Instructional Design Models
Extensive list of instructional design models and theories
Link has moved:http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/itc/idmodels.html
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
The only instructional element that really matters is practice with feedback.
Donald Clark Plan B: Gagne's Nine Dull Commandments
<strong>2 Stating the objective</strong><br>Now bore the learner stupid with a list of learning objectives (really trainerspeak). Give the plot away and remind them of how really boring this course is going to be.
A Review of What Instructional Designers Do: Questions Answered and Questions Not Asked
Research comparing ID models with what instructional designers actually do for their jobs. The authors conclude that ID isn't so much about following a rigid process, but about solving complex problems and making nuanced decisions.
New link: http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/147/140
Results showed that, while instructional designers apparently do make use of process-based ID models, they do not spend the majority of their time working with them nor do they follow them in a rigid fashion. They also engage in a wide variety of other tasks that are not reflected in ID models.
Rowland (1992) reported his results to be congruent with the research on expertise and indicated that expert instructional designers clearly employ a definable problem solving and decision-making process. He suggested that ID tools, unlike procedural design models, should foster a deep understanding of the system of concern and should include such characteristics as flexibility of structures and processes, a workspace for construction of problem representation, and mechanisms for making multiple links between problems and solutions. Rowland suggested that, rather than to be taught procedures or even problem-solving heuristics, novices need to develop experience in the design process and that a case-based method of teaching, providing involvement with real or realistic situations, might be the most appropriate way for new instructional designers to learn the design process.
Design is always about making judgments about design situations that are complex, rich and replete with tensions and contradictions.
Wavelength - IDCWC Online - Instructional Design and Content Writing Certificate Course (Online), India
Samples of e-learning content about Bloom's taxonomy and instructional design. I don't agree with everything in the content or how it's presented, but there's always something to learn from looking at other people's interactive learning.
Do Generational Differences Matter in Instructional Design?
Literature review of research in generational differences in learning and whether it matters for instructional design. Overall, the authors conclude that there are some generational differences in the workplace, but that the generalities don't warrant making assumptions about any particular individual. The current research also doesn't do enough to account for socioeconomic differences.
TL Forum 2000: McLoughlin and Marshall - learner support in an online teaching environment
Scaffolding skills for learning online to support the development of lifelong learning skills. The authors identify 4 aspects of "learning to learn": articulation, self regulation, repertoir of learning strategies, and self-evaluation skills. Design principles to support these 4 component skills are covered.
How to get an Instructional Design education without paying tuition | effectivedesign.org
A reading list for instructional designers, especially those of us doing the "informal masters" on our own rather than enrolling. More than just instructional design, this list includes project management, psychology of learning, and other topics.
Related link: http://www.dctrcurry.com/2008/02/immediately-accessible-instructional.html
» What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design The Rapid eLearning Blog
Great post on the value of instructional design and what instructional designers add to the process of learning.
- More than just putting info in front of learners
- Helps learners focus on the right things
- Provides context and perspective
- Saves time in the learning process
- "Engages learners in clear and meaningful content"
I love the use of the YouTube video as the attention getter and example in this post. I've seen variations on this video before, but never thought about it in this context.
E-Learning Queen: The Best Way to Learn in an Online Course
Advice for online learners to get the most out of their courses. Includes cognitive, behavioral, and self-regulation strategies. Even though this is geared towards learners, instructional designers can also benefit from thinking about how to teach and model these strategies.
In the Middle of the Curve: Deeper Instructional Design
Wendy Wickham's liveblogged notes from Clark Quinn's presentation on Deeper Instructional Design. Lots of ideas in this post--create models that actually help people understand the content and recognize patterns, pay attention to motivation and emotion, give learners the least they need to get them to do what's needed, create learner-centered objectives instead of designer-centered objectives, use stories and active practice.
We can't "create" learning<br>- We can design environments conducive to learning.<br>- We design learning experiences.
Don't design CONTENT, design EXPERIENCES<br>- Design the "Flow".<br>- Start bringing in emotions and the actions they take
Multimedia Learning » Compliance Poetry
Have boring content you want to make more interesting and memorable? What about putting it in poetry form? This is a creative use of poetry to create memorable summaries of copyright law. If intellectual property law can be made simpler to understand and remember, can't your content too?
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
Summary of research which compared courses with the same content but with specific elements of Gagne's instructional events removed. The strongest correlation with student performance and satisfaction was with practice with feedback. (This is an old post, but it's moved since I originally bookmarked it.)
The only instructional element that really matters is practice with feedback.
Will at Work Learning: New Research Report on Using Culturally, Linguistically, and Situationally Relevant Scenarios
Research on how to support learning with scenarios that are relevant to the specific situation. Even though this is explicitly about workplace training, the major recommendations could be adapted for instructional design in education contexts too.
Utilize decision-making scenarios. Consider using them not just in a minor role—for example at the end of a section—but integrated into the main narrative of your learning design.
Determine the most important points you want to get across AND the most important situations in which these points are critical. Then, provide extra repetitions spaced over time on these key points and situations.
10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer : The eLearning Coach
Brief discussion about whether instructional designers need degrees, followed by a list of qualities for successful instructional designers like "Be obsessed with learning everything."
Cognitive Load Theory: Failure? « EdTechDev
Explanation of cognitive load theory and the problems with it, both conceptual and methodological. Lots of sources to dig into deeper if you want more research on this issue.
Numerous contradictions of cognitive load theory’s predictions have been found, but with germane cognitive load, they can still be explained away. de Jong does not use this term (unfalsifiable) but instead states that germane cognitive load is a <em>post-hoc</em> explanation with no theoretical basis: “there seems to be no grounds for asserting that processes that lead to (correct) schema acquisition will impose a higher cognitive load than learning processes that do not lead to (correct) schemas” (2009).
2. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Poor external validity of lab-based studies</span>. Moreno doesn’t touch on something in the de Jong article – the fact that most cognitive load (and multimedia learning) studies are conducted in labs that “includes participants who have no specific interest in learning the domain involved and who are also given a very short study time” (de Jong, 2009), often only a few minutes. Quite a number of findings from these studies have not held up as strongly when tested in classrooms or real-world scenarios, or have even reversed (<a href="http://www.txwes.edu/professionaldevelopment/materials/Multimedia%20Instructions.pdf">such as the modality effect</a>, but see <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.09.010">this refutation</a> and this <a href="http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=5135499">other example of a reverse effect</a>).
Feedback | Allen Interactions
Free white paper on learner-centered design, focusing on activities with intrinsic feedback rather than content-heavy presentation
In other words, get the learner into a task quickly, and then provide content instruction through the feedback.
Problems with Bloom's Taxonomy
Criticism of Bloom's Taxonomy, with two alternatives for classifying objectives
The categories or “levels” of Bloom’s taxonomy (knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) are not
supported by any research on learning. The only distinction that is supported
by research is the distinction between declarative/conceptual knowledge
(which enables recall, comprehension, or understanding) and procedural
knowledge (which enables application or task performance).
The Effects of Feedback Interventions on Performance: A Historical Review, a Meta-Analysis, and a Preliminary Feedback Intervention Theory (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996) | Reading for Pleasure
Research on the effects of feedback interventions. Feedback is not always beneficial for learning; in some cases, it can actually depress performance.
<p>The MCPL literature suggests that for an FI to directly improve learning, rather than motivate learning, it has to help the recipient to <em>reject erroneous hypotheses.</em> Whereas correcting errors is a feature of some types of FI messages, most types of FI messages do not contain such information and therefore should not improve learning—a claim consistent with CAI research.</p>
<p>Moreover, even in learning situations where performance seems to benefit from FIs, learning through <em>FIs may be inferior to learning through discovery</em> (learning based on feedback from the task, rather than on feedback from an external agent). Task feedback may force the participant to learn task rules and recognize errors (e.g., Frese & Zapf, 1994), whereas FI may lead the participant to learn how to use the FI as a crutch, while shortcutting the need for task learning (cf. J. R. Anderson, 1987). </p>
In the MCPL literature, several reviewers doubt whether FIs have any learning value (Balzer et al., 1989; Brehmer, 1980) and suggest alternatives to FI for increasing learning, such as providing the learner with more task information (Balzer et al., 1989). Another alternative to an FI is designing work or learning<br>
environments that encourage trial and error, thus maximizing learning from task feedback without a direct intervention (Frese & Zapf, 1994).
Learning CSI: Learning Needs Investigation | Learning Rebels
Approaching needs analysis as an "investigation" without assuming that a course is always the right solution
Report Card: Gamification in Learning (What Works?) by Carol Leaman : Learning Solutions Magazine
Lessons learned on what works for gamification: multiple levels, fun, variety, leaderboards, tangible rewards, virtual coaches, progress tracking, social connectivity.
This Week’s Learning Hero is Christy Tucker! | Growth Engineering
A very flattering article about me and my work
Don't fall for these adult learning myths
"How to be a learning mythbuster" from Cathy Moore. Part of this is the broader problem that most people are lousy at understanding research and verifying sources. This isn't exclusive to the learning profession. We should be better about avoiding the myths in our own field though.
We work in organizations that believe harmful myths. We’re pressured to work as if the myths are true, and we can’t or don’t take the time we need to keep our knowledge up to date and combat the myths.
A Learning Science Alternative to Bloom's Taxonomy by Brenda Sugrue : Learning Solutions Magazine
Bloom's taxonomy sometimes creates unclear verb categorization and connection to assessments. This framework is focused on performance objectives and ties the type of knowledge to verbs, instructional strategies, and types of practice or assessment. This is partially drawn from Merrill's work. Procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge are handled differently.
ID—LXD: Moving from Instructional Design to Learning Experience Design
How to Use Plain Language to Improve Learning Outcomes | Scissortail Creative Services, LLC
We all probably know we should use easier to understand language in instructional writing, but this article provides more specifics on how to actually do that. The before and after writing example shows what a significant difference it can make.
Space invaders – E-Learning Provocateur
Ryan Tracey clarifies related and often confusingly overlapping terms related to the spacing effect for learning: spaced presentation, spaced practice, spaced retrieval, distributed practice, expanding practice, and more.
Learning Objectives: GOAL!?! – 3-Star learning experiences
Summary of research on the value of telling learners the objectives at the beginning of training. The research supports giving learners specific "focusing objectives" to help them recognize what's important. However, that doesn't mean those objectives need to be the same formal learning objectives we use as IDs. In fact, using objectives as multiple choice questions to show people what they don't know yet may be effective.
As instructors and designers, we need to keep in mind that there can be other reasons to use objectives <em>and </em>we need to clearly distinguish between objectives that we use as instructional/learning designers versus the ones we might use for learners.
Best from the Brightest: Key Ideas and Insights for L&P Professionals - TiER1 Performance
48 learning and performance leaders share their favorite content shared in 2021. Use this list to find both new sources to read and new people to follow. Many of the participants also shared trends to watch in 2022, other recommended content, and additional people to follow. This list is heavy on evidence-informed design.
WIIFM: Beyond Traditional Learning Objectives — Arboth
I appreciate how this post includes examples of how to grab learner's attention with stories and other tactics rather than just listing the full formal learning objectives. This article cites my blog post on learning objectives.
Next example: a training on "Cryogenic nitrogen and associated dangers". We started this training with an impactful image: An industry hall, exit door in the back and some materials obstructing the exit. All of a sudden, a cryogenic fog sets up, making it impossible to see the floor. Question to the learner was: Find your way out, without stumbling (and thus suffocating). Remember the materials? Remember you are dealing with nitrogen? Without explicitly listing learning objectives in the beginning of the e-Learning, we captured learners' attention, making them eager to learn more about other characteristics of nitrogen and the safety measures in such environments.