Everyday Instructional Design
Instructional design is not that uncommon in the world around me. I have been given the assignment to look for it in everyday occurrences. Once I started looking, I noticed there are so many lessons being taught each day in all sorts of places. The following are two lessons I found out in the world.
Optimizing Your Roomba
The Roomba is a popular robot vacuum cleaner made by the iRobot company. They want the owners of their product to successfully set up and use their vacuum effectively. Therefore, part of their online support are video tutorials for Roomba owners. Their video on Optimizing Your Roomba provided tips on customizing their smartphone app and making homes robot friendly. Their tips included where to set up the docking station, how to create an invisible barrier, what to do about clutter and cords, and how to schedule routine cleanings. The video effectively showed the Roomba in action from many angles and in various scenarios while the friendly narrator explained each tip. I learned that the Roomba docking station should be placed next to a wall and away from stairs. The virtual wall tool can create an invisible barrier in two different shapes. The first shape is a straight line that acts like a wall to keep the Roomba out of rooms. The second shape is a semi-circle that can keep the Roomba away from an area such as where a pet’s food may be placed on the floor. Also, the Roomba has clutter navigation to help it navigate around objects left out and anti-tangle technology to keep it from getting stuck on cords and carpet fringe. The Roomba can be scheduled to clean automatically up to seven times per week. All of the tips were delivered in less than two minutes. Their video convinced me that it is easy to have a Roomba in the home.
TDECU Personal Banking
TDECU is a local credit union with an online banking website. The goal of their help center videos on personal banking is to provide their customers with easy access to assistance on the most popular topics. They want their customers to have a smooth, successful and efficient online banking experience. The personal banking videos are organized into a player with the video display on the left and a navigable library of topics in the right column. The first video is an introduction with a woman speaker. The rest of the videos are narrated by the same woman but have screenshots of the online banking tool and a variety of other still photos that help highlight the current topic. The video lessons are effective because they quickly dispense with clear step-by-step instructions and pertinent screencasts. The woman is inviting and articulate. Each topic is marked with a simple representational icon that makes it easy to identify the contents. I learned how to log into the banking website even if I’ve forgotten my password. I learned about shortcuts to viewing account summaries. I also learned the various ways to transfer funds within accounts and to other member’s accounts. There is even a section that taught me how to stop payments. I have been using the TDECU online banking site for many years and I still gained some useful tips by watching their video tutorials.
Importance of Instructional Design to Me
As I have read about instructional design and observed how it is implemented every day in the world around me, I see how it is critical to my performance as an instructional designer. My future goals include increasing my knowledge on how to best improve online instruction to help faculty with their courses and ultimately improve student lives. Dr. David Merrill (Merrill, 2008) mentions three essential things he believes need to be done when delivering effective instruction:
- demonstrate what is to be learned;
- give students a chance to apply what they have learned;
- do these things in the context of real-world problems.
I agree with him that my role is to help faculty develop and deliver instruction that assists students transfer relevant information into knowledge they can apply. I can also apply the same strategies in my own training instruction delivered to faculty. My training needs to include real-world applications so faculty leave with skills and tools they can use. I am not always given the time to thoroughly go through each step of the ADDIE framework when developing a course, but I hope to gain insights that help me still create a course that contains essential learning elements.
References
iRobot. (2016, November 10). Roomba 900 series robot vacuum optimization – English (US). Retrieved from YouTube: https://youtu.be/uAhIHh1AC8U
Merrill, D. (2008, August 11). Merrill on instructional design. Retrieved from YouTube: https://youtu.be/i_TKaO2-jXA
TDECU. (2018). Help center. Retrieved from TDECU Your Credit Union: https://www.tdecu.org/help/
Tags: LTEC 5210