Instruction Modeling

Abstract

Abstract Blended learning, which is instruction that combines online with face-to-face components, is becoming increasingly popular in American schools. However, few first-hand accounts have been provided by program creators concerning the design, use, and experiences of widely used blended learning programs. This book fills this gap. Written by a leading program designer, it describes the creation and implementation of the blended learning programs of Reasoning Mind, a non-profit organization which has served hundreds of thousands of elementary and middle school students. Besides general insights into blended learning design and implementation, the book offers a detailed discussion of instruction modeling, a blended learning design approach used by Reasoning Mind. A wide range of methods can be used in designing instructional technology programs: some rely on research in cognitive psychology, others on gaming, and still others on modern statistical methods such as “big data.” By contrast, instruction modeling relies on the careful analysis of existing instructional traditions. The idea of instruction modeling is to study high-quality offline instruction and use blended learning to recreate it on a larger scale. The aim is to give students equivalent educational experiences to those of children in the world’s best classrooms. This book describes the instruction modeling technique in detail and makes the case for its broader use. The book will be relevant to anyone interested in the practical design and evolution of blended learning, including researchers, instructional designers, teachers, and students of education.