The instructional treatment plan builds on the analysis phase of the instructional design process. Some of the elements of the subskills analysis could be plugged right into the assessment alignment table. The organization I've been working with has an uncommon element of attitudinal and emotional importance, therefore the objectives of this plan include attitudinal elements otherwise not seen in a "proper" instructional treatment plan. Version 2.1 is a draft and the name of the organization has been removed since I didn't ask them about posting this to the internet.

One of the major stumbling blocks in completing this assignment was choosing a grounded instructional strategy. The assignment had a template, however the default Gagné instructional strategy seemed to be better suited for classroom, face-to-face instruction. Part of the effort in this project has been to present a large part of the orientation material in a web-based form, and WebQuests, paired with job aids, seemed like the closest grounded instructional strategy to our goal.

In the process of researching WebQuests, I developed a list of helpful resources such as the WebQuest template. I even signed up for a QuestGarden account, a PHP-based site for generating WebQuests. My professor, Dr. Hirumi, studied under faculty at SDSU. A guide on the building blocks of a WebQuest was also helpful in guiding the instructional strategy details for the treatment plan in my assignment.

During this assignment, I realized I'm rusty on rules for creating surveys. I used to know some good tips on trying to dumb-proof surveys, but I need a refresher. I think the Ph.D. program will have a survey course later in my plan of study. During the implementation of assessment tools later in this project, I may need to refer to my old marketing research textbook for some of those rules on survey creation. All I remembered to do was to not make the feelings about HR a double-barreled question.

After receiving feedback from Dr. Hirumi about version 2.2 of the instructional treatment plan, it was easier to see just how much the WebQuest instructional strategy was being modified to fit the objectives of the instructional unit. Tracy gave an example of a WebQuest she had used before. The task was to research George Washington. The process was to visit a website, read about George, answer some questions, and write an essay. The resources were the initial links provided to the learner, and the evaluation was over the essay. In the case of the client for this project, much of the "questing" is just browsing documentation prepared specifically to guide the learner through filling out their new hire paperwork.

As a result of the feedback from Dr. Hirumi, each part of the plan received some sort of significant modification. Initially, the plan included content to teach some attitudinal content, but that was removed in the final version, because we thought it would be better to allow hospice culture subject matter experts to develop a face-to-face presentation on what they wanted new employees to know. The initial objectives were choppy, and didn't follow 2c's ABCD rule for objectives. The instructional plan also lacked some sort of activity to reinforce the information in the readings. What I imagine for the Accident/Incident Report lesson is to present the new employee with three scenarios. They will need to identify which one requires an Accident/Incident report, then take information from the scenario to fill out a practice form.

The important thing to monitor as revisions were made to the plan is continuity from one part to another. At one point during the revision process, the objective for the learning about the employee assistance program only required learners to identify uses of the program, when in fact the learner also needed to know it was free, voluntary, and confidential.

The other continuity problem surfaced during revisions when we added scenario activities to the process. The objectives only accounted for making choices based on the Hepatitis B information sheet. Since the learners should know from the objectives they will have to apply information from a scenario in addition to the Hepatitis B information page, it was necessary to go back and amend the objectives. There was some discussion during the revision that adding all that information to the objectives "isn't how things are normally done". That was the problem though, the way people normally write objectives is incomplete and/or doesn't align the instruction and evaluation. At this point, the one bit of knowledge of aligning objectives is a reoccurring issue that will probably be one of the educational highlights of this Ph.D. program.