Welcome to the Education Technology Section webpage. Please use the form below to submit your ideas or projects that you would like us to work on or develop. Our section produces on line resources and e-learning lessons and modules. Please note the following when submitting a project idea:
1. Who are your learners?
It’s important to know who will be taking your course, so one of your first questions should be to find out about your audience. Are they technically savvy or complete newbies? Do they have experience with the subject matter or is it completely foreign to them? Identify their knowledge level and expectations. You may also want to find out other general demographic information, just so you can build familiar context into your course. Together, these data points will help you decide what content your audience needs and the best way to present it.
2: What existing materials can you use?
You can save a lot of time and effort if you can use existing training materials and information as a starting point, so ask your client about giving you access to documents, PowerPoint presentations, past training materials, and such. It can’t hurt to ask about graphic materials as well, such as photos, logos, and other assets. Remember, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel—recycling existing content saves a ton of research and development time.
3. What additional resources are available?
Additional resources includes everything from people (Subject Matter Experts, graphic designers) to hardware (microphones, computers) and software (e-learning authoring tool, graphics software). Ask your boss or client up front what resources you’ll have available throughout the project. If you think of resources you might need, this would be a good time to point them out and ask about those.
4. What is the review process?
It’s a good idea to clearly identify and lay out the review process up front, as this is a frequent pain point in projects. When you map out the review process, build in several “checkpoints” with stakeholders throughout to help make sure your end product lives up to everyone’s expectations.
5. What are the deadlines?
Identifying deadlines up front will help you plan out your project schedules. You may need to book time with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other stakeholders, who often have tight schedules. Depending on the organization and the project, deadlines can be hard-and-fast or flexible, so it’s important to know how your client typically operates so you can manage your project accordingly.
The deadline that you request may not be the deadline that the project will end up on. Due to high volume times during the year, our section may have a multitude of other projects with similar deadlines.
This submission is the FIRST step to the overall development of your program. Once we receive this submission, we will review it and contact you for a formal sit down meeting to discuss the finer points of your project.
Please be prepared to provide us with supporting resources such as scripts, pictures, PPT presentations, or other materials that will be needed to produce your project. YOU will be an import piece in the development of the course or program.