Organisational+Problem

=Specific Problem:=

// Sharing Personal Experiences of Organizational Problems, possible solutions and attempts at solutions //. =**Post 2 **: Read all other posts. Select ONE post other than your own. For your chosen post ask a question, post a comment and suggest a solution. You would need to collaborate with the author to suggest a solution. This would involve multiple posts and discussions. (6 marks) = = = =Solution ( include name )= || =Response Column= || 2. Because of the above issue, this caused the team to work extra hours in order to edit the content, rerecord voice over, as well as other aspects in the authoring process. This in turn also caused the team to be burned out while in the development process of the course wares.
 * Task **
 * Post 1 ** : Describe in detail a productivity, efficiency or an output problem of your organization or any other organization. (4 marks)
 * =Name= || =Problem Experienced= || =Question/Comment/Possible Solution ( Include name )= ||  || =Question/Comment/Possible=
 * Enna || 1. in company XYZ, clients still ask to make content changes at the authoring stage of the elearning development. This caused several problems because it will (in reality) delay the timeline for project delivery. Clients on the other hand still expect the project to be delivered on time.

Enna, after the team works flat out, do the clients get what they want, i.e. are they finally satisfied when they get the produc || 1. How would you resolve this issue? as time and again the team has voiced out that more time need to be focused on the content analyzing and content proposal in the ID process, however what are the more efficient steps you can think about? What are the possible solutions you may offer for company XYZ? Enna, if this was an ID problem, how would you resolve it?

Sir, if it is up to me, I will spend more time in Content analysing phase and work closely with the SMEs on identifying the content:- which is important for them to include in the elearning and which content to leave out. However, the leadership of my company is not comfortable with this approach bec generally the "big companies" in Malaysia unlike in the Western countries refuse to pay big amount of money for consultation, they want to see and get result quick. The elearning developer on the other hand need to get paid so they can pay their employees. ..

So, another approach is to do away with storyboard reviews all together and do Rapid eLearning. We're trying rapid elearning full swing this year utilising online authoring tools like Smartbuilder and Articulate. First project using Rapid will roll out in March. (Enna)

Hi Enna, I agree with you that more time should be spent at the analysing phase. The mistake made by companies are they quickly jump into the development phase. The analysis phase will actually overcome any challenges from the beginning but its sad that some people do not notice this and when once the development takes place to come back and identify the problem becomes a bigger challenge. Analysis is all about begin with the discovery process. Jumping to development start can also be risky and very costly. (Jesvin)

A possible solution is they need to be educated about the phases to have a better understanding on the importance of each phases such as ADDIE methodology that we learnt in MIDT. The ADDIE analysis phase serves a major role in the quality assurance process. Such as: Wrong focus— content may not address the company's business needs

If rushing to development, one may not catch those errors until the contents is launched. At that point, it can be very costly to fix or redesign the course. In essence, the training needs analysis is time well-spent. I guess they should be educated on this. :).....just a thought Enna. (Jesvin) ||  || Before preferring solutions, let us clear some important issues: 1. When content changes are to be made, is it not right contractually to change delivery dates? 2. If delivery dates cannot be changed, is it not possible to hire more staff to help in completing content changes and join in working faster on the project?

1.Olubiyi. . . by right it should, but the stress to an elearning company here is that there are other competitors. Clients know this and use this card very well. Also the timeline is often tied up with the client's KPI or the launching of an important project of the clients. So we the staff are often at the losing end. 2. More staff means more overhead. . . unless if it is a big elearning company like the US's ACS Xerox where I use to work at, they can afford to have IDs on layaways, local small elearning companies could not afford to do this and therefore like to keep their staff small. Of course, we thought of hiring freelancers, we are still looking at this. . . (Enna)

At times I wonder why the management or authorities try to maximize profit and gain by exposing their staff to undue pressure that could have easily be resolved by the employment of more staff? For example, in the problem I have just posted, the same small number of staff in each program are the ones expected to: i. write course materials ii. set the tutor marked assignments (TMA) (20 objective questions per TMA to the tune of 4 TMAs per course) iii. set the examination questions (60 objective questions; 60 fill-in-the-gaps and 10 essay based questions) iv. edit and prepare course materials written by others for publication. Despite the enormity of these courses, as far as the management is concerned, they academic staff are not working as they should. Is it not true that people get burnt out when they are overworked as in the case of XYZ company? (Olubiyi Adewale)

Olubiyi. . . ditto. One thing we did right is to have the SMEs set the assessment questions, so less work for IDs. (Enna)

Enna, you assume we are used to your abbreviations. Please who are the SMEs and the IDs? Though I guess the IDs are the instructional designers! (Olubiyi)

Ohh sorry bout that. . . SME is short for Subject Matter Expert. They are the people who's responsibility is to provide the Instructional Designer (ID) with the content for course materials/ courseware for elearning or for lesson. Without SMEs, ID's job will be so much more. .

SME can be the expert of any subject matter and they can hold different positions in any organisations, they can be professor of HPT like Yousof, who is teaching us this course, or trainers in management, products and services, teachers etc. In short, they are the experts in what they know. Hence the name SME. (Enna) ||  || The challenge also causes difference among the teachers performance? How would tis be resolved? One way that I feel is that these teachers need to overcome their fear of technology and look at it in another way where technology can help in their performance. Using technology in classroom is also highly encouraged and students are more interested when technology tools are used in class and it also makes teachers work much more easier. Jesvin, have you written this column? This column is for the use of the other students on the problem you mentioned in the first column.
 * Jesvin || Due to the demand from Ministry of Education, teachers are now required to type out their lesson plans and print it out a day before their lesson. Which I feel is a good idea. The challenge is that some teachers are so used to the traditional approach and find it time consuming to type their lesson plans as they are not comfortable with computers and end up using a lot of time. In result, they find it challenging to use their free time to prepare interesting lesson and complete other work such as marking. Currently I see some teacher spending most of their time preparing lesson plans when the main aim is to work on materials, lessons and students. Paper can say anything but the end result is the teaching that takes place in the classroom. || How can we resolve this challenges that indirectly becomes are problem in the organisation performance?

Yes Prof I wrote on this column. I got confuse with the columns. (Jesvin) ||  || Jesvin, I suppose all teachers had a training session in using computers, if not than I would suggest that a short course be given to all of them on the use of computers. Secondly I would suggest that an electronic template be provided to all of them. In that way they can just type the lesson part on the template. Teachers should also be made aware that if they do it once they do not need to repeat it the following year, because they have it already and can therefore just adapt and improve it. The long term benefit should be conveyed through to them as well. Technology can be used to our advantage and to make teaching and learning interesting if we know how to use it effectively. Wynand Can you please identify yourself.

Hi Wynand, Yes, I think an electronic template is a good idea. The challenge is that some teachers are just so caught up with traditional method of just writing in down, I am talking about senior teachers. And yes, trainings are provided and they are aware about long term benefits. It is about their paradigm shift. And I agree with that technology makes learning interesting as when students share their thoughts with me they enjoy my lesson and few other teachers because we include various other ways to teach such as videos, powerpoint and etc. (Jesvin) ||  || The question is how can we encourage tutors to use technology to improve the results of the students. We had a training session to show the tutors how to use the technology in class and how to make the classes more interesting.
 * Wynand || In Namibia we have two external examinations one at the end of Grade 10 and one at the end of Grade 12. All learners who fail either of these examinations enroll for distance education to pass or improve their grades. It is a challenge in itself, but as an option to improve their grades some measures are put in place at the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). At head office of NAMCOL a team of developers develop educational resources to help the tutors when they present classes to the students and the idea is that they should use these resources. The problem is that the tutors do not use these resources to the benefit of the students.

Wynand, how can we find out where the problem or gap is? || Wynand, what are the method the tutor preferred? Have you asked the tutors why are they apprehensive in using technology? Are the broadband in Namibia sufficient to support online education? (Enna) The tutors are only used to the traditional method of teaching and on their request we developed the multimedia for them. We had training sessions to show them how to use it in class and provided a laptop and projector for the purpose. We do not need internet for the purpose and we gave them the multimedia on CD or DVD. On the question why they are apprehensive in using technology? I think it could be technophobia, because most of them are not computer literate. (Wynand)

I see. . . I met a professor of a university in Spain with the same problem as yours. . .perhaps a change of perception is what they need to do. The awareness to change is the problem yeah? Hence this class Human Peformance Technology. . . how can we get everyone to be on the same page? The tools are easy to use. . . it's the tool in the head which is hard to tweek. Some institutions will hire people who are more technologically savvy to replace those who are not technologically savvy, but if to retain employees perhaps pairing those tutors who may be techophobic (but have ample of other useful hands on experience) with another tutor as an assistant who is technologically savvy. What do you think? (Enna) ||  || Hi Wynand, I can understand your challenges as it is similar to mine. I guess end of the day its all about the individual if he or she wants to make the changes. I believe if tutor/teacher is passionate about his/her job to help students then they will sure make a effort to improve themselves and use the resources given. We also had many trainings to show the importance of technology in the classroom but I guess its all about changes that they have to accept with the current generation. Our principal also installed LCD in each classroom but only few teachers use the resources provided. Thus, I believe it starts from the beginning when they are employed, technology background should also be checked on. I agree with Enna on this matter, hire people with technology savvy. (Jesvin) ||  || 1. The number of academic staff is very low compared to the task and the non-academic staff. 2. As a result of the fact that the demands of the work overwhelm the number of staff, productivity becomes low. 3. Finally, when academic staff writes course materials, management feels that paying them for it is not justified as they are paid salaries. 4. As a result of the non-availability of course materials, the University Management feels that the academic staff are not performing. Finally, while everyone is blaming everyone else, nothing gets done and the time is going away faster.
 * Olubiyi Adewale || One of the major problems facing National Open University of Nigeria is the non-availability of the course materials to be used by the students, especially, those at the higher levels. Several issues have led the university to this level:

Olubiyi, in your opinion, how can the problem be solved?

In my opinion, the issue is straight-forward and could be addressed easily. The first step in the resolution of the problem is for the management of the university to employ more academic staff to reduce the workload on the academic staff. Let me cite an example here, The Christian Theology unit of the university where I belong has 4 program: Certificate, Diploma, Degree and Post-Graduate Diploma. For these programs, there are four academic staff on ground to administer over 72 courses and also write course materials, set examination questions, set and administer Tutor Marked Assignment (our version of CA), the workload is just overwhelming. Going by the blueprint of the university, a course coordinator is expected to oversee only 8 courses, hence there is the need for 9 courses coordinators and 3 program leaders. Now we have two program leaders and 1 coordinator. If this is addressed, a larger pert of the problem would be solved.

Secondly, there is the need to set up a motivation scheme for those who are faithfully writing course materials. The open accusations of the academic staff should stop because disgruntled workforce would make no impact.

Thirdly, people who are not computer literate should not be employed so that the pace of work would be faster. (Olubiyi).

Olubiyi, how does the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) measure/evaluate its output or success? Dropout rates, pass/fail rates, income? Are these linked to courses and course materials? Who is responsible for delivering success? Before changes can be justified, a performance measure will let the administrators see what is going on. They will then look for ways on how to improve things.

If I an going to be frank, I have not seen any systematic measurement put in place for evaluation in NOUN. Few of the academic staff have tried to do this, as two of us had done this for African Council of Distance Education in 2007 and some other tow have done some papers that I am aware of. This has not been done however as commissioned by the University. From my paper which used the MBA program as a case study and also using the Lagos Study Center as a case study, I discovered over 80% attrition rate. This has however improved as certain things have improved in the University. Recently, I am thinking of doing a paper that would do some human capital measurement for the School of Arts and Social Sciences and then send a copy of the paper officially to the Vice Chancellor hoping that I may strike a chord that may make the university do a University-wide human capital measurement. Attrition rate is a good start! For your paper did you interview some of the drop outs? Did you list any causes? Did you ask the administrators what would be a desired attrition rate? || Olubiyi, I can see that there is a lot of challenges with regard to course material. It is normally an issue also when it comes to academic staff writing course material, because Management normally feels that it is difficult to control staff in not doing it during office hours. I am thinking of a few options e.g. to find other Universities and find out if you can use their course material. There are a lot of institutions that are willing to share material and seeing that we are moving towards open educational resources. This gives the option to adapt material and it saves time and money. Secondly, try the option that we in Namibia is using by having a unit that is responsible for materials development. We outsource the writing and editing of materials. In-house we do instructional design and layout and then we outsource the printing again. We are currently looking into it by doing the printing in-house to save time and money. (Wynand)

Wynand, yes you are right in that we can adopt or a course material as you are suggesting. Remember however that there is the issue of contextualization in adopting course material (except of course for general courses). Consequently, one would have thought of adapting instead of adopting and then it would still have to be reworked by an academic staff.

Though we also have a material development arm of the university, the academic staff are also heavily involved because we do not do ID like you people. I am just trying to get the university management to look in this direction. We also do outsource but we are already choked up with the magnitude of the back log and also with the issue of remuneration that it might not be totally possible. And in Nigeria, though we are not fully funded by Government we cannot really charge tuition as most other universities! It is just a big complex situation! (Olubiyi)

Hi Olubiyi, I agree with the suggestion given by Enna and Wynand. I would also like to suggest another way. If the university is continuously having challenge to encourage the academic staff to prepare materials its going to held to lots of problem for the university as students rely on materials to study and refer too. Its going to create disappointment among students. Why not hire people of the same knowledge and experience that would like to prepare materials as a part-time job. Alot of people out there that have other jobs would like to make extra income. Another way is from the beginning the academic staffs that are hired should be clear that a part of their job description is to prepare materials for their course that they are teaching. This makes it easy for the management as the academic staffs are clear about their job scope. And when they sign their contract, preparing materials for their course is listed in their contract thus if the management face challenge they can refer to the terms and condition (contract of job scope). On the other hand, would it be that the academic staffs are unhappy with their salary? Thus, they refuse to put in the extra effort. (Jesvin) ||  || Possible solution which I may offer to you Olubiyi, is that(althought I know at the end costs matters) but anyway. . . let us entertain this possible solution: 1. Hire more academic staff. If local is not available, perhaps, the university could opt for the Open University System, whereby students can study online and the facilitators are from all over the world.

2. The academic staff SHOULD contribute to write the course materials because they are the ones who know the subject matter better, thus it is best that the course materials are developed by them. This is being done in several phase. Phase 1: The outline of what the course should be covered is being done by the facilitators and teachers. Phase 2: Content is further developed by other teaching assistants who maybe doing their masters or Phd degrees as a part of course requirements. That way the university could save on hiring new staff which job description is just to write course materials. (Enna)

Thanks Enna for these suggestions. Actually, I have mooted the idea of the online facilitation for the university but I am developing a course for Biblical Greek Grammar which I hope to use as a case study so that when the university would move in this direction, we would know what to do exactly. The only problems we are envisaging in this area is that unlike other developing nations, power (electricity) is mostly unavailable in Nigeria and the level of computer literacy among the older students is low. You could imagine the hues and cries when the university launched the e-examinations. However, I still feel all these notwithstanding, the online facilitation is one viable solution!

As to your second suggestion, I think the university has problems attracting senior level staff from conventional universities because the demand of work in the open university is higher and secondly, they are not sure of the future of the open university and may not want to risk it. Most of the professors we have in the university are retired from the conventional university and are on contract appointment. Finally, we have just started the Ph. D programs and so we have only a handful of research students! (Olubiyi)

Dear Olubiyi. . . yes I can imagine. And I can also imagine the amount of work you have to do. Being a catalyst for change is never easy. I know that electricity is a problem in Nigeria, so the infrastructure for elearning/ online learning technology needs to be fortified before introducing online learning. . . I mean when connection is slow, it can cause learners to be discouraged. (Enna) ||  ||

You may use the space below to discuss (Pls remember to include your name and problem.

Good problems have been posted. These are real life problems that we have personal experience of. HPT helps breakdown the problem, design and develop an intervention, Implement the intervention and evaluate the success of the intervention. The idea is now that you attempt to link the problem above with the HPT theory in weeks 3 and 4.