Teaching Instructional Design: An Apprenticeship Model

Several cognitive psychologists have written about the importance of placing instruction within “authentic” contexts that mirror real-life situations. They argue that knowledge learned in academic settings does not necessarily transfer to non-academic settings. Whether preparing performance technologists or instructional designers, educators must strive to create meaningful problem-solving contexts that enable students to define, and subsequently solve, real-world problems. In an attempt to address this issue we have modified the way we teach instructional design. This paper discusses a cognitive apprenticeship approach to teaching design, which incorporates elements of modeling, coaching, reflection, articulation, and exploration. We describe how these features are embedded within three phases (orientation, situated training/learning, and exploration) of an introductory instructional design course designed to move our novice designers along a continuum of expertise as they develop and refine their own professional design skills. Although the apprenticeship model described here specifically addresses concerns within the context of preparing instructional designers, we believe that this model can be adapted to address similar issues in the education of performance technologists.     

Preparing Instructional Designers for Game-Based Learning: Part 1

Like many rapidly growing industries, advances in video game technology are far outpacing research on its design and effectiveness. Relatively little is understood about how to apply what we know about teaching and learning to optimize game-based learning. For the most part, instructional designers know little about game development and video game developers may know little about training, education and instructional design. In this three part series of articles, four recognized and emerging experts in instructional game design discuss their perspectives on preparing instructional designers to optimize game-based learning. In Part I, we set the context for the series of articles and one of four faculty members who teach a graduate level course on game design discusses what he believes instructional designers should know about instructional game design based on his experiences. Part II will present alternative perspectives from two additional faculty members who teach courses in instructional game design, and Part III will present a fourth perspective along with conclusion that compares the four views.     

Preparing Instructional Designers for Game-Based Learning: Part 2

As noted in part I of this article (published in TechTrends 54(3)), advances in technology continue to outpace research on the design and effectiveness of instructional (digital video) games. In general, instructional designers know little about game development, commercial video game developers know little about training, education and instructional design, and relatively little is understood about how to apply what we know about teaching and learning to optimize game-based learning. In Part I, a panel of recognized and emerging experts in the design of instructional (digital video) games set the context for this three part series and one of four panelists discussed what he believes instructional designers should know about instructional game design (Hirumi, Appleman, Rieber, Van Eck, 2010). In Part II, two faculty members who teach courses on instructional game design presents their perspectives on preparing instructional designers for game-based learning. Part III will present a fourth perspective along with conclusion that compares the four views.     

Preparing Instructional Designers for Game-Based Learning: Part III. Game Design as a Collaborative Process

In this three part series, four professors who teach graduate level courses on the design of instructional video games discuss their perspectives on preparing instructional designers to optimize game-based learning. Part I set the context for the series and one of four panelists discussed what he believes instructional designers should know about instructional game design. In Part II, two faculty members who teach courses on instructional game design presented their perspectives on preparing instructional designers for game-based learning. Part III presents a fourth perspective along with conclusion that contrasts the four views posited in Parts I-III.     

“There’s got to be a better way to do this”: a qualitative investigation of informal learning among instructional designers

This study employed a qualitative research design to investigate informal learning among practicing instructional designers. Prior research has examined how instructional designers spend their time, make decisions, use theory, solve problems, and so on, but no published research has explored the nature and role of informal learning in instructional design work. Based on intensive interviews of practitioners in the field, this study produced eight themes organized according to two metathemes: (a) the nature of informal learning in instructional design practice and (b) instructional design as informal learning. Specific themes concerned what instructional designers learn through informal practical experience, how they learn it, and the meaning of this kind of learning for various aspects of their work. Overall, these results suggest that informal learning is a vital part of instructional design practice and that design itself can be thought of as a specialized type of informal learning. Other conclusions regarding informal learning in design are discussed and future directions for research are offered.     

Requirements and benefits of effective interactive instruction: Learner control,self-regulation,and continuing motivation

While educational technologies provide increasing opportunities for interactive exploration in a learning environment, crucial questions remain: Will learners be able to exercise control and effectively regulate their own learning in flexible learning systems? Will they be motivated enough really to explore? Theory and research suggest that learners can and will, if the instructional systems are well-designed and if the learners are adequately prepared. In this paper, the components of learner control, self-regulated learning, and continuing motivation are examined as possible requirements and benefits of effective interactive instruction. A theoretical framework is advanced which illustrates the interdependence and mutual importance of these three components. Educational research in each of these three areas is analyzed, inconsistencies are discussed, and further support is developed for consideration of these components within an instructional situation. Finally, recommendations are offered for future research, to develop further what we know about what makes instruction effective and learners successful.     

Principles for Designing Web Searching Instruction

Web searching is a timely topic which importance is recognized by researchers, educators and instructional designers. This paper aims to guide these practitioners in developing instructional materials for learning to search the Web. It does so by articulating ten design principles that attend to the content and presentation of Web searching instruction. These principles convey a mixture of insights gleaned from instructional theory, empirical research, and many hours of classroom experience. Together, these design recommendations elucidate the key characteristics of effective Web searching instruction, explaining not only what the instructional materials look like, but also why they look the way they do.     

How Do Instructional‐Design Practitioners Make Instructional‐Strategy Decisions?

Many theories have been proposed to help instructional designers make instructional‐strategy decisions, yet it is not clear if these theories are actually used by ID practitioners. This study used a web‐survey to examine the design strategies of 113 ID practitioners. The survey asked respondents to rate how frequently they used learning or ID theories as well as 10 other design strategies, to help make instructional‐strategy decisions. Respondents were also asked how often they used different information sources to learn about new theories, trends, and strategies, and to respond to a set of contrasting statements depicting objectivist vs. construc‐tivist assumptions. The results indicate that ID practitioners most often rely on interaction with others both as a means of making instructional‐strategy decisions and of learning about new theories, trends, and strategies. Only fifty percent of the respondents said they regularly use theories when making instructional‐strategy decisions, using other design strategies more frequently instead; and most practitioners are eclectic in their underlying philosophical assumptions. Based on these results, we discuss implications for training and ongoing support of instructional designers.     

HyperCard for the Design,Development, and Delivery of Instruction

The innovative software product HyperCard™ introduced in August, 1987, and today distributed free of charge with Apple Computer Incorporated's Macintosh line of computers, has sparked a flurry of interest among computer users. HyperCard represents advanced technology that, in a short time, has been put in the hands of hundreds of thousands of users, including a significant number of instructional designers and performance technologists. This article has three sections that introduce instructional designers and performance technologists to HyperCard. The first section describes just what HyperCard is and summarizes how it works. The second section presents the theoretical background of the program, from the perspectives of both cognitive psychologists and futuristic thinkers in the computing world. Finally, the third section describes three uses of HyperCard: (a) as a database management program, (b) as a vehicle for implementing hypermedia applications, and (c) as an authoring tool. For each of these three functions, the advantages and disadvantages of HyperCard for instructional designers and performance technologists are explored.     

三种学习理论在远程教育学习材料设计中的运用

要理解教学设计,首先要了解三种学习理论：行为主义、认知主义和建构主义。如何设计远程教育的学习材料,如何在学习材料中渗透教学方法,三种不同的学习理论会产生三种不同的指导思路。文章从六个方面分别介绍这三种学习理论及其在远程教育学习材料设计中的运用：学习是如何发生的;学习任务类型;教学策略;教学建议;嵌入技术;案例介绍。     

Development and evaluation of a case‐based digital learning tool about children's mathematical thinking for elementary school teachers (L‐TEST)

It is important for teachers of mathematics to know how pupils react to certain mathematical situations and what these reactions imply, in order to design more effective instructional environments based on their learning needs. This study reports the development processes of a digital learning tool (Learning Tool for Elementary School Teachers (L‐TEST)) that shows children's mathematical thinking for the ages of 4–11 years across certain problem situations. L‐TEST is designed as a support tool to be used in teacher education. A case‐based instructional model was used in designing the instructional tool. Video recordings were digitised to provide a rich environment where learners observe exemplary cases. These exemplified videos included children's mathematical development in the subjects of numbers and shapes, combined with discussions in line with the current research findings. Finally, a usability test for the learning tool was carried out.     

The influence of values and rich conditions on designers’ judgments about useful instructional methods

An instructional designer’s values about instructional methods can be a curse or a cure. On one hand, a designer’s love affair for a method may cause them to use that method in situations that are not appropriate. On the other hand, that same love affair may inspire a designer to fight for a method when those in power are willing to settle for a less effective, efficient, and appealing method. The purpose of this research is to explore instructional designers’ values about methods and their willingness to sacrifice those methods in situations involving both lean and rich conditions. We asked 33 instructional designers to rate the usefulness of 31 instructional methods for No Conditions (values), Learning Domains (lean conditions), and Scenarios (rich conditions). The results show that instructional designers readily sacrifice their values for both lean and rich conditions. Furthermore, the precision of designer judgments about useful instructional methods increase as conditions become richer. Overall, the results provide evidence that supports the core principles of instructional planning theory, specifically associated with the interaction between conditions and values. The results also provide instructional designers guidance in selecting the most useful instructional methods.     

Metacognitive, cognitive and affective aspects of learning styles and strategies: A phenomenographic analysis

This paper addresses the following questions: how do students perform metacognitive, cognitive and affective learning functions; how is the execution of learning functions regulated by internal and external sources; what learning styles can be discerned from the viewpoint of learning functions and regulation? Subjects were students from an open distance university and a regular university. They were interviewed extensively about their learning strategies, mental models of learning, learning orientations and interpretations and appraisals of instructional measures. The interviews were analyzed in a phenomenographic way. The results indicate that there are large differences among students in the manner in which they carry out learning functions, that these differences are associated with internal and external sources, and that four qualitatively different learning styles can be discerned: an undirected, a reproduction directed, a meaning directed and an application directed learning style. Mental models of learning and learning orientations turn out to be related to the way in which students interpret, appraise and use instructional measures to regulate their learning activities. It is concluded that in many instances instructional measures do not have the intended effects. Suggestions are given regarding the implications of these results for the improvement of teaching practices in higher education.     

A Rational Analysis of the Process of Instruction

Instruction is defined as a process for controlling student behavior so as to insure student learning, rather than as a process for merely presenting information to students to learn in whatever way they can. Learning, in turn, is defined in terms of behavioral associationism. Thus, the problem of specifying an instructional program so as to lead to effective control of student learning as directly as possible is largely a problem of adequately describing the behaviors required of the student at specified points in the instructional program. The main body of the paper is concerned with the general application of these basic definitions to the problems of: 1) Identifying what it is that is to be learned, 2) Sequencing the order in which instructional materials are to be presented, 3) Designing instructional situations for accomplishing the desired learning. Evaluation is defined as consisting of two major aspects: 1) Evaluation of the effectiveness of the instruction for inculcating students with the behaviors selected for them to learn, 2) Evaluation of the effectiveness of the behaviors selected for the student to learn for producing adequate job performance.     

A motivational perspective on the relation between mental effort and performance: Optimizing learner involvement in instruction

Motivation can be identified as a dimension that determines learning success and causes the high dropout rate among online learners, especially in complex e-learning environments. It is argued that these learning environments represensent a new challenge to cognitive load researchers to investigate the motivational effects of instructional conditions and help instructional designers to predict which instructional configurations will maximize learning and transfer. Consistent with the efficiency perspective introduced by Paas and Van Merriënboer (1993), an alternative motivational perspective of the relation between mental effort and performance is presented. We propose a procedure to compute and visualize the differential effects of instructional conditions on learner motivation, and illustrate this procedure on the basis of an existing data set. Theoretical and practical implications of the motivational perspective are discussed.     

Objectivism versus constructivism: Do we need a new philosophical paradigm?

Many scholars in the instructional systems field have addressed the paradigm shift in the field of learning psychology and its implications for instructional systems technology (IST). This article analyzes the philosophical assumptions underlying IST and its behavioral and cognitive foundations, each of which is primarily objectivistic, which means that knowing and learning are processes for representing and mirroring reality. The philosophical assumptions of objectivism are then contrasted with constructivism, which holds that knowing is a process of actively interpreting and constructing individual knowledge representations. The implications of constructivism for IST provide a context for asking the reader to consider to what extent our field should consider this philosophical paradigm shift.     

Information,Instruction, and Learning: A Hypermedia Perspective Originally published in 1991, PIQ 4.3

Hypermedia as defined by Osgood (1987) is a tool for linking nonlinear information presented in the form of graphics, animation, video, and sound. One important question for instructional designers regarding hypermedia is how it can be used as an instructional or learning tool that enhances rather than inhibits learning. Creating hypermedia applications is a quick and easy alternative to creating courseware with older authoring systems and languages which took many hours to learn. This ease of application creation, combined with a tremendous increase in information available to our society, has resulted in a proliferation of hypermedia databases in school, university, and industry settings that is gradually moving into homes. Many of these databases are simply information media. This paper identifies important issues related to classifying a hypermedia-based information system appropriately. Based on a discussion of these issues, a call for systematic research which clarifies the role that hypermedia-based information systems can and should play in an instructional or learning environment is set forth.     

The expert learner: Strategic, self-regulated, and reflective

Reflection on the process of learning is believed to be an essential ingredient in the development of expert learners. By employing reflective thinking skills to evaluate the results of one's own learning efforts, awareness of effective learning strategies can be increased and ways to use these strategies in other learning situations can be understood. This article describes how expert learners use the knowledge they have gained of themselves as learners, of task requirements, and of specific strategy use to deliberately select, control, and monitor strategies needed to achieve desired learning goals. We present a model of expert learning which illustrates how learners' metacognitive knowledge of cognitive, motivational, and environmental strategies is translated into regulatory control of the learning process through ongoing reflective thinking. Finally, we discuss the implications that the concept of expert learning has for instructional practices.