Major Project Plan - Part II

Major Project Plan – Part II 1 Ginger Nichols IT6740: Learning Processes Applied to Instructional Technology March 8, 2009

Project Idea: My major builds on the lesson plan that I submitted earlier for class. At Janus Capital Group, there are various departments that interact with one another but they don’t fully understand what role each department serves. This knowledge gap needs to be closed because departments rely upon one another for information to complete their daily job tasks. My project is to build a company multi-media learning center regarding that explains the four departments functions. The multi-media center will contain a series of podcasts that define the role of each area and it’s importance to the other areas. The center will also house a discussion area where learners can ask questions and have them answered by their counterparts in other departments. Objectives: 1. Participants will explain, at a high level, (commas) the life cycle of a security trade from idea inception to NAV pricing. 2. Participants will define the major job functions of each department. 3. Participants will be able to explain how his/her job functions impact other departments. 4. Participants will leave the session with contacts in each department who can assist them when needed.

Learners: The learners will consist of members of the following departments:

 Compliance

 Trade Operations

 Fund Accounting

 Portfolio Accounting

The learners are located in the following locations:

 Denver, CO

 London, England Major Project Plan – Part II 2 Ginger Nichols IT6740: Learning Processes Applied to Instructional Technology March 8, 2009

 Tokyo, Japan

 Singapore

 Hong Kong, China

Participants are all adults, located throughout the world, (comma) with various backgrounds in the financial industry. Each is an expert when it comes to securities law and company procedures that apply to his/her own department.

Instructional Strategies and Learning Processes: Since the learners are located in Janus’ Offices throughout the world, it is not practical to have them all in one classroom. Providing the information via podcast makes it available to learners 24/7. This is valuable because of the time difference between each office. Using both sound and images will allow the podcasts to appeal to both auditory and visual learners.

The discussion site will facilitate communication between departments and will be moderated by the facilitator. Here Rrepresentatives canwill use the discussion area to submit questions and provide answers to each other. This taps into the learners’ prior knowledge of their own department when answering these questions. Hopefully, the conversations don’t stop at will continue beyond simple question and answer replies. When the discussion continues via the discussion area, learners through this interactive dialog will be able to connect new knowledge with old knowledge. Through interactive dialogue, learners will connect new knowledge to their current understanding. The discussion area will also make learners more actively involved in their learning experience.

The discussion site will also serve as an area for learners to exchange contact information. Here l Learners can leave their names, extensions, major job functions and a few ideas as to how they can help other departments. This activity gives control over the learning process to the learners and they learners will drive the content of in the discussion area. Major Project Plan – Part II 3 Ginger Nichols IT6740: Learning Processes Applied to Instructional Technology March 8, 2009

Media Resources: I will use Garage Band and iMovie to build the podcasts. Garage Band will allow me to record the audio track for the podcasts. I can incorporate images into the podcast with iMovie. I will record the audio tracks with GarageBand and use iMovie to incorporate images into the podcast. This will make the podcasts appeal to both auditory and kinesthetic learners. (How does this appeal to kinesthetic learners? Audio/visual)

In another class I am taking at UC Denver, IT5600, I am building a website to house my portfolio and plan to host the site here for the purposes of this class. For company use, the podcasts will be posted to the company Intranet via SharePoint.

For the group discussion area, I will use the discussion web part capability included in the SharePoint package. For class purposes, I will use Yuku for the discussion area. Yuku is a free message board provider that will serve its purpose for the purpose of this project.

Evaluation: At the end of the online training, each learner will complete a brief multiple-choice exam. Since Janus doesn’t have LMS software in place, the exam will be done via Microsoft Word and made downloadable from the site. This The exam will test the learners’ knowledge gained by viewing the podcasts. The learners will also be asked to complete a survey of the training they took. Unfortunately, this will be the typical “smile sheet” used by corporate trainers but this is the standard at Janus. (Level 1 isn't always unfortunate. You can learn a lot about what the student liked, disliked, and the value of the experience.)

The true measure of success of this program will be that learners will be able to is that representatives will know who to contact identify who can help them in other departments when questions or issues arise. This goal of the program is possibly intangible. (Then you probably need to reevaluate the business problem you are trying to solve.) However, a gauge of effectiveness can be obtained by surveying management. When problems or issues arise they are usually first brought to management. Perhaps the easiest way to determine the success of Major Project Plan – Part II 4 Ginger Nichols IT6740: Learning Processes Applied to Instructional Technology March 8, 2009 this project is for management to ask the question, “Do you know who can help you in ______department?” As a follow up, managers will be surveyed as to how well they think their representatives can answer this question. (Why survey the managers? After some time assess the participants by asking them the question.)

Cross Classes: In IT5600 I am learning how to build a website in IT5600. I will build a website to house this project. I think that customizing the site can help me to make it more appealing to learners and the site can be tailored to meet the needs of this project.