Project Wrap-up

I am one of the stacks managers at the ASU Belk Library and Information Commons in Boone, NC. When beginning my job 3 years ago, I received no training and had to train my students based on how I thought best. I received no feedback from other parts of the library or from patrons. After 3 years, I have personnally accumulated various statistics about my department, and assessed what I wanted to improve. However, I had no guidance on implementing or even how to begin. I have employeed the same 7-10 students for the past 3 years, and since I worked a similar schedule to my emplyees, was able to train, correct, and evaluate them. However, in the past year, most of my assistants have graduated, and my new assistants and I work very different schedules, which doesn't allow me to train them as efficiently and effectively as before.

Over the past several months, I have learned various new tools, processes, and technologies available to incorporate into instructional design. Although not incorporating many of the new technologies into my project, I can see the value of using these mediums in other projects, especially ones involving distance education.

Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism forms of learning allows the instructor various possibilities when constructing and implementing ID. Realizing that learners incorporate knowledge in different ways allows the instructor to invent new ways of reaching learners or to create more than one way for people to learn, such as incorporating reading, lecture/discussion, and a project into a class.

By learning new models, such as Tennyson's fourth generation ISD and Dick and Carrey's model, I realized that one needs to assess and evaluate your project constantly. You need to assess whether your strategy is effective, and with the vast amounts of technology and ideas being formulated daily, you're bound to be able to incorporate at least one of them. The ADDIE model seems to be the basis for many models, so it tends to be the most well-know and used, at least in my perspective. I found the ADDIE model to be the most effective when creating my project. I assessed where I was, where I wanted to be, how much my current students knew, how to train and evaluate them, and the progress that occurred as a result.

The processes I deemed most valuable to my ongoing project are needs assessment, learner and contextual analysis, and task analysis. I was able to focus on what was currently happening in my department and where I deparately needed to be. The needs assessment portion allowed to address where I was lacking in my department. As with all projects, the instructor must assess the current situation and what the desired situation. Although most of my students were proficient at shelving, I needed to constantly remind them to perform other tasks, and many were unfamiliar with the computer applications portion of the job. After 7 years of supervision, I eventually realized that people learn differently, and I incorporated learning styles into my interview questions so I would know how to communicate with new employees, but I did not know how to incorporate it into the training aspect. Being able to train employees based on their current knowledge and how they learn allows me to become more effective supervisor in training them. However, many young people are unaware of their best learning techniques. When doing the task analysis portion, I realized how many projects and duties my department is responsible for. Many of the tasks I never "trained" assistants on, I simply demonstrated how I wanted the end result. Performing a thorough task analysis allows the instructor to focus on each task individually, and what must be done to do it to the desired results.

The goals and objectives portion of the project allowed me to combine duties into similar groups and allowed me to think about the direction I wanted my department to follow. By setting goals and formulating specific objectives, I am able to keep myself and my assistants on tract. As for new technologies, I am very limited as to the resources I have available to me for training purposes. Many of the new technologies covered in this course would most likely not be supported beyond powerpoint presentations and manual-creation. Second-life would be interesting and fun to incorporate into training. However, since training time is limited to the learners/workers' schedule (10-15 hours/week, or 2-3 hours/day), Second-life is too time consuming to incorporate. Overall, setting goals allows the instructor to formulate what needs to be done to get the desire results, and objectives allows the instuctors to specifically achieve those goals and specific results.

The assessment and evaluation portion of this class allowed me to re-evaluate the methods that I currently use. For some tasks, my current methods are adequate, such as shelving slips. But even these are not foolproof. Shelving slips and logs allow me to monitor my assistants' work during different working hours, but I've known students who would fill them out or create shelving slips without doing the work. For this, I rely on feedback from other employees, my assistants, and specific materials still located in the workroom.

Beginning spring semester 2008, I plan to work individually with each student to increase their patron assistance skills. This seems to be my department's most lacking skill. I plan to have each of them look up various materials (learner analysis) to assess their current skills and to formulate a cheat sheet, eventually to be a manual, to be followed when addressing patrons.

Assessment and Evaluation

Goal 1 - To provide knowledgeable assistance to patrons with confidence
Objective -Know the LC system to locate materials in a timely manners
Objective - Know the integrated library systems to perform reference searches in relation to locating materials
Objective - Be able to troubleshoot computer and printer problems, and know who to contact for further assistance
Assessment - After 1 month (2 weeks training, 2 weeks practice), the student assistant will be asked to locate various material based on limited information and perform routine printer/computer checks. Supervisor and assistant will communicate on regular basis concerning confidence and ability to perform tasks and assist patrons.
Evaluation - If the student can locate material accurately and perform printer check, then the student assistant will be deemed knowledgeable in this category

This authentic assessment will be given to student asssitants in the workroom on an individual basis. Confidence portion is informal and an alternative assessment.

Goal 2 - To know and perform daily routine
Objective - Perform pick-up
Objective - Retrieve sorted materials from behind Circulation desk
Objective - Shelve materials
Objective - Straighten and shelf read for 15 minutes each shift
Assessment - Assistants will be assessed based on their contribution and their ability to perform duties accurately. The supervisor will monitor activity and accuracy during work time.
Evaluation - If the assistant contributes a fair share of work in relation to work load, scheduled work time, and in comparison to other assistants, then the supervisor will deem the assistant proficient at knowing and performing dailiy routine.

This authentic assessment will be monitored based on log sheets and shelving slips.

Goal 3 - How to occupy time during downtimes and unsupervised periods
Objective - Straighten and shelf read
Objective - Inventory
Objective - Missing list
Objective - Shifting
Assessment - Assistants will be assessed based on their individual contribution and their ability to perform work accurately. Feedback from other library employees, assistants, and patrons will also contribute to final evaluation.
Evaluation - If the assistant demonstrates that (s)he can work efficiently, effectively, and accurately during downtimes and unsupervised periods, then the supervisor will deem the assistant proficient in productivity.

This authentic assessment will be monitored based on log sheets and shelving slips.