1.+Project+Statement

CAPSTONE TASK FIVE: PROJECT STATEMENT

My department director has assigned me as an educational consultant to help move its instructional programs for our mobile work force to the next level of technological interaction. Identify an area for a project you would like to implement in your organization. Develop a collaborative project to enhance the digital experiences of your colleagues and employees using digital tools for communication. 1. It was just announced at the 2010 National Sales meeting that members of the marketing, field sales and clinical education departments for Perfusion Systems will be issued the Apple iPad. The objective is to provide field-based personnel more effective means for locating and using product promotional materials, scientific papers, training materials and other pertinent digital multimedia resources when presenting to customers. After this was announced, my director commented that we need to start planning on how we are going to train a diverse group of personnel with varied aptitudes for emerging technologies on how to use the iPad for mobile learning and presentation purposes. The scope of my project will be aimed at developing a program that achieves this objective. 2. To engage learners in authentic experiences, the project will include conducting multiple synchronous interactive sessions using Live Meeting or GoToMeeting. During the quarterly regional meetings, we will utilize the tenets of Problem-based Learning by conducting role play scenarios. Each sales representative will be part of a small collaborative team given an authentic real-life problem from which they will need to prepare and deliver a 5-minute presentation to a "customer" using the iPad. 3. Constructivism emphasizes the process of doing, including designing and interpretation. Nothing is better for true understanding than hands-on experience. When learners "do" something, as opposed to hearing about it, following instructions or watching a demonstration, they truly gain first-hand knowledge that cannot be obtained in any other fashion. Another notion of constructivism stresses that the learner considers multiple aspects of an open-ended situation and identifies what more he or she needs to know in order to make decisions and conclusions. To facilitate this, the learning team will be required to collaborate as role-playing members of multidisciplinary participants in the organization; sales, marketing and clinical support. As a team of three, one player focuses on the perspective of sales, one focuses on the role of marketing and the third on the role of clinical support in the development of their 5-minute customer presentation. 4. Instead of a presentation or lecture format, preparation by this instructor/facilitator will takes the form of creating self-guided multimedia instructional modules. Because people learn better when multimedia messages are designed in ways that are consistent with how the human mind works and with research-based principles, the didactic learning materials will be constructed based on the tenets of "Multimedia Learning" published by Richard E. Mayer (2009). This will include;
 * Multimedia principle: People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
 * Segmenting principle: People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in learner-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.
 * Modality principle: People learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text.
 * Pre-training principle: People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.
 * Coherence principle: People learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included.
 * Redundancy principle: People learn better from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and on on-screen text.
 * Signaling principle: People learn better when the words include cues about the organization of the presentation.
 * Temporal contiguity principle: People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

A collaborative tool well-suited to promote critical thinking for this Capstone project is the case study. This is a written description of a problem or situation presented for the purpose of conducting an analysis to foster critical thinking and reflection so that the team learns how to learn on their own (McDade, 1995). The process of analyzing a situation, arriving at a recommendation and then creating a presentation is often more worthwhile than the answer itself (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p. 63). I envision a case study designed around a scenario involving a hospital faced with the need to reduce the number of blood transfusions being given. Using only their iPads, team members would need to search and download relevant digital learning and reference materials from the Medtronic SharePoint site "Perfusion Education and Training Resources" or from the Internet. Using these resources, team members would collaborate together synchronously or asynchronously using their iPads, employ critical thinking skills to assess courses of action, consider customer constraints, establish the best recommendation and then collaboratively create a digital presentation on the iPad. When properly crafted the case study becomes a realistic situation with multiple and tiered variables that require creative solutions. Team members in this organization are already fairly knowledgeable in the fundamental benefits of blood conservation, the evidence-based practices used to reduce blood utilization and can identify the key issues that associate organizational gaps with the Medtronic offerings. Central to this project is the need for a mobile workforce to work through these creative solutions using the digital technologies with the iPad. 5. The very objective of this project, the utilization of the Apple iPad for researching digital information and creating a multimedia presentation, is in and of itself, facilitating the use of an emerging technological innovation. Other technologies to complement the utility of the iPad will include using Skype, Live Meeting or GoTo Meeting for synchronous discussions, creating presentations with Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote, and other digital communication via Outlook email and text messaging. The collaboration activities within small teams will promote diffusion and integration of this technology among the learners. 6. It became apparent during the national sales meeting that friendly competition with financial incentives is strong motivator for sales reps to learn new materials and to effectively present in a role-play scenario. The project will have well-constructed case study scenarios, Assessments for this exercise will be measured according to rubrics. 7. Considerations will be made for those serving in roles of sales, marketing, research & development to insure any training that may influence their own professional behaviors and ethical conduct are in accordance with Medtronic’s Business Conduct Standards. Therefore, all Medtronic materials that I create and are accessed through the SharePoint using the iPad will have been reviewed and approved by the Medtronic legal liaison. All electronic journals will be converted into .pdf format and watermarked "Copyrighted material. For Internal Medtronic Use Only. Do Not Copy". Any and all product claims will be properly cited and referenced according to the published Instructions for Use or Operators Manual. 8. The learners will be given the necessary pre-study materials pertinent to the basic operation of the iPad. This will include the iPad Operator’s manual, written step-by-step instructions with graphics on how to use the Apps pertinent to this project, how to access wireless resources, and how to access Medtronic digital resources. 9. __Audience:__ Medtronic field sales representatives for the Perfusion Systems business. __Learner Characteristics:__ All 35 participants are college graduates, seasoned and experienced in medical device sales and how the devices in their portfolio are used during cardiac surgery. __Anticipated entry level skills of the audience:__ The trainees are knowledgeable in using mobile computing with laptops, cell phones, teleconferencing, Smartphone’s, Wi-Fi, 3G and LAN access to networks and the Internet. They also possess the basic proficiencies with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook). Some have already converted to using the iPhone or the iTouch. __Learning environment:__ Since the learners comprise a mobile workforce, the learning environment is wherever and the sales reps are located in their territories. The culmination of this learning project will be conducted at each of the four quarterly regional sales meetings. It is the intention of this instructor to have the collaborative teams be assigned so that each team has at least one member who is a "digital native" proficient in using wireless technologies. __Support for project by management:__ Sales management will be financing the purchase and training for the iPads.

Mayer, R. E. (2009). //Multi-media learning. //Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. McDade, S. A. (1995). Case study pedagogy to advance critical thinking. From //Teaching of Psychology 22, //retrieved October 7, 2009 from __http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=77008923 __ Palloff, R. M., Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.