In Effective Web Instruction, Frick and Boling have put together a guidebook for the novice web design that reads like a cliffs notes book. They go through step by step instructions on how to start an effective web instruction voyage, beginning with finding your objectives and working with stakeholders. There is a diagram at the beginning of the book that nicely lays out in a visual aspect the way one would go about designing the instruction. The authors add in examples and real-life scenarios to help the reader move forward. In addition, the authors give other resources for perusal to help the reader get a better understanding. These chapters focused more on getting an analysis for the development rather than the development itself.
Frick and Boling have put together a comprehensive, yet easy to understand guide to finding objectives that will help the designer get started on the right foot. The diagram at the beginning of the book has now been saved on my desktop as an important file that I will want to refer back to many times as I move into the individual project soon. I also greatly appreciated the scenarios given in the book to assist in creating objectives. I have always struggled in this area and having examples set forth for me that I can tailor to meet my needs in very helpful. I look forward to being able to delve more into this book each week so that I can gain more examples and expertise like the ones listed in this book. Having been in a class with both Dr. Frick and Dr. Boling, I appreciate having a more succinct, condensed version of their knowledge.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI also look forward to reading more chapters from this handbook. I feel Dr. Frick and Dr. Boling have a lot of knowledge to impart, and this approach allows them to do so in a sequential way.
~Mikah
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteCatching up on comments here. I'm surprised that you struggle with objective-writing, given your teaching experience. For me, teaching was a far more seat-of-the-pants experience before I began the IST program, and my focus was always on what I wanted to teach, not so much (if at all) on what I wanted people to be able to do that they couldn't do before. I think I settled far too much for trying to create different thinking, rather than different actions. Then again, both I and my clients often presumed that different thinking would lead to different/more desirable actions. Maybe so, but only if one can practice new concepts in a realistic setting, I now know.
To me, objectives are a discipline that I need to attend to with far more rigor. And I struggle with them, too. My hope is that, the more we do them, the more they'll be like riding a bike - natural. Maybe still a pain in the you-know-what, but easier.
Thanks for sharing.
Kevin