Final Project

INTRODUCTION 

Communicating technical processes to stakeholders takes skill and the ability to identify and focus on stakeholder, project and organizational needs, and outcomes. Knowing how to present technical knowledge in writing and in person is critical to the instructional and technical delivery process. The ISD structure is designed for communicating and documenting the processes of organizing information, developing perspective, relating components, and designing solutions and outcomes.

The information presented on technical writing, face-to-face presentations, and ISD-related templates provides effective tools that CSI staff can use for communicating technical knowledge with stakeholders. This information will help you understand the practical benefits of systems thinking for designing creative ways to communicate effectively.

Communicating with ISD

As you consider your role as a specialist in the field of instructional support, think about the way in which you process client needs and then communicate them to the client. A large part of our job in CSI is to present technical information to our clients in a variety of formats. It seems like an easy task to communicate what you yourself so clearly understand; however, for most of us, communicating what we know takes planning. Honing our understanding of technical writing principles goes hand-in-hand with using ISD models and templates to communicate technical knowledge. Consider McMurrey's thoughts on communicating technical knowledge.

The term "technical" refers to knowledge that is not widespread, that is more the territory of experts and specialists. Technical communications is the delivery of technical information to readers (or listeners or viewers) in a manner that is adapted to their needs, level of understanding, and background. This ability to "translate" technical information to nonspecialists is a key skill to any technical communicator. In a world of rapid technological development, people are constantly falling behind and becoming technological illiterates (McMurrey, 2001). Source: http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Note that this is an individual project.

Assignment Grade: 75% of course grade

The ISD Project Plan and Presentation provides an opportunity for you to apply your understanding of ISD principles to your CSI work. You should develop this assignment as though it were a deliverable for a stakeholder (client, sponsor, boss).

DELIVERABLES

1) Instructional Design Project Plan

Choose a current or recent CSI project to develop this plan. Select an ISD Model to develop an instructional design project plan.

  1. Your project plan should be clear as to how you utilize ISD processes and principles. Consider how your project plan will communicate all the necessary components of the ISD model you selected to the stakeholders and team members on the project.
  2. State which ISD model was used when developing the instructional design project plan. 
  3. The instructional design project plan should include a description of the instructional resource(s) to which your project plan is being applied. 
  4. Select a current or past project for your instructional design project plan; one that would make sense for understanding what you have learned in this course pertaining to ISD principles.
  5. Include an executive summary as though you were developing this plan for one of your clients.

2) Project Plan F2F (Face-to-Face) Presentation

  • Your F2F presentation will be a 5-10 minute explanation of your Instructional Design Project Plan.
  • You will present your Instructional Design Project Plan during an all-staff meeting at the end of the course (date will correspond with the end date of the course).

ISD-Related Templates

Templates are used to organize processes and projects to ensure that project specs have been identified and reviewed. They can be developed for a variety of purposes. Some examples for using templates:

  • project design and development
  • stakeholder updates
  • project team reports
  • assist with technical writing of summaries, reports, tutorials, proposals
  • in-person presentations

As you review the instructional unit design template below, consider ways in which a template design such as this one would benefit CSI-related work. Feel free to adapt this for your project plan and revise as needed for the ISD model you have selected.

OPTIONAL RESOURCES

Templates

The following is a list of templates for a variety of industry processes (needs assessment, project management, project evaluation, etc.) to be used as optional resources for developing your own Instructional Design Project Plan.

Supplemental Technical Writing and Presentation Materials

This brief summary of Gagne's Nine Events is an excellent resource for technical support staff to use in developing reports, presentations and training programs. http://de.ryerson.ca/portals/de/assets/resources/Gagne's_Nine_Events.pdf

The online guides listed below are good resources for writing proposals, procedures, recommendations, progress reports, as well as oral presentations.

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