Instructional Project: Templated Web Page Training for Teachers

Front-end Analysis

System Layout

Project Proposal

Appendix A – Milestone Events and Activities

Appendix B -- Staffing Plan

Appendix C – Staffing Matrix

Appendix D – Projected Budget

Annotation

Context and Conditions

“Web Page Training for Teachers” was completed in Spring 2006 as a class project for MIT 510: Design and Development of Instructional Technology during my second semester in the MIT program. It was completed as a class project under the guidance of Dr. Mahnaz Moallem as a macro-instructional design project focusing on teachers in Pender County Schools where I was serving as the district Instructional Technology Coordinator. The project was a response to a mandate from the Superintendent that all teachers would develop and maintain a web page for communication with parents. The district had purchased a templated site from Edline and teachers were expected to use it for communicating classroom news and other information to parents. No budget was originally granted for this project, but, as the proposed budget was developed during the front-end analysis, a federal grant for teacher technology professional development was identified as a funding source. This project was a re-design and extension of a previous initiative to provide web-page training to teachers. Through the process of needs assessment, it was determined that the previous training did not provide the teachers with training that was applicable to their current situation. Review of extant data revealed that only 30% of teachers had updated their web pages in a one-month period, resulting in out-of-date information being posted for parents. Results of a survey identified time and development skills to be the main cause of the lack of updating. Solutions were developed to design an effective training program that included extra time for unstructured development under the supervision of a subject-matter expert.

Scope

This project was a proposal based on front-end analysis report consisted of a needs analysis, problem analysis, cause analysis, and summary of proposed solutions. It also included an implementation plan that identified deliverables, resources, timelines and a budget for the project. The project was implemented the following year and saw some success (updating increased to an average of 60%), although the Superintendent relaxed his mandate and the district adopted a new web page development system through SchoolCenter in Fall 2007. The front-end analysis and implementation plan from this project helped shape the new training initiative.

Role

For this project, I worked with two other graduate students. I served as system subject-matter expert, project manager and co-instructional designer. In my role as Instructional Technology Coordinator, I was able to gain access to a variety of information and personnel for the front-end analysis. In developing the data collection instruments, interventions and project timeline, our team worked collaboratively.

Reflection

Although I had been serving as the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the school district for more than six months, this was the first time I had been able to step back and analyze the system. This was also my first time working within the domain of management, identifying constraints, allocating resources and developing a budget and timeline for the project. This experience not only increased my understanding of systemic planning, but also my understanding of project management, a role that I continued to play as a district Instructional Technology Coordinator.