Carly Finkel

767 Designing Computer Based Training

Final Reflection
Designing this project was an enjoyable and educational experience which
has encouraged me to feel more accomplished as an Instructional Designer moving
into the field. Now when interviewing or showing my portfolio to potential
employers, I will have evidence that I am capable of designing RLO learning
modules in addition to course development, which to date has been my primary
strength.
Upon embarking on this project, I made the decision to keep my topic
relatively simple (refrigerator organization) while allowing for sufficient topic
development. I wanted to focus primarily on the design of my RLO as opposed to a
highly in depth topic, mainly because this is my first experience using Articulate. I
found that this approach was very helpful and that the topic I selected worked
wonderfully for this project in my estimation.
The first question I asked myself when beginning the design of this RLO was
how to most efficiently sequence the content. I decided to use a simple top-down
or sequential approach to the organization of the refrigerator because I realized that
most adults typically look at their refrigerator from the top down, so building my
course to mirror that seemed to be a wise choice. I wanted to keep the visual
design of my RLO simple and light, electing to use a plain white background while
emphasizing the content by aligning the zones of the refrigerator with a designated
color. I realized that this might be prohibitive to people with vision impairment, so I
elected to add numbers to these colored elements as well. I feel that this not only
will serve those with vision impairments, but also further reinforces the connection
between the two elements; this I feel is a good example of universal design
principles at work in my design process.
The assessment method I chose was a drag and drop activity to simulate the
physical zones of the refrigerator and which types of food groups belong in each. I
thought this would resonate more fully with learners as opposed to another type of
assessment as it more practically imitates the real life application of the learning
objective (physically placing objects in the correct place.)
My partner for the usability test provided excellent feedback. She noticed
some small navigation issues which I remedied, and gave me some very helpful
suggestions. As a result of her feedback, I added an Exit option to exit the course
completely, options to hide click events once opened, and changed the font on one
click event to a darker color to be more easily read. I appreciated having a new set
of eyes on my RLO because I found that as a designer you can develop tunnel
vision and it helps to have an outsider come in and test out your prototype.

Moving forward, I would like to try my hand at more complicated branching

scenarios with more complex content to further learn about designing CBT. I would
also like to become proficient at other common programs, especially Captivate.