YAFUEL 2. Instructional goals

The second step in YAFUEL framework is Instructional goals, that is, what are we trying to accomplish with the actual course?

Why is this important? As Lewis Carrol states in his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : "If you don't know where are you going, any road can take you there".

If we don't know what are we trying to accomplish in our course, how do we know if we finally did so? The whole course design should adapt to our instructional goals.

One departure point can be Bloom's Taxonomy or the revised version of the model from Lorin Anderson and Dr. David Krathwohl. But instructional goals are not limited to the cognitive part: Affective and psychomotor goals should be considered too.

Once our instructional goals are clear, we can move forward to the next step in the framework: The student.








(picture taken from Wikipedia).

YAFUEL 1. Project management

The first step in YAFUEL is Project Management. Why? Because if you don't plan things and keep control of what is happening, you are probably going to be surprised frequently with issues and problems of the project.

So if you are going to start with an e-learning project, you need to consider, among other things:

1. Stakeholders. Who are the stakeholders of the project? Who wins if the project is successful? (and who defines what is a successful project?) who loses if the project fails? Who is involved and who is affected by the project? What are the expectations of the different participants? Are they realistic? who has the power? who can decide? what information does every major stakeholder needs?
2. Goals, restrictions and assumptions. What is the definition of a successful project? how do we know when we are finished? what do we have to achieve? What restrictions does the project has? how can they affect us? What are the main assumptions? how can we be sure that there are no hidden assumptions?
3. Deliverables. What deliverables does the project requires? (including those for managing the project) How are they related? What are the restrictions and standards for each deliverable? (deliverables include products as well as services)
4. Approval. What is the criteria for approval? What is the procedure? Who does the approval?
5. Activities. Based on the deliverables: what activities do we need to include? how are they related to each other? do they have an order? Also important: How do we ensure quality in the project? what additional activities do we need to consider? who is going to be responsible? what quality standards are we establishing for the project?
6. Resources. For each activity: what is the effort needed? (how many man-days, hours or months). What resources do we need? (personnel, equipment, etc.). Do we need to buy tools? rent them? What roles do we have in the project? who is responsible for what? who participates in which activity? When are they participating? When do they need to be incorporated in the project?
7. Calendar. What is the duration for each activity? How can they be realized in time? 
8. Budget. Based on the activities, resources and calendar: what is the cost of the project? do we have funding limits? what cash flow do we need? what is the benefit at the end?
9. Communication. How are the different roles in the project going to communicate? what information do they need? how often? how is it going to be delivered (media)?

Hope this can be helpful!

Yet another framework for understanding e-learning: YAFUEL

In the journey to understand e-learning, and more specifically, in trying to convert face-to-face courses to e-learning format, it is hard to see the whole (the forest) because you get lost among several theories, models, frameworks, tools, best practices, advices, etc. (the trees).

This is what happened to me and that is why I am creating a framework that makes e-learning easy to understand. I call it YAFUEL or Yet-another-framework-for-understanding-e-learning (Please note that it I am not trying to create new knowledge in the field but rather another way to see things, that is, just a  a map).

YAFUEL has 7 steps to a successful e-learning:

1. Project management - How are we going to control the project? to share information? to clarify roles and goals?
2. Instructional goals.- What are we trying to accomplish in terms of the Bloom taxonomy? Do we have emotional affective or psychomotor goals?
3. Students.- What are they expectations about the course? where are they going to apply the knowledge? how independent are? what technology skills do they have? can they do online research? how to post?
4. Instructor.-  Does the instructor has previous experience with e-learning? what technology skills does she have? what availability of time does he/she have? what are his expectations?
5. Course structure.- (in terms of Michael G. Moore) Modules, material, testing, calendar. This is the content of the actual face-to-face course
6. e-Instructional strategies.- Based on our understanding of the first five steps: How are we going to accomplish the instructional goals using e-learning? what are we going to do with transactional distance? are we going to establish the instructor expectations at the beginning of the course? what level of participation are students having? how do we motivate them? are we having completion dates? should we use scenario learning? is the course going to be mostly asynchronous or synchronous, or a mix? are we providing guidance? how are we going to provide feedback?
7. E-tools.- Based on the instructional strategies, what e-tools are we going to use? discussion boards? chat sessions? periodic news? e-mail? videos? FAQ? 

The next picture shows a graphic view of YAFUEL:

What do you think? Please leave your comments. Thank you.