Practical Application

Scenario

Organization:
Tianjin Haoxin Credit Guaranteed Co., Ltd. is a professional guarantee institute that
helps the small and medium-sized enterprises achieve financing objectives. It
provides customers a variety of guarantee products, such as the guarantee for
contract payment, the guarantee for entrusted lending, the guarantee for contract
bidding and tendering, etc.

I am working as an instructional designer in its training department. The services our

department provides include: conducting front end analysis to determine learning
needs, analyzing performance problems and identify appropriate instruction and
non-instruction solutions, select appropriate delivery methods and instructional
strategies, implement instructional solutions, and conduct evaluation to test closure
of the performance gaps, etc.

Current Project
There are more then thirty employees working in company’s six different
departments. The company recruits five new employees annually and most of them
are new graduates. According to our observation, investigation, and communication
with HR and other departments, there are many performance problems existing
within the company. The problems can be categorized as three major types:
a) New employees’ working efficiency is comparatively low. They have troubles on
communication and cooperation.
b) Employees make mistakes and/or have difficulties on the issues related to the
new guarantee products.
c) Performance problems during working hours: dressing casually; making long
private call; private use of business computers on chat, updating blogs, exploring
non-business websites, playing computer games, etc.

Our department manager is concerned about the usefulness and effectiveness of the
current training system, thus he thinks about designing a practical training model to
support the department operation. As an instructional manager, I am assigned to
design a model that will align the instructional goals, the learning objectives, the
instructional activities, the learning assessment and the training evaluation. The
model will serve as the guidance for the corporate training team on establishing a
systemic and systematic training system.
Application of IDDE knowledge and skills to this problem

As mentioned above, there are three major performance problems existing within
the company, and I am assigned to design a model guiding the operation of the
training department. The following are the four most important competencies that I
have developed and the aspects of the competencies that I will apply on the design
of the training model.

1. Select, modify or create a design and development model appropriate for a give
project.

In the recent decades, numerous models were created talking about the
instructional design/develop (ID) process, which are called ID models. These models
provide conceptual, management, and communication tools for analyzing, designing,
creating, and evaluating learning in varied context, such as k-12, higher education,
and industry. In this scenario, I am attempting to design a training model that will
support the department operation. This competency is important, because by
considering multiple ID models and analyzing model elements, I am able to create
and develop a new model suitable for our specific situation. To design this training
model, I will incorporate the elements of the following three models”:

Smith and Ragan Model

Perform instructional analysis, develop strategy, and conduct evaluation are three
phases of Smith and Regan Model. These three phases will be embedded in the
training model and become the major activities that should be completed during the
design and the development process.

Harless Front-End-Analysis Model

Harless promoted the important concept of front-end-analysis. He believes that the
understanding of the causes of a problem should drive the solution. The first phase
of the training model “training needs assessment” will be designed based on
Harless’s thoughts. In this phase, the model will demonstrate how to identify
problem, how to analysis causes, and how to seek appropriate solutions.

The Gerlach and Ely model

Gerlach and Ely determined ten most necessary instructional elements and created a
step-by-step guidance for instructional planning. The training model will adopt GE
model’s instructional elements, such as determination of strategy, organization of
groups, allocation of time/space, and selection of resource on constructing
appropriate learning environment.

2. Conduct a needs assessment

Needs assessment is an important competency. It allows me to identify the

performance gap and then close the gap by using appropriate needs assessment
 tools and techniques. In this scenario, the first phase of the model will be about
needs assessment. It is designed based on Harless Front-End-Analysis Model, and
Rossett’s research about training needs assessment. The phase will involve a six-step
procedure: Identify problem -> Pinpoint gap -> Analysis causes -> Analysis
Organization, department and individual goal -> Cost analysis -> Select optimal
alternatives. Four needs assessment tools, will be used to conduct needs assessment.

Observation
This tool will be used to identify the problem and analysis the causes. The
observation will focus on the performance of twenty new employees and ten
selected employees. During the observation, I will use my sense to perceive what is
going on in the work site. An observation guide will be made in advance, and I will
take short notes during the observing process. Here are two example questions of
the observation guide:
• How do the exemplary employees dress and perform during working hours?
• What is the performance of the new employees, how do their performance
differ from the others?

Interview
This tool will be used to identify the problem, analysis the causes, and analysis the
organization/department/individual goals. The purposes that are involved in the
interview include, 1) Locating the actual, the performance problems that have been
identified through observation, what employees say about their performance
problems; 2) Locating the feeling, all target respondents’ description and opinion
about the current and ideal situations; and 3) Locating the optimal, general manager,
department managers and employees’ expectation, their version of desired
knowledge and performance. An interview guide will be developed beforehand, and
here are some sample questions:

Respondent Sample Question

What are the complains you have received?
HR How do you define the problem?
Department What are your feelings about those problems?
What are the desired performances in your mind?
Twenty new
Do you notice any performance problem on your own and/or on your
employees and
colleagues? If so, what are your opinions about the problem?
selected old
Do you know how to performance in appropriate business manner?
employees
General What is your expectation for the employees?
manager and What are the performance problems in your department?
department What are your version of desired knowledge and performance for the
managers employees?

Document Analysis
The document such as the company’s hand book, the instructional materials of the
previous/current internal training, and the schedule of the external training will be
reviewed.

Questionnaire
The causes of the performance problems will be hypothesized based on the analysis
result of the data collected. A questionnaire will be used to examine the hypothetical
causes, and simultaneously address other possible causes of the performance
problems. Two experienced trainers will be invited to help design the questionnaire.
Here are some sample questions:
Respondents Sample Questions
What do you think about the causes of the dressing problem?
A. Have no idea of professional dressing
20 new B. Dressing policy is vague
employees C. Do not realize the importance of appropriate dressing
D. The suits are too expansive
E. Others:_______
What do you think about the causes of inappropriate business
manner (e.g. private use of business phone)?
10 selected
A. Being lack of regulation/guidance
old
B. No punishment for those who break the policy
employees
C. Do not know how to arrange time and how to release pressure
D. Others:_______
What do you think about the causes of the mistakes being made
5 selected related to the new guarantee products?
A. External training program is not appropriately selected
Dept.
B. Current internal training is not well designed
managers
C. Employees are not will to learn
D. Others:_______

3. Develop instructional materials

The internal training will be one of the three major phases of the training model, and
developing instructional material is a critical part of this phase. In the scenario, the
final product will be a descriptive and procedural training model; how to perform in
each phase and how to reach the goal will be presented as well. This competency
allows me to design a model that will demonstrating: how to develop material that
will support the content and instructional strategies (e.g. face-to
face/distance/group/individual learning), how to work with subject matter experts
during the development process (e.g. design and develop lesson plan, handout and
job-aid), and how to produce materials in various formats (e.g. Media production
and E-learning material).

4. Promote collaboration, partnerships and relationships among the participants

in a design project
The training model has a variety of audience and participants:
• Training team: training manager, instructional designer, trainer, department
administrator, evaluator
• Audience: general manager and all employees
• Participants: the subject matter experts.
The model will illustrate how do training team collaborate to reach the training goals
and how do participants get involved in the training process. This competency is
important because it enables me to identify how and when collaboration and
participation should be promoted, how to select subject matter experts and get
them participated in the design and the development process, how to build and
promote effective relationships among different participants, and how to promote
and manage the interactions among the team members. The examples listed below
present how do I design the team member tasks by applying this competency:
• The instructional designer will conduct needs assessment, collaborate with
subject experts to design all the instructional materials and the supporting
materials
• The trainer will be in charge of determining the content and the objectives of
the training, selecting appropriate strategies, (organization of groups, allocation
of time and space and selection of resources), delivering, holding and facilitating
skill exchange session and expert sharing session, and assessing learning
outcomes
• Evaluator will work on evaluating the training material, the trainer’s
performance, and the training efficiency and effectiveness; writing evaluation
report

Knowledge gains from concentration

My study concentrates in Interactive Technology & Distributed Leanring. I have

taken courses in instructional design and development, evaluation, project
management and digital media. The knowledge gains from the concentration
courses help me a lot in designing this training model. Learning about the principles
of instruction and learning has helped me in planning how to apply learning theories
and principles in the design and management of the model; learning the
instructional system design process has helped me in thinking to design the model
by involving all the ID elements; learning different ID models has helped me in
creating and developing my own model by revising various ID models and
incorporating useful elements; learning the tools and the techniques of conducting
the front-end analysis has helped me in determining the most appropriate solutions
for the current performance problems; and learning techniques and principles in
evaluation has helped me in planning evaluation in the business field.
Personal reflection on my professional identity

As a graduate of the IDD&E program, I am feeling that by taking the courses and
working on practical problems in the classroom as well as field-based projects, I have
developed knowledge and skills in front-end analysis, instructional design,
development, evaluation and project management. As evidenced by the scenario,
the competencies I have developed allow me to construct problem-based learning
environment, design systematic and systemic learner-centered model, develop
instructional materials to better support learning, and manage business training
projects that integrate technologies into instructional solutions. I believe with these
competencies, I will be able to make professional contributions to an extensive area,
like being as instructional designer in K-12, multimedia material designer in higher
education, and training development director in the business and industry field.