NIH Public Access Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Published in final edited form as: Int J Des Educ. 2013 ; 6(3): 53–61.
Designing and Developing Online Materials for Molecular Biology: Building Online Programs for Science Dr. Rachel Boulay [Director of Education for the Center for Cardiovascular Research] University of Hawaii, USA
Abstract
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
A well-accepted form of educational training offered in molecular biology is internships in research laboratories. However, the number of available research laboratories severely limits access by most students. Addressing this need, the University of Hawaii launched a project to expand this model to include newly developed online training materials in addition to a hands-on laboratory experience. This paper explores the design and development process of the online learning materials. This case study looks at the roles of the instructional designer, multimedia specialist, and research faculty who were the subject matter experts. The experiences of the design teams are shared in an effort to gain insight on how the collaborative efforts of the project group led to a successful deployment of the online learning materials.
Keywords Molecular Biology; Design; Development
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR) of the John A. Burns School of Medicine has been involved in several educational initiatives involving secondary school science teachers and students in an effort to increase the number of individuals working in the area of medical sciences. Science teachers need training that will prepare them and subsequently their students, with the basic skills, techniques, and applications that are crucial for conducting medical research in a laboratory setting. The goal was to provide teachers with a training experience that would assist them helping their students develop a familiarity for laboratory techniques prior to conducting molecular biology research in an authentic laboratory setting. The Center for Cardiovascular Research decided to augment the early educational experiences of children by providing their educators with quality teacher development training, as this was hoped to foster interest in medical research and strengthen the qualifications of the pool of future medical practitioners in Hawaii. Building upon the well-accepted practice of laboratory internships, a new blended learning approach is proposed, combining learning objects (digital and web-based), including virtual laboratories, to augment laboratory training. This approach could vastly improve access to high quality instruction and address the needs of more than a few select students a year. In order to accomplish these goals the medical school sought out an interdisciplinary collaborative partnership with the Distance Course Design and Consulting (DCDC) group that was responsible for implementing the College of Education’s distance learning initiatives. A collaborative effort between the Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR) and the Distance Course Design and Consulting Group (DCDC) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa was necessary for this large project. The vast amount of content resources that were being placed online required that the CCR work with distance education experts that had abundant experience working with online/distance blended learning systems. The DCDC provided valuable guidance with respect to the online component of this teacher development training. The success of this project has led to additional projects that have
Boulay
Page 2
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
been funded based on the interdisciplinary work that has been done on this project by the CCR and DCDC. Recently the CCR/DCDC team has been enlisted to build an online network for middle school science teachers in Micronesia and American Samoa.
Perspectives Interdisciplinary education is defined as an educational approach where two or more disciplines collaborate in the learning process with the goal of enhancing the practice of each discipline (Larson, Debasio, Mundinger, & Shoemaker, 1996). Interdisciplinary education typically includes research projects, public outreach, academic programs, and teaching. The dynamic nature of how research is conducted is evolving, and many feel that educational institutions should be working together to solve problems in education instead of tackling issues from a single discipline. One of the benefits of interdisciplinary education is that participants often end up working beyond their normal boundaries creating new strategies and perspectives that lead to innovation in the area they are studying. An interdisciplinary approach can help us deal with today’s educational issues with a greater understanding and that has led to an increased interest in working across disciplines in higher education (Newell, 2007).
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Blended learning is based on a combination of traditional instructional strategies, online education, and learning that is supported by other technologies with the result being a learning environment that is tailored to the learner’s needs (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009). Blended learning, mixing online and face to face learning modes, is being utilized with the expectation that it will assist with transfer of knowledge (Lee, 2010). It is important to consider the use of specific learning objects when planning and designing various blended learning scenarios to ensure connection. Blended learning has been a successful strategy for online education as learning objects tend to be dynamic and are geared toward a studentcentered approach that allow learners to interact with the resources at their own pace.
Methodology This study examines the new “online instructional modules” developed to augment traditional laboratory internships. First, the goals and purpose of the online learning project are discussed. Secondly, the development team will be introduced and the roles of each entity will be explained. Finally, the online learning model and the procedures used to collect the insights and perspectives of the design team members will be shared. Goals of Online Learning Project
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
•
More effective, efficient, and engaging user-centered learning experience
•
A consistent instructional design so that users will be familiar with overall format of web resources
•
Consistent navigation so that navigating the instruction in each module is similar
Purpose of the On-line Instruction •
Reach students before they come to the medical school to provide molecular biology laboratory training.
•
Reach students who are located on other islands
•
Make courses available asynchronously and student centered
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 3
The Development Team
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The development team for the Center for Cardiovascular consists of at least 3 individuals: (1) an instructional designer trained and familiar with online learning models and techniques, and who is experienced in on-line course development.; (2) a subject matter expert (SME) who is responsible for the content to be taught and who will serve as the initial instructor for the online course. In this case the team included several faculty researchers who contributed to the subject matter. (3) An instructional developer will be responsible for the on-line implementation of the course in addition to media adaption or production for the learning objects to be placed online. In addition the SME and the instructional developer will review the course for language, content accuracy, and functionality prior to being rolled out in the field. Role of Research Faculty
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The role of the research faculty is that of the SME. In an online student-centered, peerinteractive course this role shifts from being a presenter of information to a guide and coach. A technology enhanced course should provide instruction in the form of reading materials, animations, PowerPoint, videos, graphics, and other learning objects that were specifically selected and structured to implement effective instructional strategies for acquiring specific skills, which in this case were laboratory skills. The subject matter expert’s main role is to select, structure, and sequence the content materials before the course begins and to provide feedback and critique as users begin to interact with the online course materials. When selecting materials the SME should consider what skills the users will have following the course. The SME should consider what laboratory skills and techniques that will benefit the learners prior to working in a molecular biology laboratory. The SME will identify the resources from which the learners can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to learn the particular skills and techniques, including resources that teach the skills as directly as possible, without unnecessary information. Instructional designers will work in close cooperation with the SME to fine tune the instruction for more effective and efficient learning. Role of the Instructional Designer Project Management—Instructional Designers have the responsibility of managing the development project for a given course. This includes working out a development schedule, monitoring this schedule, providing progress reports to the Principal Investigator of the project, and keeping the project within budget and on schedule.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Assist with Content Analysis—Research faculty may not be as experienced in identifying and specifying which resources are best for demonstrating a skill or technique. While the instructional designers may not know the subject matter content, they can still assist the SME to identify appropriate learning resources and strategies to address the variety of techniques the users will be exposed to. Research faculties have limited experience at adapting resources for effective technique and skill development with respect to online courses. To be effective, resources often have to be modified to assist learners in acquiring specific techniques and skills. Assist with Content Development—In most cases there may not be existing resources that adequately teach the desired skills and techniques. Further, the SME may want to augment existing resources by a more focused presentation of ideas directly related to the skills or techniques under consideration. Instructional Designers, assisted by Instructional Developers, will assist faculty in developing these additional resources and will work with
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 4
media developers to develop appropriate media (tutorials, animations, videos, PowerPoints, graphics, etc.) for presenting these resources online.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Instructional Strategy—Instructional Designers will assume responsibility for adapting the content to an effective and efficient instructional strategy that will be self-paced and student centered in this project. They will adapt the molecular biology content materials to provide the most effective presentation, demonstration, and application of the necessary techniques and skills online. Instructional Designers will work with instructional developers and subject matter experts to adapt existing resources or develop new resources using media that is the most appropriate for online presentation and demonstration. Online Implementation—Instructional Designers will assume the responsibility for uploading the content to the Internet. They will work closely with the instructional media developers to assure that the proper learning resources are being utilized. The instructional designer will provide frequent reviews of the work to be sure that implementation is consistent with the research faculty’s intentions. They will work closely with faculty during the formative assessment of the course as learners are using the course. Role of the Instructional Developer
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Instructional developers will work closely with faculty and designers to adapt content materials for online delivery, to load content materials into the content management system, and to develop original content materials using multimedia technologies such as video, animations, tutorials, and PowerPoint, etc. The instructional developer is also responsible for reviewing the course in detail to edit for the proper use of English and to make sure that all the links within the modules are correct and pointing to the correct website. Further, the instructional developer coordinates with any multimedia developers or other technical staff, such as graphic artists or videographers, in the production of materials. The Online Learning Model Online learning refers to the situation where the materials to be learned are available to the student via a content management system on the Internet. Online learning provides the following capabilities: 1) resources, such as, text, video, animations, and graphics, 2) content information is communicated primarily via multimedia resources rather than lectures or classroom discussion, and 3) learners interact and discuss their work via blogs or discussion boards. All resources can be viewed at ccrhawaii.org and access is unrestricted. Open access content is not always possible, but a tremendous advantage to others and should be encouraged.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The Menu Structure—Joomla® separates the navigation from the pages. This allows developers to display different sub items for different pages. Instead of listing all the page links, and having a very long listthat has to be scrolled through, the site was developed to only display page links from the current Module. For example: Module 2 would only display Module 2’s pages in the navigation (see Figure 1). This kept the navigation items much shorter. The Module Structure—The modules were based on the four different areas covered by the site: Laboratory Introduction, Nucleic Acid Techniques, Protein Techniques, and Cell Culture Techniques. The Modules were then broken down into a Module intro page and subpages. Every intro page has a short video going over the learning objectives. The intro page would also have description of the structure of the sub-pages. Sub-pages were broken down into topic sections. Some of the topic pages would have a video demonstrating different
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 5
procedures done in the laboratory; each of these videos had a unique label of “Technique video” used as a border to distinguish it from other videos on topic pages.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Procedures Each of the three predominant individuals of the design team participated in a structured interview. All participants answered the following interview questions in exactly the same order: What was the thing you liked best about this project?, What did you perceive worked really well on this project?, What was your biggest frustration during this project?, What helped you accomplish your tasks and role the best?, What was your impression from working with this design team?, How could the development process on this project have been made easier?, Would you like to participate in another design project as a result of your experience? What are strengths in this design process/design team concept?, and What are the weaknesses in this design process? An Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine who has a PhD in Education and was familiar with qualitative research methodology conducted all the interviews. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.
Results and Lessons Learned Subject Matter Challenge
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
A challenge for the instructional designer and instructional development team was the complexity and advanced nature of the content. The content involved many multi-step procedures, and the instructional designer and developer had modest background knowledge relevant to the areas. Even the research faculty recognized their own learning while organizing materials during the project; for example, “I had to research into different techniques, organize the techniques, get a better understanding of how things are organized in molecular biology.” However, the complexity of the content area was also one of the most enjoyable elements for the design team. The instructional developer shared, “The problem solving that had to occur with dealing with the advanced subject matter. I enjoyed that part the most. Just being able to break apart that information and be a part that process and get it online that was easy to navigate…” The complexity of the subject matter could have been daunting to instructional designers or developers, but using a design team approach provided a good solution to this potential concern. The Design Team Approach Presented Solutions
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
In cases of simplistic content or easily accessible information, the designers may not have to rely on the expertise of the research faculty or SMEs. With this content, there had to be cooperation amongst all parties. Any one party, the research faculty, the instructional designer or the instructional developer, could not complete the project relying exclusively on his/her past experience or training. Many smaller tasks, such as the videographer editing a video to be uploaded on a topic page, needed the editorial advice of a research faculty, not just the instructional designer or developer. This project can be summed up by the cliché that two minds think better than one, but in this case an instructional design team, with each member playing their role, can product much richer and higher quality products more rapidly than anyone could produce on their own. The steepest learning curve within the project was the beginning, predominantly as individuals understood their role in the design process. The instructional designer reflected on how the development process could be improved for another project and identified “being clear about roles, who is doing what, being aware of limitations of roles, limitations with working with someone outside of your realm, the subject matter and trying to digest that.” Figuring out the roles was as significant a hurdle to overcome as the complexity of the subject matter. Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 6
Picking the Right Design Tool
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The original website was developed using the Content Management System (CMS), Wordpress. At the time of development, Wordpress’ menu structure was crude. Every page had to display every sub-menu item. This made it very hard to navigate because of the large number of pages. The decision was made to switch the CMS to Joomla, due to its easy to use menu system that was customizable. Currently the DCDC has begun to more predominantly use Wordpress for a CMS. The current version has overcome many of its shortcomings. Many courses that are being developed require an instructor to be able to change content. Due to Wordpress’ easy to use administration interface, it is much easier to train someone how to use than Joomla. Furthermore, navigation is much easier to develop and it also has a much larger development community. Technology is always changing, and the right tool to use is generally up for debate.
Conclusions
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
A design team approach that used subject matter experts (research faculty), instructional designers, and instruction developers (multimedia developers and other technical staff) was the only way a project such as this one could come to fruition. Interdisciplinary cooperation was invaluable. The skills, knowledge of current trends, and expertise of each discipline substantially improves the product and work of the other discipline. This case demonstrates the professionalism, high-quality design, and user-friendly approach that made complex content more easily digested by interested parties. In this paper, the goals and purpose of the online learning project were highlighted. Further, the paper discussed the development team and the roles of each. To summarize, the role of the research faculty, instructional designer, and the developer was explained in the context of this project. A critical position, and too often underestimated role, is that of the instructional designer. This paper summarized the tasks of the intructional designer’s role as the following: project management, content analysis, content development, instructional strategy, and online implementation. Finally, the online learning model was reviewed and structured interviews were used to collect the insights and perspectives of the design team members. This paper shared the three biggest take-away lessons from the design effort. First, a design team approach seems to be a good solution for how developers should contend with complex content. Second, while a design team approach creates better products more rapidly than any one individual could on their own, the toughest initial challenge is defining roles and learning what the limitations of specific roles are. Third, selecting the right design tool or technology constantly poses a challenge.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
In sum, complex subject matter may be best approach with a design team composed of content experts (research faculty), instructional developers (multimedia specialists and other technicial experts), and a highly important mediator – instructional designers. Without a team approach to design this project would not have been realized.
Acknowledgments Funding for this research was provided through the following grants: US Department of Education Grant No. P336C050047 and US National Institutes of Health Grant No. RR16453 and HL073449.
REFERENCES Hoic-Bozic N, Mornar V, Boticki I. A Blended Learning Approach to Course Design and Implementation [Article], IEEE Transactions on Education. 2009 Writer;
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 7
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Larson EL, Debasio NO, Mundinger MO, Shoemaker JK. Interdisciplinary education and practice. Journal of Professional Nursing. 1996; 12(2):119–123. [PubMed: 8632098] Lee J. Design of blended training for transfer into the workplace. [Article]. British Journal of Educational Technology. 2010; 41(2):181–198. Newell, WH. Interdisciplinarity in undergraduate general education. In: Frodeman, R.; Klein, JT.; Mitchum, C., editors. The Oxford handbook on Interdisciplinarity. Oxford University Press; Oxford: 2009.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 8
NIH-PA Author Manuscript Figure 1.
Screen Shot of Navigation within Module 2
NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 9
NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Figure 2.
Example Topic Page with Technique Video Label
NIH-PA Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Published in final edited form as: Int J Des Educ. 2013 ; 6(3): 53–61.
Designing and Developing Online Materials for Molecular Biology: Building Online Programs for Science Dr. Rachel Boulay [Director of Education for the Center for Cardiovascular Research] University of Hawaii, USA
Abstract
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
A well-accepted form of educational training offered in molecular biology is internships in research laboratories. However, the number of available research laboratories severely limits access by most students. Addressing this need, the University of Hawaii launched a project to expand this model to include newly developed online training materials in addition to a hands-on laboratory experience. This paper explores the design and development process of the online learning materials. This case study looks at the roles of the instructional designer, multimedia specialist, and research faculty who were the subject matter experts. The experiences of the design teams are shared in an effort to gain insight on how the collaborative efforts of the project group led to a successful deployment of the online learning materials.
Keywords Molecular Biology; Design; Development
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR) of the John A. Burns School of Medicine has been involved in several educational initiatives involving secondary school science teachers and students in an effort to increase the number of individuals working in the area of medical sciences. Science teachers need training that will prepare them and subsequently their students, with the basic skills, techniques, and applications that are crucial for conducting medical research in a laboratory setting. The goal was to provide teachers with a training experience that would assist them helping their students develop a familiarity for laboratory techniques prior to conducting molecular biology research in an authentic laboratory setting. The Center for Cardiovascular Research decided to augment the early educational experiences of children by providing their educators with quality teacher development training, as this was hoped to foster interest in medical research and strengthen the qualifications of the pool of future medical practitioners in Hawaii. Building upon the well-accepted practice of laboratory internships, a new blended learning approach is proposed, combining learning objects (digital and web-based), including virtual laboratories, to augment laboratory training. This approach could vastly improve access to high quality instruction and address the needs of more than a few select students a year. In order to accomplish these goals the medical school sought out an interdisciplinary collaborative partnership with the Distance Course Design and Consulting (DCDC) group that was responsible for implementing the College of Education’s distance learning initiatives. A collaborative effort between the Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR) and the Distance Course Design and Consulting Group (DCDC) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa was necessary for this large project. The vast amount of content resources that were being placed online required that the CCR work with distance education experts that had abundant experience working with online/distance blended learning systems. The DCDC provided valuable guidance with respect to the online component of this teacher development training. The success of this project has led to additional projects that have
Boulay
Page 2
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
been funded based on the interdisciplinary work that has been done on this project by the CCR and DCDC. Recently the CCR/DCDC team has been enlisted to build an online network for middle school science teachers in Micronesia and American Samoa.
Perspectives Interdisciplinary education is defined as an educational approach where two or more disciplines collaborate in the learning process with the goal of enhancing the practice of each discipline (Larson, Debasio, Mundinger, & Shoemaker, 1996). Interdisciplinary education typically includes research projects, public outreach, academic programs, and teaching. The dynamic nature of how research is conducted is evolving, and many feel that educational institutions should be working together to solve problems in education instead of tackling issues from a single discipline. One of the benefits of interdisciplinary education is that participants often end up working beyond their normal boundaries creating new strategies and perspectives that lead to innovation in the area they are studying. An interdisciplinary approach can help us deal with today’s educational issues with a greater understanding and that has led to an increased interest in working across disciplines in higher education (Newell, 2007).
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Blended learning is based on a combination of traditional instructional strategies, online education, and learning that is supported by other technologies with the result being a learning environment that is tailored to the learner’s needs (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009). Blended learning, mixing online and face to face learning modes, is being utilized with the expectation that it will assist with transfer of knowledge (Lee, 2010). It is important to consider the use of specific learning objects when planning and designing various blended learning scenarios to ensure connection. Blended learning has been a successful strategy for online education as learning objects tend to be dynamic and are geared toward a studentcentered approach that allow learners to interact with the resources at their own pace.
Methodology This study examines the new “online instructional modules” developed to augment traditional laboratory internships. First, the goals and purpose of the online learning project are discussed. Secondly, the development team will be introduced and the roles of each entity will be explained. Finally, the online learning model and the procedures used to collect the insights and perspectives of the design team members will be shared. Goals of Online Learning Project
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
•
More effective, efficient, and engaging user-centered learning experience
•
A consistent instructional design so that users will be familiar with overall format of web resources
•
Consistent navigation so that navigating the instruction in each module is similar
Purpose of the On-line Instruction •
Reach students before they come to the medical school to provide molecular biology laboratory training.
•
Reach students who are located on other islands
•
Make courses available asynchronously and student centered
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 3
The Development Team
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The development team for the Center for Cardiovascular consists of at least 3 individuals: (1) an instructional designer trained and familiar with online learning models and techniques, and who is experienced in on-line course development.; (2) a subject matter expert (SME) who is responsible for the content to be taught and who will serve as the initial instructor for the online course. In this case the team included several faculty researchers who contributed to the subject matter. (3) An instructional developer will be responsible for the on-line implementation of the course in addition to media adaption or production for the learning objects to be placed online. In addition the SME and the instructional developer will review the course for language, content accuracy, and functionality prior to being rolled out in the field. Role of Research Faculty
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The role of the research faculty is that of the SME. In an online student-centered, peerinteractive course this role shifts from being a presenter of information to a guide and coach. A technology enhanced course should provide instruction in the form of reading materials, animations, PowerPoint, videos, graphics, and other learning objects that were specifically selected and structured to implement effective instructional strategies for acquiring specific skills, which in this case were laboratory skills. The subject matter expert’s main role is to select, structure, and sequence the content materials before the course begins and to provide feedback and critique as users begin to interact with the online course materials. When selecting materials the SME should consider what skills the users will have following the course. The SME should consider what laboratory skills and techniques that will benefit the learners prior to working in a molecular biology laboratory. The SME will identify the resources from which the learners can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to learn the particular skills and techniques, including resources that teach the skills as directly as possible, without unnecessary information. Instructional designers will work in close cooperation with the SME to fine tune the instruction for more effective and efficient learning. Role of the Instructional Designer Project Management—Instructional Designers have the responsibility of managing the development project for a given course. This includes working out a development schedule, monitoring this schedule, providing progress reports to the Principal Investigator of the project, and keeping the project within budget and on schedule.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Assist with Content Analysis—Research faculty may not be as experienced in identifying and specifying which resources are best for demonstrating a skill or technique. While the instructional designers may not know the subject matter content, they can still assist the SME to identify appropriate learning resources and strategies to address the variety of techniques the users will be exposed to. Research faculties have limited experience at adapting resources for effective technique and skill development with respect to online courses. To be effective, resources often have to be modified to assist learners in acquiring specific techniques and skills. Assist with Content Development—In most cases there may not be existing resources that adequately teach the desired skills and techniques. Further, the SME may want to augment existing resources by a more focused presentation of ideas directly related to the skills or techniques under consideration. Instructional Designers, assisted by Instructional Developers, will assist faculty in developing these additional resources and will work with
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 4
media developers to develop appropriate media (tutorials, animations, videos, PowerPoints, graphics, etc.) for presenting these resources online.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Instructional Strategy—Instructional Designers will assume responsibility for adapting the content to an effective and efficient instructional strategy that will be self-paced and student centered in this project. They will adapt the molecular biology content materials to provide the most effective presentation, demonstration, and application of the necessary techniques and skills online. Instructional Designers will work with instructional developers and subject matter experts to adapt existing resources or develop new resources using media that is the most appropriate for online presentation and demonstration. Online Implementation—Instructional Designers will assume the responsibility for uploading the content to the Internet. They will work closely with the instructional media developers to assure that the proper learning resources are being utilized. The instructional designer will provide frequent reviews of the work to be sure that implementation is consistent with the research faculty’s intentions. They will work closely with faculty during the formative assessment of the course as learners are using the course. Role of the Instructional Developer
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Instructional developers will work closely with faculty and designers to adapt content materials for online delivery, to load content materials into the content management system, and to develop original content materials using multimedia technologies such as video, animations, tutorials, and PowerPoint, etc. The instructional developer is also responsible for reviewing the course in detail to edit for the proper use of English and to make sure that all the links within the modules are correct and pointing to the correct website. Further, the instructional developer coordinates with any multimedia developers or other technical staff, such as graphic artists or videographers, in the production of materials. The Online Learning Model Online learning refers to the situation where the materials to be learned are available to the student via a content management system on the Internet. Online learning provides the following capabilities: 1) resources, such as, text, video, animations, and graphics, 2) content information is communicated primarily via multimedia resources rather than lectures or classroom discussion, and 3) learners interact and discuss their work via blogs or discussion boards. All resources can be viewed at ccrhawaii.org and access is unrestricted. Open access content is not always possible, but a tremendous advantage to others and should be encouraged.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The Menu Structure—Joomla® separates the navigation from the pages. This allows developers to display different sub items for different pages. Instead of listing all the page links, and having a very long listthat has to be scrolled through, the site was developed to only display page links from the current Module. For example: Module 2 would only display Module 2’s pages in the navigation (see Figure 1). This kept the navigation items much shorter. The Module Structure—The modules were based on the four different areas covered by the site: Laboratory Introduction, Nucleic Acid Techniques, Protein Techniques, and Cell Culture Techniques. The Modules were then broken down into a Module intro page and subpages. Every intro page has a short video going over the learning objectives. The intro page would also have description of the structure of the sub-pages. Sub-pages were broken down into topic sections. Some of the topic pages would have a video demonstrating different
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 5
procedures done in the laboratory; each of these videos had a unique label of “Technique video” used as a border to distinguish it from other videos on topic pages.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Procedures Each of the three predominant individuals of the design team participated in a structured interview. All participants answered the following interview questions in exactly the same order: What was the thing you liked best about this project?, What did you perceive worked really well on this project?, What was your biggest frustration during this project?, What helped you accomplish your tasks and role the best?, What was your impression from working with this design team?, How could the development process on this project have been made easier?, Would you like to participate in another design project as a result of your experience? What are strengths in this design process/design team concept?, and What are the weaknesses in this design process? An Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine who has a PhD in Education and was familiar with qualitative research methodology conducted all the interviews. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.
Results and Lessons Learned Subject Matter Challenge
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
A challenge for the instructional designer and instructional development team was the complexity and advanced nature of the content. The content involved many multi-step procedures, and the instructional designer and developer had modest background knowledge relevant to the areas. Even the research faculty recognized their own learning while organizing materials during the project; for example, “I had to research into different techniques, organize the techniques, get a better understanding of how things are organized in molecular biology.” However, the complexity of the content area was also one of the most enjoyable elements for the design team. The instructional developer shared, “The problem solving that had to occur with dealing with the advanced subject matter. I enjoyed that part the most. Just being able to break apart that information and be a part that process and get it online that was easy to navigate…” The complexity of the subject matter could have been daunting to instructional designers or developers, but using a design team approach provided a good solution to this potential concern. The Design Team Approach Presented Solutions
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
In cases of simplistic content or easily accessible information, the designers may not have to rely on the expertise of the research faculty or SMEs. With this content, there had to be cooperation amongst all parties. Any one party, the research faculty, the instructional designer or the instructional developer, could not complete the project relying exclusively on his/her past experience or training. Many smaller tasks, such as the videographer editing a video to be uploaded on a topic page, needed the editorial advice of a research faculty, not just the instructional designer or developer. This project can be summed up by the cliché that two minds think better than one, but in this case an instructional design team, with each member playing their role, can product much richer and higher quality products more rapidly than anyone could produce on their own. The steepest learning curve within the project was the beginning, predominantly as individuals understood their role in the design process. The instructional designer reflected on how the development process could be improved for another project and identified “being clear about roles, who is doing what, being aware of limitations of roles, limitations with working with someone outside of your realm, the subject matter and trying to digest that.” Figuring out the roles was as significant a hurdle to overcome as the complexity of the subject matter. Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 6
Picking the Right Design Tool
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
The original website was developed using the Content Management System (CMS), Wordpress. At the time of development, Wordpress’ menu structure was crude. Every page had to display every sub-menu item. This made it very hard to navigate because of the large number of pages. The decision was made to switch the CMS to Joomla, due to its easy to use menu system that was customizable. Currently the DCDC has begun to more predominantly use Wordpress for a CMS. The current version has overcome many of its shortcomings. Many courses that are being developed require an instructor to be able to change content. Due to Wordpress’ easy to use administration interface, it is much easier to train someone how to use than Joomla. Furthermore, navigation is much easier to develop and it also has a much larger development community. Technology is always changing, and the right tool to use is generally up for debate.
Conclusions
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
A design team approach that used subject matter experts (research faculty), instructional designers, and instruction developers (multimedia developers and other technical staff) was the only way a project such as this one could come to fruition. Interdisciplinary cooperation was invaluable. The skills, knowledge of current trends, and expertise of each discipline substantially improves the product and work of the other discipline. This case demonstrates the professionalism, high-quality design, and user-friendly approach that made complex content more easily digested by interested parties. In this paper, the goals and purpose of the online learning project were highlighted. Further, the paper discussed the development team and the roles of each. To summarize, the role of the research faculty, instructional designer, and the developer was explained in the context of this project. A critical position, and too often underestimated role, is that of the instructional designer. This paper summarized the tasks of the intructional designer’s role as the following: project management, content analysis, content development, instructional strategy, and online implementation. Finally, the online learning model was reviewed and structured interviews were used to collect the insights and perspectives of the design team members. This paper shared the three biggest take-away lessons from the design effort. First, a design team approach seems to be a good solution for how developers should contend with complex content. Second, while a design team approach creates better products more rapidly than any one individual could on their own, the toughest initial challenge is defining roles and learning what the limitations of specific roles are. Third, selecting the right design tool or technology constantly poses a challenge.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
In sum, complex subject matter may be best approach with a design team composed of content experts (research faculty), instructional developers (multimedia specialists and other technicial experts), and a highly important mediator – instructional designers. Without a team approach to design this project would not have been realized.
Acknowledgments Funding for this research was provided through the following grants: US Department of Education Grant No. P336C050047 and US National Institutes of Health Grant No. RR16453 and HL073449.
REFERENCES Hoic-Bozic N, Mornar V, Boticki I. A Blended Learning Approach to Course Design and Implementation [Article], IEEE Transactions on Education. 2009 Writer;
Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 7
NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Larson EL, Debasio NO, Mundinger MO, Shoemaker JK. Interdisciplinary education and practice. Journal of Professional Nursing. 1996; 12(2):119–123. [PubMed: 8632098] Lee J. Design of blended training for transfer into the workplace. [Article]. British Journal of Educational Technology. 2010; 41(2):181–198. Newell, WH. Interdisciplinarity in undergraduate general education. In: Frodeman, R.; Klein, JT.; Mitchum, C., editors. The Oxford handbook on Interdisciplinarity. Oxford University Press; Oxford: 2009.
NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 8
NIH-PA Author Manuscript Figure 1.
Screen Shot of Navigation within Module 2
NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
Boulay
Page 9
NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript
Figure 2.
Example Topic Page with Technique Video Label
NIH-PA Author Manuscript Int J Des Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 December 06.
