Instructional Design Project Success Indicators: An Empirical Basis

The success of instructional design and development (ID) projects is typically evaluated using an evaluation framework, the most popular being Kirkpatrick's (1967) four levels of evaluation. In spite of their widespread use, there does not appear to be an empirical basis for these frameworks. Do the popular evaluation frameworks encompass the major indicators of successful ID projects? Are the success indicators the same for all the various stakeholders involved in ID projects? The purpose of this study was: 1) to establish empirically a set of ID project success indicators, and 2) to determine if stakeholder perspective influences the importance attached to those indicators. Seven ID project success indicators were identified, suggesting that the common evaluation models are incomplete. A two-way ANOVA revealed no significant differences among the stakeholder groups in terms of the importance they attached to the success indicators overall. However, a significant difference was found among the success indicators in terms of their importance to ID project success. Also, there was a significant interaction between certain stakeholder groups and certain ID project success indicators. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Artificial intelligence knowledge acquisition techniques for instructional development

Knowledge engineering techniques for developing expert systems may also be useful for instructional development. A review of knowledge engineering focusing on knowledge representation and knowledge acquisition suggests ways in which these methods could be adapted to developing instructional systems. As further work is done on intelligent computer-assisted instructional systems and other complex instructional development projects, knowledge engineering skills may become more important for the instructional developer.     

Recent educational research on developing countries by German researchers: A survey of the literature

How have recent trends in German educational research applied to developing countries? In order to outline the immediate state of this research in the FRG (1980–1983), the contribution first gives a brief review of its process from the beginning. The first part examines educational research until 1980, and then differentiates three main types of research on educational problems in Third World countries (on the implementation of projects; on the evaluation of education programmes and measures of educational aid; on education systems and the correlation between education and development). Through a survey of the literature published since 1980, the article aims to give an idea of the contemporary topics of this research and furthermore tries to show how German educationists try to come to terms with the failures of educational aid projects, also how they try to construct new and adequate theoretical models.     

New educational technologies: Their impact on relationships of dependence and interdependence for Third World countries

The widening gap between North and South is more than economic: it is a knowledge and power gap. The influence of the present information revolution on education in the West, unprecedented in its rate and scope of expansion, is increasing the information gap at an alarming rate. Should Third World countries use new educational technologies (NET) as a tool for development? Can they afford it? Will borrowing NET perpetuate the present dependency of the Third World? This paper argues that Third World countries will continue to be technologically dependent because of research and development in the West. The solution lies in the balance of power theory — selective transfer of NET appropriate for their level of development, to strengthen their bargaining position. Mass education and the development of indigenous technological capacity are implied. Bargaining capacity would reduce dependency, create greater interdependence and change the equation of power.     

Bildung in der Strukturr Sozio-ökonomischer Entwicklung: Eine Analyse von Längsschnittsdaten aus Afrika südlich der Sahara

The preparation for the World Conference on Education for All at the beginning of 1990 once again showed clearly the importance of education for development in the countries of the Third World. This article explores the systemic place of education in the process of development. With the help of factor analysis it treats the following individual questions: Is education, or basic education, an independent factor? Are the many development indicators determined by general factors? Is basic education one of these factors? An analysis is made of development indicators from 1960 to 1984 drawn from World Bank reports on 38 sub-Saharan African countries. Two sets of economic, demographic and educational data have been examined: the first relates to the year 1984 (or nearest available); the second contains two years, adding an earlier set from the nearest available date to 1960. The analysis of the later set reveals five factors: general modernization, population growth, economic development, pupil-teacher ratio, and food supply to the general population. Education is not an independent factor in this list. Using the data sets from both years, seven factors are revealed. After diagonal rotation these are: basic education, degree of urbanization, pupil-teacher ratio, average standard of living attained, economic growth, service sector, food production per head, population growth, and employment in modern sectors.     

Research–practice interactions as reported in recent design studies: still promising, still hazy

This study portrays recent research?Cpractice connections found in 18 design research reports focusing on the creation of instructional solutions. Solutions in different stages of development varied greatly in duration, ranging from one lesson to a whole year curriculum, spanned all levels of education, many subjects (science, math, language, culture, teacher education, etc.). Close collaboration between researchers and practitioners was prominent in all of the 18 projects studied. Participants in primary and secondary education projects have quite distinct roles regarding the teaching and researching, but they design their instruction solutions often collaboratively. Nearly all projects reported on how designed solutions were anchored in research, either from literature or from in-house project data. All articles indicated that research fed (re-)design, but few specified how. Based on our findings, we call for increased research and reporting on the specific strategies employed by design research participants to facilitate the production of new theoretical understanding through design of instructional solutions.     

Primary Schooling in China and India: Understanding How Socio-Contextual Factors Moderate the Role of the State

This paper considers how state educational policy and other sociocontextual factors influence primary schooling in two large developing countries. In the late 1940s, national statistics for primary school enrolment and other human development indicators were comparable between China and India. Both countries then experienced major political transitions and embraced similar economic development priorities. Half a century later, reports prepared for the 2000 World Education Forum indicate that China had far outperformed India in terms of school enrolment ratios and on indices of the efficiency of primary education. This article considers the reasons for these differences. It discusses the role of the state, educational policy and its implementation, linkages among educational, economic and social policies, cultural belief systems that are relevant to education, classroom teaching and learning, teacher characteristics, and the physical conditions of schools.     

Monitoring School Effectiveness in Developing Countries

Reviews on school effectiveness research in developing countries indicate that between-school variances are much larger than in industrialized countries. Resource input factors appear to have a larger impact in developing countries, while there are relatively few studies that have focused on instructional processes. Results at this level are not very clear at this stage. Local contexts may shape and interact with conditions that are expected to enhance effectiveness. Given the high stakes that are involved and the degrees of existing variation, school effectiveness studies in developing countries have the potential to be at the cutting edge of empirical school effectiveness research in the near future. Integration and application of the knowledge-base in evaluation and monitoring projects by means of school process indicators is seen as the most responsible way to use the research findings for improvement purposes.     

Technical Assistance in the Field of Quality Assurance: a human obligation for industrialised countries

Changing conditions in developing countries and growing differentiation between these countries are responsible for the intensification of technical co-operation in the field of quality assurance. The task of the German Technical Academy is to become a satisfactory instrument in facing this challenge of development policy. The Deutsche Technische Akademie (DTA) is concerned with projects of technical assistance in developing countries and with the education of foreign specialists and technical management staff from developing countries in the Federal Republic of Germany.     

Constructing Narratives of Continuity and Change: A transdisciplinary approach to researching lives

In outlining the framework offered at the UNESCO Regional Conference in support of Global Literacy (New Delhi, November 2007), it was pointed out that concepts of poverty, sustainable development and particularly of literacy and innovation have themselves been in continuous re‐construction. An analysis of the context and condition for literacy policies and initiatives in Bangladesh—a country with one of the highest rates of both poverty and illiteracy—was undertaken, as an exemplar for other countries of the Asian region, and for Third World countries around the globe. It is suggested that to meet the challenge ahead, social‐structural strategies must be joined with instructional strategies and second socializations of all involved; and both the planners and providers of adult literacy, and the intended beneficiaries of adult literacy dispensation must be mobilized. Commitments must last for a decade—and more if necessary.     

Using quantitative data in World Bank per-student funding reform projects: data,designs and dilemmas in transition countries

Since the late 1980s, education systems have increasingly moved to allocating funding for general education by means of a per-student formula. The trend started with developed economies and moved to transition and developing economies, where the World Bank has promoted the adoption of per-student funding (PSF). But promoting a particular reform, such as PSF, by including it in a package of sector-specific development projects funded by World Bank grants or loans, and employing local and international specialist staff do not guarantee successful implementation. This paper examines experience with implementing PSF to school level in transition countries, comparing varying degrees of success to date (2013) in Bulgaria, Moldova and Kosovo. The paper considers the dilemmas inherent in designing PSF formulae for schools, how this played out in each of the countries and the reasons for varying success in implementation.     

A design-based research case study documenting a constructivist ID process and instructional solution for a cross-cultural workforce

As the need for instructing a globalized workforce increases, instructional designers must embrace the constraints and the opportunities these projects provide in order to move the field of cross-cultural instructional design (ID) forward. Cross-cultural projects offer multiple avenues for growth in ID practice, overcoming cultural barriers, and a venue to apply and test contemporary models, methodologies, and theories in ID. This design-based research case study employed a rapid prototyping methodology and the constructivist ID model, Layers of Negotiation, to collect critical cultural information for the design of this cross-cultural instruction. Instructional strategies deemed effective for instructing an unskilled workforce in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, included job aids, situated learning and apprenticeship principles consisting of modeling, coaching and scaffolding. Use of the constructivist ID model and instructional solution for a cross-cultural workforce for The Dubai Mall are presented. Evaluation results indicate the success of the instructional strategies varied dependent upon worker culture, and the sequential nature of the instructional strategies.     

Some reflections on the link between education and employment

The ILO's World Employment Programme, launched officially in 1969, constitutes the major contribution of the International Labour Organisation to the Second Development Decade in the area of employment objectives and policies. The general aim of the World Employment Programme (WEP) is to provide concrete and specific guidelines to policy-makers and planners on policies and measures which enable them to choose those development strategies which have a greater weight attached to productive employment creation, and to assist in their implementation. The following activities have recently been undertaken to give practical effect to the World Employment Programme. First, so-called comprehensive employment strategy missions have been sent to Colombia, Ceylon, Iran and Kenya (ILO, 1970, 1971, 1972a, 1972b). In the light of a definition and diagnosis of the employment problem in these countries, these missions have proposed a long-term strategy based on fundamental changes in key areas of development policy, including education and training. They have also drawn up an immediate programme of action to face the most urgent problems. Second, regional teams have been established in Latin America and Asia, and several subregional teams are in the process of being constituted in Africa. Set up with a view to making a comprehensive investigation of employment problems in the countries of the region and assisting them in formulating employment policies and programmes, they are keeping under review the progress and obstacles encountered and identifying needs for further direct assistance. Third, a major research programme has been launched. The principal elements of the WEP's research programme are the following major projects which are currently being carried out or are about to start:

1. population and employment;
2. technology and employment;
3. income distribution and employment;
4. education and employment;
5. international trade and employment;
6. urban employment problems; and
7. feasibility of emergency employment schemes.

This article gives a brief account of the insights already gained and the work under way in the area of education and employment.     

CANADA'S UNIVERSITIES AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AN OVERVIEW

This article presents a brief overview of the many facets of the involvement of Canadian universities in international development. To begin with, questions of development are included in the international affairs and area studies curricula of a number of universities. A few universities have specialized institutes focussed upon development. A number of Canadian universities have linkages of one kind or another with universities in developing countries. Some of these are partly supported by the Canadian International Development Agency. Two university programmes directed specifically at technology transfer are cited. A number of foreign countries have expressed interest in Canada's vast experience in distance education. Finally, through the normal research and publication activities of Canadian universities and their faculty members, Canadian professors have undertaken projects of various sorts concerned with development, some of them funded to a greater or lesser extent by the Canadian International Development Research Center which has also funded the research projects directed at questions of development undertaken by certain Third World scholars.

     

Focusing on Process to Improve Learning: A Case Study of Instructional Research and Development

This article describes a project undertaken to create a faculty resource guide, Environmental Ethics in Practice. We focus on the instructional research and development (IRD) process we employed and the resulting instructional product. Although IRD is an established process, it is largely underutilized in favor of an artistic/intuitive approach to instructional design and development. Our purpose is to show faculty and administrators the practical application of IRD and its relevance to similar educational projects in all disciplines.     

When performance is the product: Problems in the analysis of online distance education

This article examines two ideologies that have been prominent in recent, if not current, education thinking. The first is that means can be separated from ends (or processes from products); the second is that learning is merely a process of knowledge acquisition. Attention to these ideologies arises from two projects in the overlapping fields of information and communications technology (ICT) and instructional design. Both projects attend to conversation as an educational resource. They are animated by the questions: should a conversation be regarded as an activity in context or can it be decoupled from the circumstances that define it as a conversation? In other words, does a conversation take place within an environment, or by means of the environment? Relating these questions to the changing view of ICT held within the European Community, the article uses a bricolage of ideas from economic history, communication theory and discourse analysis to summarise how such inherited ideologies might be realigned in the analysis of online conversation.     

Environmental Education in Primary Education: status and trends in southern and eastern Africa

This study presents the results of an international comparative study (based on secondary analysis techniques) into the status of environmental education (EE) in primary education in 10 southern and eastern African countries. The study concludes that the current provisions for EE in primary education in the countries sampled are insufficient for the comprehensive development of national programmes. The major barriers to the further development ofEE include inadequate provisions for EE in education policy, deficiencies in teacher training in EE and a lack of instructional materials. The study recommends that the most important step towards improving the status of EE in primary education in the region is the inclusion of EE in education policy, combined with the development of a mechanism that would facilitate policy implementation.     

Careers guidance in a developing country: Malaysia

Formal careers guidance services are a product of economic and social development. In relatively primitive societies, allocation to adult roles is determined largely by the family, caste or class into which one is born. As the society becomes more complex, these systems start to break down, and careers guidance services are needed to lubricate—and, perhaps, catalyse (Daws, 1977)—increasing levels of social and occupational mobility. How then is the role of careers guidance evolving in those Third World countries that are trying so to accelerate the pace of economic and social development that they will be able to catch up with the living standards attained by the Western world? How far are they being influenced by the approaches to careers guidance that have evolved in such countries as the USA and Britain? How applicable are these approaches to cultures that in many ways are very different? An opportunity to examine these questions in the context of one developing country—Malaysia—was afforded by a visit carried out in February-March 1977. This article outlines some impressions of the careers guidance system that seems to be emerging there.