Collecting and Analyzing Data

Collecting and Analyzing Data:
Process
There are five activities required in data collection and analysis;

1. Set up the database.
The database is using a statistical software package you have chosen to set up the database to capture information or transfer information from other sources.
2. Develop an evaluation plan.
The are several considerations used to evaluate performance and are used for developing tests:
* Number of participants and the amount of data to be collected
* Types of sampling method
* Confidentiality
* Costs
3. Collect and compile the data.
Capture data from the measurement instruments. Capture as much as possible.
4. Interpret the data.
Determine whether the results match the goals or not
IF the goals match the results decide to do a full-scale implementation
If results do not match goals you may
* Revise the course
* Revise the measurement instruments and tests
* Rerun the study with our without revisions
* Choose another representative sample and rerun the evaluation
* Discard the product
5. Document your findings.
Record the findings in an evaluation reprt.

Before you can analyze the data, you must set up an evaluation plan that allows you to collect the data quickly and easily. After collecting the data, you must analyze every piece according to your evaluation plan.

First Breeze Presentation

This past week I was able to participate in a virtual class via the Breeze meeting software. I presented my Wiki page on Podcasting in a collegiate environment. The use of the breeze software was great in the fact that i was able to share my information with everyone and everyone was able to interact with me. The ability to be sitting at home and participating in class was and it demonstrated many of the topcics and resources discussed in the class.

Evaluation Plan

1) Complete the problem statement section
Step One: State the rationale for addressing the issue. Identify the problem for the organization.
Step Two: Describe the gap between the present and the desired state, describe the desired state.
2) Complete the solution section
Describe the solution for bridging the gap.
3) Complete the objectives section
State the desired performance outcomes, what will be improved when solution is implemented?
4) Complete the components of the evaluation plan for each level at which you will evaluate the project
Level 1: Reaction
*Survey construction - the content of the survey
*Data collection
*Data analysis
*Expected results
*Reporting results
Level 2: Knowledge
*Test construction
*Data collection
*Data analysis
*Expected results
*Reporting results
Level 3: Performance
*Observation study construction
*Data collection
*Data analysis
*Expected results
*Reporting results
Level 4: Impact
*Study construction
*Data collection
*Data analysis
*Expected results
*Reporting results
5) Complete the executive summary
Step one: state the problem briefly
Step two: briefly describe the solution, summary of the solution

You should not try to measure every project at the highest levels, you must set targets for measuring the levels of success. When evaluating goals the goals must fit within the corporate goals and help to ensure a positive ROI.

Virtual College Fair

This article was about a Virtual College Fair that is being hosted to allow multiple students to access information about the colleges. This fair will allow thousands of students to gain information on several colleges without the staff of the schools having to pay expensive travel bills. This will allow students to gain great information about the colleges by the staff operating the booths. This event is marketed to the millenial students born in the 80's. This event could bring many students more information about colleges and allow them to make a more informed decision without extensive traveling.

Projects coming to completion

The semester is ending soon and so are is the wiki project. I feel that i had a reasonable response to my wikis and feel content that people have gained something from the material that was posted. I think everything came together well and will provide for a decent presentation.

The design project is also moving along very well. Having to add images to the material is made much easier by the use of snagit which is allowing the materials to have the same look and feel throughout. This week should be the second evaluations before we must make video and web productions. Our team has worked well together and i believe everything will be beautiful in the end.

Multimedia Evaluations

Multimedia evaluations are used to determine if what was created was effective, it helps to determine what worked and what did not work effectively. These are questions that often go overlooked in the project process after its completion
According to Lee & Owens, evaluation of a project is very important, but often overlooked.

Lee & Owens identifies four levels of evaluation:
1. Reaction
2. Knowledge
3. Performance
4. Impact

These levels measure the impact the project had on the users. Reaction is about how a user views that the training is relevant to their tasks. Knowledge is about measuring how the users achieve an increased level of achievement through the exercise. Performance measures how what was learned affect the learner and the performance of their job over time. Impact counts on the other three levels being productive and increasing the ROI (return on investment) for the organization. Although evaluation is usually overlooked if evaluations are done well it can help increase the ability and productivity of the people who are trained.

Distance Learning

Distance learning is become a great way to obtain education. Many colleges are going to the distance learning approach including the University of Phoenix. This method of learning can provide an education for people that are not able to attend a university in Person. It seems like a good option for school if you are unable to attend, for some topics learning hands-on will be better but with the enhancement in simulation software many hands-on classes can be learned via simulations. In the future I will be considering a master's degree and the use of distance education could be a strong possibility, if I am busy working an online education may be the best option to enhance my career.

Web site creation

In my design team I have been assigned the role of web site designer. I am glad I was chosen for this position because I enjoy creating web sites and enjoy adding images and videos to them. I believe that having an illustrated web site will make the learning much easier and it will be available to many more people than just performing a hands-on training session.

Course Design Specification Document

The CDS is a plan for the design or a multimedia training program. The CDS will allow us to schedule the project, identify team members, plan and create outlines. This layout will allow us to effectively plan our multimedia training. Because we have outlined what will be our modules for training it will ensure that we stay on track and our modules will match up well with what was laid out in the initial plan. Because we have devised the activities, plan, and established standards this ensures that all group members will be able to make the material consistent and the final result will prove to be fully consistent and well flowing.

Distance Learning

Distance learning can come at many costs, it is hard to implement, support and ensure that users on the other end will successfully learn the material. I have had one distance class and that was TSTM 345 Networking. Because the class was not hands on it was much easier to do over the distances. There were problems however because sometimes the voice or powerpoints did not transfer well over the internet or there were problems with the video feed. Being in a traditional classroom is a much more preferable way to learn rather than being feed the information via video or internet. The distance learners were thankful they were able to get the powerpoints so they could review the material after the lecture.
I hope the teacher would follow the design steps in the book.
- Develop script and materials
- Shoot and edit video
- Rehearse the presentation
- Broadcast the session
Following these steps should ensure a successful course.

Camtasia for audiotory/visual learners.

In class Thursday we discussed the software program Camtasia. I have never used camtasia but have seen productions from it, because it is auditory and visual I was able to learn very well by watching the video productions. Camtasia allows you to record the screen and audio of what you are doing. Being able to record video and audio make the output easy to learn. Camtasia will be a great program for auditory and visual learners. This program will work great for our design project because it is both auditory and visual, this will help the people who are viewing presentations learn better.

Internet delivery

Internet delivery is meeting the requirements of training on demand:
- It is available as the desktop
- It eliminates the need for travel
- It is cost-effective compared to traditional delivery methods
- Text-based web interventions can be quickly developed

Designing web training uses the same process as developing other media.
Including establishing the framework, developing the media elements, and review, revise and implement the process.

Implementation of internet media has been successful there are many reasons for this.
1) Universal Access - Because almost everyone has access to a computer and internet access this method of training is growing phenomenally.
2) Ease of use - Because getting on the internet is very easy it is providing more options for an audience with limited experience
3) Multimedia content - Because the web enables multimedia including text, graphics, audio, and video it is opening the training to a wide variety of audiences.

Internet delivery is allowing training to be broadcast to a wide variety of individuals. There are problems with web delivery including CBT software not providing standard based output and the lack of necessary bandwidth to properly display the output. With the advancement of the internet and new standards in the future web delivery may become much more powerful

Designing a Project Schedule

To create a project schedule there are three steps
1) document general project information
This document will describe the project that must be performed and what needs are addressed. This step includes gaps or obstacles, the desired outcomes, high-level performance requirements and the project constraints or issues, and any assumptions that are made.
2) project deliverables
This part will list the dates that are specific to the project. Including dates to create scripts, video scripts, prototype interfaces, etc.
3) Schedule project activities
ALL team members must
1) know their roles and responsibilities
2) be aware of the project timeline
3) deliver their project components at the appropriate time
Everything in the output must be reviewed on a schedule so that the final project will be accurate and successful. If the reviews are not completed the project may fail.

New considerations for multimedia project design

There are many things which are changing the considerations for multimedia projects.
The first is SCORM: Sharable Content Objects Reference Model which is working to assemble content on the fly to meet the learners needs. LETSI (Learning, Education, Training, Systems, Interoperability) is going beyond SCORM, this is being developed by the Masie center to make "Plug and play learning". LMS (learning management systems) such as blackboard change the way learners get their data. Other technologies including web 2.0 will be instrumental in changing the way people learn, web 2.0 will offer many options for internet learning such as podcasts and blogs.

Moderating a discussion

Moderating a discussion is a unique ability. The moderator must have a solid grasp of the topic that is being discussed. The moderator must be able to successfully answer the questions that are being posed by posters and must be effective in quickly responding to the posters. Being able to moderate a discussion successfully means you should be a highly qualified communicator.

Testing on the web

Testing on the web can introduce many issues with the process of testing. If they tests are created to have have generated questions this ensures a much better security. The tests should also have security implementation to prevent the printing of test solutions. If they are designed to generate random questions it is much harder to collaborate thus helping to eliminate the possibility of cheating. If tests do not use random questions the chance of collaboration is much greater resulting in several students with the same grades.

Experience Unified Communications

I found out about Microsoft Office Communication Server. This is a program that joins together all of the communication interfaces that the business is using. This program joins the phone system, instant messaging, VOIP and even the email system. This program will provide real-time awareness that will help improve the collaboration between the groups. In my opinion when every one in the business is able to communicate well with each other it will improve the way the people work together. Because all people will be able to communicate better and more together they will feel as more a part of the company because the collaboration will make them feel more a part of the company. Real-time collaboration helps improve the group training methods because the collaboration will allow them to train better.

Technology Analysis

Steps in conducting a technology analysis
I choose technology analysis because I just brought up the Microsoft Communication Server which allows the entire platform to work together to enable real-time communication between everyone in the organization. The use of this software would definitely require a full technological analysis so that everything will work well together. To run a system like communication server the technology must be analyzed, must meet the performance requirements, must work well for testing, be good at distributing materials, delivering the material, understanding the expertise, and documenting what needs to be changed. A program like communication server will allow great real-time communication between all people involved in the group.

Podcasting: How it can work for student recruiting

http://dan-karleen-aacrao-sem-podcast-talk.blogspot.com

This article is about how colleges are using podcasting to help with student recruiting. Websites such as petersons.com. There is also a list of university that have podcasts that are not classroom related. Providing information through podcasts about colleges may be a wonderful way for students to learn about the colleges without having to travel to them. Podcasts may turn out to be a wonderful recruitment tool.

Learning Management Systems

Learning management systems are becoming more important on the e-learning scene. The lms helps to automate all of the processes that are involved in training. The lms can act as a university registrar helping students to choose their classes correctly and proper scheduling. The lms can be accessed and reviewed by a learning content management system (LCMS). The lms can have a great impact on e-learning because sites like blackboard seem to be lms because it provides a combination of learning technologies including wikis, podcats, etc. Everything is automated so learning can be done more easily.

Podcasting for the college environment

Podcasting craze hits classrooms!
This article is discussing the importance of podcasting for the college student. It is apparent that students are getting shorter and shorter attention spans, podcasting may be the future way to keep students on track because they are able to pause, rewind, and fast forward their way through the lecture. This technology could allow classes to be done at your own pace, kind of like dvr for the class. This podcasting could be a great learning tool, however for people who do not learn well through audio only classroom experience could provide a much better experience.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/07/11/podcast_craze_hits_classrooms/

Metacognitive Domain

The metacognitive domain is about teaching people how to learn.
According to Alley and Deschler there are eight steps to teach someone how to learn
1. Observe the student performing the task
2. Explain the student's approach (verbalizing each step)
3. Explain the desired approach
4. Demonstrate the new approach (verbalizing each step)
5. Encourage questions before, during, and after the demonstration
6. Have the student verbally rehearse the steps until he or she can state them without error (provide corrective feedback to the student during rehersal)
7. Have the student practice with stimulated materials (again offering corrective feedback immediately)
8. Have the student practice with actual materials

The metacognitive domain involves the collaboration of all other domains. Because it is about learning how to learn it may be the single most important learning domain. I typically learn the best overall by having to actually perform the steps required, like in TSTM 370 using Oracle When I am entering commands into Isql it is helping me to learn better because i am physically typing in the data i need analyzed. Learning by doing is the best way to learn, just listening is simply not enough to always learn without actually performing the steps.

Learning changes video, Elliott Masie

Elliott Masie is discussing many ways in which learning is currently changing.

Changing Learning Content: Shorter, Faster, Immersive, Self-Healing.
He is discussing how learning is becoming faster now, a class that would takes months is now being done in weeks. Because learning is becoming much faster the learner must become must more immersed in the material to throughly learn it.
Changing Learners: Impatient, Overwhelmed, Younger and Older.
He is discussing how current learners are becoming much more impatient, the younger people want to learn more quickly and are more impatient than typically older people, however some of the older people are more overwhelmed because they are not used to technology learning.
Changing Learning Systems: Evolving, Content Focused, Integrated.
New technologies are advancing and allowing the system to evolve and become more content focused. If it is more content focused the training can be more focused on exactly what they need to learn which can enhance the training by making it more specific and probably more easily learnable.
Changing Learning Roles: Roles vs. Positions, Changing Competencies.
Changing learning roles is about how learning is changing and how we will be able to provide learning through technologies that are not typically utilized for learning methodologies. It also discusses how the current job may stay the same but their roles may change because they will be doing many different things. Changing roles involves staying in the same job but performing different tasks.

Conducting a needs assessment

There are Six activities in the process of conducting a needs assessment.

Activity One: Determine the Present ConditionThis involves identifying what the current situation at the job is a what the most important need they are facing is.

Activity Two: Define the jobThe trainer must know exactly what the position they are searching for is, and what the employee must learn in their seminar to be able to perform the job successfully.

Activity Three: Rank the goals in order of importanceThe trainer must know how the companies goals relate to the position that the employee will be working with, the goals must fit in well.

Activity Four: Identify DiscrepanciesThe trainer must understand what the company is expecting from the employee and how it relates to what duties the employees actually perform. We must understand how the expected and actual goals differ towards meeting their goal.

Activity Five: Determine Positive AreasThe trainer must identify what the company is doing well at, and must note and ensure the employer knows what is being done well in their business and it must be properly documented so it will be able to be replicated.

Activity Six: Set Priorities for ActionThe trainer must know exactly the job goals that are being requested and desired results. They must plan the training so that the employees will learn successfully and meet the employers goals, having well set priorities will ensure successful completion of training.

Thoughts on Software

1. The first productivity software program I ever used was ....
The first productivity software program that I ever used was LotusWorks. I used it first in my High School, it was the software available to the computer labs. Prior to it all of my assignments were written hand written.


2. The software program I use and know the best is ...
The software that I use and know the best is Microsoft Word. I have been using word for doing school projects since 1998 with office 97. I can use all of the Microsoft office products but word is used more than other program in the suite.



3. One software program I would like to learn more about is ...
One software program I would like to learn more about is Adobe Flash. I own Flash and do website design and maintenance on the side, though I have never used flash to enhance websites. I own the creative suite and use the other programs however i have never used Flash.

Welcome to my Training Systems TSTM 544 blog

Welcome to my Training Systems TSTM544 blog. Here you will find various homework assignments and reflections. Enjoy!