MSR Report 3

(I included my new model graphic - the circular model, plus my original two pages of boxes and arrows. Which, if either, makes the most sense?)

The context is business.

The Supra-system is a business that prepares business people to do work in the People’s Republic of China (to be referred to a China) and not Taiwan.

The goal is increase the effectiveness of business people who want to do business in China, with a basic set of skills and knowledge about Chinese history, language, culture, politics and culture. In addition, the participant will receive insight to a participant-select area of interest (e.g., law, finance, advertising).

Assumptions include: The participant wants to work in China, has a limited experience with doing business in China, has limited knowledge of Chinese language, culture, politics, or history, and that he/she understands the advantage of addressing these knowledge gaps as part of their preparation process.

The Need: The allure of the world’s largest market entices companies to sell their products and services in the People’s Republic of China. However, it takes more than simply arriving in Shanghai or Beijing with an excellent idea (one for which the Chinese may even be willing to spend money) and announcing that one is open for business. To increase the probability of successful market entry, one needs to have a basic understanding of Chinese culture, history, and politics. And while most foreign business people will use a Chinese language interpreter, the ability to understand and speak even a few words of Mandarin Chinese can prove useful. This basic foundation is necessary for the new entrant in the Chinese market place to begin to understand how to create and revise his or her business plan and market strategy. And just like developing a sound business plan and marketing strategy PRIOR to commencing in-country business activities saves time, money and reduces frustration, acquiring a basic knowledge of Chinese language, culture, politics, or history prior to country business activities provides equally valuable benefits.

The System: (mostly new from here down)
The system provides training that prepares business people to do business in China. It is composed of at least five subsystems (Survival Business Chinese Language, Cultural Considerations, History, Politics, and one learner selected focus area), with the option of adding additional sub-systems as required (additional learner selected focus areas). Once the development plans are created, the student can begin with any areas, and works self-directed through the course material. Facilitators will be available to answer questions, engage the learner to practice certain skills (e.g., language), or to suggest other sources of information. Tests after each module or at certain points during the implementation process will inform to the student whether additional review of coursework is recommended, or whether the student can begin a new subject.

Front End Analysis plays a important role to determine what study materials are required. When the learner begins the program, he/she is interviewed to determine if prior knowledge exists in each of the subject areas, as well as to understand what special knowledge needs the learner may have. If necessary, the learner is given a test to assess the degree of prior knowledge a learner may have in a subject area. Assessment of all areas is completed before the designer develops the individual subject Learning Plans.

Determine Learning Plan and Develop Specialized Materials. A unique learning plan and specialized materials are created to meet the needs of the learner. In most cases, learning will be delivered through RLO’s. Additional readings, websites and activities may be added to address particular learner knowledge needs. For example, the use RLO’s may be sufficient to teach the history and culture modules. A combination of RLO’s and suggested reading and mini-research activity might be used in the politics module. Only a few RLO’s may be used with the addition of conversational practice and third party language website for the language module. And for the focus areas, readings, third party websites, and dialogues with subject matter experts may be used.

Training Implementation.
Given the time constraints of most business people, the instruction will be designed so that the learner can study at their own convenience. Course work and tests will be available on-line. The learner can study the modules in any order. The learner can interact with the instructor/facilitator on-line, or could arrange for voice conversation. It is up to the learner to work the learning plan at the rate that makes sense for the learner.

Evaluation takes the form of tests that are given frequently through out the process. The goal of testing is to make the learner (and the facilitator/instructor) aware of his/her progress. Testing is designed to give feedback to the learner. If the learner does not successfully answer the questions or successfully complete the activities, he/she will be told were to to return in the course work to review the weak areas. The student can always seek help for the instructor/facilitator as well. Failure to complete one subject module does not preclude access to another subject module.

After each test, the learner may return to the subject module to review or to continue learning. When the learner finishes the test at the end of the module, the student then moves to another module.

The program does not issue certification of competence, grades. If a learner requires an evaluative report of the level of competency, something can be arranged. The assumption is that learners who enroll in this program are interested in quickly and efficiently acquiring the fundamental knowledge needed to be prepared to work more effectively in China. The feedback provided throughout the course of study will do that.

Here are the objectives that will be used to indicate learning has been achieved:

LANGUAGE

• The participant would be able to engage upon demand in ___ basic dialog situations [I am not going to define these here] with an accuracy rate of 20%.
• The participant will be to pronounce and translate into English 100 Chinese characters with fewer than 20 errors.

HISTORY

• The participant will be able to answer correctly 80% of the questions on ___ multiple choice tests.

CULTURE

• The participant will be able to answer correctly 80% of the questions on ___ multiple choice tests.

POLITICS

• The participant will be able to answer correctly 80% of the questions on ___ multiple choice tests.
• The participant will be able to describe the current political situation in China with 80% accuracy.

The Role of the Developer is to design the model, development the learning materials, and to supervise and implement the training.

The Purpose of the Model:

• Determine the participant’s learning needs
• Determine the participant’s learning plan
• Implement the participant’s progress in learning
• Adjust the learning plan as evaluation indicates

Interesting Comments

This is an interim post as I regroup and figure out where to proceed.

I envision this as a partly/mostly tailored, self-directed learning process. The idea is make available a standard set of materials and instruction to business people to make them more effective at a quicker rate when they start doing business in China. The premise is that this knowledge will facilitate the person's ability to make business decision with less struggle.

A digression:
Life in China is a struggle, even for Chinese. Access to current information that is needed to make business decisions, access that we take for granted here in the US is not easily had in China. Add to that a lack of understanding of how things came to be and why things play out as they do in China, and the ability to make decisions about even simple things is challenging. Even if you hire/enlist a local or a "China Expert" to provide clarity, you still need a way to understand how "clarifying" your help is being.
End of digression.

So, as I've been thinking about this theoretical instructional problem, I thought, a business person would appreciate a central place to which they could go to get a quick and informative dump on the basics of things they need to know, in a variety of subjects, so they can make better informed decisions, decisions that they make when preparing to start work, as well while they are underway with the initial implementation. The information provided would be presented in a way that is easily digested. If a person has familiarity with some of the core subject matter, or desires more information, additional content could be added. I like the concept of RLO's as described in our Cisco reading. I think this method combined with suggested reading and possibly some online interaction with others could work.

Testing and evaluating the learner.
I don't see what value a letter grade would offer in this situation. At most, a certificate or some official statement could be provided that proves to someone who cares that the learn actually completed the coursework. There would be testing throughout the process, but this is merely to show the student and the facilitator what knowledge has or has not been grasped. In the even that a test shows significant errors, the student would be provided with suggestions of where to return within the course work for review. And the facilitator could help with some individual instruction. This is really an honor system. This is my thought, but then as some people already know about me, I hold an unpopular view on grading.

Well, enough rambling. It's time to figure out how to model-ize some of this.

Second MSR Attempt

The context is business.

The Supra-system is a business that prepares business people to do work in the People’s Republic of China (to be referred to a China) and not Taiwan.

The goal is increase the effectiveness of business people who want to do business in China, with a basic set of skills and knowledge about Chinese history, language, culture, politics and culture. In addition, the participant will receive insight to a participant-select area of interest (e.g., law, finance, advertising).

Assumptions include: The participant wants to work in China, has a limited experience with doing business in China, has limited knowledge of Chinese language, culture, politics, or history, and that he/she understands the advantage of addressing these knowledge gaps as part of their preparation process.

The Need: The allure of the world’s largest market entices companies to sell their products and services in the People’s Republic of China. However, it takes more than simply arriving in Shanghai or Beijing with an excellent idea (one for which the Chinese may even be willing to spend money) and announcing that one is open for business. To increase the probability of successful market entry, one needs to have a basic understanding of Chinese culture, history, and politics. And while most foreign business people will use a Chinese language interpreter, the ability to understand and speak even a few words of Mandarin Chinese can prove useful. This basic foundation is necessary for the new entrant in the Chinese market place to begin to understand how to create and revise his or her business plan and market strategy. And just like developing a sound business plan and marketing strategy PRIOR to commencing in-country business activities saves time, money and reduces frustration, acquiring a basic knowledge of Chinese language, culture, politics, or history prior to country business activities provides equally valuable benefits.

The System provides training that prepares business people to do business in China. It is composed of at least five subsystems (Survival Business Chinese Language, Cultural Considerations, History, Politics, and one learner selected focus area), with the option of adding additional sub-systems as required (additional learner selected focus areas).

Objectives:

LANGUAGE
The participant would be able to engage upon demand in ___ basic dialog situations [I am not going to define these here] with an accuracy rate of 20%.
The participant will be to pronounce and translate into English 100 Chinese characters with fewer than 20 errors.

HISTORY
The participant will be able to answer correctly 80% of the questions on ___ multiple choice tests.

CULTURE
The participant will be able to answer correctly 80% of the questions on ___ multiple choice tests.

POLITICS
The participant will be able to answer correctly 80% of the questions on ___ multiple choice tests.
The participant will be able to describe the current political situation in China with 80% accuracy.

The Role of the Developer is to design the model, development the learning materials, and to supervise and implement the training.

The Purpose of the Model:

• • Determine the participant’s learning needs
• • Determine the participant’s learning plan
• • Implement the participant’s progress in learning
• • Adjust the learning plan as evaluation indicates

My Model Status Report

Here is the MSR I submitted:


Context or setting identified
Professional Context: Business
This is oriented toward people who want to do business in China.
Assumptions:
Program participants want to work in China
Program participants want advanced preparation.
Assumes limited experience or knowledge of China.
Participants have limited time to spend in the program.
The System: Training that prepares businessmen to work in the People’s Republic of China.
The Supra-system: A business that provides the training.
Subsystems: Survival Business Chinese Language; Cultural Considerations; History; Politics; one or two learner selected focus areas, e.g., marketing, law, engineering, manufacturing.
There would need to be major needs assessment component to this model to determine how to tailor the program fit the needs of the learner. Formative feedback from the learner would also play a significant role to continue to adjust the instruction to meet the learner’s needs.

Role and/or status of developer
The developer also implements the program.

Intended Audience of the Report
I will be the user of the model. I will use the model to do the needs analysis and design the curriculum for each student.

Purpose of the model
Determine student needs.
Determine student learning plan
Implement student learning
Evaluate progress of learning
Adjust learning plan as evaluation indicates

Any pressing questions
I am having a hard time writing this Module Status Report, mainly because I do not understand what is being asked.
I understand the Module Exercises, yet I don’t know how they translate into the development of a model.
How do I figure out how to draw the model?

Module 3 Exercise

1. Identify the communication channels you need to consider to manage the change.

I think change management will occur during the selling process. Before the company or business person contracts my services. The status quo tends to be that the company expects the employee to figure out what he needs on his own time, before and after landing in China. So the change that would place is the change in the thinking of the company or business person that they can successfully and quickly figure out what they need on the fly. Or that total initial reliance on their Chinese business partner will be sufficient until the business person figures out what is going on. Not a smart move.

My target audiences would be:
The business person going to China.
The HR person in charge of this initiative.
The business person's supervising manager.
The head of the division or company.
Finance.

So, my communication channels would include:
Presentations, testimonials from past students, advertisements, articles in the press,
blogs of past clients, email, letters, interviews with other business who have been doing business in China about what they would have done differently to prepare before going over.

2. How will I address the Innovation-Decision Process?

a) Knowledge Step: This would include communications that explain the need for such preparation and explain the proposed solution.

b)Persuasion Step: I would explain that with the proposed preparation, the business person would be able to achieve more, more quickly (or be confused for a shorter period of time). As a result of the program the person would have access to a support network of past students and the instructors. The person and the company would be prepared before the person leaves the country.

c) Decision: If other than "yes", then I would see what additional information I could provide to change the decision to a "yes".

d) Implementation: Work the progam.

e) Confirmation: I would include status reports to the company and projects that provide evidence that the business person is becoming more prepared. I would also incorporate feedback to the business person to demonstrate just how far they have progressed.

3) What other factors would I need to consider?

a) The impact of the student's work and outside life on the time they can commit to the program.
b) Company policies
c) Lack of student knowledge and skills regarding some of the subjects to which they would be introduced.

Module 2 Exercises

Exercise A:

1. Three reasons why my ID "model" should consider any of the notions presented under the general heading of Front End Analysis.

a) This is a tailored program, so in order to know how to tailor the instruction or learning experience, I need to identify what the student knows and what they don't know, as well as what they need to know. (content)

b) Given the amount of time we have to work with the student, the student's existing knowledge base and aptitude, and the amount of new information that will be need to be presented, we can prioritize what information will be presented. (priority)

c) Can't think of a third reason.

2. what can we take from Chapter 6 to inform our model development?
That a multi-level needs analysis is needed to develop a multi-pronged implementation strategy and solution. I can see Quadrant 1 and 2 applying in my model.

Exercise B:

1. For the purposes of this exercise (at least), identify "needs" from your context.

Current
-- What is the current knowledge of the learner in each of the subject areas?
-- What is the learner's aptitude toward learning new languages?
-- What additional subjects of interest are important to the learner? (e.g., this is Marketing professional interested in banking services)

Required
-- The learner needs to understand a core set of information in each topic area.
-- The learner needs to understand specific information in the their area of interest. (e.g. the Marketing professional of banking services needs to understand chinese marketing and banking oriented language and protocol)

2. Prioritize the Need
a. What does it cost to meet the need?
Depending on the size of the gap between Current and Required, the cost of meeting the need can vary.

b. What does it cost not to meet the need?
The student is less prepared to do her/his job in China

3. Now from the perspective of Front End Analysis, what other factors should you consider?
a) Is the student enrolled in the program by volition or requirement?
b) How much time does the student have to devote to his studies?
c) How much money is the student or his company willing to spend on training?
d) Is this individual instruction or small class instruction?
e) What other barriers to successful learning can be identified?

My Concept

Here is a description of what I am trying to model.

I have a business that prepares businessmen to work in the People's Republic of China (not Taiwan).

Companies or individuals would hire me to teach businessmen planning to work in the PRC the things they need to know to work there successfully.

There would be a core set of information that every student is would be taught, and the student could receive specialized preparation in an area relating to the type of work they plan to do.

The core information is divided into ___ categories: Language, Etiquette, Politics, History