Designing effective instruction

Summary We have usedDesigning Effective Instruction in introductory ID courses and experienced its use from both the instructors' and the learners' perspective. Our overall conclusion is that it is highly usable and accessible to beginning ID students, including those whose first language may not be English. The ID model presented is clear and the focus on the learner throughout is appropriate and in line with current research emphases and trends. The inclusion of Microsoft Project ^tm makes a clear and concrete statement that ID can benefit from technology, not only in the delivery of instruction, but in the planning of structured learning activities and in managing instructional development efforts.     

A navy video teletraining project: Lessons learned

Abstract

This paper discusses two modifications to the conduct of computer‐conference‐based master's degree courses: a maximum length for conference messages was suggested and, more importantly, conference moderators, or topic leaders, were appointed from among the student cohort. Drawing on previous work on conference moderation, it is argued that the differing power relationships between student and student and between instructor and student result in a context in which instructor and student moderators can perform complementary functions to ensure a more productive conferencing environment.     

The need for effective writing instruction

Many students with writing difficulties have negligible editing skills at best. Existing research supports that a strategy approach to teaching writing conventions to students with learning disabilities is effective, particularly when the strategies involve mnemonics. Recognizing that classroom teachers are increasingly overburdened, our study offers an alternative setting for academic intervention – the after-school program – and focuses on an intervention utilizing a mnemonic designed to increase the efficacy of the time spent on editing in the writing process. This study investigates the impact of two instructional conditions on participants' editing skills: (1) the effects of direct instruction regarding writing conventions to a combination of direct instruction and (2) a mnemonic writing strategy from Step up to writing. Both approaches produced significant gains (p < .05). However, the combined approach exhibited a larger effect size of d = .77-.84 at post-test, as measured by TOWL-3 Contrived Composite scores.     

Designing computer software for problem-solving instruction

The purpose of this article is to identify factors that might influence the effectiveness of computer software designed to teach problem solving. Problem solving is defined and the research literature related to the acquisition of problem-solving abilities and the capabilities of computers for delivering problem-solving instruction are reviewed. The factors critical to the acquisition of problem-solving abilities and the attributes of computers that make them potential tools in problem-solving instruction are identified. These items are synthesized into a list of factors that are expected to influence the effectiveness of computer software designed to teach problem solving.     

Using Internet delivered video cases,to support pre-service teachers' understanding of effective early literacy instruction: An exploratory study

This preliminary study explores the effects ofusing CTELL (Case Technologies EnhancingLiteracy Learning) cases on preserviceteachers' learning. Students participated inone of three instructional treatments:traditional, traditional plus video, andtraditional plus CTELL cases. A pre-postconcept web, describing students' understandingof effective reading instruction, served as themajor outcome measure. This was supplementedwith a unidimensional confidence measure,journal entries, and student interviews. Nosignificant differences were found for any ofthe three treatment conditions on the conceptmapping task or the confidence measure.However, the journal entries and interview datahighlight important issues, challenges andbenefits, with respect to the use of multimediacases. Implications for teacher education areexplored.     

Designing E-learning environments for flexible activity and instruction

The contributions to this issue share a focus on design of e-learning environments. Instructional designers stand at very early stages of knowledge in this area, but with great potential for growth and progress. This commentary offers an activity-based perspective on e-learning environments, resulting in a flexible stance toward instructional strategies, artifact design, emergent activity, and learning outcomes. This same flexibility should be evident as we in the field appropriate theories from other disciplines and develop some of our own. I support the contributors' call for more design research specifically addressing challenging problems of practice encountered by design practitioners.