Project Reflections


Thoughts of suitable research questions and the eLearning resources that would be developed from them were uppermost in my thoughts during the summer of 2012. My first idea when thinking about developing an elearning resource was to design an app around an area that I enjoyed the most; mountain hiking. As I delved deeper into this subject, I found there were many topics that I enjoyed, but I had little subject knowledge off, flora and fauna, geology, petrology, (the scientific study of rocks). Also my knowledge of using mobile technology in remote mountain locations, meant that I knew lack of coverage would be a big issue, resulting in the proposed app losing a lot of functionality, such as the ability to connect to external sites through hyperlinks, therefore severely limiting the ability to pull up local content on a host of topics such as landscapes, history, geology and vital orienteering information.

Given the limitations apparent with a hiking eResource, I explored another area which I had far greater subject knowledge and had less obvious technical limitations and where I could envisage a resource would be useful. With over 25 years experience in the Electronics industry, and having worked in a variety of roles from bench technician to field service engineer to network engineer followed by teaching roles as a technical trainer, maths teacher and Fetac Levels 4 and 5 Electronics tutor, I was probably uniquely qualified to know the areas in basic electricity, electronics and maths that posed the most difficulties for aspiring technicians and electronic engineers. When I cast my thoughts back to my early days as an electronic technician I remembered conversations with my peers on the subject of threshold concepts, (Ronen & Eliahu, (2000) such as voltage drop, current flow, and resistance, fundamental to a core understanding of electronics. These same threshold concepts came up in my own teaching practice and also surfaced in conversations with the lecturer and students at Dun Laoighaire college of Further Education whom I was designing the resource for. This initial research had an underlying bearing on the resource design and development and was elemental in allowing me to articulate the research question. Austin D, Mescia N, (2001) Strategies to Incorporate Active Learning into Online Teaching, argue the instructor/designer should first consider sound design practices  including assessing the learners, knowing the context and environment in which the learners will be operating,

 At the initial focus group stage, I gathered the data to analyse the need for a resource and if required, how it would be constructed. In the researchers view there were questions regarding the objectivity of the Student responses, as their responses tended to be overly positive, lacking in impartial critical analysis. Attride-Stirling, J. (2001).  Krueger, R, A. (2003). When their responses were further examined at the interview stage it transpired that most Students were happy to see an eLearning resource that helped them in understanding their subject material and had not thought beyond that stage. The focus group questionnaire proved vital at this point for eliciting detailed responses regarding the structure and content of the resource.

Steinbronn and Merideth (2003) add that self-efficacy supplies motivation to persist and, since motivation enhances problem solving, it influences later success. “When applying the concept to online teaching and learning they emphasise the need to design online support that should positively impact the psychological and physical environment of teaching and learning in an electronic area and influence the retention rate of students.”(Steinbronn, P.E., and Merideth, E, M.  2003).

Producing a realistic project plan, was probably the area I had the most difficulty with, analysis of the target user group produced a user group with diverse circumstances, with some students from the Leaving cert stream, others retraining from different industries, and the rest coming from different training backgrounds. I realised early on a one size fits all approach would not work with this diverse cohort, different students pointed out that they required different things from an app. A major point of consensus the research produced was the need to address threshold concepts, I decided to design the main body of the app around this core area and to add peripheral areas that students asked for later on. Further research on electronic and electricity apps narrowed down the field, to the Wagmob series which got most support from the user group with both content layout, subject matter covered  and ease of access (easily downloadable on both PC’s and mobile devices) getting approval. 

The main reason for the literature review was to gather the information needed to build a case for the project, and to clearly identify the learning problem. The wide area that had to be researched was daunting, covering subject content from pedagogical design, instructional design, electronics, maths, electricity, climate change, green technologies and a multitude of economic and subject area forecasting reports. The variety of diverse sources reviewed, helped to concentrate in on the nature of the issue allowing the form of the challenge to become more focussed.   The scope of the project had to be realistically limited to keep the resource content succinct, to address the main target group concerns, to work with time constraints and to deliver a concise eLearning resource at the end of the process. With this in mind I decided to limit the section on Green Technologies to a basic introduction to the field and its forecasted impacts rather than a detailed section on career opportunities in this field. I advised the Students that if they wanted any extra detailed resources in this area to email me as due to time and size constraints they would not be included.

Engaging with the communities of practice concept significantly helped eResource development, the background and expertise of a good friend in Australia guided me on some Instructional design issues. The help provided with planning and access to the user group by the Electronics lecturer at Dun Laoighaire College of Further Education was fundamental to the entire process. 

Difficulties arose in resource construction, such as opening the required apps in selected slides, this proved to be especially troublesome when the slide format changed with the file extensions failing to migrate to the new platform. I found it difficult to find the required support in Articulate on these issues, producing a degree of frustration. 

The cost of the Articulate software suite was over $1100, so in developing the eResource I availed of the 30 day free trial offers, the trail periods had the disadvantage of quickly expiring forcing the user to download the free trail on multiple computers as each trail expired, adding to the complexity by having to migrate multiple versions of Microsoft office, Articulate Presenter and Engage and the resource under construction, adding significantly to time, effort and organisation. 

One of the incentives of using external apps in the eResource is there versatility as Reusable Learning Objects, if the apps fail to be supported in the future or improved apps are developed, new apps will be relatively easy to incorporate, into a modified resource.

The requirements for a lot of ancillary data and the volume of research required, seemed that the project was overwhelming but the support and guidance off the the Supervisor meetings and the Work in Progress presentation helped keep progress on an even keel. By February 2013, I felt positive I was making good progress, with the literature review completed and all of the focus group data collected from the user group.  

By Easter I had completed the eLearning resource, implementation with the user group then took place. Evaluation and collection of user data using eResource Verification Questionnaires and Interviews took place in May.  The lack of ability to track logged data was one of the early eResource limitations, at the time of eResource implementation the colleges moodle site was in the process of being upgraded resulting in a lack of technical supports.

Often when things are progressing well, unexpected setbacks happen, as the sudden death of my sister and cutbacks at my employer, which subsequently lead to my move to Canada for employment. As these events occurred my motivation and time evaporated and I was not in a position to continue work on my Masters until 2015.

Looking back it has being a long journey and certainly one worth taking I have learned an enormous amount in my fields of study, from Learning Theories, Instructional Design and eAuthoring, Research Methods, Supporting Virtual Communities to Trends in eLearning to name but a few, I certainly feel it would have gone a lot smoother if I had got the Masters completed in 2 years, but I am extremely grateful for being given the opportunity to complete at this later stage.

 References:

Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Commission for Health Improvement, England. Sage Publications, London.

Austin D, Mescia N, (2001) Strategies to Incorporate Active Learning into Online Teaching.

Krueger, R, A. (2003). Designing and Conducting Focus Group Interviews. University of Minnesota. 1954 Buford Ave. St. Paul, MN  55108

Ronen, M., & Eliahu, M. (2000). Simulation — a bridge between theory and reality: the case of electric circuits. Journal of computer Assisted Learning, 16(1), 14-26.

Steinbronn, P, E. & Merideth, E, M. (2003). An outward design support system to increase self-efficacy in online teaching and learning. Campus-Wide Information Systems 20, no. 1: 17–24.


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