"Value the use of data as the starting point for professional work."

Artifact: ED795A Performance Anlaysis, Needs Assessment & Design Document (PDF)

Related Artifacts:
ED795A Final Comprehensive Report (PDF includes Final Report, Contract, Meeting Minutes, Hours Log, Performance Analysis, Needs Assessment, & Design Document)

IHM EPSS Prototypes:

I worked as an educational technology consultant for the Institute for Health Maintenance (IHM) on a project to expand their services to a wider audience via an electronic performance support system (EPSS) in ED795A: Seminar in Educational Technology. The project deliverables included a performance analysis, needs assessment, design document with implementation and evaluation strategies, and a prototype. My use of the performance and needs analyses demonstrated my achievement of the data-based decision making standard, “Value the use of data as the starting point for professional work.”

Context
The purpose of this 795A assignment was to establish a client-consultant relationship with a local company on a project whose parameters were determined by the instructional design or performance technology needed. My client was the Institute for Health Maintenance (IHM), who desired to expand its services to an online community. I worked in tandem with a 795A classmate to advance the project, already started by in 2002 by Felicia Douglis, an SDSU EDTEC student. My role for the projected included building on Douglis’s foundation, a food tracker, and to provide advisement and best practices for achieving the following tasks:

• deciding priority tools and features to offer clientele,
• designing an easy-to-use and navigable interface,
• orienting users to the online tools and community, and
• introducing the IHM diet philosophy to online customers.

This consulting job enabled me to carry a project through the first three phases of the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) process. First, I conducted a pithy performance analysis, surveying approximately 200 people who had purchased IHM kit within the past two years. Then I completed a thorough needs assessment, researching current trends and best practices for designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating EPSS. Next I prepared a design document that focused on the EPSS structure, interface design, implementation and evaluation strategies, and specifications for the prioritized tools for the EPSS, which included: a tutorial to introduce the IHM diet philosophy and available EPSS features, and a tip center providing helpful hints for maintaining the diet. Last, I developed prototypes for the interface template, introductory tutorial, and tip database. Carrying the project through these phases enabled me to increase my appreciation for data-based decision making skills and application.

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Demonstrating Data-based Decision Making Standard
The IHM EPSS project demonstrates my mastery of the data-based decision making standard, “Value the use of data as the starting point for professional work.” During the analysis and design phases of the IHM project, I used the following methods and sources of data collection:

• surveying customers to gain insight into their perspectives, needs and wants;
• interviewing IHM employees to understand employee attitudes and motivation, as well as recognize constraints; and,
• reviewing literature to reveal best practices, current trends and expert opinions.

After collecting and analyzing my data, I provided IHM with EPSS design, development, implementation, and evaluation recommendations, and establish their validity and reliability by presenting graphs based on the survey data, citing several professional sources for the extant data. I also used the data to decide on which tools to concentrate our efforts, and this proved to be an effective method for narrowing the scope of a complex project. Furthermore, IHM can use my compiled data as a starting point for future revisions of the EPSS because the extant data exposed additional opportunities for IHM to expand.

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Problems & Opportunities Encountered
The data-based decision making problems and opportunities I encountered during this project centered around collecting data using an electronic survey. While it was difficult to elicit the high number of participants necessary to ensure useful and valid data, it was time efficient and audience appropriate to use an online tool, such as surveymonkey.com, to create, distribute and analyze the survey data. I also had the opportunity to apply my performance technology skills by suggesting the use of incentives to invoke a larger number of respondents.

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Lessons Learned
The lessons I learned from completing this project include:

• conducting a quick performance analysis can influence the degree of success of a project;
• distinguishing the difference between the desires of the customers and the clients is necessary to address genuine problems and opportunities;
• large amounts of extant data should be sifted through before presenting it to the client in an external consulting project; and,
• data should be used to influence design, implementation and evaluation decisions.

This consulting project also allowed me to gain pertinent research, writing, decision-making, and interpersonal skills that I will be able to apply in my future career in educational technology.

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