Using student-developed scenarios to couple design and reflection

Abstract

"Scenarios... provide rich descriptions of the complexity of design work and how the designer views the problem and subsequent design decisions." S tudents in instructional design (ID) courses typically propose a solution to an instructional problem without a clear understanding of the instructional problem. However, the only people who find this response disconcerting are ID instructors! Having been enculturated in ID as a student and as an instructor, I used to intervene confidently and insert needs assessment into their plans. While I believe that needs assessment clarifies the instructional problem through a greater understanding of who the learners are, what the full range of the content is, and how the context plays a role, I have come to question the extent to which ! was short-circuiting students' thinking. After all, humans survive crossing a busy city street because we move quickly to a solution. Instructional problems, of course, are incredibly more complex. Experienced teachers know how to make instructional decisions knowing full well their implications, while less experienced teachers act using behavior adjustments and lesson planning to help decrease uncertainty and increase confidence and control. One of the dilemmas of any design endeavor is deciding how long to ponder design options before selecting an approach. With a decision one commits resources. Rapid prototyping provides one option. Design an early version with just enough resources, test it out with users and revise an approach that works when versions are tested out. I have found that, within an academic semester, ongoing testing by students with prototypical users is limited and the time delay between prototype and review wreaks havoc on an instructional timetable. Instructional design is an intentional activity in which reflection on design decisions plays an important role (Rowland, Parra & Basnet, 1994). SchOn (1983) has observed that design reflection is frequently de-coupled from design activity. Owing to the way in which the ID process is managed, significant time may pass between design proposal and design review. I ask students to reflect on their individual ID phase decisions, but my comments on their design decisions and reflective comments are delayed by at least one week. How could I get students to think about the implications of their decisions, but keep their decision-making moving forward? In other words, how could I as an ID instructor take advantage of this human attribute to move to a solution in light of existing information (Simon, 1996)? To address this instructional problem of my own making, I chose scenarios as a design activity. Scenarios, as case studies or simulations, typically serve as teaching devices to introduce students to instructional problems and ID approaches. However, I suggest student-developed scenarios in which a student's initial intent is written down, discussed with a peer and reflected upon individually, then revised. The goal is to couple design thinking and reflection more tightly as one designs, keeping the design cycle moving forward. Carroll (2000) characterizes