Abstract

Abstract
This thesis equivalent was an instructional design and human performance technology project, in which I analyzed the current state of an educational program for students with disabilities and their classmates at a Jewish day schools in Montreal. The program was first developed as a pilot project by Ometz, a social services organization. Ometz requested assistance with the program towards the end of their pilot project year. The program focused on building social skills and coping with anxiety. I designed performance improvement interventions, as well as developed prototypes of the proposed interventions and evaluation instruments.
To determine what improvements could be made to the program, I collected data from several sources: a focus group with three facilitators, the program coordinator and a member of the Ometz leadership team held during the peer supervision meetings; an interview with the 2016-2017 program coordinator; an interview with the facilitator at the primary site; a joint interview with a vice principal and resource centre coordinator, an interview with a member of the Ometz leadership team; electronic feedback forms submitted by each facilitator after every session delivery during the 2016-2017 pilot year; email correspondence with program coordinators; original program requests; meeting minutes; and session handouts. I analyzed the data using an open coding process.
Although the program impacted many different stakeholders, the program facilitators were considered as the target performers for the analysis and for the design of interventions. However, the performance of other stakeholders was also considered. Those stakeholders were teachers, parents, and students.
During the analysis phase, several performance gaps were identified. Firstly, facilitators designed a curriculum based on their previous experience and available resources, instead of basing it on specific program objectives and the needs of the students. Secondly, the facilitators experienced challenges when designing instructional content and finding resources on which to base their content. Additionally, some facilitators experienced issues with classroom management. Finally, facilitators were unable to always schedule sessions at times that did not conflict with other school or classroom events.
I proposed several interventions to close the performance gaps. These interventions included a feedback and system, an online resource bank, parent workshops, and kick-off meetings. Working collaboratively with members of the Ometz team, I established program objectives and a program evaluation plan. I then created a detailed design of the proposed interventions. The program was terminated before the interventions could be implemented because of a change in funding. Although the program has since been terminated, these proposed interventions may help Ometz with future projects.