Showcase of Work Samples
This page highlights examples of my work and research into the areas of web-based and gameful instructional systems design. It is organized into two broad categories:
- Web-Based Learning and Teaching Resources showcases my skills and experience in planning technology-rich lessons, developing content for online and face-to-face delivery, and Web design and publishing.
- Serious Game Design and Research showcases my skills and experience in identifying and analyzing design problems, conducting background research as well as user experience research, and designing game-based systems to enhance learning.
Web-Based Learning and Teaching Resources
Website and Blog: Look Up!
Look Up! is a web-based resource and blog for astronomy literacy. The site content focuses on stargazing, basic astronomy, and some of the cultural and historical significance of both. Content is written and designed for young learners and emerging English language readers at about the fifth or sixth grade level. The site is designed so that learners can explore the content on their own, but it could also be included to supplement a teacher-led physics or space science class. In addition to designing the site structure and concept, I researched and developed all text content and curated graphic and video elements. I feel this site is an excellent example of my ability to communicate complex technical information to nontechnical audiences. It also demonstrates my skills in webpage design and use of different media to illustrate concepts.
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Interactive Presentation: Present and Past Tense Review
I created this short Prezi presentation as one of the materials in the “Advanced English as a Second Language” course module I developed for a class project. The presentation is meant to be a review/refresher for intermediate-level ESL students beginning the course. It demonstrates my use of a combination of different media to present learning content.
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Course Module: Advanced English as a Second Language
I developed this module as a hybrid "flipped" classroom design based on my experiences teaching in-person, nonformal ESL classes. students would spend several hours each week working with multimedia content online through the content management system, then meet in-person with the instructor for group activities, games, and extra help with content presented online. Most of the speaking skill practice would happen during in-person sessions, but students could engage in reading, writing, and listening practice online, at their own pace.
The module contains three related lessons that build to a final project. To outline the curriculum and lesson objectives, I followed the Pennsylvania ESL Content Standards for Adults and included proficiency level descriptors. This module demonstrates my abilities to plan and create online lessons by developing content from a variety of sources and using tools such as CourseSites, Google Docs, Camtasia studio, and YouTube. |
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Name: gvisit1000
Pass: ME3R2LFT
Lesson Plan: Intro to Court Reporting and Transcription
I developed this lesson plan as part of an action research project. Action research is a professional development technique used by educators to pilot test new pedagogical strategies and/or educational technologies in live classes or with test students. Educators observe student reactions during the test, then survey students after the test, analyze results, reflect on ways to further improve integration of the new strategies or technology, and develop a new iteration of the lesson.
I developed my lesson as a re-imagined version of the new typist trainee orientation I deliver as a trainer. Our curriculum does not include explicit instruction on listening or techniques to improve listening comprehension, even though attentive listening is a vital skill for success. We also do not spend much time helping trainees to build foundational knowledge of the legal system or the court reporting profession, even though the positions require no prior experience. In my lesson plan, I combine Web technologies including YouTube videos and interactive transcripts with dialogue, reflection, and authentic practice to address both gaps. I feel this is an excellent example of my ability to design technology rich face-to-face lessons. |
Podcast: What makes for a great online course?
In this podcast, I interviewed one of the lead instructional designers I had worked with previously on the subject of online courses. We discuss elements of great online courses and aspects of great course design including ways to facilitate collaboration among online students, considerations for media and technology use in the course, and advice for evaluating student learning. I feel this is a great example of my skills as an interviewer as well as my ability to record and edit quality audio for podcasts. For this project, I used Audacity to record and edit the interview content, then mix in freely available music as bookends.
Serious Game Design and Research
Game Design: Game of Phones--Serious Card Game for Language Skills Development
Game of Phones is a quick-to-play card game that challenges players to recognize and think creatively about phonemes--the basic sounds of words. In Game of Phones, players compete to assemble as many words as they can from randomly drawn sets of phonemes. The “sound puzzles” in Game of Phones help transcriptionist trainees to build listening and phonetic writing skills that will be vital to their success on the job.
I designed Game of Phones to supplement the transcriptionist training program at the court transcription company where I work. My goal was to build the attentive listening skills of trainees by requiring players to recognize and think creatively about the basic components of spoken language. |
Design Research: User Observation Report
This report documents my findings from user observation research related to a game design project for English as a Second Language learners. These findings helped to inform the design concept of the game as well as some of the core features that I later prototyped. I included this as an example of my ability to collect, analyze, synthesize, and draw conclusions from various types of data. I also feel it is an excellent example of my report writing and document design skills.
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Presentation: Dialogue Trees Mini-Lecture
I developed this powerpoint presentation as a “mini-lecture” discussing Dialogue Trees in computer-based games. I explain what Dialogue Trees are, why they are important to a game's aesthetic, how they can be a critical part of the learning goals in serious games, and why they should be. I describe tools and processes for creating game dialogue, and I also discuss some of the things I have learned from my experience contributing to the design of a narrative-driven game for training.
I feel this is an excellent demonstration of my knowledge and experience related to writing content for learning games as well as my skills at creating presentations using PowerPoint. I did not record audio for this presentation, but my script is included in the slide notes. |