Quality Educational Design of San Diego

                                         A hypothetical Corporation

Helping Entrepreneurs Get Online – Module 1

 

 

Joshua Bleier Instructional Designer – Module 1 Entrepreneur Design Team: Laura Bock, Joshua Bleier, and Ryan Campagna

Email: joshua_bleier@yahoo.com Phone: (858) 682-8252

 

Purpose

Helping Entrepreneurs Get Online is intended as a tool for small business loan officers who must help entrepreneurs decide if an online presence will be beneficial to their growing business, and if so, which type of web site would be most suitable for the developing business.

This instructional product is web-based, and it must satisfy these learner goals:

1.    why web sites are beneficial to businesses,

2.    how to identify the different types of web sites, and

3.    how to identify the right web site type for a particular business.

Module 1, the focus of this Prototype evaluation, attempts to satisfy the first learner goal listed above.

Instructional Objective from the Design Concept

The objective for Module 1 of this web-based instructional tool is:

• The small business loan officer will be able to name 5 of the 7 benefits of an online presence for a small business and accurately paraphrase the rationale for each from the data provided by the Web Presence Benefits page of the Radicon Web Site.

 

Brief Description of the Design Concept

As indicated in the Design Concept, Module 1 was developed around the following instructional methodologies:

·       The ICARE model

o      Introduce, Connect, Apply, Reflect, and Extend,

This is the method employed heavily within the Educational Technology courses at San Diego State University and elsewhere,

·       Ruth Clark’s discussion on far-transfer training for the instruction of principles

o      In this case, the principles of good business models and practice and how a web presence facilitates those principles.

 

Prototype Focus

The prototype focused the above Design Concept on one lesson component from Module 1, How a Support Web Page can decrease costs. The following pages would be prototyped for evaluation:

·       A Module Introduction, with access to all lessons (All but the Support Web Page lesson links would be stubbed out).

·       A Decrease Costs principle Introduction, with access the the Support Web Page lesson.

·       Each individual ICARE page for the Support Web Page lesson.

 

Formative Evaluation Questions

The prototype lesson described above was assessed based on the following revised Formative Evaluation Questions:

1.    Is the component easily accessible?

2.    Can the participant successfully navigate back and forth through each segment of the component to identify and retrieve the desired lesson information?

3.    Can the participant correctly answer the questions in the Apply portion of the component?

4.    Does the lesson provide clear feedback on the participant’s performance?

5.    Does the provided example have “real-world” application?

6.    Is there “buy-in” by the learner, i.e., after going through the instructional material, does the learner agree with the fundamental principles and guidelines outlined by the tool?

 

How the Module 1 Prototype was Built

Although it was made clear that development of an actual set of web pages for prototype evaluation would likely represent a mismanagement of resources, it was felt that a web-based prototype was more likely to provide useful, significant feedback. As a result, a prototype set of web pages were developed using the following:

·       Macromedia Dreamweaver MX (Web Page/Site development)

·       Microsoft Word XP (For Graphics & Titles)

·       Adobe Photoshop 5.5 (Graphic Editing)

The following screen shot of the web page shows the critical design concept features that were incorporated into the prototype for evaluation:

Time & Costs for Prototype Development

Although there were no material costs for the development of this prototype, 5 hours were dedicated to the development and evaluation of the lesson segment web pages, broken down as follows:

·       ½ hour for Clip Art selection

·       1 hour for Photoshop editing of clip art into usable web page graphics

·       2 ½ hours web page development for initial prototype

·       ½ hour prototype usability testing

·       1 hour web page enhancement based on usability feedback.

 

Methods Used to Test the Prototype

The prototype was evaluated by a small business owner (It was not feasible to find loan officers for the prototyping. The testing followed these steps:

·       The tester was provided with a brief description of the intent of the proposed web site, and the specific lesson segment for testing.

·       The tester was asked to navigate through the lesson while thinking out loud about her feelings about the lesson web pages, it’s ease of use or lack thereof, and any thoughts that struck her concerning the page’s content.

·       The developer took notes throughout the tester’s navigation through the lesson.

·       The developer initiated a brief discussion at the end of the lesson on tester’s feelings about the site and the lesson.

 

Test 1: Observations & Findings

The test participant noticed a number of aspects of the web pages that concerned her:

·       The ICARE method for lesson presentation was irrelevant and counter-productive for the tester:

o      “I don’t know if I care much for ICARE.”

o      Acted as an impediment to the rapid dissemination of information: “business owners are all about fast turnaround. This lesson got me the information too slow.”

o      Too “warm & fuzzy” for bottom-line business owners, or loan officers.

o      Tended to present information redundantly, which further lengthened the data-gathering process and frustrates the business-person.

o      If ICARE must be used, give a fuller explanation of it.

·       Not enough initial description of what a “Support Web Page” is.

·       Could have used color to highlight important data rather than Capitalization. Overall poor and inconsistent use of capitalization.

·       Information was relevant, and overall navigation was straight-forward.

Modifications Based on Findings from Test 1

The following modifications were made to the lesson segment based on user input.

·       ICARE navigation was removed (The notions of lesson introduction, connection, application, etc. remained, but were merged where appropriate).

·       Colors were used to delineate important information rather than capitalizing important words or terms within a sentence.

·       The introduction to the lesson included a fuller definition of a Support Web Page.

Lessons Learned

It was felt at the end of the evaluation and subsequent web page modification that the information gleaned from the prototype evaluation justified the development of actual web pages rather than non-interactive mock-ups.

However, it wasn’t clear if the evaluation of the prototype by one small business owner should merit the elimination of the ICARE instructional method; usage or exclusion of such a core instructional principle should probably hinge on a more rigorous and formal usability review.