Nidal Abuhajar: Instructional Design Project Phase1

Instructional Desgin Project Phase 1

Nidal Abuhajar

EDCT 6031

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Nidal Abuhajar: Instructional Design Project Phase1

Introduction

My project proposal for this class is an instructional tutorial that its purpose is to guide the

students who are dealing with audio and video files in order to convert them to different formats

based on their need and educational purposes.

Problem Description

For the problem description, the needs assessments that fits for my project is Problem-based

needs assessments. According to Smith and Ragan, problem-based needs assessments begin

with problem determination, which leads to determination of relation ship between problem(s)

and employees (or learners) knowledge. (Smith and Ragan, 1999, p. 54).

As working in IT support in the linguistics department in Ohio University, I identified the

problem of the students in the department to convert audio and video files that they record for

their assignment requirements as well as reducing the size of the file to easily share or submit

the final version of the file to the instructor.

Not all instructors provide the fundamental technological background to their students and they

may assume that the student is aware of this issue. As a result of that assumption, the students

seek help for solving their problems either by emailing the instructor, or asking one of the lab

assistants on duty to provide them with the specific help they need.

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As this kind of problems occur frequently in the linguistics department because they depend

largely on oral tests and written assignments for evaluating the students. I found the need for

creating an instructional video regarding this issue and have it available it on the desktops in the

labs so that the students the video to assist them while creating their media. This should make it

easier for everyone to resolve this problem. Also, the instructors who use audio/video

recordings for evaluation in their courses can attach this tutorial video as a reference in their

course hosting LMS.

Learning Environment

The learning environment for this project is the linguistics department labs in Gordy Hall, each

of these labs consists of 15-20 iMac computers that are used by both students as a working lab,

and the instructors as classrooms. All the computers are connected to the university network

with internet access and can be controlled remotely by an administrator (which is me for the

time being). That makes it easy for me in terms of implementation by installing my instructional

video on all the devices at once.

My targeted audiences are students of higher education, basically the students in the linguistics

department as well as any student from outside the department who use our labs. In this project,

students are expected to be are familiar with the fundamentals of utilizing Mac OS X and are

also familiar with creating audio/video files that are going to be ready to be converted. That

includes students who are already in possession of those files.

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Nidal Abuhajar: Instructional Design Project Phase1

The context of the video is going to be instructional, since my goal is delivering focused

educational experience according to the reading from (Smith and Regan). I will be focusing on a

specific part of audio/video files creation, which is converting these files to different formats

based on the instructors requirements or the target running machine (not all media formats are

playable on some systems).

Instructional Design Theory(s)

The Instructional design theories that I am willing to use are the direct approach to instruction.

According to Reigeluth (2009), the direct approach to instruction goals are the mastery of

information, skills, understanding, and higher order thinking. These exactly fit the goals that I

am aiming for my project.

The direct approach instructional methods according to Reigeluth (2009) states that there might

be a variation for the students prerequisite skill level that may require variable time to allow

learners to achieve mastery of different goals. Accordingly, my video will be designed to satisfy

the expectation of the variety of students experiences in using computer applications.

Therefore, students from various computer backgrounds will be able to achieve the learning

goals.

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Nidal Abuhajar: Instructional Design Project Phase1

Here are the learning methods of the direct approach and their relevance to my project:

1- Presentation phase: I will be presenting the learning material is a video slideshow with a

visual and textual content.

2- Practice phase: students will be practicing the required step-by-step content on the computer

while/after watching the instructional video.

3- Assessment and evaluation phase: an assessment will be made for the students in order to

evaluate the understanding at the end of the video.

4- Monitoring and feedback phase: Monitoring and analyzing the assessment and evaluation

phase data will provide me with the required feedback of all other phases.

Instructional Strategy

In this instructional video, I will implement the principles of the tutorial instructional approach.

According to Reigeluth (2009), tutorial is a broad method that involves a high level of

adaptation or instructional events to cater to the individual needs of the student. (Reigeluth,

2009, p. 37). The students will be shown in the video how to use certain softwares to convert

different file formats according to their purpose.

Along with that, I will use the demonstration component for the instructional approach to

facilitate the delivery and understanding of the tutorial. According to Reigeluth (1984),

Demonstration is a basic component method in which an instructor demonstrates to learners

how to do or make something. This method is often followed by student trial of the same skill.

(Reigeluth, 2009, p. 37).

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Nidal Abuhajar: Instructional Design Project Phase1

After finishing the instructional video preparation, my strategy of implementations is going to be

installing this video tutorial on all the computers in the labs that I am responsible for, using

Remote desktop software that allows the user to copy files over the network easily on the

machines that are under control. I will also follow the same procedure for installing the

questionnaire file on the computers as well.

In this case the video will be in the hands of my target audience the students and they will be

able to open the video and follow the steps provided to accomplish the objective specified.

After the student finishes the video, I will ask the student to open another file where a assessment

is located, and ask the user to answer the questions for the goal of assessment.

The learning objectives of my project are going to be the following:

1- Students will be able to convert audio files to different formats.

2- Students will be able to convert video files to different formats.

3- Students will be able to understand what formats of audio and video that fits working on

different devices and machines.

Project Timeline

The project timeline will be as the following:

In May I have made an identification of the problem and select the best instructional design

theory that best fits the learning objectives. During the first week of June, I am preparing the

tools that are going to be used in the project as well as the instructional material that are going

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to be demonstrated to the user. During the second week of June, the development of the

instructional video as well as the questionnaire will take place, and getting finalized by the third

week of June. During the third week of June, the implementation process will take place, and

the instructional video will be installed and ready to be used on the computers.

Program Evaluation Plan

The evaluation plan is a referred to the results of the assessment and evaluation phase. The

results of the assessment that is going to be prepared to assess the knowledge transfer and

whether the students have reached the learning goals will be used in evaluating the program.

Changes to the program might occur in the future according to the analyzed results of the

students assessment.

Draft Funding/Budget

As a draft budget, we need to hire an instructional designer $3000/Month.

We need the development tools and licenses approx. $500.

We need to hire a developer to implement the required material. $2000.

The total budget will be aprox. $5500.

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Nidal Abuhajar: Instructional Design Project Phase1

References

Patricia L. Smith & Tillman J. Ragan. (2004). Instructional Design 3rd Edition.

Clark, R. E., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2009). Instructional-Design Theories and Models.

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