Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Name: Melissa Jones

Authentic Topic: The communication skills of a Help Desk Technician

Grade level: 11 - 12

Revised Bloom’s Levels

Cognitive Processes (Alternate Names) / Definitions and
Examples / Objective, Activity, or Assessment
  1. Remember: Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory

1.1 Recognizing(Identifying) / Location knowledge in long-term memory that is consistent with presented material (e.g., Recognize the dates of important events in U.S. history) /
  • Which of the following sequences is the correct order of the steps involved in the technical writing process?
    a) proofread the document
    b) generate a list of ideas
    c) arrange for an outside reviewer
    d) write a first draft
a.)b, c, d, ab.)d, b, c, a
c.)a, b, c, dd.)b, d, c, a
  • Which of these types of documents is primarily intended to catch the eye of the reader and promote an event?
a.)Online help b.)Email message
c.)Brochure or flyerd.)Handout or training aid
1.2 Recalling(Retrieving) / Retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term memory (e.g., Recall the dates of important events in U.S. history) /
  • List the three essential communications skills used in customer service situations.
ANSWER:
Listen
Understand
Respond
  • List four questions a technical writer should ask when planning a document.
ANSWER:
(1) Who is the target audience?
(2) What does the audience already know?
(3) What does the audience need to know?
(4) What does you want the audience to be able to do
when they finish reading the document?
(5) What medium will be used to transmit the
document to its audience?
  1. Understand: Construct meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written, and graphic communication

2.1 Interpreting(Clarifying, Paraphrasing, Representing, Translating) / Changing from one form of representation (e.g., numerical) to another (e.g., verbal) (e.g., Paraphrase important speeches and documents) /
  • Show that you understand the concept of paraphrasing by writing a paraphrase for the follow problem report: "The screen on my PC is blank."
SAMPLE ANSWER:
"the screen is dark—there are no colors or images on the
screen."
  • What term could replace the phrase “head crash” in the following sentence to avoid using technical jargon?
Users frequently lose their data when there is a head crash on the file server.
SAMPLE ANSWER:scratch on the hard disk
2.2 Exemplifying(Illustrating, Instantiating) / Finding a specific example or illustration of a concept or principle (e.g., Give examples of various artistic painting styles) /
  • Which type of nonverbal behavior is the least effective posture for support agents?
a.) an open stanceb.) face the user
c.) establish eye contactd.) fold arms
  • An internal user is one who is a ____.
a.worker in the same organization that provides
support services
b.customer of a hardware or software vendor
c.purchaser of products and services from an Internet
provider
d.client
2.3 Classifying(Categorizing,
Subsuming) / Determining that something belongs to a category (e.g., Classify observed or described cases of mental disorders) /
  • Identify these nonverbal behaviors as appropriate or inappropriate.
  1. Face the user
  2. Stare at the user
  3. Fold arms
  4. Use voice inflection
  5. Shift weight from one leg to other to show that you are engaged
  6. Speak in an upbeat and warm tone
  7. Cross legs when sitting
  8. Speaking in a voice pitch that is high
  9. Use facial expressions
  10. Stand close to show interest
  • Identify the items below that represent Web 2.0 tools that can be used on a support website.
  • FAQ
  • Blog
  • User Forum
  • Knowledge Database
  • Email contact link

2.4 Summarizing(Abstracting,
Generalizing) / Abstracting a general theme or major point(s) (e.g., Write a short summary of events portrayed on a videotape) / Read the article “Improve Customer Service – And Cut Costs” retrieved from and write a short summary of the article that includes the following:
  1. Who is the intended audience?
  2. What trends in customer service does the author describe?
  3. List the main points of the article.

2.5 Inferring(Concluding, Extrapolation, Interpolating, Predicting) / Drawing a logical conclusion from presented information (e.g., In learning a foreign language, infer grammatical principles from examples) / Complete the FREE 16 personality types inventory that is based on the highly recognized Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to determine your Personality Type Profile. Then provide a one page explanation identifying the advantages and disadvantages of your identified personality type as a Held Desk Technician.
2.6 Comparing(Contrasting, Mapping, Matching) / Detecting correspondences between two ideas, objects, and the like (e.g., Compare and contrast historical events to contemporary situations) / You are interviewing for a job as a Trainer for the IT department of a large manufacturing firm in your local area. You would be required to prepare training documentation for both novice and advanced users within the company. As part of the interview you are asked to take a technical document written for an advanced user and edit it so that it can be used by a novice user. Describe what you would change to the attached document so that it is user friendly for the novice user.
2.7 Explaining(Construction) / Construction a cause-and-effect model of a system (e.g., Determine how change, compromise, and culture affected the journey of your chosen explorer; Explain the causes of important 18th-century events in France) / Listen to the audio of the help desk call titled “Internet Service Disrupted” that contains the customer side of the call of an angry customer that transforms into a calm satisfied customer. Provide a detail script which includes effective dialogue by the Help Desk technician that would result in this change of behavior.
  1. Apply: Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation

3.1 Executing(Carrying out) / Apply a procedure to a familiar task (e.g., When serving as the cashier in the classroom store, count back change to the customers when they pay you; When studying about alcohol abuse, determine the difference in a man’s or woman’s blood alcohol levels at three different weights and three different amounts of alcohol consumed in one hour; Divide one whole number by another whole number, both with multiple digits) /
  • Using the 7 steps in the Technical Writing Process design a training document for new hires that will provide them with instructions to set up and perform routine backups of their computer data. Evidence of each step must be turned in at the appropriate checkpoint.
  • Your task in this assignment is to write a descriptive report of a support incident or situation that you worked on and resolved. Your report should describe the situation, the end user, the problem you solved, the method and steps you took to solve the problem, and what you learned from the experience. Make your report an example of your best professional technical writing.

3.2 Implementing(Using) / Applying a procedure to an unfamiliar task (e.g., Use persuasion techniques to create a multimedia presentation to convince your principal to implement your recycling plan; Use Newton’s Second Law in situations in which it is appropriate) / One tool available to assist Help Desk professionals perform their job is a manual of decision tress that can be consulted to help arrive at a resolution. You have been given a computer with an operational problem and your task is to develop a decision tree as you perform the troubleshooting process. Each student’s decision tree will become part of a Help Desk manual.
  1. Analyze: Break material into its constituent parts and determine how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose

Remember: If a student can “google” a question or prompt to find the answer OR if it only takes a few minutes to answer a prompt, it is not higher-level thinking at the Analyze, Evaluate, or Create level.

4.1 Differentiation(Discriminating, Distinguishing, Focusing, Selecting) / Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant parts or important parts of presented material; Differentiating is different from the cognitive processes associated with Understand because it involves structural organization and, in particular, determining how the parts fit into the overall structure or whole. (e.g., Research at least ten different methods of protecting crops from insect pests. Distinguish which are chemical or not and select the two best methods to use in organic farming in Kentucky. Justify your answer.) / Using the script of a Help Desk call about a computer that will not play a DVD movie for the customer:
  1. Highlight in orange the information that is not relevant to the Help Desk technician in troubleshooting the complaint.
  2. Highlight in pink the questions asked by the technician that will lead to determining user error
  3. Highlight in yellow questions that will lead to determining computer error.

4.2 Organizing(Finding coherence, Integrating, Outlining, Parsing, Structuring) / Determine how elements fit or function within a structure; Builds systematic and coherent connections among pieces of relevant information; Occurs in conjunction with Differentiating since the student first identifies the relevant or important elements and then determines or imposes an overall structure, configuration, or arrangement on the content. (e.g., After studying about how to farm tilapia fish and how to grow plants in water, determine how the elements of these two systems can fit or function within one system to mutually benefit both the fish and the plants; Structure evidence from the recent presidential election into evidence to determine which political party will probably win the next presidential election in four years) /
  • Team up with another student or coworker and practice listening and paraphrasing skills. One of you will take the role of the user; the other the role of a support person. The user describes a common problem with a computer system and the other will then paraphrase the problem description back to the user.
The user’s role is to listen for important parts of the problem that the support person omitted, that didn’t exist in the original problem description or that the support person modified.
Continue this activity until the person in the support role can correctly paraphrase the original problem description. The change roles and repeat.
  • Describe some pros and cons to Web 2.0 Interactive tools that allow users to post messages on a blog or user forum support Web site that other users can view and respond to. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Explain.

4.3 Attributing(Deconstructing) / Determine a point of view, a bias, values, or intent underlying presented material (e.g., Determine the point of view of the author of an essay in terms of his or her political perspective.) /
  • Review the Southeast Missouri State University Help Desk Mission statement ( and identify at least five ways in which the Mission Statement includes a customer-service ethic as described in Chapter 2 of our text.
  • Evaluate your communication skills by taking a 25 question quiz on your personal communication skills a Briefly describe any of the 25 items for which you checked sometimes or rarely and any patterns or themes that you can identify in these items. Finally, what resources are available to you to address the need for skill improvements that you identified?

  1. Evaluate: Make judgments based on criteria and standards

5.1 Checking(Coordinating, Detecting, Monitoring, Testing) / Detecting inconsistencies or fallacies within a process or product; determining whether a process or product has external consistency; determining the effectiveness of a procedure as it is being implemented (e.g., Determine if a scientist’s conclusions follow from the raw data; Evaluate another group’s business plan to determine whether the productive resources (natural, human, and capital) were used in the most effective manner and whether their product reflects consumer demands.) / Visit the Microsoft Web page that displays information about the accessibility features in Internet Explorer 10 (
Analyze and critique the Web site based on the information you have learned in Chapter 3. Remember that the target audience for this site is users who have or who support those who have physical limitations.
Write a one page summary of your evaluation, with recommendations on how you would improve the documentation. Include in your analysis how the web site document meets or does not meet the four evaluation criteria described in Chapter 3.
5.2 Critiquing (Judging) / Determining inconsistencies between a product and external criteria; determining whether a product has external consistency (e.g., Judge which of two methods is the best way to solve a problem given a set of external criteria; Create a blog to present the inconsistencies of the debate on whether or not organic food is better for people and the environment. Use the USDA’s criteria for organic food classification as a basis for your response. Give your personal conclusion and justification.) / The controversy surrounding Mac vs Pc is an age old battle between the two companies. Recently a salesman presented the HR Manager with a demo of new software aimed at Human Resource record keeping. The software currently only runs on MAC computers.
The HR Manager happens to be one who uses a MAC at home and is fluent in its use. However, the company uses PC’s and would have to invest a considerable amount of money to replace the HR employees PC’s with MAC computers.
The salesman has convinced the HR manager that they must have this new software. Your task is to research the features of the proposed software and prepare a proposal to the HR manager that either supports or disproves the salesman’s claim in regards to the must have proposal.
  1. Create: Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganize elements into a new pattern or structure

6.1 Generating(Hypothesizing) / Coming up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria (e.g., Generate as many hypotheses as you can to explain why some businesses might not have been a success in our town;Generate hypotheses to account for an observed phenomenon) / You supervisor calls you into his office to discuss an email complaint from a consumer regarding a software product that you designed. The customer is extremely unhappy with the product and claims that its features have been misrepresented and does not do what it claims to do.
Your task is to respond to the consumer complaint and satisfy the customer’s need by showing them how to install or use the software in the way that satisfies the purpose for which they bought the product.
Due to the extreme level of anger and dissatisfaction that is communicated through the email complaint it is important for you to be prepared when you make contact with the customer. Generate a list of communication samples that will allow you to communicate with the angry customer. Your goal is to lead the customer through the training and troubleshooting process that will calm them and keep them calm.
6.2 Planning(Designing) / Devising a detailed procedure for accomplishing some task (e.g., Submit a business plan for your proposed business including cover sheet, table of contents, executive summary, business context, business profile, marketing analysis, challenges and responses, marketing plan, financials, time table, summary of needed capital.) /
  • You have been asked by the HR manager to be part of a team that will interview for a position in the IT department as a Help Desk technician. You are responsible for evaluating the interviewee’s ability to communicate with an end user.
Design an evaluation checklist that includes verbal, written and digital types of communication in the Help Desk Environment.
  • Prepare a training module regarding strategies for handling Difficult Clients/Incidents. Your training should prepare newly hired Help Desk Technicians to handle the seven types of clients and incidents described in our text. Your module should include an assessment for the new hires to complete at the end of the module.

6.3 Producing(Constructing) / Inventing a product (e.g., Build a habitat for an original animal you created.) /
  • You have been given a computer that contains an error that is among the most frequent reasons that customers call the Help Desk for computer support. Another student has been assigned the same error. Your partner student will choose the customer type that they want to portray (angry, know it all etc).
Your task is to work with your partner to create a video showing a full computer support phone call to fix the error. The focus of your call will be to handle the customer type appropriately while leading them to a solution to their problem. You may edit and retake your video as much as you like. Once the final product is finished we will watch as a class and you will be critiqued by the class based on your ability to effectively handle the customer type.
  • Using the internal work orders that have been filed by the IT practicum students, design a FAQ web page to be placed on the school website. The audience will be the teachers in the building and the purpose is to give them an opportunity to apply simple procedures to fix issues before creating a work order for the students.

Anderson, L. W.,Krathwohl, D. R., et al (Eds..) (2001).A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.