Reflections on the Outcome of Branding Yourself as a Digital Leader Training

For project B, I worked very closely with Renee Smith-Faulkner as we designed training for the district leadership team on building a digital brand. As new administrators and district leaders are hired in the district, we needed a training that we could offer them to catch them up with where our other administrators are as digital leaders. This was a very large project so it was nice to work with Renee to complete this project. 

In looking at the outcome, all participants were very positive about their experience in the trainings. There were only a couple of issues. First, in the day 2 “Why Brand” activity, using Realtime Board did not work. Even though the participants were invited to use the board, most still had issues accessing it. The instructors quickly changed the means to share the group’s findings by having them add information on a shared Google doc. Next time, I will want to create this activity in Google Slides so that each group will have a slide to share their findings. The other big issue was time. We packed these days full of activities. However, the participants requested that they have more time to fully develop the artifacts for each activity. Other than those two issues, the participants felt that the training was very beneficial and well worth their time to attend.

Peer editing was a constant throughout the design of this training module. Renee and I would look over each other’s work as each part was completed. Through this peer editing process, we were able to find small issues before we presented the design document and job aid to our clients. Also, by constantly editing each other, we were able to stay consistent in our design so that all parts worked effortlessly together. Once we felt comfortable with the design, we would then have our clients look over the design document and job aid to make sure everything needed was included. Because we had used their input to create the training, there were not any issues that had to be corrected from their review of the document other than a minor spelling or grammar change here and there. 

Once the training was over, we sat down with our clients to go over the training. They felt that the training went very well. They too felt that time was an issue so we will add more time when we provide this training if the future. They felt that the atmosphere of the training was very positive and the participants were very grateful for being asked to participate in the training. They also let us know the issues they had with Realtime Board and that they quickly resolved the issue with a shared Google doc. I felt that this training was very well organized and look forward to offering it again as new administrators begin working in our district.

What I Have Learned About Instructional Design

Designing instruction is not completely new to me. As an educator, I designed instruction on a daily basis as I prepared lesson plans each day. Fourteen years ago, I moved from the classroom into the Technology Department as an Instructional Technologist with one of my main focuses on training teachers on technology infusion. However, I never had put a name to the process that I would go through as I designed these lessons/trainings. 

In this instructional design course, I learned that the process is called the ADDIE process. As I looked back over my previous attempts at instructional design, I realized that I did basically go through these steps. From surveys and observations, I was able to see where weaknesses existed. From those findings, I would then begin to design and develop the training. One thing that I did learn in this class is that the more planning that goes into the design, the easier it is to develop the instruction. Taking the analysis, building the goals and objectives, and developing the activities are so closely related to each other that the more you include in the first two areas, the easier the process is in the development stage. Another new idea that was presented in the course was to list the needs of the participants and the instructor. This is something I have never done before. I see how looking at the needs of the participants can help guide the designer in the types of activities to include.

From the evaluation, I learned several things. First, when I had the client look over the job aid, she found a couple of areas that did not make sense to her. Normally I am creating trainings where I am the instructor as well. When creating for someone else, it is so important to be clear in all of the instruction steps. Also, in looking at the feedback provided by the participants, I found that they were all enlightened by the training. The main concern was that they thought they needed more time on the activities in order to fully develop the artifacts for each activity. After looking back over the design, I could see that adding more time would be a good update to this module for future trainings. 

I believe that this process of designing instruction is going to improve the quality of the trainings that I provide in the future. I will pay closer attention to the details up front to ensure that the training runs smoothly. I do not know that I will design instruction for others, but I do know that I will provide numerous trainings each year for teachers as we continue to build our one-to-one program in our district.