The structure of subject matter content and its instructional design implications

This paper discusses the analysis of subject matter structure for purposes of designing instruction. The underlying assumption is that subject matter structures provide an important basis for deciding how to sequence and synthesize the modules of a subject matter area. Four types of fundamental structures are briefly described and illustrated: the learning hierarchy, the procedural hierarchy, the taxonomy, and the model. Then a theoretical framework is presented for classifying types of subject mater content — both modules and structures. Finally, some implications of these content classifications are discussed. The classification of modules is hypothesized to be valuable for prescribing strategies for the presentation of single modules, and the classification of structures is hypothesized to be valuable for prescribing strategies for selecting, sequencing, synthesizing, and summarizing related modules. The need to take into account more than one kind of structure in the process of instructional design is emphasized.     

Globalizing instructional materials:

Conclusion As global markets expand and distance education becomes more prevalent, higher education institutions will be competing for students from all over the world. Those institutions that implement globalization, internationalization, and localization into curriculum and the design of instructional materials will be successful in this changing market.     

Novice and experienced instructional software developers: effects on materials created with instructional software templates

The development of instructional software is a complex process, posing high demands to the technical and didactical expertise of developers. Domain specialists rather than professional developers are often responsible for it, but authoring tools with pre-structured templates claim to compensate for this limited experience. This study compares instructional software products made by developers with low production experience (n = 6) and high production experience (n = 8), working with a template-based authoring tool. It is hypothesized that those with high production experience will be more productive and create software with a higher didactical quality than those with low production experience, whereas no differences with regard to technical and authoring quality are expected. The results show that the didactical quality was unsatisfactory and did not differ between groups. Nevertheless the templates compensated for differences in experience because the technical and authoring quality was equal for both groups, indicating that templates enable domain specialists to participate successfully in the production process.     

How Nigerian teachers select instructional materials

Instructional systems designers and developers have assumed idealized models and theories about the selection and use of materials for instruction. Such models and theories are based on what teachers should do instead of recognizing what teachers are doing when they select materials for instructions. This study examined how teachers select instructional materials for instruction. When making decisions for selecting and using materials teachers were influenced by the content of lessons taught, and by their professional training, rather than by the stating of behavioural objectives. An integrated instructional design should include a consideration of the mental and intuitive efforts of teachers, and of the qualities of materials during not after the need assessment.     

教学资源全球化战略分析

该以7个不同环球公司当前教学资源全球化的现状为出发点，从这些公司10个不同部门中选择了21名不同类型的员工作为调查对象，具体分析当今社会不同企业及部门进行教学资源全球化的得与失。