ED 6228 Designing Instructional Materials Summer, 2014

Maggie McNeill Instructor: Matthew Stranach

Session 3 Activity 8 The Opening a Restaurant Project

Project Overview - Kickoff
In the past, office technology skills were taught using traditional methods. These
included books, exercises, demonstrations by a teacher using an overhead projector and
handouts. Tests completed a unit of study and exams concluded the semester program.
The project presented to you today is an exciting alternative to traditional approaches.
After instruction, you will work in teams of two, discovering and learning new ways of using
office technology to complete a project preparing for the grand opening of a restaurant! You
will choose the type of restaurant to open, design the menus and ads, and create budgets,
order supplies, schedule staff and more. The goal is to be creative and gain office technology
skills. While there will be quizzes, a portfolio of your work will be a significant part of your
assessment. Lets begin!
Project Activities
To prepare for the grand opening of a restaurant by :
Creating a business plan that could be used to open a restaurant
Creating a detailed pre-opening checklist of tasks and equipment required to open a restaurant
Creating a marketing plan that could be used to market your new restaurant
Working in teams using technology to create business and marketing material that could be
used by a restaurant
Finishing the project by producing a PowerPoint presentation of the project goals, and how they
were met.

Project Goals Business Topics Covered
Develop meeting, scheduling and project planning skills
Create a business plan
Provide schedule and expense projections
Marketing and advertising
Equipment costing
Budgets
Presentation of your completed project to the class


ED 6228 Designing Instructional Materials Summer, 2014
Maggie McNeill Instructor: Matthew Stranach

To gain in-depth skills in Microsoft Office using:
Word
Create business plan, tables, mail merge, styles, marketing plans and schedule
projections
Excel
Create spreadsheets, tables, formulas and functions for costing and ordering
restaurant equipment and schedule asset payments
Publisher
Create ads, menus, posters, business cards
PowerPoint
Presentation of project to class

Session 3 Activity 8 Critique
Rose (p. 34) notes that constructivism is a move away from knowledge provided by the
teacher to passively waiting learners. Rather, it is a dialogue wherein learners actively
participate in their learning outcomes, learning strategies and assessments.
The Opening a Restaurant project uses a constructivist problem based learning (PBL) model.
Learners work in teams to research and resolve outcomes in their individual learning
experience in office technology. After basic instruction, learning will be self-guided and learner
initiated with the Instructor circulating among students to provide individual assistance as
needed. There are course objectives and anticipated outcomes which are provided in the
syllabus.
Assessments will include the learners portfolio of work, as well as the concluding
PowerPoint presentation of their project to the class. A sample grading scheme will be
provided. Resources and instructional material will be provided in the form of webpage
tutorials, handouts, document samples and PowerPoints. However, there will be progressively
fewer formal class lectures as this class uses a hands-on PBL model.
Not all educators have favorable opinions regarding Constructivism in education. For instance,
an in-depth study was conducted by Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) that found fault with
Constructivist principles. In particular they stress that as an instructional procedure, it appears
to ignore the human cognitive architecture (p. 76). They explain this further in reference to
long term memory models and claim that the Constructivist model does not allow information
to move from working to long-term memory, which is a key factor for any transformative
learning to occur.
My experience with Constructivism is in line with the findings of Kirschner, Sweller and
Clark. I believe that too often teachers assume learners will discover information on their own,
ED 6228 Designing Instructional Materials Summer, 2014
Maggie McNeill Instructor: Matthew Stranach

without much guidance, and that it will become a transformative experience for them. This is
not always the case when scaffolding is removed to soon, or material does not work well in a
PBL model if, for example, it does not provide enough foundation for learners to synthesize the
knowledge and form new experiences.
Activity 8 Instructions:
Design an instructional message that would be appropriate in a constructivist learning
environment. (Note: You are not being asked to design a lesson plan a description of what
you, the instructor, would do but an instructional message, something that learners would
read and interact with.
Who are the learners?
The learners are the adult Advanced Office Technology class. They are of various ages, and
come from a variety of backgrounds with differing levels of skills, but all have had previous
technology classes. Some learners have a business background and will appreciate the business
plan inclusion, while others may be new to the work force. All will most likely place more value
on useful skills they will develop in the Microsoft Office Pro Suite as it will provide them with a
deeper, practical knowledge of office technology than they now possess.
What makes the message suitable for a constructivist approach to teaching and learning?
This message (Opening a Restaurant) is suitable for a Constructivist approach as it goes beyond
basic office technology instruction and provides the learner with the opportunity to experience
a real life scenario while developing their technology skills in Microsoft Office software.
Instruction will be provided in the first few classes but it will gradually be withdrawn and
learners will work in a PBL model to work their project while increasing their Office Technology
skillset. Portfolios will be developed by learners and assessed along with the PowerPoint
presentation of their project to the class.
Guiding PBL Design Principle
C1
Were rich instructional materials created that will encourage learners to investigate and
explore for example, case studies, problems and goal-based scenarios?
Yes, as this project is a goal based scenario on how to open a restaurant, there will be ample
opportunity to investigate and explore business cases and marketing plans while learning office
technology skills.
ED 6228 Designing Instructional Materials Summer, 2014
Maggie McNeill Instructor: Matthew Stranach

C2
Were instructional materials created that will encourage diversity of personal interpretations
and approaches?
Instructional materials will be created in such a way that a diversity of approaches will be
possible. Learners will determine what type of restaurant they will open, what theme will be
used and create menus, brochures ads, etc. to promote the restaurant. Business plans will be
created by learners to encourage their personal approaches to the scenario of opening their
restaurant.
C3
Were materials designed that will encourage collaboration among learners?
This is a project that is quite large in scope and working collaboratively with a teammate will be
a critical component to successfully finishing in the time available. Learners will also be
presented with information on projects and teamwork to facilitate working collaboratively.
C4
Were new concepts and information associated with known concepts and information in
order to scaffold learning?
Yes, the beginning of this office technology course will provide significant scaffolding using
known concepts and information before transitioning into a PBL project involving opening a
restaurant and using office technology (the ultimate goal) to create the documents they will
need to proceed in opening a restaurant.

References
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006) Why minimal guidance during instruction does
not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based,
experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Retrieved on July 21, 2014 from PDF in Reference
section of: http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Guided_discovery_learning
Restaurant Pre-Opening checklist. (n.d.) Retrieved on July 20, 2014 from:
www.foodserviceresource.com/PreOpeningChkList.pdf
Rose, E. (2011). Designing Instructional Materials. Textbook for ED 6228. Fredericton: University
of New Brunswick.