Our team designed a web-based resource for adult educators who teach community-based, non-credit workshops and courses for community colleges and non-profit organizations.\u00a0 The intent was to create an asynchronous resource for adult educators that is easy to access and allows for the opportunity to connect with peers to provide feedback, share resources, and create a sense of community.\u00a0 We did this by creating resource, community, and feedback sections in our tool.\u00a0 It was important for us to design a user-friendly web-based resource to maximize a users learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction with our design. We used Issa and Isaias\u2019 (2015) idea of designing a resource with a user-centred approach, rather than designing a system for every end user.\u00a0 We also initially launched this tool with a focus on resources that educate on adult learning theories and adult learning strategies, as we felt our target audience were professionals in the fields they were teaching, such as nursing, but didn\u2019t necessarily have academic training in the area of education and would initially benefit from these resources.\u00a0 The idea and vision for our tool was definitely that of one of our team members.\u00a0 In the beginning, I was confused at times about what the vision of the project was, as the ideas were always very big and not focused.\u00a0 In terms of my contributions, I attended team meetings and asked questions to focus the vision of the project.\u00a0 As well as, contributed to all aspects of the design; none of us had clear design roles.\u00a0 Our team decided that each of us should touch every aspect of the tool to ensure it was designed efficiently.\u00a0 Once tool was designed, I took the lead on creating a PowerPoint for our presentation and worked with our team to split the presentation up.<\/p>\n
The main features of usability we focused on were learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction (Issa & Isaias, 2015), as we felt these were key usability features to ensure a user-friendly tool.\u00a0 We felt our web-based design was intuitive for the user, and can be easily learned by reading and clicking.\u00a0 We also felt that using specific buttons, interlinks, and menus easily allowed the user to go to specific areas of our website and was efficient.\u00a0 And that overall simple design of our tool, would be satisfying to the user.<\/p>\n
Overall, our team worked well together.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have any issues with getting work done and splitting up tasks.\u00a0 Our biggest challenges came from using Google Sites and the limited functionality this freeware provides.\u00a0 I have never used Google Sites before and going forward would likely not use this freeware again.\u00a0 As a novice website creator, I think WordPress is more robust and has more apps that can enable more functionality on a website.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a big advocate for the use of technology in education and designing online asynchronous learning opportunities for learners.\u00a0 I feel that the resource that we created will be a great online resource for adult educators.\u00a0 However, as I reflect back on this class and the readings we\u2019ve done, I have to say that Crawford (2021) made a huge impact on me in Atlas of AI, Chapter 1: Earth.\u00a0 I will forever think about the environmental impacts that technology has on the Earth, as I always thought of it as a more environmentally friendly option.\u00a0 As an advocate of technology in education, I\u2019m contributing to the devastation that mining has on the Earth and am guilty of overlooking this in the technological process and know that going forward will look for more environmentally friendly technology solutions.<\/p>\n
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References<\/strong><\/p>\n Crawford, K., & Yale University Press Complete eBook-Package 2021. (2021). Atlas of AI: Power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence.<\/em> Yale University Press.<\/p>\n