Final Project

My final Adobe Captivate project is a training to help managers learn to coach in different situations. The manager is give three scenarios to choose from, if they choose an incorrect answer they are coached as to why it is incorrect and if they choose the right answer they are congratulated and the reason the answer is right is reinforced. I am finding Captivate fascinating.  It is a very dynamic tool. I am going to try and do more tutorials with it to see if we could master it enough to design trainings for my organization.

The biggest take aways for me from this class is how I will think of technology and education. It is amazing how technology is influencing how we learn and the opportunities it is providing.  Will Richardson's TED talk was very powerful.  When he said, "We need life prep not test prep," it really stuck with me.  We are at the beginning of a revolution in education and it will be interesting to see how it progresses.  The other big take away was the importance of building a personal learning network.  Technology gives us a multitude of opportunities to develop our personal learning networks through blogging and social media.This will be something that I focus more on in the future.

Overall this class has enlightened me on how to better use technology for learning, developing trainings,  the use of learning analytics, and building my personal learning network.  Even though I really disliked blogging to begin I am very grateful that I now have the knowledge to use this tool.  I am really excited about Captivate (even though it is a little intimidating) and I am going to ask my organization to purchase it to develop some online trainings.  This class has made me more current with technology.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW TRAINING

Adobe Captivate - Advanced Actions

The feature that I have been studying is creating Conditional Actions in Advanced Actions.  For the training that I want to design, I want my users to be able to read a coaching scenario and then select the answer that represents the correct type of coaching style for that particular situation.  There would be 2 or 3 answers to choose from.  I would like to create a jump to slide action for each answer that would explain to them why the answer they chose was correct or incorrect.  This will in turn coach them to be a better coach.  To do this I would create a Conditional Action for the answers.  If they chose answer 1 then the action would be to jump to the number 1 explanation slide and so on.  The slide the answer jumps to would take them into another scenario. These Advanced Actions are located under the Project menu. 

Conditional Action Screen

Variable Creation Screen

 I am first going to  create a variable for each question.  On the Project Menu I will select variable and then click add new.  I will call the variable Coaching1.  I will then go to the Project Menu and  select advanced actions.  I will choose the action name answer1 and assign it to the variable Coaching1 with a literal of 1, I will do this for each answer.

Advance Action Screen

  I will go back to the screen with my coaching answer and select the answer button 1 and select Execute Advanced Actions.  I will be able to set up the conditions to the correct actions for the choices the user makes.  This tool, if I can master it, will be very useful in my conversational scenario training.  It allows for the user to have interactions based on their choices and gives them options to recover from an initial bad decision just like the real workplace.  If the choose a wrong answer they will see possible consequences and be able to make new choices based on their first decsion. I think Adobe Captivate 8 is a fascinating tool. If I am able to do what I think I can do with it, I may ask to purchase it for our Human Resources department.

Review of Huff, Steinberg, and Thomas; The Promises and Challenges of Implementing Evidence-Centered Design in Large-Scale Assessment."

Citation:  Huff, K., Thomas, M., Steinberg, L., (2010). The Promises andChallenges of Implementing Evidence-Centered Design in Large-Scale Assessment. Applied Measurement In Education, 23, 310-324.

Summary:
This article examines the benefits and challenges of using evidence centered design
(ECD) to design courses and exams that accurately reflect the students understanding and competencies in Advanced Placement (AP) courses.  The two major challenges
facing the AP program are understanding how and what students learn and being able to compare scores accurately across the years. Evidence centered design is beneficial for the design of the AP program because it provides clarity for alignment, definition for evidence of claims, and detailed  design guidelines that will serve as a basis for comparability. 
The AP program covers a vast network of teachers and schools. To achieve understanding of how and what students learn,  the AP program will need to be sure there is alignment between the teaching, learning, and what is measured on the exam. Using the ECD process, the AP program can define the claims and what evidence will be required to support those claims.  This will help teachers to design their curriculum and instruction to help their students achieve the deep conceptual knowledge. 

  The article shows how the ECD method could be used to improve performance and consistency of  AP courses. The benefits of the program are: 1) Alignment of course and exam. 2) Explication of deep conceptual understanding and complex reasoning.3) Foundation for comparable scores.4) Structure for valid interpretation of scores. While the use of  ECD in this project does not contain any breakthrough information, it does show how complex the use of ECD can be.  The problem with using the ECD approach in a project of this magnitude is it requires a large amount of resources, time,  and infrastructure to be put in place for it to be consistent and successful.  In order to attempt to develop this program, it would require a whole new way of thinking. If this type of assessment could be developed it could impact the value of this type of assessment.  It would give us a greater ability to understand what is being measured. This type of ECD use would be easier to develop while developing the assessment. Evidence-centered assessment design posits explicit evidentiary standards at the beginning of design rather than post hoc (Huff, Thomas, and Steinberg, 2010).  Conclusion: This article was well written and explored a valuable use of ECD.  It showed how ECD could be used in a large scale assessments to bring consistency and clarity to the evaluation process of the AP program.  Unfortunately, it also pointed out that undertaking a large scale program like this can be very complicated, time consuming, and expensive.  It shows how ECD could be implemented into the educational assessments but points out that it would be more efficient to develop ECD when developing the assessment instead of trying to retrofit an existing large scale assessment.  I do believe that if the resources were available that the AP program could be improved by the use of ECD.  It would be interesting if they could at least do on AP test with the ECD process to evaluate if the investment is worthwhile.

Training Needs Assessment

My organization breaks training down into three categories.

1.  Mandatory – These trainings would be ones that are required for compliance to Federal and State Law or Human Resources best practices.
2. On the Job – These trainings that are necessary for people to competently do their jobs.
3.  Professional Development – These trainings are used to prepare people for future roles within the organization or to improve performance in their current roles. 

At my organization we have used a system that is similar to the Mager’s Theory for writing learning objectives. 

Mager's Theory 

Behavior: The behavior should be specific and observable.
Condition: The conditions under which the behavior is to be completed should be stated, including what tools or assistance are to be provided.
Standard: The level of performance that is desirable should be stated, including an acceptable range of answers that are allowable as correct.

 This method is a 3 part method that uses a measurable verb, defines an important condition, and defines what criterion must be met for acceptable performance.  We do use gap analysis to help determine what, On the Job training, and Professional Development training are needed in the organization.  We have just developed a training program for our Custom Applicators that has been based on performance gaps from the previous season. This training will be a 4 part training and will bring all 14 of our Custom Applicators together to learn how to improve their performance.  Applicators that are not experiencing problems in the field will help to mentor others during the hands on portion of the training.

The learning objectives for this class are as follows:

1.  Applicators will be able to accurately calibrate their spray machine to deliver accurate application rate of fertilizer and chemical
2.  Applicators will be able to demonstrate proper clean out procedures to eliminate cross contamination.
3.  Applicators will be able to identify common weeds in order to effectively communicate field conditions to the company agronomist.    
4. Applicators will be able to accurately demonstrate proper field entry and exit strategies. 

If we analyzed this training needs assessment through the 4 step process discussed in our lecture, it would prove to be an effective tool for developing this training.   As in step one, when we are determining the need for a training it has been through a gap analysis.  What gap in the performance has been identified?  For our Custom Applicator class, problems in the field last season has determined what skills must be improved for success in the upcoming season. Errors in calibration, clean out, and field strategy have been consistent issues that need to be addressed.  Weed identification is training that our applicators have requested.   This portion of the training would fall into the professional development category. Step two asks us to determine if an on-demand training objective would be appropriate.  In this case, it would not be appropriate.  This training will be all hands on, while networking with peers to achieve the optimum outcome.  In our organization, on-demand training would be more appropriate for our mandatory trainings that are done yearly. Step three asks us to write learning objectives that align with desired performance.  Each of our trainings will have objectives that are in line with Bloom’s taxonomy.  On trainings such as our Custom Applicator class, the objectives are aligned with areas that were identified by our gap analysis, whereas with an annual mandatory training, sometimes the objective seems to be, “because we have to.” As an organization we should be better at communicating all learning objectives even if the training is repeated yearly and identify to our employees how the training aligns with the desired performance.  Step four asks us to develop learning objectives that will address the performance gap.  The learning objectives for our Custom Applicator training are aligned with desired performance and are clearly stated as to how that performance will be achieved and evaluated.  

In order to make trainings successful, you must clearly articulate the goal of the training, understand how you will measure success, align your learning objectives to the desired performance, and design the training to appropriately address the level of the learner. 

Precision Agriculture - Learning Analytics

Chris Dunsmore shows his tractor’s GPS system.
(Photo: Jeff Horwich)

My organization has begun to expand the use of learning analytics through offering Precision Agriculture as a service to our growers.  Advances in Information technology have made a substantial impact on farming, particularly with the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in conjunction with GIS tools.  Today farmers have GPS's in their planters, sprayers, and combines.  GPS technology has enabled the farmer’s ability to locate precise locations in the field allowing for the creation of maps, based on a common grid for comparison, showing and measuring the spatial variability of variables such as crop yield, terrain features/topography, organic matter content, moisture levels, pH, or nitrogen levels. The GPS's are capable of steering the machinery, logging inputs, and measuring yield. By incorporating GPS into standard farming practices, farmers, researchers, and consultants have been able to improve the precision of existing agronomic management activities. Precision farming and associated variable rate technologies have been the result.

Precision farming (PF) and variable rate technologies (VRT) use spatial databases within field environmental and management variables with the aim of equalizing the application of field inputs while maximizing production across the entire field. Through years of data gathering and analysis, Precision Agriculture has produce data that enables Agronomists to write field prescriptions for their growers.  

While there is still much debate on the uses of Drones, they are anticipated to have a dramatic impact on the precision agriculture market.  Drone technology will enable the grower to capture aerial images and scout fields.  The grower will be able to identify problem areas and treat them before they spread.   They will use pesticides and fungicides only when needed and in the smallest amounts necessary, lowering the chemical load in both food and environment and saving money. 

Our Agronomy staff now carry Ipads to the fields.  They can locate the field through satellite mapping.  They can mark on the map where the applicator should park, the doubles should be delivered, as well as highlight areas that need special attention. They enter all the observable field data and their recommendations into a database.  The data is being gathered year to year.  All of this data can be analyzed and used not only to improve farming efficiencies but also to develop new products.