Instructional Design Plan Bruce Neubauer University …...MEDT 7472 Project 2, Spring 2017 3 as a result of the consolidation with the former Darton College, it seems unlike that that

Running head: MEDT 7472 Project 2, Spring 2017 1

Instructional Design Plan

Bruce Neubauer

University of West Georgia

MEDT 7472 Project 2, Spring 2017 2

Instructional Context

Description of Program and Institution

The Master of Public Administration program at Albany State University began in the

1980s. In recent years it has become professionally accredited by NASPAA, pursuant to

NASPAA standards. The program has struggled through the years with a small number of

faculty members, limited budget, and some challenges involving higher levels of university

administration. The program has always had around fifty students or so, some part-time. There

are presently five core faculty members, including the Program Director. This is the minimum

complement required for NASPAA accreditation. The program has been one of the most

consistently productive in terms of graduation rates. Some students are employees of Albany

State University.

Albany State University was recently consolidated with Darton College, a two-year

institution also in Albany, Georgia. Both schools have experienced declining enrollments in

recent years. The consolidation has affected the branding of each former institution. The

Administration is emphasizing the need to increase enrollment and tuition revenues. The MPA

program is being asked to continue to teach the traditional face-to-face program and to also offer

the program entirely online. The intent is to boost enrollment in the MPA program to about 150

students. The program presently includes an internship requirement, at least for pre-service

students. Faculty are concerned about how a parallel online program can be created and

sustained. We each teach three sections each semester. The program has been reorganized back

into the undergraduate Political Science and History Department, opening the possibility of our

being assigned to teach four sections, including possible undergraduate courses. While we are

apparently getting one additional faculty member with a terminal degree in public administration


as a result of the consolidation with the former Darton College, it seems unlike that that we be

able to recruit any additional faculty members.

Description of Students

My students are Albany State University are a combination of relatively young

"preservice" students who recently completed undergraduate degrees and "mid-career" students

who are older and have employment experiences. Until the recent consolidation with the former

Darton College, Albany State University was a HBCU and its mission was to serve historically

underserved populations. Presently, all my students are African-American. Probably more than

half of my students were provisionally admitted into the Master of Public Administration, with

low test scores and/or undergraduate grade point averages. There is a substantial diversity of

background among my students. Some already employments involving substantial

responsibilities. Some are like some undergraduates I have taught at other colleges and

universities. There is a substantial range of strength of motivation. Our program is small.

Recruitment and retention of students is important to the future of the program. Most of our

students graduate within two or three years including those provisionally admitted.

Description of Course

PADM 5011 is intended to be the graduate-level introduction to the field of public

administration in our program. It should be taken in a students first semester. It does not always

work out that way. We do no have a cohort system of admissions. Students often do not follow

advisements. The course is intended to survey some of the classic literature in the field of public

administration and to provide students with a sampling of the required core courses they will

complete in the program, such as pubic personnel administration. I have taught the course for

several years now. I have substantial discretion in what is taught and how content is taught. I use


a case book that includes some of the classic literature and commentary by the author of the

book.

Required Program Competencies

"NASPAA" is the acronym representing the professional organization that accredits

masters-level programs in public administration and public policy. Continued NASPAA

accreditation requires that programs demonstrate that their core courses together fulfill five

universal competencies. These competencies are as follows.

To lead and manage in public governance.

To participate in and contribute to the policy process.

To analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions

To articulate and apply a public service perspective.

To communicate and interact productively with a diverse and changing workforce and

citizenry.

Not every core course must emphasize all five competencies. Multiple competencies, of

course, can be included by design in a single core course. The public-service short story writing

assignment is intended to be especially relevant to the first, third, fourth and fifth of the

competencies shown above. While it is not feasible to require every student in an academic

program to actually demonstrate these competencies in the real world (many students are pre-

service), writing a fictional story requires them to imagine what can mean to be a public

administrator and to demonstrate their competencies primarily through the character of the

protagonist they create. The ability to imagine the consequences of one's words and actions in

the context of a situation nested within an organizational culture is required to actually function

as a successful public administrator. A student's story may possibly demonstrate an ability to

participate in and contribute to the policy process (Competency 2).


Rationale for the Module

The practice of public administration involves the understanding of interpersonal

relationships and the ability to anticipate the likely direct and indirect (systematic) consequences

of one's decisions and behaviors. This is complex because of the variety of people's personalities

and values. Successful public administration requires this ability to anticipate quantum states

grounded in both emotional intelligence and social intelligence. This aspect of public

administration education has been neglected. Very recently some scholars are promoting

behavioral public administration (BPA) which is a proposed bridging between the field of public

administration and the discipline of psychology. In my opinion, it is appropriate to help students

in the introductory public administration course aware of the importance of the complex

interpersonal relationships that public administrators must navigate. It is important that they

realize the relevance of emotional intelligence and social intelligence to the successful practice

of public administration in the introduction course. The decision to earn a master of public

administration degree is a commitment to a kind of career that is both complex and can be highly

stressful. Public administration is stressful largely because of the political aspects of it and the

interdependence among public administrators to get anything done. Students need to be aware of

these things and to demonstrate an ability to "read" complex interpersonal situations. They also

need to demonstrate a capacity for creativity. To write an original fictional public-service short

story is a way to demonstrate these understandings and abilities.

Public administration is both an applied field of academic study and a professional

practice. It is generally taught at the graduate level of university studies. Therefore, the teaching

of it is appropriately grounded in andragogy which is the science of how adults learn. To say that

story-writing is a pedagogically sound approach to public administration education is to blur the


distinction between scholarship regarding how children learn and the scholarship regarding how

adults learn. In any case, the composition of public-service short story is a creative act which can

serve to demonstrate a student's abilities to "read" people and anticipate the consequences of

decisions and behaviors in an organizational context. It is not usually practical to require a

student to manage a non-profit organization or government agency in order to satisfy the

NASPAA competency, "to lead and manage in public governance." But the creation of a story

that accurately reflects what is required to lead and manage in public governance is a means by

which a student can provide documentation of having achieved that competency at a high level

on Bloom's Taxonomy of learning. Several of the most valuable competencies of a successful

public administrator are self-awareness, an ability to "read" other people, a sense of

mission/journey, and an ability to anticipate the likely consequences of decisions and behaviors

in the context of complex interpersonal networks.

Instructional Development Methodology

The creation of this module is guided by the ADDIE model. "ADDIE" is acronym

representing the activities of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation.

This is similar to the "waterfall" model often taught in software development. In practice, it tends

to become a spiral model of development, like the iterative-incremental model of software

development. In other words, the five phases are more easily understood as a sequential process,

while in practice project management is likely to involve a disciplined process in which the

phases overlap and are "refactored" periodically to maintain alignment among the various

artifacts produced in the project.

Briefly, analysis activities include understanding the users (both students and instructors),

understanding the subject domain, understanding the instructional delivery system,


understanding relevant approaches grounded in pedagogy and/or andragogy, and identifying

relevant constraints such as project budget and timeline. A proper analysis is appropriately

documented. This document is a product of analysis. A proper analysis can become the basis of

the specifications needed for a request for proposals (RFP). The RFP should be specific enough

for qualified instructional contractors to understand what is required and to meaningfully

calculate costs. Analysis activities are focused on the needs of the organization that wants the

instructional system.

Design activities tend to be more technical than analysis activities. Design is more the

concern of those who will actually build the instructional system. Rather than the "what," design

is more about the, "how." In practice, there is usually substantial overlap between analysis and

design. In fact, it is desirable for analysts and designers to work with each other and engage in

prototyping together. This helps assure that "everyone is on the same page." Even very good

specifications can be misunderstood.

What instructional professionals refer to as development is commonly identified as

implementation by software professionals. In any case, the course and its artifacts must actually

be created as software. The "I" in ADDIE stands for implementation, meaning preparation to

begin using the new instructional resources with learners. Software professionals refer to

deployment, which is a similar concept. Evaluation has two aspects in the ADDIE model.

Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the creation process, followed by summative

evaluation of the entire artifact produced by the project.

The ADDIE model does not explicitly include a maintenance phase as commonly

identified in software development models. But courses are likely to have "bugs" that are


identified after deployment. And, of course, most courses need to be updated to reflect current

events and evolving scientific discoveries.

This assigned project is guided by the ADDIE framework and will have iterative-

incremental features. This part 2 document serves the purposes of analysis. It is possible that in

part 3 of the assignment it will be necessary to modify the design specifications in light of new

insights and because of constraints, including budget and timeline. Ideally, whatever project

management methodology s used, a quality product is produced on time and on budget. The

ADDIE framework helps the project manager and others think clearly about what they are doing

and to make progress in a disciplined way. Such methodologies help "shops" development the

expertise needed to produce learning resources with consistent quality, using well-established

processes.

Module Learning Objectives

Grounding in Relevant Learning Theories

Most learning theorists have focused on the needs and potentials of children. We know

that as the brains of children are developing windows of opportunity to learn open as children

become older. Children love to play and their play is a means by which they learn. Two of the

major learning theorists were Jean Piaget and Lev Yygotsky. Piaget focused on the

developmental stages from birth to about age 16. Paiget identified and described the

sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal

operational stage. Vygotsky was a developmental psychologist who viewed human

psychological development as emerging through interpersonal relationships and actions. He

introduced and identified the concept of the zone of proximal development, meaning the span

between what a child can learn alone and what she or he can learn with appropriate adult


engagement. A blending of theories by Piaget and Vygotsky is known as social constructivism.

Social constructivism acknowledges that while knowledge is individually constructed,

knowledge construction is facilitated by networks of social relationships (Hogan & Pressley,

1997.

The context of the module identified in this paper is adult education. “andragogy” is a

theory of adult education that has been developed by Malcolm Knowles and others. The notion

that andragogy is somehow the opposite of pedagogy is unfortunate. Both modern pedagogy and

andragogy provide foundation for the approach to modern learning known as constructionism.

The tenets of andragogy differ from the tenets of pedagogy because the brains and minds of

adults are somewhat different from the brains and minds of children and young adults. Adult

brains are more stable than the brains of children. The patterns of neural connections in an adult

brain are relatively well defined. The brains and minds of children are more plastic, meaning,

malleable. Adults can certainly continue to learn. The conditions that facilitate adult learning are

different from the conditions that facilitate learning among children. Adults usually want to

know the relevance of what they are being taught to their work and/or personal lives. They are

likely to be motivated when they can shape the course of their learning and when they see the

relevance of their learning to their experiences and challenges. While some may value learning

what scholars have discovered, adults also value the constructivist approach, whereby they learn

by activity and by self-discovery.

Teaching public administration at the master’s level can be challenging in that most

classrooms include a combination of pre-service and mid-career learners. Pre-service students

(usually recent university graduates) are not children, of course. But their brains may still be

developing in some ways and they may lack relevant work experiences. It is hard to create

MEDT 7472 Project 2, Spring 2017

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classroom experiences that substitute for having had actual employment experiences which the

domain knowledge is intended to clarify and address. The mid-career learners in public

administration classrooms tend to be older and may be more intrinsically motivated for two

reasons. One, completion of the degree program may lead to a salary increase. Two, (and more

importantly) they are likely to had had the experiences that what is being taught is intended to

clarify and address. It is difference between, “just in case,” and “been there, done that, and have

the scars to prove it.”

To say that public administration education should be grounded in andragogy rather than

pedagogy may fail to acknowledge the many contributions of pedagogical theories to andragogy.

The application of constructivism in the context of adult learners is not identical to the

application of constructivism to the education of children. Adults do not generally engage with

their social and physical environments in the same ways children do. But in either context of

learning, teachers who use a constructivist approach design activities by which learners construct

their own knowledge. In either context, teachers engage in the “scaffolding” and collaboration

that serves to enable learners to gain additional insights then they would in the absence of formal

learning infrastructure. “Situated learning” refers to a setting in which the students takes part in

activities in an instructional setting that is similar to the applied setting (Brown et al. 1989).

The module described in this paper is constructivist in that public administration students

are being asked to create a short story that is structured to include content directly relevant to

course learning objectives, and in alignment with several of the NASPAA universal

competencies. For the pre-service students, this assignment will cause students to imagine what

is like to be an administrator with the mission and challenges of a story’s protagonist in a public-

sector organization. This may be in the spirit of constructivism in the spirit of pedagogy. In


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contrast, mid-career students are more likely to mold their stories as derivations from things they

have actually experienced and/or observed in public-sector organizations. For them, the

assignment is likely to involve sense-making more so than imagination. This may be more in the

spirit of andragogy.

Clarity and Measurability of Learning Objectives

The identification o learning objectives should be grounded in the knowledge and skills

needed to complete an assignment (Marzina, 2001). Whether the assignment precedes the

learning objectives or the other way around, the point is that there should be alignment between

an assignment (or a module, or a course or an entire program of study) and the relevant learning

objectives. The purpose of this module is to operationalize at least the following two NASPAA

universal competencies.

To lead and manage in public governance.

To analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions

This module is based on the premise that if a student writes a solid, original public-

service short story, she or he has demonstrated an ability to lead and manage in public

governance and to analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make (reasonable)

decisions. The insights required to write a good public-service short story are the insights

required in to perform the two NASPAA competencies above. That is not necessarily to say that

the student who can write a good story has the interpersonal skills to be an effective public

administrator. But, if one cannot write a story involving applications of critically important

insights about the dynamics of public-sector organizations, she or he is not likely to become an

effective administrator.


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There is an array of skills required to write any short story. There are additional domain-

area skills required to write a public service short story. The skills required to write any short

story include the following.

To identify a place and a time.

To create and develop realistic and interesting characters.

To create a situation that evolves into a plot.

To create realistic and meaningful behaviors of characters.

To create realistic and meaningful dialogs between and among characters.

Usually, to identify the mission of the protagonist and to create obstacles and conflict

associated with her or his pursuit of the mission.

To arrive at a turning point in the plot (often involving an important decision or decisive

action) beyond which the plot turns to its resolution.

To conclude the story in a way that respects readers and invites readers to draw their own

conclusions regarding the meanings of the story.

This assignment, however, is more specific than only to write a short story. A public

service short story (as will be defined in the overall assignment in the module) has several

specific aspects.

The characters interact with one another in the context of a organization.

The organization is a public-sector organization, most likely a government agency or a

non-profit organization.

Formal relationships among the characters are likely to be based on roles defined by the

organization.

The public-sector organization has a culture that can and should be identified and

described.


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The mission of the protagonist is some kind of professional mission, either in terms of

career advancement or personal values relevant to the organizational context.

The protagonist has degrees of emotional intelligence and social intelligence that become

evident through her or his words, decision, actions and reactions.

The obstacles an conflict the protagonist faces are grounded in the political ecology, the

organizational culture, and the personalities of other characters in the story.

The protagonist encounters an ethical dilemma in her or her pursuit of mission.

Conflict and obstacles in the plot are likely to involve political-administrative

dimensions, administrative situations involving relationships of authority, and

interpersonal dynamics grounded in the personalities of the characters, including the

human protagonist.

The conclusions readers are likely to consider having completed the story are likely to

involve themes reflected in the public administration academic literature.

The things a student needs to know in order to complete this assignment include the

following.

The basic structure of a story designed on Joseph Campbell's explanation of the hero's

journey.

How to write in narrative voice.

Some understanding of organizational cultures and common working relationships in

public-sector organizations.

The political "ecology" of most public sector organizations.

Enough understanding of human personalities to create realistic characters.

Common human motivations in public-sector and other organizations.

How behaviors can be evidences of personalities and intentions.

How dialogs can be evidences of cooperation and conflict.

How decisions and actions are likely to lead to outcomes, both intended and unintended.

How people can miscalculate the outcomes of their words, decisions and actions.


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How people can misunderstand the intentions of others.

The interplay of reason and emotions in interpersonal relationships.

How prior events can shape the outcomes of present and future words, decisions, and

actions.

The skills that a student needs to complete this assignment.

How to identify a place a time.

How to create realistic and interesting characters.

How to write a story in narrative voice.

How to identify the mission of the protagonist.

How to develop a plot including challenges, conflict, behaviors, dialogs, and an ethical

dilemma.

How to achieve a turning point in the plot beyond which the concluding situation

evolves.

How to leave readers with meaning content to "chew on" related to some common

themes in the public administration academic literature.

Learning objectives for an assignment should be clearly stated and measurable. The

following are the module learning objectives.

To write a realistic public-service short story in the form of Joseph Campbell's "hero's

journey" archetype including a protagonist trying to achieve something in an

organizational context, at least two additional characters as needed, a challenge, a turning

point, and a conclusion.

To create fictional characters with realistic personalities, values, emotional intelligences,

social intelligences, and behaviors.

To create a fictional public sector organization with a realistic organizational culture

including values and patterns of typical interpersonal behaviors.

To create a short-story plot in which a protagonist faces challenges to his or her

intentions and attempts, by decisions and behaviors, to achieve his or her intentions.


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To represent the personalities, values, emotional intelligences and social intelligences of

at least three major fictional characters by way of both dialogs and behaviors.

To demonstrate through character design, plot, turning point, and resolution that the

decisions and behaviors of a public administrator affect his or her success or failure to

achieve intentions in the context of an organizational culture.

Figure 1. Cognitive Task Analysis Model

The Cognitive Task Analysis Model serves to identify the structure of the module by

making the high-level requirements visually evident. There are five high-level requirements to

achieve the goal of writing a public-service short story. The model also makes the supporting

competencies visually evident. While every supporting competency may not be explicitly

incorporated into the design of the module, all of its parts can help guide the creation of the parts

that do become design elements in the module. For example, the selection of readings can be

guided by the realization of what competencies are necessary for students to include required

content in their fictional stories.


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The module will be structured as five repetitive iterations over five consecutive weeks.

Each iteration will involve the completion and peer-review of an additional cumulative edition of

the story. Each part will be due in CourseDen on a Sunday evening and the follow up for that

part will be due in CourseDen the following Thursday evening.

Figure 2: Module Activities Flow Diagram


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Iteration 1: Learning Objective: To write an introduction to a public-service short story Readings/viewings: To be specified. Interactive Activity: To be specified. Quiz: To be specified. Instruction: Begin your public-service short story by introducing readers to a time and place and to (at least) the protagonist character. Write in third person (omniscient) view. In other words, the voice is not that of any character in the story. “The narrator can tell the story from the perspective of any character and includes the thoughts and feelings of any character. Using this point of view allows the narrator to shift perspectives from one character to another in the short story.” Source of quotation: Leland Public Schools – Creative Writing Short Story Assignment http://www.lelandpublicschools.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Creative-Writing-Short-Story-Assignment.pdf Assignment to be assessed: A written introduction to a public-service short story written in narrative voice that includes the identification of a time and place and introduces one or more realistic characters. Group Readers' Follow up Checklist:

Comments:

Identification of time and place.

Selection of appropriate public sector organizational setting.

Proper use of narrative voice.

Introduction of at least a protagonist character with realistic personality including insights into the character, values and background of the protagonist.

http://www.lelandpublicschools.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Creative-Writing-Short-Story-Assignment.pdf

http://www.lelandpublicschools.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Creative-Writing-Short-Story-Assignment.pdf


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Iteration 2: Learning Objective: To develop the beginning of the plot of a public-service short story including multiple characters, identifying the protagonist’s mission in the context of the culture of a realistic public-sector organization, using narrative voice. Reading/Viewings: To be specified. Interactive Activity: To be specified. Quiz: To be specified. Instruction: To be specified. Assignment to be assessed: The continuation of the introduction to include an initial development of a plot including multiple characters in which the mission of the protagonist becomes apparent in the context of the culture of a public-sector organization, written using narrative voice. Group Readers' Follow up Checklist:

Comments:

Refactoring of existing short-story (Part 1) as needed/recommended.

Continued proper use of narrative voice.

Introduction and development of one or more characters in addition to the protagonist, with realistic personality.

Description of a realistic culture of the public-sector organization identified.

Identification of the protagonist’s mission.


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Iteration 3: Learning Objective: To create realistic conflict regarding the protagonist’s journey to achieve his or her mission. Readings/Viewings To be specified. Interactive Activity: To be specified. Quiz: To be specified. Instruction: To be developed. Assignment to be assessed: The continuation of the short story to include conflict that hinders the progress of the protagonist toward accomplishment of his mission. The emotional intelligence and social intelligence of the protagonist must be evident through both dialog and behaviors. The protagonist must face a choice that involves an ethical dilemma. Group Readers' Checklist:

Comments:



Identification of antagonist, be it a character or a situation.

Portrayal of relevant conflict evident in dialog and behaviors.

Evidence of emotional intelligence and social intelligence of protagonist.

Evidence of an ethical problem facing the protagonist.


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Iteration 4: Learning Objective: To achieve a turning point in the protagonist’s journey to achieve his or her mission. Reading/viewings/ To be specified. Interactive Activity: To be specified. Quiz: To be specified. Instruction: To be specified. Assignment to be assessed: The continuation of the short story to include a turning point in the journey of the protagonist. The protagonist must make a decision that has ethical consequence. Group Readers' Follow up Checklist:

Comments:



Identification of a decision by the protagonist that triggers one or more events setting up the resolution of the journey of the protagonist.


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Iteration 5: Learning Objective: The achievement of a resolution in a public-service short story. Readings/Viewings: To be specified. Interactive Activity: To be specified. Quiz: To be specified. Instruction: To be specified. Assignment to be assessed: The continuation of the short story to consolidate events and achieve closure of the journey of the protagonist. Group Readers' Follow up Checklist:

Comments:

Refactoring of existing short-story as needed.


The conclusion of the plot via the resolution of the conflicts faced by the protagonist along his or her journey.

Letting readers discover own meanings of the story for themselves.


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Design and Structure of the Module

Artifacts of Analysis and Design

Use Case Diagram.

Business Analysts create use case diagrams (usually with standard UML modeling

symbols) to identify the major functionalities that a new software application must provide to the

kinds (classes) of those people who will use the new system. Such a diagram is valuable because

it is a visual representation of the major functions of the system. It serves to help stakeholders

agree upon what the system must do and for whom. The visual nature of it is especially valuable

because it is likely that some stakeholders are not experts in business analysis or software

engineering. A use case diagram is a bridge between the analysis and design aspects of a project.

While couched in analysis, a good use case diagram serves to "set up" the work of designers.

A use case diagram is an artifact usually developed in analysis that can be helpful in

design. A simple use case diagram contains actors, use cases and associations. An actor is a class

of user. A use case is a unit of system functionality that can be accessed by one or more actors.

An association is a line representing the fact that an actor (class of users) needs access to a use

case (unit of functionality). In Unified Modeling Language (UML) an actor is represented as a

stick figure. A use case is represented by an oval. An association is a line. A use case can be an

extension of another use case. This is modeled by an association including the “extends”

stereotype.


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Figure 3: UML Use Case Diagram

Instructional and Design Elements

Reading/viewing Resources.

In each of five weeks the instructor will provide links to readings and/or videos related to

the iteration of the story due that week. For example, in the week in which the instructions

require that the protagonist must face an ethical dilemma, there will be readings regarding

identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas.

Iterations

As shown in Figure 2 the module will be designed in five weekly iterations. The same

pattern of events will be replicated in each iteration.


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Quizzes.

Each of five quizzes will be based upon readings/viewings and the content of the

interactive instructional element in each of the five weeks associated with the module in a given

semester. Each quiz will be about ten multiple choice questions. The quizzes be graded and

linked to the grade book within the learning management system (LMS). The purpose of the quiz

is to help assure that each student reads or views the assigned resources and completes the

interactive exercise in each weekly iteration. Each quiz can be taken an unlimited number of

times to assure that each student will gain access to the drop box. The same questions will appear

in the same order each time the student takes the same quiz.

Collaborative Activity.

Students will work collaboratively in groups to provide feedback on the stories of another

student, emerging over each of five iterations. Each group will consist of at least three reviewers.

The course will be set up such that each group includes a story's author, plus the reviewers, plus

instructor(s) and teaching assistant(s). Each group will have a group discussion forum for use in

collaboration. Group critiques will be deposited in drop boxes for that purpose. The author of an

emerging story may engage with peer reviewers on the group discussion forum but will not be

required to do so.

Assignments.

There will be weekly reading/viewing assignments, interactive/adaptive activities,

quizzes, individual writing assignments, and group peer-review assignments. The assignments

will be due in a consistent weekly pattern over a span of five weeks.


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Group Discussion Forums

Discussion forums will be the means by which assigned groups of readers provide

feedback to authors. Discussions will be implemented as extensions of student replies to the

posted cumulative iterations of stories posted by other students.. Posts will not require prior

moderation.

Uses of Technologies

Learning technologies include both software, hardware. Networks and hosting services

are usually involved. Standards help assure that components function properly in combination

with other components. Ideally, the resulting user experience is familiar to users on a range of

platforms and devices, including mobile devices. Technology includes the use of the Internet and

World Wide Web and file formats such as the Adobe .pdf file format. Common multimedia

formats such as .jpg or images, .mp3 for audio, and .mp4 for video are also widely used for

instructional purposes. Cloud services including YouTube are also widely used instructional

resources.

Next fall this module will be incorporated into the variety of D2L (Desire2Learn)

available on the east campus of Albany State University. The prototype of it will be made

available this semester (spring of 2017) using a CourseDen sandbox, kindly provided by

University of West Georgia. So, CourseDen and the infrastructure under it will be the primary

front-end delivery technology. CourseDen apparently wraps D2L and is hosted and maintained

by the University of West Georgia, probably drawing on backend resources hosted by the

University System of Georgia.

I intend to produce resources produced using Articulate Storyline will be hosted on a

commercial server in Arizona. Video files will be hosted on the Screencast.com hosting service.


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The course will be accessible on common modern personal computers with common software

utilities such as Flash Player installed.

Interactvity

A learning element is interactive when it has behaviors that occur in response to user

input. Interactivity can be as bland as an onscreen button that appears to depress when a user

clicks on t with a mouse, Interactivity can be as complex as a video game or a virtual world in

which a user navigates in a virtual environment on screen. Virtual reality with headsets and

haptic gloves are probably the cutting edge of interactivity at present.

But not all computer-based interactivity is movement-based. An automated tutor that

provides a user either text-based or verbal feedback on answers to a quiz in real time is also

interactive. Chat bots that can engage in simple conversations within a knowledge domain are

interactive via meaning rather than via motion or appearance on a screen are interactive in a way

that is especially relevant to instructional applications.

Knowledge within certain domains can be captured and represented in computer code.

Computer can be programmed to play board games like tic-tac-toe, checkers and chess. It is even

possible for a computer to play a human game like Jeopardy. The essence of traditional

scaffolding is the human knowledge necessary to engage students in conversations that are

presently are far beyond the capacities of computers. Simple rule-driven menu systems that one

often encounter when telephoning a business are certainly not interactive enough to perform as

intelligent tutors. Automated intelligent tutors can be useful within constrained domains. But at

present, the interactivity of automated systems is limited because computers cannot yet process

knowledge. When and if computers gain that ability the face of education will change

dramatically.


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I plan to build interactive instructional units for this module using Articulate Storyboard

360. The limit of interactivity is likely to be the capacity of slides to provide text-based feedback

to student selections. Until I learn the capabilities of Articulate Storyboard 360 I cannot be more

specific at this time about the interactivity that I plan to incorporate into this module.

Adaptivity

An instructional resource is adaptive if it is made available in two or more varieties reflecting the

preferences and/or needs of different kinds of learners. For example, a student from a rural area

might be provided an example related to farming while a student in an urban area might be

provided an example related to business or industry. One explanation of a public health threat

might be available including advanced statistics, while another explanation of the same threat

might not include statistics. There are many possible dimensions by which students can be

categorized for purposes of the design of adaptive instructional resources. An instructional

resource might be designed to incorporate two or more dimensions of adaptation. The more

complex the categorization of students the more difficult and costly it is likely to be to create

adaptive learning resources. The "right" dimension(s) of categorization of learners for purposes

of the design of adaptivity depends upon the instructional context and the subject domain

context.

Given the instructional domain an the subject domain context identified near the

beginning of this proposal I plan to implement adaptivity based upon two dimensions as shown

in the following Figure 4.


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Pre-service learner Mid-career learner

Relatively low-capacity Working Memory

Adaptive Strategy 1 Adaptive Strategy 3

Relatively high-capacity Working Memory

Adaptive Strategy 2 Adaptive Strategy 4

Figure 4. Selected Two-dimensional Adaptively Matrix

Adaptive strategy 1. Such learning resources are intended to be most useful to public

administration students without substantial relevant employment experiences and apparently

with relatively low-capacity working memories. Such learning resources should make few

assumptions that learners understand how modern public sector organizations function. While

these students have basic experiences in interacting with other people, they may not have

common insights into professional working relationships and organizational cultures. They may

need more detailed explanations than other students. To write a story they are likely to have to

rely more on imagination than upon insights derived from actual relevant personal experiences.

Having relatively low-capacity working memories, the instructional material should be broken

down into simple, small "chunks." They may not be able to digest complex ideas. Some of the

nuances may have to be omitted in order to help assure "digestion" of essential content. The

presentation of materials may need to be made as linear as possible. This category is probably

the most difficult to design because the amount of content that needs to be taught is relatively

large and the instructional pathway is apparently relatively constrained.

Adaptive strategy 2. Such learning resources are intended to be most useful to public

administration students without substantial relevant employment experiences and apparently

with relatively high-capacity working memories. These learning resources should accommodate

a lack of relevant professional employment experiences but need not necessarily divide content


29

into small, linear "chunks." More complex patterns of associations among concepts may be

presented.

Adaptive strategy 3. Such learning resources are intended to be useful to public

administration students who have substantial relevant employment experiences but may have

relatively low-capacity working memories. Such learning resources need not dwell on the details

of what it means to be a public administration and organizational cultures. But "small chunks"

and a relatively linear mode of presentation may be needed.

Adaptive Strategy 4. Such learning resources are intended to be useful to public

administration students who have substantial relevant employment experiences and who

apparently have relatively high-capacity working memories. It is probably not necessary to

include the details of working relationships and organizational cultures. And more complex

patterns of associations among concepts may be presented.

Building Adaptivity into Interactive Learning Resources

An interactive learning resource has a beginning, a "body: and a conclusion. As indicated

in Figure 5, such a resource can be made adaptive by designing multiple editions of the body

corresponding to multiple pathways through the learning resource. A pathway can be triggered

either automatically by the programming of the learning resource, or manually by user selection.

Automatic triggering requires use of a software database and an automated trigger that

incorporates some artificial intelligence (AI). Coding a connection to a database and

programming an automated trigger are beyond the scope of this project. So long as each pathway

through the body of the element is interactive, the entire element is both adaptive and interactive.

Figure 6 provides some details regarding the anticipated implementations of the four strategies.


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Figure 5. Design of an Adaptive Interactive Learning Element

Adaptive strategy 1 for pre-service learners without prior public-sector employment experiences, who may have relatively low-capacity working memories.

Make the content of the interactive instructional elements sequential, focusing on the aspects of the assignment individually

Include an explanation of the multiple iterations of "refactoring" that are likely to be necessary to bring the aspects of the assignment into alignment with one another.

Keep the "chunks" relatively small.

Provide more extensive scaffolding on the selection of a public-sector organization and remind students of how elective politics and interpersonal dynamics can shape the culture of public-sector organizations.

Provide interactive explanation of character design.

Adaptive strategy 1 for pre-service learners without prior public-sector employment experiences, who may have relatively high-capacity working memories.

Make the content of the interactive instructional elements parallel, assuming that the student has enough capacity in working memory to develop the aspects of the assignment in parallel.

Provide more extensive scaffolding on the selection of a public-sector organization and remind students of how elective politics and interpersonal dynamics can shape the culture of public-sector organizations.


Adaptive strategy 3 for mid-career learners with substantial public-sector employment

Make the content of the interactive instructional elements sequential, focusing on the aspects of the assignment individually


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experiences, who may have relatively low-capacity working memories.

Include an explanation of the multiple iterations of "refactoring" that are likely to be necessary to bring the aspects of the assignment into alignment with one another.

Keep the "chunks" relatively small.

Provide less extensive scaffolding on the selection of a public-sector organization or explanations of how elective politics and interpersonal dynamics can shape the culture of public-sector organizations.


Adaptive strategy 4 for med-career learners with substantial public-service employment experiences, who may have relatively high-capacity working memories.

Make the content of the interactive instructional elements parallel, assuming that the student has enough capacity in working memory to develop the aspects of the assignment in parallel.

Provide less extensive scaffolding on the selection of a public-sector organization or explanations of how elective politics and interpersonal dynamics can shape the culture of public-sector organizations.


Figure 6. Explanations of four adaptive strategies

Assessments and Grading

Instructor(s) and teaching assistant(s) (if any) will grade the weekly cumulative iterations

of stories using rubrics. Instructor(s) and teaching assistant(s) (if any) will also use checklists to

verify participation of students in group peer-review activities each week. Quizzes will not

require manual grading and the scores will automatically populate the grade book in the LMS.

Feedback to individual students will be provided privately using the feedback channels in the

grade book functionality of the LMS.


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ITERATION 1 GRADING RUBRIC – Beginning the story

Identification of time and place. [ ] missing or very weak [ ] needs clarification and/or development [ ] acceptable [ ] very good

Comments to above:

Selection of appropriate public sector organizational setting.

[ ] missing or very weak [ ] needs clarification and/or development [ ] acceptable [ ] very good

Comments to above:

Proper use of narrative voice. [ ] missing or very weak [ ] needs clarification and/or development [ ] acceptable [ ] very good

Comments to above:

Introduction of at least a protagonist character with realistic personality including insights into the emotional and social intelligence of the protagonist.


Comments to above:


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ITERATION 2 GRADING RUBRIC – Setting up the plot



Comments to above:

Continued proper use of narrative voice. [ ] missing or very weak [ ] needs clarification and/or development [ ] acceptable [ ] very good

Comments to above:

Introduction and development of one or more characters in addition to the protagonist, with realistic personality.


Comments to above:

Identification of protagonist's mission. [ ] missing or very weak [ ] needs clarification and/or development [ ] acceptable [ ] very good

Comments to above:


34

ITERATION 3 GRADING RUBRIC – Journey and Conflict

Refactoring of existing short-story (Parts 1 and 2) as needed/recommended.


Comments to above:


Comments to above:

Identification of antagonist, be it a character or a situation.


Comments to above:

Portrayal of relevant conflict evident in dialog and behaviors.


Comments to above:

Evidence of emotional intelligence and social intelligence of protagonist.


Comments to above:

Evidence of an ethical problem facing the protagonist.


Comments to above:


35

ITERATION 3 GRADING RUBRIC – Turning point

Refactoring of existing short-story (Parts 1, 2 and 3) as needed/recommended.


Comments to above:


Comments to above:

Identification of a decision by the protagonist that triggers one or more events setting up the resolution of the journey of the protagonist.


Comments to above:


36

ITERATION 5 GRADING RUBRIC - Resolution



Comments to above:


Comments to above:

Reasonable resolution of the plot and description of resulting state of affairs of protagonist and other characters.


Comments to above:

Readers respected for their abilities to make sense of outcome and draw their own conclusions of the value of the story and its relevance to public service and public administration.


Comments to above:


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The following rubric will be used to assess the work of groups of readers.

Explicit references to content of the entire story in its existing state of iterative development

[ ] not evident [ ] weakly evident [ ] evident

Affirmation of the work completed so far in writing the story.


Specific and constructive suggestions as to how the existing story might be improved in the following iteration.


Communications

Discussion forums will be provided using CourseDen. The email system within

CourseDen can be used to facilitate direct communications between and among users.

Learning Support

Learner support will be achieved via feedback provided by the instructor(s) and by

student peers organized into groups and supported by dedicated work areas in CourseDen. There

will be a forum by which students can post general questions and make contributions that may be

helpful to others. Instructor(s) will be available by email.

The purpose of learning support is to provide students the scaffolding needed within their

zones of proximal development, as explained by Vygotsky (Karpov, 2014). Providing such

support is important but can be a major constraint on the scalability of courses. An instructor

(even with the support of teaching assistants) can provide learning support. Additional learning

support can be provided by student peers and automated learning resources. Student peers must

have guidance and structure so as to provide meaningful learning support to one another.

Automated learning resources have greater potential value when they incorporate a dynamic

database (that learns from each student's interactions with the system) and a software component

that incudes artificial intelligence (AI). It is not presently possible to replicate the capacities of


38

human knowledge in AI. Therefore, it is not possible for instructional technology to provide

students the quality of personalized learning support that can be provided by humans. The

benefit of automated learning support systems is scalability. The combination of human support

and automated support is ideal to help assure that students receive the scaffolding they need as

educational services scale up to higher enrollments.

Identification and Mitigation of Project Risks

The major anticipated project risk regards the use of Articulate Storyline to produce the

adaptive/interactive learning elements. I have not done this before. To help mitigate this risk I

have purchased online training (Lynda.com) and have purchased two books about use of

Articulate Storyline.

Evaluation of the Completed Module

The completed module will be self-evaluated based on a rubric derived from the Quality

Matters Program QM™ Standards 2011-2013 edition. The QM™ tool is designed for the

evaluation of entire online courses. It will be modified (with attribution) to reflect the fact that

the deliverable is only a module and not an entire course. Not all evaluation criteria will be

applicable.

http://www.cheyney.edu/InstructionalDesign/documents/QM_Rubric.pdf

http://www.cheyney.edu/InstructionalDesign/documents/QM_Rubric.pdf


39

References:

Brown, J.S.; Collins, A.; Duguid, P. (1989). "Situated cognition and the culture of

learning". Educational Researcher. 18 (1): 32–42. doi:10.3102/0013189x018001032

Hogan, K. & Pressley, M. (eds.) (1997) Scaffolding student learning: Instructional approaches

& issues. Cambridge: Brookline Books, Inc.

Houben, G., McCalla, G.,Pianesi, F. & Zancanaro, M. (2009) User modeling, adaptation and

personalization. New York: Springer Publishing.

Karpov, Y. V. (2014) Vygotsky for educators. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kinshuk, S. M. (2016). Designing adaptive and personalized learning environments. New York:

Routlege.

Marzano, R. J. (2001) Designing a new taxonomy of educational objectives. Thousand Oaks,

CA: Corwin Press.

Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kemp, J. E. & Kalman, H. K. (2007). Designing effective

instruction (5th edition). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Project Management Institute (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge

(PMBOK Guide) (4th

edition). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier

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