Challenge

The Client

Apela-Tila Kalua (ATK) Native Hawaiian Organization is a non-profit aimed at supporting women, indigenous, and native communities to convert growth stagnation into wealth creation. ATK has developed an 8-step process to help develop small businesses from concept to actualization. As part of the early steps of the process, ATK hosts workshops where entrepreneurs can connect with other business leaders. Here, they begin to form more solid ideas of what kind of business leaders they want to be, how to position themselves in the market, and ultimately how to add value to their customers. The workshops contain 5 different sections (Figure 1) with a total of 14 modules that help small business owners solve business problems.

The Ask

A needs assessment completed during the Spring 2021 semester (by a different team of students) indicated that ATK can improve its workshop materials and overall business goals by creating appropriate training and guidance for workshop instructors and participants. The needs assessment team determined that Job Aids developed by an instructional design team were the most appropriate intervention. ATK partnered with Boise State’s OPWL Master’s program in July 2021 to improve its overall curriculum, including all 14 modules of the workshop. My team was responsible for developing the Job Aid for Module 3 of the 14, “Map Triadic Influence.”

Approach

My team worked within the partnership to develop documentation following OPWL’s Learning and Performance Support (LeaPS) Model of Instructional design (Figure 4). OPWL’s LeaPS Model offers an alternative to the ADDIE model for instructional design. Building upon and adding to many proven instructional design models, LeaPS gives more detail, insight, direction, and suggestions to beginner instructional designers. It acknowledges that ID work occurs within multiple contexts (societal context, organizational context, and project management), and reminds users about different heuristics to keep top of mind. It comprises three main phases and suggests the process be iterative and cyclical.

Figure 4 LeaPS Model of Instructional Design (Adapted)

Before the project kicked off, we were introduced to our subject matter expert (SME) and educated ourselves on the background of the organization, the ask, and the previous semester’s needs assessment deliverables. The past semester’s team had identified a gap, determined it was worth closing, and concluded that at least one cause of the gap was a lack of adequate skills. Not being involved in the project from kickoff was the most difficult part for my team. Because the project was being carried out over many semesters, we had to get up to speed on what work had already been delivered. I would not suggest that projects in a real-world setting be handled by different teams for each phase, because the quality and timeliness suffer.

Empathize & Analyze

During this phase, the team first conducted a Training Requirements Analysis (TRA). This document further refineed training needs beyond the needs assessment and specified appropriate training configurations (OPWL, 2021, p. 56). Our TRA included the performance gap statement, argued to support closing the gap, and specified that we would be creating a job aid with little introductory training. Most training configurations involve a job aid because job aids can help minimize the cost of creating, implementing, and maintaining training. Because this job aid would be delivered in a workshop setting and used by participants beyond the workshop, we assumed they could receive minimal practice on how to use it.

The main deliverable of this phase is the Task Analysis (TA) which can be found below in the Solutions section. A Task Analysis defines what exemplary performers do in the workplace (OPWL, 2021, p. 78). To complete this, we engaged with the SME to define an ideal performer, and what steps they took along the way. We listed out the major tasks the participants complete, the goals of each task, the resources the participants will use, and the frequency, duration, and standards of each task. Building out the TA was a challenge because of the unfocused and mercurial nature of our SME. He was very passionate but hard to keep focused. Even so, we focused on gathering as much information as possible about the tasks at hand, distilling them completely, and describing them as clearly as possible.

We also created the environmental and learner analysis which specified characteristics of the typical workshop participants and the physical environment in which the workshop takes place. Characteristics included the level of prior knowledge, the desired skill level, the environment’s orienting context, and the instructional context. These details informed how we expected the participants to interact with our job aids which affect learning and performance. We included these brief descriptions as well as our data sources and data collection methods in our TA.

Design & Develop

This phase comprised the majority of development. Here, we created the Job Aid (JA) (see Figure 6 below), the Performance Assessment Instrument (PAI) (see Figure 7 below), and the Instructor Guide (IG) (see Figure 8 below).

The Job Aid is directly related to the Task Analysis created during the previous phase. Using the steps we defined for each critical task, we compiled a succinct list of the exact steps (and any necessary direction) that any learner needs to complete a Triadic Influence Map. We added any helpful graphics or orienting descriptions. While the document itself was small, we could guarantee it was based on systematic and systemic analysis thanks to the deliverables made in the previous phase of the LeaPS model.

Along with a Job Aid, we created an Instructor Guide to be used during workshops to help orient the participants and provide any additional context or answers. The steps in the IG aligned with those in the JA and were organized within the phases Introduction, Set Me Up, Show Me, Let Me, and Summary. This was a complete guide that allowed facilitators to take participants from scratch to a completed influence map.

The last deliverable was the Performance Assessment Instrument which could be used to determine participants’ mastery of the steps within the Job Aid. Facilitators could use the included checklist to verify and follow participants’ actions, step by step, with a calculated final score. And if any step is missed, suggestions are made in the document for remediation.

Implement & Evaluate

While this phase is crucial in ensuring the quality and success of an instructional design product, the implementation and evaluation steps were outside the scope and timeframe of this project. The next steps for the client include hosting workshops to test-run the documents and evaluate their effectiveness. We are still in contact with the client to ensure the completeness and correctness of the deliverables, and plan to publish our findings and experience with the LeaPS model.

Solutions

The deliverables the team passed along to the client at the close of the semester are shown below. Of all the documents produced during the semester, these four are of most value to the client and any future instructional designers. Using the LeaPS Model of Instructional Design was an opportunity to be systemic, thorough, and iterative. As my experience with instructional design grows, parts of the model will become second nature.