PART A: The Wicked Problem – A Need or an Opportunity

An Important Educational Need
For the past few months, I have been serving on a committee that is piloting a new technology for Lansing Community College. The technology is AdvisorTrac, a web-based scheduling and tracking system for multiple advising centers, and so far, the software is very impressive. We are preparing to implement the program at several of the student service centers on our downtown campus. As a member of the Career & Employment Services Department, and a primary support for on-campus student employment, I was asked to create a training solution that would educate the student employees working at these service centers on this new scheduling and tracking system. So, the creative solution for one of LCC’s educational problems (college-wide appointment and scheduling systems), has just unearthed another educational problem that needs to be addressed—the pedagogy of new literacies across multiple service sectors of a post-secondary institution.

Addressing this Educational Issue with Technology
In order to fully address the problem of teaching a new literacy to student employees in the service sectors at Lansing Community College, I first need to consider those who will be doing the learning—the student employees (SE). What do I know about them, and what are some safe expectations I can set taking into account their educational and technological backgrounds, as well as their current working/learning spaces? Having the opportunity to observe the SE in their workspaces, I know that they are provided with access to computers and the Internet, and that they are expected to have at least functional knowledge of both in order to complete their daily tasks. I also know that SE schedules are constantly fluctuating to accommodate course schedules. Taking this into consideration, I intend to create a solution through innovation, using a technology the college supports.
For my solution, I have chosen to create a course through the Angel Course Management System that will provide each student employee with the access to AdvisorTrac learning materials, as well as provide me, the course administrator, with a way to monitor and assess the learning. Because Angel is already supported by the college and used by the faculty, my hope is that using a technology that SE are already familiar with will encourage them in the learning of a new literacy. This approach will also accommodate current work schedules and the learning can take place at the current work stations. In choosing Angel as my primary technology, I know that there will be many more technologies that I will need to employ to make this solution effective. For example, I plan on creating tutorials using the Camtasia Studio that can be uploaded to the course, and also creating discussion forums to encourage collaborative problem solving across campus.

Lansing Community College does have an Organizational Development Department that uses another learning management system to support professional development for college employees, but it is a more simple approach of presenting the information and assessing the learning, without the collaborative capabilities that Angel possesses. It would also be quite costly for the college to create a compatible training session for the LMS system because there is a sub-software system synced with the LMS called Lectora, whereas it is comparatively simple and much more cost-efficient to create an Angel course that is multi-faceted and has more potential for collaborative learning.

Logistics
An Angel course for the learning of AdvisorTrac will be created and assigned to the student employees of four service centers at Lansing Community College three weeks before full implementation of AdvisorTrac. The course will continue to remain available to SE and new student hires after full implementation, and will be updated as needed. To get the course set up, I will need the assistance of the E-Learning Department as well as the Audio/Visual Department (to gain access to the podcast suites for the recording of the tutorials). I have already contacted both departments, and while both supported the idea over the phone, I have made appointments to meet with both and further discuss best practices and approaches for this type of project.

Relevant Research and Resources
I used the Google search engine and searched for tips or case studies in which universities or colleges utilized Angel for Professional Development. Angellearning.com provided a summary of their services and suggestions on how to best utilize Angel for educational training. I also found and checked out books at the MSU library on teaching and understanding new literacies, so that I can better understand how to approach this pedagogy of new literacies, specifically those that are technology related.

• http://www.angellearning.com/services/education_training.html
• Baker, Elizabeth A. The New Literacies: Multiple Perspectives on Research and Practice. New York: Guilford, 2010. Print.
• Makitalo-Siegl, Kati, Jan Zottmann, Frederic Kaplan, and Frank Fischer, eds. Classroom of the Future: Orchestrating Collaborative Spaces. Vol. 3. Rotterdam: Sense, 2010. Print. Technology Enhanced Learning.

The Plan
During the next few weeks of CEP 812, I plan to create the training materials necessary for educating SE on the AdvisorTrac system. I will also meet with both the E-Learning and A/V Departments to discuss strategies, approaches, and timelines for launching the course. Furthermore, I plan to continue reading and utilizing the resources listed above to increase my understanding of pedagogy and new literacies, so that I can best educate those in need of training. My goal is to have the Angel course for the teaching of AdvisorTrac up by the end of this course, which would put our AdvisorTrac committee right on track for full implementation of AdvisorTrac at the beginning of April.

Profile of a Successful Project
A successful solution to the problem of educating student employees from multiple service sectors on a new technological literacy will be one that is timely, effective, and cost-efficient. The AdvisorTrac committee is under a lot of pressure to implement this new scheduling and tracking system, mostly because our current program is faulty, yet we do not want to push early implementation of AdvisorTrac at the cost of its overall success. A big part of that success is making certain that the primary users (student employees) are properly trained and have a functional knowledge of the program. This Angel course will not only act as a host for user guides, manuals, and tutorials, but will also provide forums for collaborative problem solving and troubleshooting. Ways to measure the success will be through assessments to measure student learning in the form, correct use of the system, and the overall use of the discussion forums for troubleshooting and problem solving. My overall goal is to educate these students on a new technological literacy while motivating them to collaborate across sectors in the learning of AdvisorTrac for their respective service centers.