Developing Distance Education Content Using the TAPPA Process

Abstract

The proliferation of distance education has occurred alongside the emerging technologies of the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 environments, changing the way instructors approach, design, and deliver their instructional materials. In the past, instructional design (ID) practitioners relied on instruction system design (ISD) models that focused primarily on macroinstruction. It is now important for these practitioners to use microinstruction strategies to keep pace with the technology evolution. This case study describes the TAPPA (Target, Accomplishment, Past, Prototype, Artifact) Process which was created using the Generic Model for Design Research (GMDR) proposed by McKenney and Reeves (2012) and uses selected ID concepts from the ADDIE (Molenda Performance Improvement, 42(5), 34–37, 2003) framework, and the Dick and Carey (Dick Educational Technology Research and Development, 44(3), 55–63, 1996), Backwards Design (McTighe n.d), and Rapid Prototyping ID Models (Tripp and Bichelmeyer Educational Technology Research and Development, 38(1), 31–44, 1990). The TAPPA Process is ideally suited for the microinstruction development typical of distance education environments and has been used to create more than 25 webinars and 12 e-learning modules over the past four years.