Distance Learning Explainer Video

Distance education and online learning is a big trend in the education world. It is important to understand the context of distance education.

Part 1:  Explainer Video

Research and find a free online resource to create a 2-3-minute explainer video. The purpose of this video should be to explain this topic in a fun and engaging way. The explainer video should include the following topics:

·         What is distance learning?

·         What is online learning?

·         How can they differ?

·         What different types of online learning experiences are currently available for students? How have these experiences and school types evolved historically?

·         Best practices in the planning and design of online learning experiences. 

·         What trends and developments suggest the direction of online learning, specifically for higher education?

Part 2:  Reflection

In 250-500 words, reflect on best practices when designing and planning online learning experiences. Consider what you learned when creating your explainer video. Additionally, explain the general role of new and diverse media in online learning environments.

Support your findings with 3-4 scholarly resources.

Submit this assignment as one deliverable, providing the link to your video with your reflection.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

For this Assignment, you will complete an observation and analytical evaluation of an organization. A template is provided for you at the end of this Assignment description. Be sure to use this template.

You will choose a business to observe either as an employee or as a customer/client. During this course, you will observe and evaluate the organization based on information you have learned about organizational culture. Be sure to refer to the articles you have read during this unit as well as the multimedia presentation about Company Culture in the Learning Activities area for Unit 6.

The Assignment will be comprised of a PowerPoint with narration about your experiences in the observation and your analysis of the organization. In addition, a transcript of the narration will also be needed to be included.

NOTE: The narration is a required element of this assignment and must be included to earn a grade for this assignment.

Bulleted Points on each slide should include brief points that identify the areas that will be addressed in the narration.

Your PowerPoint presentation should include a total of six slides using the following format:

Slide 1: Cover page that includes assignment title, your name, course, section number, and date.

Slide 2: Introduction of Company (1–2 minutes of narration)

• Introduce the presentation by explaining information about the organization and the observation that took place such as the name of the organization, type of organization, day and time of observation and your role as an observer (are you an employee, customer, etc.).
• Share background information about the company to give the audience an understanding of what this organization does. Support the ideas shared with research about the company’s background.

Slide 3: Professional Appearance of Employees and Company (1–2 minutes of narration)

• Use these questions to guide your response (do not use these questions verbatim in your presentation):
  • How do the employees dress?
  • Is there anything about the appearance of the employees that distracts from their professionalism?
  • Do the employees’ appearance fit the nature of the business? Why or why not?
  • What does the working environment look like? (furnishings, artwork, lighting, sounds, etc.)
  • Do the physical surroundings fit the nature of the business? Why or why not?
  • How do the employees interact with each other and outside people within the workplace? (greetings, tone of conversation, non-verbal communication, etc.)
  • How do employees interact with each other?
  • Do the interactions of employees fit the nature of the business? Why or why not?

Slide 4: Analysis of Company (1–2 minutes of narration)

• What inferences can you make from your observation? You should cover the following ideas in your explanation:
  • Analyze the company based on information you have learned about organizational culture in the class. Areas to include:
    • Determine the dominant organizational culture the company follows by choosing one of the 4 organizational cultures you learned during this unit of the course. Support this information with what you have learned about organizational culture based on both observations and research.
    • Compare the work done at the company and the organizational culture and explain how this relates.
    • Research the mission of the company and explain if it aligns with what you have observed. Explain why or why not.

Slide 5: Evaluation of Your Fit (1–2 minutes of narration)

• Based solely on what you have observed and researched about the company (not based on the field of the company), do you feel you would be a good fit for this company? Why or why not?
  • Support this information with what you have learned through your observation as well as what you have researched about the company.
• Identify at least 2–3 social and behavioral attributes you have that would be an asset to this company. Explain why. How do these attributes specifically connect with the nature and needs of the company?

Slide 6: Reference Slide – follows APA guidelines. (Reminder: for each source on the reference slide, there must be a corresponding in-text citation in the body of the presentation.)

Narration Guidelines: Your narration for the slides should demonstrate the following:

• Maintain a persuasive tone by summarizing observations and evaluations for each slide.
• Words should be clearly enunciated, and professional tone should be sustained throughout the presentation narration.
• Audio recording should be free of background noise and interruptions. 

Assignment Format

• Two attachments will be needed to hand in for this assignment:
  • PowerPoint Presentation including narration with six slides that is professionally organized
  • Transcript shared in a Microsoft Word document should be included (be sure to separate each slide on a separate page).
• Replace all template wording with brief bulleted points in your own words that guides the audience.
• Slides 2–5 should include narration. See information on Slide 2 in the template which explains how to add narration to a PowerPoint slide – (be sure to remove this slide before posting to the Dropbox)
• Ideas throughout the assignment should be supported by specific areas observed while conducting the observation during this course.
• Bulleted points on each slide should include brief points that identify the areas that will be addressed in the narration.
• Researched information should be included on Slides 4 and 5 (In-text citations should be included with any brief points that were researched from outside sources and the narration should fully explain the points).
• With the presentation, there must be a transcript included in a Microsoft Word document that includes the narration word for word for each slide. Be sure to use headings for each slide narration, e.g., Slide 2, Slide 3, etc.
• Identify the source of any pictures you use. NOTE: Pictures are not required for this presentation.

Use the PowerPoint template provided and submit your two files (both the PowerPoint with audio narration and the MS Word document with the transcript) 

Charles 

     A marketing blunder that cost a business, because they didn’t trust their industry research was Kodak.  Kodak had spent a lot of money on paper and chemicals, not to mention on the film that either you could have developed, or if you had the equipment to develop it yourself, that could be done as well.  Kodak in 1980 even had a design for a digital camera, but it didn’t use any picture paper to capture images on it.  So the idea was permanently shelved, thinking it was a crazy idea, how wrong they were.

     Other camera companies in the industry was slowly heading into the digital world, however Kodak had chose to ignore the trend that was about to take place 20 plus years later.  Kodak continued to use their old ways of doing business, and continuing with making picture paper, film, and chemicals to have it processed.  Sales began going down in the mid to late 1990’s, after the beginning of the year 2000 (Y2K), the sales really began to drop.   Companies like Samsung, LG, and others began showing up with digital cameras, which sales took off fast, leaving Kodak in the dust, so to speak.  The market research had shown Kodak a reality that they saw coming, but did nothing to counter it.  Don’t dissuade your business not to access and invest in something digital, otherwise, why do market  research at all?         

Sierra 

Hello class, 

In this discussion post, I will address the first two questions. 

1. What competencies were you able to develop in researching and writing the course Comprehensive Project? How did you leverage knowledge gained in the intellipath assignments (Units 1- 4) in completing the Comprehensive Project? How will these competencies and knowledge support your career advancement in management? 

The comprehensive project was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, due to personal issues. I know that communication throughout the entire process is very important, but it was tough. I am such a social person, that sending an email or discussion post was difficult for me to communicate, but I overcame and adapted. The intellipath assignments help me incorporate much of the classroom material into the final research project. I enjoyed learning how business processes are continuously improving, but change isn’t always accepted. For a company to grow, there are so many details and plans that need to evaluated first. The managers and CEO’s really need to grasp the whole idea of business expansion, and then it needs to be presented in a business report. All details matter, so being thorough is important. I learned that communication, organization, and research are key to being successful. In management, everyone needs to be on the same page- however you make that happen is up to you. 

2. What are the important elements of strategy? Why?

Important elements of strategy are to know the ‘Why?’ and how is it going to benefit the consumers and stakeholders, what are the future goals of the company, and how is everyone going to get this training? To strategize, the internal and external sources of the company need to be evaluated. The objective, the scope, and the competitive advantages need to be assessed to form a successful strategy. 

Micah 

Hi All,

For this course, I strengthened several competencies but the top two were: (1) create plans to improve business and (2) accessing the importance of global management (strategic).  For example, technology is a good tool in looking at global strategic management options (Roberts, 2001). I can use technology to help coordinate initiatives.  I am able to leverage knowledge from Intellipath to apply strategic and content enhanced concepts to help fully explain and analyze product details. This includes the ability to make connections to real-life scenarios and create a business plan and scaffolded projections. This helped in creating a dialogue for the project and devising a way to explain content that reflects a deep understanding of the project concepts. My advancement in my field is enhanced by knowing this information so I am able to apply concepts and methods in real-life situations. This is important and significant, for me, because I am able to make decisions and collaborate with others to better the organization.

The important elements of a strategy are the purpose and the structure because a strategy can be effective if it is for a specific purpose that aligns with the goal set for success. There are many strategies that exist; however, not every strategy would be a good one to use for an organization. This makes it important to select a strategy that aligns to the purpose of its use in correlation to the organizational goals, leadership, structure and system for checks and balances to ensure the strategy is implemented correctly and there is a consistent and effective way to monitor and evaluate its success. The purpose must align to the structure of the strategy. The ease or difficulty in establishing and executing the strategy is closely tied to structure and purpose (Roberts, 2001). If the strategy is complex, it may take too much time or be to cumbersome to execute which can lead to employees not being willing to put forth the effort. If the structure is easy to understand and employees feel confident to implement it, then the ability to see success and make adjusts as needed will be easier to accomplish and employees will feel able to take ownership of their efforts.  The significance is that the elements of a strategy is vital to establishing successful means of implementation for success.  The implication is that an organization can achieve goals through appropriate selection and use when the strategy aligns to the organization’s needs.

LaToya 

Hello Dr. Henderson and peers:

To assess what the important elements of strategy are, a clear definition of strategy is required. According to our textbook, strategy for a company is “the set of actions that its managers take to outperform the company’s competitors and achieve superior profitability” (Strategic Management, 2017, p. 3).    Based on this definition, at a minimum, the following areas must be in mind when a strategy is created customers, products/services, competitors, economics, marketing, company SWOT attributes, resources, and stakeholders. These components can be grouped into five facets that cover the important elements of a strategy.  These five facets with explanations of their importance are below:

• Arenas. Identification of the specific geographic markets and the channels and value-chain activities in those markets.
• Differentiators. What differentiates the organization from competitors, makes products or services more attractive to future customers, and strengthens the effectiveness of the differentiators in the chosen arenas are uncovered.
• Vehicles. The preference to use organic investment and growth, alliances, or acquisitions as expansion vehicles are revealed.
• Staging and pacing. When you start expanding, how quickly you expand and the sequence of your expansion efforts are divulged.
• Economic logic. How your strategy contributes to the overall economic logic of your business and corporate strategies is provided.

(International Business, 2012, p. 10.4)

Ensuring each of these items is appropriately and fully addressed will ensure the strategy’s effectiveness to achieve or retain a competitive advantage and improve company performance, which is the goal of all strategies.  

Evaluation Proposal

The focus of the Final Paper will be on the creation of an evaluation proposal suitable for presentation in a criminal justice setting or agency. The proposal will center on needs assessment, impact monitoring, and the application of quantitative and/or qualitative techniques in the assessment of the selected program or policy. Rossi, Lipsey, and Freeman (2004) discuss the social context of evaluation. Your evaluation proposal should assess the effectiveness of a program or policy, addressing a specific problem proposed or developed as a solution to a contemporary issue in your chosen area of specialization within the Masters in Criminal Justice program: Law Enforcement and Corrections Administration, Cybercrime and Technology, Forensic Science, or Homeland Security. Utilize research skills to locate a minimum of 15 appropriate scholarly sources to support your statements within the required sections below. Small sections of the evaluation proposal will be completed throughout the progression of the course. Students can use those sections verbatim within the text of the Final Paper if they so choose. The evaluation proposal will be assessed based on the inclusion of the following elements:

Introduction
Present your research question and introduction from the assignment you completed in Week Two.

Literature Review
From the assignment you completed in Week Four, compose a literature review comprised of previous scholarly material and research results relevant to your selected topic.

Program or Policy Description

• Describe the program or policy that is to be evaluated, including its purpose, stakeholders, history, and outcomes, which will be part of your introduction and description you completed in Week Two.
• Explain the impact of relevant issues, including potential political, social, economic, and/or cultural constraints associated with this program or policy.

Proposal Narrative

• Present your measures and methodology from the assignment you completed in Week Three.
• Critique the design of the program or policy by describing the methodology, including the data to be collected, the means of collection, and how the data will be used.
• Identify a proposed budget and projected schedule for the evaluation.

Summary
Summarize the expected outcomes, the questions to be answered, and the expected results that would indicate success of the program or policy.

The “Evaluation Proposal,” Final Paper

• Must be 20 to 25 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least 15 scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
  • The literature review and the methodology sections will be completed throughout the course as part of the formative weekly assignments. Students can use those sections verbatim, or build upon them, within the text of the Final Paper.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.