1.

Seriously, There’s No Time for Design

Consider your team in IST626 and your client project. What are three ideas from the
“Seriously” article that you can implement or adapt to make your tight timeline go easier?
(List them and write one sentence about each one.)

 Assess and analyze the audience; this will give us an idea where to start our
instruction and what to include in our training.
 Get to know the major topics (prioritize the topics) tis will save time to
concentrate on the main topics and avoid branching.
 During the developmental phase use the available material or the material already
created or the available templates to save time and you can fix the points that
might cause confusion to the learner.

2. I Have to Teach Something—Where Do I Start?

Think about courses that you’ve taken. I’m guessing that you will be able to think of at
least one that was not the answer to an important issue or that was not based on things
that the learners did not already know. Provide a title for the class (modified, if necessary,
to protect privacy), and write a couple of sentences about why it did not meet an obvious
need.

Learning the Basics of Computer workshop

During the 1990s there was a mandatory workshop on the “Basics of Computer” that
certain departments had to attend. At that time the training was about computers and “MSDose”
and finally it ended with some nots about the internet and www. The course was interesting as
we are exposed to new information because most of the audience, as other members of the
society, did not have the chance to work with computers or even possess a computer due to the
political situation for that country. After the workshop each of audience returned to his/her
original job and in a week time we forgot almost all the information we attained during that
workshop. What I learned? Little, was the workshop beneficial? Not for the selected audience.
This was one of the tens of trainings that lack benefit because there was no transfer of knowledge
neither to the job nor to personal practice.
3. Learning Styles

Make your blood boil? It’s entirely possible that you’ve taken classes where considering
the learning styles of your students was touted as indispensable for good teaching. Still,
the research shows—and this is many, many studies—that designing for different
learning styles is not helpful to students. What do you think? Write a few sentences about
what to consider about your learners instead of thinking about their learning styles.

Learning styles are not a myth but facts. Barsch questionnaire is used to identify the types
of learning styles and in doing so we can design and assign learning-style-specific
instructions and tasks to facilitate the learning process of that student. Now, in classroom
and due to learners’ diversity, we implement differentiated instructions taking into
consideration many factors including learning style, personality type, cognitive type and
motivational factors. The question that can be asked here, does every teacher
implementing differentiated instructions? And the answer is NO, Is this teaching
methodology effective? Still there is a debate about it. What are the facts about learning
styles? The fact is, learning styles are not rigid elements, they are flexible and with
tailored instructions we can change from one learning style to another. There are two
factors that have the direct influence on learning; student readiness to learn and student
motivation. These two factors play the major role in learning as compared to the learning
styles.

4. D1: Define—What does it matter?

Pick a course or lesson that you have designed or taught. How does it line up with the
overall goals of your organization? (One paragraph.)

I taught foreign language to adult learners. The total course time is 64 weeks as the
language that I am teaching is considered category 4. Learners start with target language
proficiency level at 0 or 0+ according to Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR)
descriptors and this depends upon their background knowledge. The organizational goal
is for the learners to graduate with proficiency level 2, 2, 1+ in reading, listening and
speaking skills respectively. The design of the lessons and incorporating supplementary
material with the core curriculum, facilitate in achieving the defined organizational
outcome 85-100% of the time in the classes I taught during the period from 2010-2016.