It's a common question when it comes to things like key selection criteria statements or actual job interviews: can you demonstrate your ability to interpret and meet client requirements?
This is interesting and challenging enough to tackle from any service-oriented profession, but for the instructional designer (and the designer involved with eLearning technologies in particular) it can get really interesting.
Based on my experience, "client requirements" for eLearning have almost always started out as really vague requests or directives. This can be in part attributed to a 'print-based' mentality about curriculum and learning resources, and/or a genuine lack of awareness about what eLearning can offer (and when, where, why and how).
It would be fair to say that, if followed or catered to literally, many of these initial requirements would result in very simple learning products that missed many if not most of the educational potential of learning technologies.
There is a challenge in this, but also a wealth of opportunities for the astute instructional designer.
By way of example, the chart below presents a selection of projects I've worked on for clients, showing what I was initially asked to do/provide and alongside that what actually eventuated in the eLearning product(s):
|
Client |
Client’s Initial Requirements |
Final Instructional Design |
|
1 |
“More speaking practice (outside official class time)” |
Fully online interface with weekly sample topics, sample responses, online asynchronous recording facility (with in-built tool for practice/rehearsal) with oral (recorded) feedback from teachers |
|
2 |
“Online TOEFL Practice” |
As per (1) above, but supplemented with a range of actual test tasks, a rich selection of screencasts demonstrating strategies and tips for better performance, and a recording interface where all recordings and feedback could be shared across the student cohort for a richer range of examples and models of ‘best practice.’ |
|
3 |
“TOEIC Speaking Practice” |
As per (1) and (2) above, but in addition to ‘standard’ TOEIC speaking practice tests, learners provided with targeted contextualised tests that emphasized situations and problems typical of their particular business setting (in this case Heavy Industries) |
|
4 |
“Academic composition practice” |
Fully online system with an added course requirement that learners submit drafts in a shared forum-style space and provide feedback and advice on each other’s essays (in addition to the teacher). Instant messaging and private messaging facilitated in the interface. By the end of the course most learners confessed the sharing/feedback requirement and messaging tools made a big difference to their confidence and ability with composition skills. |
|
5 |
“Get more of our literacy materials online” |
Completely new curriculum devised and applied, which maximised the benefits of an online delivery model: video in addition to reading texts; more topics and input materials (with learner choice); drafting processes and faster feedback; a DIPA(CT) approach applied; new and more informative grading scales. |
|
“Help teachers produce some videos to help students master CAD – improve 1-1 teacher-student time” |
A massive selection of screencasts, well-sequenced, applied with assignment-style worksheets applying the DIPA(CT) model; facilitation of learner independence; much more efficient grading, tracking and feedback system applied. |
|
|
6 |
“Design content and templates for writers of skills-based English, to be used in an online system” |
Six skills streams identified and catered to via four slots of activity types each; content prototypes developed as actual interactive online material to provide very specific examples for IT staff; templates for writers incorporate screencasts showing exactly how to use each one. |
As you can see, the initial requirements start out quite vague, or else very targeted and limited. I think the real challenge to the instructional designer is that open field that follows the very broad or limited request; to ask the right questions, present the most relevant options, and demonstrate them without (1) losing track of that initial idea or request, and (2) losing the client in what may sound to her/him like a whole heap of edtech mumbo-jumbo.
Clients often see eLearning as a way to put a series of books online, or to cut back on teaching hours, or to just be able to say they are actually doing eLearning (because that's what everyone else is trying to do).
Can they, however, see the opportunities for:
- More/better engagement?
- More independent and confident learning?
- The provision of more learner choice?
- More specific contextualisation?
- Catering to different learning styles and preferences?
- Richer learning input and more interactive activity types?
- Collaborative and cooperative learning?
- More effective (or different) use of actual classroom time?
- More efficient use of teachers' time (especially for grading and administration)?
- Delivering learning to students using a medium they are comfortable with and (in many cases) may even expect?
- Creating programs that are not limited by geography or time zones?
This is the potential our clients need to be able to see, but we need to be able to show them without swamping them or 'lecturing' them. Or raising their expectations to unreasonable levels, for that matter. Just as clients may underestimate the opportunities inherent to eLearning, some can fall for the trap of thinking it can solve everything and put a lot more money in their pockets with very little investment, effort or patience.
However, generally speaking I think good instructional designers have a lot of potential to exceed clients' initial expectations, whether they are business owners, managers or the students themselves. Those first requirements or questions from a client are often both a call for help and the opening of the opportunity oyster.
I think this is what the eLearning specialist and instructional designer needs to aspire to.
To listen carefully, think beyond the narrow tunnel of those initial requests, enjoy the creative process, and know you have a very realistic chance of pleasing people.
Because when it comes to eLearning you know what (usually/often) works, for whom, how, and why.
;-D
