Example 1: Collaborative Training Environment
“A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration” (Walden, 2011).
“A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration” (Walden, 2011).
With the previous scenario in mind, this blog post will identify two distance learning technologies that would address the needs of creating a collaborative training environment. There are two aspects of this training workshop that need to be addressed from a technological standpoint. First, educational material must be presented to the learners. Secondly, the learners need to take that information and collaborate with one another by sharing information via documents, discussion, and screen captures.
Presenting the educational material can be done in many different, yet effective ways. Because multimedia has been shown to increase authentic learning environments for students (Tan, Kwok, Neo, & Neo, 2010), creating a multimedia website will allow the educational material to be presented in different formats. In conjunction with other Adobe programs, Adobe Dreamweaver is a powerful program that would allow the designer to customize a multimedia website. Other options would be the endless numbers of sites, many of which are free, which allow designers to create websites using predesigned templates. In particular, I have used Wix several times to create websites that contained videos, pictures, text, and links. Here is an example: http://www.wix.com:80/ducharmen/app7
My assumption is that the content being presented in this course can be delivered via video, uploaded documents, online text, and by linking articles from the website. A website will allow the designer to use several different multimedia combination. Most websites are easy to update, which will ensure students have up-to-date information (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009).
The second aspect of this training workshop is to allow learners to collaborate with each other even though working asynchronously. Once the wiki is created it “can be an excellent tool for collaborative online writing assignments and group activities compiling information in a single online resource” (Simonson et al., 2009. p. 245). Wikis allow for learners to collaborate using documents, discussion, screen captures, among other features, which is exactly what this training workshop requires. Wikispaces, Google, and Wikidot are three popular free wikis that are simple to set-up and easy to edit.
One of my favorite blogs is called Teach Paperless. The focus of the blog is not necessarily using technology in lieu of paper, but rather “seeking social solutions to the mysteries of 21st century teaching and learning” (TeachPaperless, 2011). There are a handful of great posts that give examples of how wikis can be used in synchronous and asynchronous courses. I encourage you to browse through the blog: http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/search/label/wiki
Resources
Ducharme, N. (2011). Akron Women’s Soccer. Retrieved from: http://www.wix.com:80/ducharmen/app7
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc: Boston, MA.
Tan, H.Y.J., Kwok, W.J., Neo, M. & Neo, T.K. (2010) Enhancing Student Learning Using Multimedia and Web Technologies: Students’ Perceptions of an Authentic Learning Experience in a Malaysian Classroom. Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future. p. 951-962. Retrieved from: http://ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/procs/Tan-full.pdf
Teach Paperless (2011). [Blog]. Retrieved from: http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/search/label/wiki
Walden University (2011). Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6052001&Survey=1&47=8115912&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
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