Each pair is required to develop a goal for their time in the program. The important thing to remember when developing your goals is to make sure that they are broad enough goals that you can work on them throughout the extent of the program, but specific enough that you feel you are making progress as the weeks progress.
As instructional designers or instructional designers in training, you should have a solid understanding on what it takes to write a good lesson plan. Writing your goals for this program is very similar to that in a lot of ways. Take a few minutes to review the steps below.
- Write a Goal Statement. Think about what you want to achieve in the program in broad terms.
- Write Objectives. Break that big goal down into smaller sub-goals or learning objectives.
- Identify Activities. Plan how you want to achieve each of the sub-goals or learning objectives. Don’t drive yourself crazy with this part, you can just write down some ideas and refine them throughout the program. Having a list of items may help you and your partner decide on what to do together or talk about.
- Set Milestones. Milestones or due dates may help you keep making progress especially those of us who are task oriented. Again, don’t drive yourself nuts with these either. You can set a milestone of “mid-program” or “by the end of month 1”. Just as long as you are making progress towards your goal, milestones aren’t all that important, but they are helpful to have for some folks.
- Assess Yourself. Decide how you plan to assess your progress and whether you achieved your goals. It could be as simple as a check mark on a To Do List. We instructional designers do love out lists! It could also be a short blog post about the accomplishment so others in the program can support you.
Another important thing to remember about this exercise is that not having clear goals and a way to achieve them will result in a less than optimal experience in the program and may waste your time as well as the time of your partner. So take the time to develop a good goal for your pair and you will be well on your way to having a valuable experience in the program.
Note: We will at least start this exercise in the Kick Off Meeting.