'U.S. Veterans Career Process' Online Tool

'U.S. Veterans Career Process' Mobile Learning Design

Need:
Unemployment is currently a significant problem for U.S. veterans returning home from overseas. Many of them are not well prepared for finding jobs as civilians. An alarming number of veterans are jobless. Veterans presently have a much higher unemployment rate than the average U.S. citizen.

Design Overview:
A catalyst for learning? Surely learning would take place, but as I came to understand how much training and 'learning from doing' happened in a soldier's lifeworld, even on a daily basis, the more I began implementing the idea of practice, and learning from doing, into the design. This artifact could be seen as an easy version, a practice ground, one that could build confidence, and understanding; the more often it was used. I wanted it to be...a catalyst for learning.

“The experience of the students in any reflective practicum is that they must plunge into the doing, and try to educate themselves before they know what it is they’re trying to learn." (Donald Schon, 1987)

Design Solution:
The final design was named the 'Job Beacon'. I wanted it to do just what the name implied--help guide its users to a job or career. In order to do this, however, the users also needed to acquire new knowledge and understandings about jobs, careers, job performances, and skills.

Overview of Design Features:
The default screen of the Job Beacon has three states to choose from. First is 'Civilian Jobs'. This is a civilian job database consisting of a listing of various careers and definitions of those careers. Next is 'My Job Profile'. Here, a soldier can create a profile searchable by employers that can explain their current job/jobs in the military, and the various work performances associated with that job. Finally, there is the 'Term translator'. The term translator would be a kind of job term generator. A user could enter in one type of work performance or keyword, and automatically, several other words come back. It would work similarly to a thesaurus, however, all of the terms would directly relate to job or task performances.

Visual scenario depicting the busy life of a soldier, and how the designed artifact (iPhone app) might be used. Part of a presentation I gave for my HCI/d master's capstone thesis. The soldier enters and collects job performance words as he moves throughout the tasks of his day. The intention behind the design of the app is that it acts as a collector and translator of work experience terminology to be conveyed to civilian employers.

User Group:
U.S. veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. In particular, the core user group became the users as soldiers, before they transitioned to veterans.

Design Goal:
The design of this career process tool is intended to help U.S. veterans returning to civilian life to transition their military work skills, and better plan and prepare for getting jobs as civilians.

Constraints:
Culture, Context, People, Time, Technology, User Environment, Mindsets (of 2 user groups; veterans & employers).

What is this design about?
This design is about:

simplicity
efficiency
familiarity
learning through doing
and practicing a process in an easy state

The Core:
Design objectives:

setting career goals
knowing how to get there
practicing the process
familiarity

What it Does:
This design allows the veteran/soldier to practice the entire career process, or parts of it, rapidly, and efficiently. The design affords going through the process quickly, and learning through doing. This process, however, is only a very 'watered down' version of what someone would usually go through when researching, finding, and getting a job. This is just a very bare-boned version of that process.

methods

Learner Analysis
Task Analysis
ADDIE
Model Formulation
Prototyping
Systems Approach
Systems Thinking
Sketching
User Interviews
SME Interviews
Affinity Diagrams
Prototyping
Mock Ups
Usability Testing
Reiteration

tools

Photoshop
Pidoco
Flash
Pen and Paper
Personas
Powerpoint

collaborators

Joe Yelochan
Erik Stolterman
Marty Siegel

Simplifying Conditions Method (SCM):
The simplifying conditions method is a theory borrowed from instructional design that utilizes strategies for how to sequence instructional tasks, procedures, or processes. The model at the end of the photo slide show (above) displays two strategies for sequencing instruction (from Reigeluth & Kim, 1993, as cited by Reigeluth, p. 432).

A "simple-to-complex sequence by starting with the simplest real-world version of the task and gradually progressing to evermore complex versions as each is mastered." (Reigeluth, p. 435)

The design of the 'Job Beacon' is meant to be a very simple version of the career process. Let's review some characteristics found in it's design:

research
reflection
resume building basics
understanding/choosing job terminology
contacting/searching for an employer/job/company

Elements of the entire career development process are available in the design, however, it's just a simple bare-boned version of this process. Actually doing it will be a more complex version of the overall process. The Simplifying Conditions Method is significant, here, because the design can help the learners to build confidence in doing the process, it gives them a general understanding of how the process works, and can also serve as a prototype for learning to take with them when they do finally implement the process (e.g. searching for jobs, contacting people, networking, writing a resume, checking and choosing job task/performance terminology, etc.)

What the design doesn't do/limitations:
Unfortunately, as in any design, there are tradeoffs. No design is perfect, and many designs are reiterated many times over after their release. There are a number of limitations to this design in its current state:

is not a magic 'job chooser'
users cannot create a real resume
users cannot directly contact employers
users practice very superficial research skills
without employer participation, the effectiveness is lessened.

Communicating through the Design:
Both sides of the task flow (shown above) are designed to almost mirror each other. Hence, both users will be communicating through the design and through their familiarity of the use of interactions over time. This would be similar to users who are able to communicate more intimately through their familiarity of interactions in an MMORPG. As your usage of the tool becomes more ready-to-hand, users are left with a simple and bare-boned form of communication--communication that revolves around and involves careers, job performances, and choosing the best job terminology for both employers and soldiers to express themselves with.

References:
Schon, Donald. Donald Schon's Presentation "Educating the Reflective Practitioner" to the 1987 meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Washington, DC. 1987.

Reigeluth, C.M. (1997). Green Book II: Instructional-Design Theories and Models, Volume II.

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