school. I have many years of experience providing training in formal and informal settings but my formal instructional design experience has been primarily through my studies. This internship will be a wonderful chance to see if I’m able to put all that I’ve learned into practice in a real-world situation. My only concerns are that there will be more I want to do than I have time to do or that I don’t add value like I hope to. But, I’ll certainly give it my best.

So, here we go!