DD Parenting Course

Snapshot

As part of my master’s program at WGU, I designed and delivered a 7-module parenting course for parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD). This involved conducting a literature review, identifying a research problem, recruiting study participants, conducting a research study, needs analysis, learner analysis, empathy mapping, persona creation, and e-learning solution development. The full course can be accessed HERE.

Process

Research

My research involved study on DD parent challenges and opportunities. It was discovered that many DD parents cannot attend a traditional parenting course because of the struggle to find qualified childcare, feelings of overwhelm, and a belief that the information presented may not apply to their situation. DD parents are at an increased risk for stress and parenting insecurity. Combining this with the fact that parenting classes tend to reduce challenging behaviors, cultivate more positive parent-child interactions, and improve parent quality of life, it became apparent that there was need for a self-paced, virtual course that could be delivered in an efficient and relatable manner. Challenge accepted!

Analysis & Empathetic Design

After fully analyzing the instructional problem, I turned my attention toward learner group (DD parents) analysis and creating empathy maps and personas. These tools aided empathetic design and ensured the learning objectives could be met for the target learners.

Development

Delivery

Based on findings related to the use of animated characters in learning and parent education, I decided to use CreateStudio to rapidly develop entertaining and approachable modules that emphasized key points. It was also decided that I should incorporate parenting scenarios through characters. This provided examples of child struggles, parent responses, and corresponding outcomes.

Learners needed to be able to access the course from any location (e.g., work, home, mobile device, library), so I published it to a DD website. Having a webpage, enabled the presentation of a full course introduction along with visual links to each module and the summative assessment. Additionally, if parents didn’t have the direct link, they could easily navigate to the course through the known website.

  • CreateStudio 3

  • Iterative Design

  • Storytelling

  • Visual Design

  • Microlearning

Skills Used

  • Curriculum Development

  • E-Learning

  • Empathetic Design

  • Video Production

  • Video Editing

  • Animation

  • Scenario Development

  • Script Writing

  • Formative Assessments

  • Summative Assessment

  • AI Voiceovers / Narration

  • Webpage Development

  • Accessibility