Bridging Gen Gaps To Build Resilience Instructional Design Project
Online workshop designed to explore the differences related to pressure and challenges found among adult learners including coping strategies tp build resilience.
PROJECT: Online Workshop | ROLE: Instructional Designer | TIME: 2 Weeks
PROJECT: Online Training
ROLE: Instructional Designer
DURATION: 2 Weeks
Problem Statement
Adult online learners (older than 25 years old) face several issues and challenges that may not directly impact younger learners, such as Generation Z. The most pressing of these issues has been identified as managing stress related to the balance of work and family commitments. According to a systematic review of research specific to adult online learners, aside from financial barriers - the main challenges and most frequently cited problems among older adults returning to online learning programs are stress, lack of support, and feeling of isolation.
Challenges
Instructional Goal
After completing this online workshop, learners will be able to apply one or more flexibility and resilience strategies to address their specific current challenges.
1. Given definitions of generations, learners will be able to identify the characteristics of generations and how they relate to each other.
2. Given challenges specific to adult learners, participants will be able to select the challenges that most affect their online learning.
3. Given a variety of coping methods and techniques, learners will be able to develop their own strategies to incorporate into their life daily.
Proposed Solution
After clearly understanding the needs, the problem and the performance gap, it was determined that some of the best moderating factors for adult learners included educational modules that create awareness of the specific challenges and barriers they face, as well as methods for encouraging positive thinking and ignoring negative thoughts that lead to feelings of frustration and isolation.
Therefore, a creation of an hour-long synchronous online training focused on identification of generational gaps and introduction of strategies and techniques to overcome it would be best suitable to help adult learners to cope with the difficulties they experience.
Target Audience
Adult online learners (older than 25 years old) face several specific issues and challenges that may not directly impact younger learners, such as Generation Z who may have transitioned directly from high school into college or university. Adult learners are a diverse group with a wide range of educational backgrounds and experiences, as well as personal and professional responsibilities.
Task Analysis
In order to outline to workshop content, an in-depth task analysis has been created with three main learning objectives:
1. Generational Differences Among Adult Learners
2. Challenges Specific to Adult Learners
3. Strategies for Awareness, Adaptation & Change
Course Development
By applying the traditional ADDIE model to create this online training, we first analyzed the needs of our target audience, decided on the relevant content and assessment tools, interviewed subject-matter experts and designed an outline for the workshop.
Once all the content was ready for development, we created a slideshow, instructor guide, participant booklet and student workbook to accompany the training.
After the development stage, the online workshop was reviewed by fellow instructional designers for feedback, and loaded into the learning management system to be again evaluated after the first round of delivery of the training to adult online learners.
Takeaways
After completion of the instructional design planning, research, design and development stages, and feedback from other instructional designers and industry experts, we are confident that the course address all the needs of adult online learners and will help them to overcome limitations caused by their own beliefs and stress responses. Further evaluation is pending after the training.
Thank you for previewing the Bridging Generational Gaps to Build Resilience workshop development process.
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