A Collaborative Training
Environment
Winfred K. Ridley
Walden University
Dr. Ronald Paige,
Ph.D.
EDUC – 6135 Distance
Learning
May 24, 2014
Example 1:
Collaborative Training Environment
A
new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major
corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately,
the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at
the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the
corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for
these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is
that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and
documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration.
Companies
value good employees. An extensive and comprehensive staff information system
exemplifies that value by keeping employees informed of (among other things)
company developments, their salary and benefits, professional development
opportunities, and even employee discounts. However employees must understand
that, pursuant to all the employees, the system also tracks and maintains other
information such as professional development progress, email, transfers within
the organization, and types of leave (Infotrack Systems, n.d.). “Employee
engagement is an emergent property of the relationship between an organization
and its employees. One goal of a staff information system should be stronger
employee engagement. An "engaged employee" is fully absorbed in, and
is enthusiastic about their work, leading them to take positive actions to
further their organization's reputation and interests” (Wikipedia, 2014).
The
introduction of a new staff information system is a tremendous undertaking and
a disruptive innovation (the introduction of new technologies, products or
services) requiring several layers of introduction (TechTarget, 2014). Given
that the client corporation has six regional offices, consideration should be
given to the company culture (hopefully wedded throughout the organization), and
the diversity within that culture. Workplace “diversity” is now part of our
world culture and is another extension of the global economy. True diversity
“requires us to go beyond just collecting people who might look different. We
must allow them to be different once they arrive” (Young, 2007). Keeping the
audience (the employees) at the center, the staff information system should be
designed to further this aim [Instructional Design Expert (IDE), 2009]. Please
note that all employees will not have access to all components of the staff
information site to remain compliant with company propriety information and
policies, and state and federal human resource laws and regulations.
Solution to Example
1: Collaborative Training Environment
Several
distance learning technologies such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts will be
utilized during the implementation of the staff information system (Beldarrain,
2006). My distance learning solution places this company’s staff information on
the Sharepoint platform, (http://www.discoversharepoint.com/)
SharePoint stores, syncs, and shares, content; keeps everyone on the same page;
helps employees stay on track and deliver on time, and helps employees stay
connected with key people across the organization (SharePoint, 2013).
The solution
incorporates Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance, and relies on [employee]
independent study as akey component. Transaction distance intertwines
environment, individuals, and their pattern of behavior (Simonson, Smaldino,
Albright & Zvacek, 2012, pg. 44). The initial introduction will occur through
a series of twelve blog posts over three months in the weekly company newsletter.
These posts will include the reason for the implementation, the general
features, (including directions for access) of the system, and expectations for
employees. Critical elements such as important company information, employee-managed
responsibilities for professional development, links to employee leave procedures,
and portals to internal and external resources will also be described. The blog
will be delivered via company-wide email which will ask for a “read receipt.” An
exploratory question of the week relating to the implementation will be included
for employee comments. Blogs are user friendly and are an asset in business and
educational organizations (Beldarrain, 2006). The blog implementation component
takes advantage of Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance and addresses structure:
more structure/more distance (Simonson et al, 2012).
SharePoint Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvn3qNAdF2Y
(Youtube, 2014).
Continued
execution of the staff information system will be carried out by a linked collection
of Web podcasts. To gain additional facts about their connection to the system
employees will access these audio and video files via RSS feed according to
their staff assignment so they remain compliant with their assigned duties
within their department (e.g. professional development) and/or other areas of
interest, to discover information within other areas of the company, or to seek
details about promotion opportunities elsewhere in the corporation. Employees
will have access to podcasts anytime during the day or evening wherever they are
located. Here, the implementation dovetails with Malcolm Knowles’ Andragogy
Theory of distance education giving employees the opportunity to “self-direct”
their learning (Simonson et al, 2012, pg. 50).
Wikis
are assimilated into the staff information to allow employees to work on professional
development or projects. For example, in the area of professional development employees
will design a learning plan according to their strengths and weaknesses giving
them control of their own development (IDE, 2009). Their learning plan will
contain a goal setting and professional learning component describing what
goals they set for themselves, how they will go about accomplishing those goals
and a formative and summative evaluation component. The forms in the evaluative
section will relate the details of professional learning in which they have
participated and self-evaluation reflections reviewing their own performance. Professional
development benchmarks will be submitted periodically (at least every six
months) to supervisors or department heads for review and feedback. To facilitate
efficient teamwork on projects, employees will utilize such technologies as
InstaColl and Writeboard (now Basecamp). These technologies will incorporate
real-time project input and feedback and will allow employees to work
synchronously as well as asynchronously across teams, disciplines, and
departments (Beldarrain, 2006). These technologies will expose employees to
direct, purposeful learning experiences on which to build future collaborative
projects putting to use “Dale’s Cone of Experience”
(Simonson
et al, 2012, pg. 92).
.
.
“Navigation
of blogs, podcasts and wikis will be intuitive, appearance will not obstruct the
learning process, text and graphics will be balanced, and pages will
uncluttered. In addition, page fonts and layouts will maintain consistency, Web
pages will be user-friendly to aid scanning, and information will be chunked into
small bits to help retention” (IDE, 2009).
All
blogs, wikis, and podcasts address separation of teacher-student,
student-student, student-resources, time, place, geography, and administrative
data collection (Simonson et al, 2012, pg. 50) (Paige, 2014).
References
Beldarrain,
Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster
student interaction and collaboration.
Distance Education 27(2), 139-153.
Infotrack
Systems Pvt. Ltd. I(n.d.) Retrieved from http://info-track.com/employee.pdf
on May 24, 2014.
InstaColl,
(2014). Retrieved from http://www.instacoll.com/products_instasecure.html
Instructional
Design Expert, (2009). The five eLearning components. Retrieved from
Paige,
R. (2014). Laureate Education. Retrieved from
SharePoint,
(2013) Retrieved from http://www.discoversharepoint.com/
TechTarget,
(2014). Disruptive innovation. Retrieved from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/disruptive-innovation
Wikipedia
(2014). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement
Writeboard
(now Basecamp), (2014). Retrieved from https://basecamp.com/
Young,
C. (2007). Organization culture change: The bottom line of diversity. Diversity
Factor, 15(1), 26–32.
YouTube,
(2014). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvn3qNAdF2Y
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