How Do We Design for a Global Audience? (Kelly & Kyla)

In class last night, we spent some time discussing the different theories that can be applied to instructional design. Gauging your audience and its needs are important aspects of choosing what theories to align your instruction with. Looking at things like learning style, demographics, experience and ability are all important when deciding how to structure your learning programs. But what if your audience is made up of learners from somewhere on the other side of the planet? One of the first steps in the design process is to determine the best way to cater to your audience. On a global scale, this is especially important, because people of different nationalities and cultures not only learn in different ways, but have different norms that should be considered when a designer is creating instruction for them. This means being culturally aware. According to the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing (2010), cultural awareness “entails an understanding of how a person's culture may inform their values, behaviour, beliefs and basic assumptions.” Being culturally aware is one of the fundamental requirements when designing instruction on a global level.

How culturally aware are you? Take this quiz and find out! http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/culture-test-1.html

 Quesenbery and Szuc (2011) believe when designing for a global audience the core techniques of design does not vary.  Nevertheless, additional techniques suggested are to plan for globalization, decide on your global strategy, get the language right, and create a good local experience (Quesenbery & Sulc, 2011).  Planning for globalization includes researching the culture, the locations, and understanding similar previous products (or instruction) that have been implemented. Researching this information will identify areas that need adjusting whether it is the text, layout, procedures, or context.   Understanding what makes the audience different, but yet the same will start to align the concepts within the instruction and allow the product (or instruction) to be distributed throughout all desired markets.  Deciding on your global strategy is the next step in designing for a global audience.  Having a clear goal for the project will give the project direction.  In most cases companies start off with a goal directed to one sector and later broaden the goal; however some companies do start out with a broader view that allows them to avoid significant amounts of focus on one sector (Quesenberry & Szuc, 2011).  After the goal is set selecting the approach for a global brand is recommended.  There are three approaches that are suggested, one product, local control, or the global templates with local variations.   One product allows little deviation on how the product is used or understood.  This design is for a primary market and for products that are mainly hardware-based.  The locally controlled products make their own design decisions about the layout and content of the site.  Local companies have the most control under this approach.  The final approach is a global template with local variations.  Creating a single design for all markets and being able to have variations for local needs is the core of this approach.  This approach tries to find a middle ground.  All of these approaches try to create a clear global strategy (Quesenberry & Szuc, 2011).    The next step to designing for a global audience is getting the language right.  Translating the content consist of not only translating the text, but also changing the format from right to left or left to right if need be, and making the information appropriate in style and tone.  The last step Qesenberry and Szuc (2011) addressed was creating a good local experience.  Whatever you may design for a global audience must be accepted by the user.  Being able to adapt your product (or instruction) into the local environment will dictate the success of the design (Quesenberry and Szuc, 2011).       

Questions to consider:

1. What are some experiences you’ve had with differing cultural norms? How did you react to these differences?

2. If you were to design a training program for learners from another country, what first steps would you take in the design process?

3. If you were to design a training program for a globally diverse audience, what are some concerns you’d have in the development of your instruction? Why?

Extras:

This is a TED ed video talking about how Twitter and Facebook speak to a global audience:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ethan_zuckerman.html

References

Quesenbery, W., and Szuc D. (2012). "Design for a Global Audience." Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 171-94.

Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing. (2010). “Cultural Awarenes”. Retrieved from http://www.culturaldiversity.com.au/practice-guides/cultural-awareness.

Engaging Qualtrics: Creating Interactive Training Modules

Sam Dowell

Yuanjie Dai

Mike Floyd

Kaylea Algire

Principles of Instructional Design

February 17, 2013

Introduction

                The Center for Instructional Technology perceives an online component to the face to face Qualtrics training program for several reasons.  First, there is no efficient way to conduct an assessment on learned skills with the current training program.  Second, there is a higher demand then it is possible to conduct the needed sessions face to face. Third, face to face does not allow the facilitator to adapt the training to reach learners where they are in terms of schedule, learning preferences, or location.  Developing an online component will potentially address all of these needs and also allow CIT staff to reallocate resources to other projects.

Needs Analysis

CIT at JMU developed and conducted a three-hour training program in a face to face environment for the past five years.  A year ago, David Stoops facilitated these trainings as part of his position with CIT.  The beginning of the training consists of a best practices presentation by Dr. Peter De Michele from the Office of Institutional Research.  Dave then finishes the training with a step by step facilitated presentation of the program.  However, as demand grows, CIT determined that it would be more efficient and effective if they added an online component to their face to face offerings.

Learner Analysis

Typically a participant in the face to face sessions is a faculty or staff member in the JMU community.  Mean age of participants is thirty five and of middle income. However, there is a blend of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.  Each gender is equally represented, and all have at least a bachelor’s degree. 

This training is not currently open to graduate students, but an online training would allow them to become familiar with the software if their departments negotiated accounts for them.  For example, the Adult Education/Human Resource Development program has several department accounts that it allows students to use to conduct thesis research. 

Target Audience
Age:	25-60
Education:	Mostly bachelor’s degree holders with some master’s and doctorate degree holders
Computer Skills	Varies
Gender	Mix of men and women
Attitudes	Required training with paid time at the training
Experience	Mixture of experienced Qualtrics uses and new users
Ethnic Background	Mostly Caucasian with a few Asian and African American participants
Income	Median Income to Upper Income Participants

Context Analysis

                This is a required training before participants receive access to JMU’s Qualtrics license.   All learners have a varying amount of experience with the program.  For example, if a professor came from another university that already used Qualtrics, then they come in at an expert level, however, currently there is no way for them to be granted access without going through the training.  Each session has a different mix of learner experience which presents challenges within the facilitation.

                The target audience of each training session is faculty, staff, or graduate students that are conducting customer service satisfaction surveys or research, offering conference registration or conducting departmental voting.  The sessions are generally held in Rose Library in the computer lab in CIT’s office.  There are thirty two computers on computer tables with chairs.  Each participant has access to a computer in order to be able to work with the program during the session.  There are white boards around the perimeter of the room and the desks are oriented in rows towards the front of the room.  There is an LCD projector mounted on the ceiling with a screen at the front of the room.  Dave also uses flip charts and markers to facilitate learning.   The facilitator workstation is located at the front of the room to the side.  There is an option for private face to face training sessions which Dave also conducts in the participants’ office or lab.  This can mean a variety of technologies available and levels of technology experiences present. 

Personas

“Susan” is a new professor at James Madison.  She teaches several sections on the effect of the media on politics.  She is interested in conducting a survey to test the effect of mass media and advertising on the most recent presidential election.  She wants to create a survey that she can distribute easily to JMU students, staff, and faculty and non-JMU members in the community.  While doing her initial research she finds out from her department head and CIT that she needs to go through training for Qualtrics before she can design her survey.  Unfortunately, she is unable to attend the next training because it is during one of her scheduled classes.  The next training is not being offered for a month, and the grant application that could fund her research is due in two weeks.  She has to do the training as soon as possible to start collecting data.  Right now she will have to cancel her class to attend the training.

“Mr. Jones” has been working at JMU for ten years in the Center for Multicultural and International Student Services.  He recently was approached by the director of CMISS to design and offer a training program for diversity awareness among faculty and staff.  In order to get a good idea about areas of improvement, existing programs and the effectiveness of these programs he would like to send a survey to his colleagues that will be easily accessible and efficient.  From his director he finds out that he must participate in the Qualtrics training session at CIT. However, Mr. Jones travels for his position and he is unable to adjust his schedule to attend scheduled sessions.  When he contacts CIT to schedule a one-on-one meeting, he is informed that the facilitator cannot meet him for another two months.  Mr. Jones must have an initial lesson plan prepared and ready for his director by the end of the month.  Right now he will not be able to meet his deadline.

Instructional Goal                      

Users will be able to take more control of their learning experience after the successful completion of the online Qualtrics modules.  After learner self-sufficiency, efficient reallocation of CIT resources is the next major goal for this instructional design project.

Content Analysis

This conceptual framework shows the five main instructional units and their connection to the successful completion of survey creation using Qualtrics.  With these five units, students will be able to complete the main instructional goal.

Behaviors/Content

·         Best practices for closed and open ended questions

·         Access to Qualtrics

·         Create a new survey

·         Understanding Look and Feel options

·         Understanding Survey Options

·         Create five basic question formats

·         Skip logic

·         Editing options

·         Launch survey

·         Collecting results

·         Analyzing results

 Content Checking/SME Information

                Elaine Roberts and David Stoops will act as the subject matter experts for this project.  Elaine Roberts is a recent AHRD graduate and currently works at CIT as a Learning Technologies Support Coordinator.  In her current position Elaine works to coordinate student employees and support faculty development.  She is acting as an advisor for the instructional design process for this project.  David Stoops is an acting Educational Technology Consultant.  He currently facilitates all of the Qualtrics face to face sessions, and house call sessions.  He is our primary SME on this project. 

	Need to Know	Nice to Know
User Interface	Open Qualtrics Login Tasks Folders Create New Survey Where to Save Name	Use existing survey
Macro Knowledge	Look and Feel Templates  Survey Options	Collaboration My Survey Options
Question Creation	Create Questions 1.       Multiple Choice 2.       Static Content 3.       Matrix Table (Likert) 4.       Text Entry 5.        Special Questions Layout Skip Logic Editing Preview	Advanced Logic Options
Launch	Publish Share	Collaborate
Results	Data Analysis View Reports Responses Download Data Stats Section	Cross Tabulation

Rationale

Skills listed in the nice to know column represent advanced Qualtrics skill sets.  It would be nice if participants were familiar with these skills; however, it is not necessary for them to master them in this training program for completion.  These skills maybe mentioned if applicable to the content area, but participants will be referred to the Qualtrics University website to learn more if they are interested.  Furthermore, the SMEs mentioned that the most critical piece right now for this project is the Question completion piece.  Once the prototype of this unit is complete, others can be explored in more depth.

Performance Agreement

Objectives	Evaluation Tasks
User Interface Skills
Recognize and describe key features of the Qualtrics interface, in order to design an effective survey.	Participants will show successful completion of this task by identifying where and how to change the look and feel of their Qualtrics survey.  They will have the opportunity to practice the skill before a short assessment with software simulation activities within each module.
Macro Knowledge and Launching Skills
Illustrate knowledge of “survey options” by preparing and launching their survey, and submitting the password protected link to the instructor.	The final product of a successfully designed survey will be the main evaluation piece of these two skill sets. Students must be able to understand how the software works (macro knowledge) and also to apply that knowledge by launching the final product.  Each section will also have practice and assessment pieces.
Question Creation
Demonstrate understanding of Qualtrics by composing a survey which includes 5 distinct question types, as outlined in the session.                 1) Multiple Choice                 2) Static Content                 3) Matrix table (likert)                 4) Text entry                 5) Special question (users choice)	This module will be broken down into chapters.  Each chapter will cover each different question type and its creation.  Students will practice each question creation piece before a final assessment piece.  Participants will also complete skip logic and editing as part of this unit.  Each of these skills will be assessed with a short quiz at the end of each module.
Results Skills
Locate and identify tools needed to collect and view results.	Participants will complete a simulation of locating and viewing results for successful completion of this unit.
Demonstrate understanding of results tools in Qualtrics by interpreting compiled results.	Participants will complete a simulation of locating and viewing results for successful completion of this unit.

Instructional Module

After discussing the format and target audience with the SMEs, the decision was reached that Articulate will allow the modules to be distributed across viewing platforms, protect the integrity of the design, and allow for simple and easily replicated software simulation for CIT.  Each module can be followed through in completion for the novice, or only the final assessments can be taken for the expert.  Time for completion depends on the participant.  Ideally, up-front content knowledge will last between ten and fifteen minutes, following adult learning theory.  Each of these will be followed by software simulations that can be completed within ten to fifteen minutes depending on the participant.  The following markups are sample designs for the modules. 

Figure 1: Basic Layout of Modules and Sitemap

Figure 2: Sample Layout for Question Creation Module

Figure 3: Sample Layout for User Interface Module

LFCC Design Document

Instructional Design Document
Lord Fairfax Community College: Online Instruction Certification Program

Prepared by: Lauren Boyd, Chad Phillips, Kanita Shepherd

I. Background

Lord Fairfax Community College was founded in 1970, and operates publicly out of three campuses offering higher education throughout the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont regions.  The LFCC locations include Fauquier, Middletown, and a Luray-Page County Center.

With more than 75 associate degree and certificate programs, LFCC offers concentrations in fields such as administrative support, business, engineering, fine arts, information systems technology and healthcare.  Students can obtain either an associate degree or certificate upon completion of specified curriculum. LFCC over 7,600 students in their associate degree programs in addition to over 10,450 individuals in professional development and business industry courses annually.
LFCC is currently seeking experienced employees who enjoy making a difference in the lives of their students.  Potential employees are expected to share their experiences and expertise in order to provide an optimal higher education learning environment. Being part of the Virginia Community College System, Lord Fairfax Community College must maintain and promote equal employment and educational opportunities. It is the policy of this institution to not discriminate in the form of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, veteran status, political affiliation, or disability in employment or the provision of services.

LFCC relies heavily on and hires hundreds of part time instructors annually, these part time instructors are known as “adjuncts.”  By utilizing adjuncts LFCC accrues highly qualified individuals who are still actually practicing in fields that relate to the content area, allowing for real life applications and experiences to be brought to the classroom.

Due to the adjuncts lack of work availability causes for them to have minimal exposure to professional development opportunities, and interaction with full time faculty; therefore, instilling a concern with upper management of whether the adjunct’s courses are meeting the same requirements as full time faculty.  Also, adjuncts were reported by LFCC to typically be hired last minute causing for a high probability of a skills gap to exist with administrative details related to working and instructing at LFCC.  An example of this expected skills gap is the new hire not being familiarized or experienced with Blackboard LMS, a critical tool for an LFCC instructor.
With the increase in students as well as the increase in new hires, it is pertinent that new faculty be armed with the tools they need in the online classroom. With the high number of students who are not regular full time students and take night classes as well as online classes, it is important that new hires are aware of the organization’s policies and procedures, as well as the operational systems used at LFCC. The design team will be creating E-Learning modules for new hires teaching online classes. The course creation will include a variety of mini courses about the policies of LFCC as well as a larger modules to walk through the technology used by the professors and how this can be effective in the online classroom.

II. Needs Analysis

LFCC currently requires all new hires to attend a 5-hour long evening lecture (one offered at the beginning of each semester) in which they attempt to present the employees with a comprehensive onboarding informational module. It is a lecture based learning setting.

The current method reaches less than roughly 75% percent of the new hires as many who solely teach online courses and are not in the area, as they cannot make it to the seminar. The goal for this project is to eliminate the lecture hall for new hires and provide them with a series of courses they can take at their own pace and time before they begin teaching at Lord Fairfax Community College. It is hopes that this method of training will reach 100% of new hires and that information will be better retained due to it being broken down into smaller segments of information. This should also help to cut down on costs by new hires no longer having to travel to the training and no longer needing someone to teach them the material every time new professors are brought in to teach since the majority of faculty staff members are part time, adjunct faculty.


III. Learner & Context Analysis
Target Audience

The target audience for the proposed instructional design project is new hire adjunct faculty at Lord Fairfax Community College who teach strictly online classes. The new hire professors are composed of a vast number of educational, geographical and experiential backgrounds. Many of the new hire staff are not local to the LFCC campus region and never even come to the campus to teach or do anything and training and information does not get to them. Within the minimal constraints of adjunct faculty, ages can range from 25 to 70 for new hires as they must possess either:

1.  A bachelors degree with 10+ years of experience
2.  A bachelors degree, 18 credit hours of a masters degree and 5+ years of experience
3.  Masters Degree with 2-3 years of experience
4.  Ph.D with 1+ years of experience

With the diverse age and educational background group, technology skills may vary, and due to the nature of online teaching, must be understood across all facets.

Target Audience Differences

Age Differentiation	Differences in Educational Backgrounds
Technological Skills Gap	Non-traditional faculty
Campus Location	New Hire Faculty

Environmental Characteristics

The new hire training process at LFCC was created to aid new hires with the information needed in order to effectively teach an online course. This was previously taught in a night time lecture hall at the beginning of every semester. It is needed for all faculty teaching online courses to take this before they begin to learn what is expected of them but does not happen. With the majority of faculty not being local, an online classroom is needed to get this information out to new hires. New Hire adjuncts must be aided with requirements of teaching an online course and blackboard, which must be known for all coursework.

Persona Descriptions

Melissa Best Age:31 Job: Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Location: Chesapeake, VA Will be Teaching: Political Marketing Comm, Marketing for Sales	Ms. Best has a long history of marketing and sales from her 8 years working for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to marketing and advertising sales at Pilot Direct, a subsidiary of The Virginia Pilot newspaper, as well as marketing for the Automotive transportation trains at Norfolk Southern. She has: ●     Bachelors of Science with a major in Marketing, Virginia Tech ●     In Progress, Masters of Marketing, with a concentration in Integrated Marketing Communications, West Virginia Univeristy (18 completed credit hours)
Charlie St. George Age: 37 Job: Biological Researcher Location: Roanoke, VA Will be Teaching: Foundations of Cytology	Bachelors with 10+ years
Arthur Todd Age: 67 Job: Retired Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Location: Boca Raton, FL Will be Teaching: Urban and Regional Planning, Community Development	PhD
Melissa Brooks Age: 49 Job: Instructional System Developer Location: Philadelphia, PA Will be Teaching: Instructional Design, Web Development using Dreamweaver	Ms. Stange has a broad range of Information Technology experience in industry, education, and volunteer organizations. She has held positions as Applications Developer, Senior Developer, Senior Programmer Analyst, and Internet Developer for several companies working with a variety of high level programming languages and data base management systems. She has: ●     Associate in Applied Science with a Major in Data Processing, Chattahoochee Valley Community College ●     Bachelor's of Science with a Major in Computer Information Systems, Shenandoah University ●     Master's of Business Administration with a Major in Business Administration, Averett College

IV. Instructional Goal

By instructional designers creating and implementing an e-Learning module by way of google sites LFCC new hires will be well familiarized with the organizations policies and procedures, as well as all operational systems necessary for online instruction.

V. Content Analysis
Behaviors/Content:
Use of Operational Systems

●        Blackboard LMS

●        LFCC email

Policies & Procedures for Online Instruction

●        Online office hours

●        Use of social media

Content Verification/SME Information:

Dr. Karen Kellison, the Associate Dean of Instructional Technology will serve as the subject matter expert for the e-learning course development. She will be providing all information and material regarding policies and operational systems for new hires at LFCC.

Chad Phillips will serve as the subject matter expert on new hire onboarding procedures and e-learning creation. He has worked as an onboarding trainer for new hires at Red Robin, created new hire onboarding facilitation guides and trainings for the Army Navy Country Club in Northern Virginia and currently working on a first 20 day employee guide for new hires at Advance Auto Parts.

Key Skill Units

	Need to Know	Nice to Know
Technology Skills	Navigation of Google Sites-where learning modules will be made accessible. Navigation of Blackboard LMS as moderator
Study/Learning Skills	Strong knowledge base of subject matter to allow for focus on online instruction. Process and demonstrate understanding of material. High self-efficacy-ensure high motivation with learning, completion and application of modules.	Self-Regulation Learning premise-to facilitate autonomous learning of modules.
Soft Skills	Time Management-ensure set deadlines of modules are met. Compliant-follows directives. Communicate effectively-in case something needs further explaining or there is difficulty.	Willingness to ask for assistance if needed.

VI. Performance Agreement (Objectives)

Technology Skills

Objectives	Evaluation Tasks
New hires will access and complete all e-learning modules provided via google site.	New hires will demonstrate completion and understanding of each module by attaining a required minimum score of 80% per assessment.

Learning Skills

Objectives	Evaluation Tasks
New hires will demonstrate high self-efficacy by completing the modules independently and successfully.	After reviewing the instructional modules, the new hires will demonstrate their level of comprehension by 80% or higher per module.

Soft Skills

Objectives	Evaluation Tasks
New hires will implement time management skills to ensure all instructional modules will be completed by deadline.	New hires will complete the assigned instructional modules by assigned deadline.
New hires will comply with directives by completing all modules and assessments.	New hires will demonstrate their compliance by attaining a minimum of 80% on all assessments provided after each module.