This week's readings reiterated (for the umpteenth time) the ubiquity of the practical experience we gained from 501; we will need to assess situations, work harmoniously in groups, and produce plans that will ideally improve our clients' information-related interactions. The first pages of the One-Shot Workshop reading, particularly, stressed the importance of structure and forethought in the design process through the acronym ADDIE:
Analysis: The Yelinek et. al. and Johnston articles both cited use of surveys to gather information from users to obtain background information in order to form an idea of what needs to be done, what goals need to be met. But I've spent enough time at SI to know that surveys are only one way to gather information; surveys were likely used in those two cases due to the internet-based and/or long-distance nature of the systems they were assessing. Interviews with clients and future students and discussions with coworkers/staff members with relevant experience and subject knowledge should be favored, time/money permitting, especially if the project is to produce an in-person workshop instead of a digital tutorial.
Design: First the content and then the delivery methods are to be decided. The Johnston article covered content by chunking information into modules, a step into which I could fondly tie some of what I learned in Information Architecture. The One-Shot Workshop reading spoke of teaching methods, but our focus this week is actually on screencasts; Yelinek et. al. and Johnston used Adobe Captivate, and the Griffis piece gave an overview of free screen capture tools with their features and shortcomings, mentioning what can be gained through commercial products (Captivate and Camtasia).
Development: The actual building of the session. Materials have to be created and compiled and the structure set. The design step should keep this step in mind; the screen capture tools selected should include the functionality the design process plans for.
Implementation and Evaluation: After two design process courses last semester, I am well aware of the need to test and reflect, test and reflect when designing anything. In fact, as it is a cycle, evaluation of the implementation run right back into analysis in the interest of improvement. What do we need? More surveys!
I had a few comments on the One-Shot Workshop section about groups, a subject many SIers feel strongly about. First, the concept of developing a group of more than four people, let along being able to choose the members based on well-known abilities and dispositions, is an odd one to me. How many people should it take to develop a 50-minute workshop? I can understand getting input from a dozen people over enough time, but having more than a few people assigned to such a project feels like overkill. Maybe I simply don't understand the magnitude of such a project.
I was interested in what you said about using methods other than surveys to gather information about users and their needs. I think interviews with users could certainly help us to understand users and their needs more deeply. As someone who hopes to work in a public library, I was wondering what the best way to approach public library patrons might be. Since we don't exactly want to disrupt the patrons by interviewing them on the spot, I wonder if it would be possible to get together some kind of volunteer focus groups.
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome to link these readings to SI501...Yes we have learned about data collection and analysis from that course. Now I know why we need to finish SI501 before we start internship for PEP credits.
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