Ongoing progress

This week, I worked on my IRB Application and Masters Project Application. Additionally, I completed the CITI Human Studies training module.

I was surprised to learn about all of the considerations that need to take place before conducting research from the standpoint of protecting human subjects. As my research is entirely benign, I did not consider that other research would contain so many regulations and safeguards. It forced me to consider several different conditions that I would have to meet for the research and have to clarify in my thesis in order to justify applying for administrative review instead of receive closer scrutiny.

Answering the questions on the Master's project application made me question as to whether or not I need to adjust the focus of my study. Until June 1st when I begin my new position, I will not have access to the types of programs that our students will be using. Once I begin this position, it may require me to switch many components of my master's thesis, including my question and literature review. Given my changing of employment, these are forces beyond my control and will roll with the flow until I know better.

Finally, my work with the Alliance for Education in which I write lessons for corporations to present to students in school is going very well. I have been surprised by two things: first, the importance to be on point all of the time, as their time that they are contributing is valuable and they do not want to waste it; second, it is more effective to focus on the learning objectives than proposing delivery systems for the instructional design. By considering the learning objectives, and finding the best possible one or two instructional designs, I bring these back to the business to save time and to better focus the discussion. I know that for the blog and this particular class, this is a bit off topic, but is very relevant to the field of Instructional Technology in general.