Instructional Design Activities Research Articles

The development of skills and awareness in integrating content, teaching methods, and technology in the learning management for teachers in the education sandbox, Thailand

This research aims to develop science teachers teaching in innovative educational institutions in Thailand, with a total of 68 participants, to have integrated skills in content and technology management and to increase their awareness of technology integration in the classroom. The development approach used the concept of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) combined with online blended learning, focusing on knowledge development, practical training, and application over a period of approximately three months. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation analysis, and content analysis. The main findings of the research are as follows: 1) The trained teachers showed improvement in various aspects ranging from 17.201% to 22.727%, with the highest development observed in TPK, followed by PCK and PK. The area with the least improvement was TK. In addition, it was found that the integration of technology in instructional design by teachers tended to increase by two levels. The most commonly used technology was for learning management, followed by communication, knowledge testing, instructional media creation, and the use of educational games, and 2) the majority of teachers demonstrated an increasing awareness of integrating content management with technology in their teaching practices. They actively sought out new technological networks to support their instructional design activities. They planned their work to improve instruction through more effective use of technology. They sought additional ways to increase their knowledge and expertise in using technology in the classroom, and they expressed significant concerns about their current use of technology and its declining impact.

Media Usage Patterns of African Higher Education Students: A Ghanaian Perspective

The study examined the media usage patterns of 598 university students in Ghana to understand their demands for digital teaching and learning, as well as their patterns of media use for learning, with the goal of informing the media selection process. Overall, the study found that the universities fell short of meeting students' expressed need for digital learning formats. The gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the expansion of digital teaching and learning formats in Ghanaian universities. Furthermore, the media usage patterns reveal significant leisure-seeking and recreational uses of media by students, emphasizing the pervasiveness and embeddedness of smartphones in academic contexts. The emphasis on entertainment usage and the prevalent use of media for hedonistic purposes may suggest a deficit in digital skills regarding the use of media for learning. The study found no significant differences in user profiles between traditional and non-traditional students. The implications for instructional design activities and strategies for a mobile-saturated context are discussed.

Cost Analysis in Online Teaching Using an Activity Map

Virtual education has been associated, on some occasions, with economic models of scale that strengthen the mercantilist vision of teaching, thereby raising questions on the quality of the service. Some studies on educational costs associated with this modality simplify the analysis based on individual elements, such as the production of courses or the technological infrastructure, offering an incomplete and biased perspective. This study proposes to carry out a complete analysis of the costs of a virtual university using an Activity-Based Costing (ABC) model to determine the percentage of the budget consumed by each of the activities involved in the training process. The results show the significant influence that instructional design and teaching activities have on virtual modalities (62.5% of the set of activities), thus highlighting the importance of human resources in maintaining educational modalities mediated by technology. Understanding the importance of human capital and its contribution to offering a quality and innovative educational service is fundamental to consolidate a model that can improve access to education for populations with major difficulties.

Modularization for mastery learning in CS1: a 4-year action research study.

Computer programming is a skill of increasing importance in scientific and technological fields. However, in introductory computer science (CS1) courses in higher education, approximately one in every three students fails. A common reason is that students are overwhelmed by an accelerated and inflexible pace of learning that jeopardizes success. Accordingly, in the computer science education literature it has been suggested that the pedagogical philosophy of 'mastery learning,' which supports students progressing at their own pace, can improve academic outcomes of CS1 courses. Nevertheless, few extended mastery learning implementations in CS1 have been documented in the literature, and there is a lack of guidance and best practices to foster its adoption. In this paper, we present a four-year action research study in which a modular mastery-based CS1 course was designed, evaluated and improved in successive iterations with cohorts of engineering freshmen in a Latin American research university (N = 959). In the first year of the intervention, only 19.3% of students passed the course in their first semester attempting it. In successive iterations, the instructional design, teaching and learning activities, course content, and course management were iteratively improved such that by the fourth year of offering 77.1% of students passed the course in their first semester. Over this period, course attrition was reduced from 25.0% to 3.8% of the cohort, and students' mean time spent in the course decreased from 23.2weeks (SD = 7.38) to 14.9 (SD = 3.64). Results indicate that modularization for mastery learning is a viable approach for improving academic results in a CS1 course. Practical considerations towards successful implementation of this approach are presented and discussed.

Scenario-Based, Interactive Infection Prevention and Control and Bloodborne Pathogen Education

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPAC) and bloodborne pathogen (BBP) education are required for all healthcare workers at least annually by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and The Joint Commission. An inventory in 2016 at a large health system with >60,000 employees identified 46 different training modules used to fulfill this regulatory mandate. Objective: Using quality improvement tools and management, we sought to reduce duplication of effort, to enhance education, and to improve employee engagement. Methods: A multidisciplinary team that included IPAC, physician, nursing, educational designn and occupational safety was formed. The team reviewed regulatory standards, cross checked site-specific practices, and identified gaps in the current training structure. The goal was to create a module with multiple pathways that tailored regulatory content and delivery to the employee’s job responsibilities (Figs. 1 and 2). Results: The 46 individual training modules were replaced with 1 module that averaged 24.46 minutes to complete. Branching was incorporated that customized education to the employee’s role. The employee completion rate was 99% (n = 61,456). The scenario-based interactive approach engaged learners by challenging them to respond to real-life activities tailored to their level of risk. Most responders (87.4%) rated the learning activity as “good” or “excellent,” and 92.4% of responders agreed or strongly agreed that the activities in the course aided their learning. Conclusions: We leveraged adult learning principles and industry-proven instructional design activities to deliver interactive and relevant infection control training that met regulatory requirements and engaged employees through action-driven tasks. In 2018, the work group created fast paths for employees who had previously completed this module whereby they could revisit the original content and/or focus only on updates and targeted areas of interest. A pathway for laboratory workers involved in specimen handling and processing is planned next.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

An Examination of the Systemic Reach of Instructional Design Models: a Systematic Review

The majority of instructional design models have directed focus on instructional design activities such as analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Criticisms regarding instructional design models have suggested that the use of these models provides instructional designers with a limited view of the design environment. This systematic review seeks to offer guidance and a conceptual framework for how instructional designers can utilize existing instructional design models without excluding the systemic nature of design practices. This review explores how instructional designers are using models and the systemic relationship between the instructional design components typically outlined in a model.

Teaching and Instructional Design Approaches to Enhance Students’ Self‑Directed Learning in Blended Learning Environments

Thanks to the combination of face‑to‑face and online learning which involve the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), blended learning has become a popular approach to support learning in higher education. The main purpose of this study is to identify the teaching and instructional design approaches adopted by lecturers within blended learning environments, and to analyse their effects on students’ self‑directed learning. The sample involves 18 lecturers and their undergraduate students (n= 294) undertaking a blended course in one French university. This research utilised a mixed method approach for data collection, including questionnaires and observations. Firstly, lecturers were invited to declare their teaching approaches and the configuration of their blended learning environments by completing two online questionnaires. Secondly, both face‑to‑face and online observations were conducted with the lecturers to identify the specificity of their instructional design activities. A pre‑post questionnaire was also used to measure students’ self‑directed learning level. Data collection took place over a period of 6 months during the academic year 2017‑2018. The results show that lecturers who adopt student‑centred teaching approaches are not necessarily designing their blended learning courses as a student‑centred learning environment. Also, the results reveal that students' self‑directed learning is significantly developed only in three out of seven student‑centred blended learning courses. Additionally, the results show that lecturers of the students who improved their self‑directed level provided online peer review and online forum discussion activities. The findings indicate that further research is needed both to validate the direct relationship between these kinds of pedagogical activities and the self‑directed learning, and to determine how blended learning environments can better support collaboration and interaction.

Attitudinal Learning in Large-Enrollment Classrooms: a Case Study

How to provide effective attitudinal learning in large-enrollment classrooms is a continuing question in higher education. This qualitative single case study investigated instructional design strategies and activities that could effectively be applied to attitude change in large-enrollment learning contexts. By evaluating an undergraduate sustainability course from multiple perspectives, this study focused on answering four research questions: 1) Did students perceive that their attitudes towards sustainability changed after taking the course? 2) From expert instructional designers’ perspectives, to what extent was the course design aligned with the first principles for attitudinal instruction? 3) From both the instructor and students’ perspectives, what instructional activities were most effective for attitude change? 4) From the instructor’s perspective, what were the key instructional design strategies for promoting effective attitudinal instruction? Results showed that despite the challenges a large course might present, this course successfully helped students change their attitudes towards sustainability. A variety of instructional strategies and activities were applied in this course, including active learning, instructional videos, collaborative projects, and teamwork. This case study set a successful example of incorporating active learning strategies and activities in large classroom contexts.

The Effects of instructional design model based on the nature of design thinking on secondary pre-service teacher’s instructional design activities

The Effects of instructional design model based on the nature of design thinking on secondary pre-service teacher’s instructional design activities

The ID Database: Managing the Instructional Development Process

Management is evolving as a foundational domain to the field of instructional design and technology. However, there are few tools dedicated to the management of instructional design and development projects and activities. In this article, we describe the development, features and implementation of an instructional design database—built from a commonly available database program—to manage course design, scheduling, training, contracts, payments and other activities involved in managing a team of instructional designers and a large number of course development projects.

Applying learning theories and instructional design models for effective instruction.

Faculty members in higher education are involved in many instructional design activities without formal training in learning theories and the science of instruction. Learning theories provide the foundation for the selection of instructional strategies and allow for reliable prediction of their effectiveness. To achieve effective learning outcomes, the science of instruction and instructional design models are used to guide the development of instructional design strategies that elicit appropriate cognitive processes. Here, the major learning theories are discussed and selected examples of instructional design models are explained. The main objective of this article is to present the science of learning and instruction as theoretical evidence for the design and delivery of instructional materials. In addition, this article provides a practical framework for implementing those theories in the classroom and laboratory.

Using critical incidents of instructional design and multimedia production activities to investigate instructional designers’ current practices and roles

Through consideration of critical incidents, this study analyzed 106 effective, ineffective and extraordinary instructional design and multimedia production (MP) activities discussed by 36 instructional design professionals. This evaluation provided insights into these professionals’ best and not so best practices during the past 6 months. Prevalent themes emerged from the data analysis with regards to these activities. Six themes emerged from the effective incidents, namely: (a) creating instructional products, (b) providing examples, (c) differentiating instruction, (d) establishing social presence, (e) providing resources, and (f) collaborating with stakeholders. Four themes emerged from the extraordinary incidents, namely: (a) matching methods and media to content and learners, (b) providing organized content, (c) managing a complex instructional design (ID) project, and (d) using theory to inform practice. Six themes emerged from the ineffective incidents, namely: (a) not matching methods and media to content and learners, (b) not supporting student interaction (c) selecting inadequate instructional strategies, (d) not using ID processes, (e) not collaborating with stakeholders, and (f) coping with inadequate technical infrastructure. Results from this study offer an understanding of the interrelationship between instructional design and MP activities and positive (both effective and extraordinary) outcomes in instructional design activities. Existing instructional design success factors and best practices studies are compared to the results of this study. Future research directions may involve analyzing little known phenomena in instructional design-related activities and further explore negative or ineffective instructional design practices.

Escaping Preconceived Notions

I recently returned from fieldwork in West Africa where I collected data for my dissertation, a case study of one non-governmental organization's (NGO) educational programs. While I was there, I also volunteered for the NGO by contributing to program planning and instructional design activities. In addition, because I have a mathematics background, I was asked to teach a short basic mathematics lesson for some women working in a particularly rural location. In this essay, I share what I learned about creating student-centered adult education programs with those who wish to teach adults internationally or in similar contexts. Although I did not have research activities to conduct at the particular site, I visited the town as part of my effort to familiarize myself with all the NGO's programs. Because I knew my schedule would be flexible while there, I agreed to teach the mathematics lesson during the visit. Prior to traveling, I repeatedly heard from other Westerners (NGO employees and volunteers) how little the women knew and how desperately they needed my expertise, thus implying a sense of helplessness. Based on perceptions of flawed local education systems, I was cautioned to expect docile students trained simply to memorize. I accepted the assessment and prepared for learners with little or no formal schooling, low literacy levels, and weak fluency in the official language (an artifact of European colonization; most locals grow up speaking indigenous languages). I mentally steeled myself for a demanding experience, anticipating, at best, passivity, and at worst, apathy, both counterproductive to my preferred student-centered teaching practices. On arrival at the NGO's facility, the manager introduced me and my travel companions, other volunteers, to the women workers. When she announced I would lead a mathematics lesson, several women started to giggle. Although I understood the laughter was related to the announcement about my visit's purpose, the conversation was conducted in a local ethnic dialect I could not follow. Later, I had a short conversation with the manager and asked her to explain the laughter. She said the women were excited for the lesson because they had asked for it a few months prior. Some women were unable to understand the calculations on their pay stubs and were pleasantly surprised to see the NGO had responded to their request. This was exciting news. I was not forcing content on unwilling participants--they had specifically requested it! I began the lesson by presenting an addition example and describing the process. The assistant manager acted as interpreter. As she repeated my words in the local dialect and the four women responded, I quickly learned they would not be quiet or passive, as I had feared. Unfortunately, the translation operated in only one direction; the participants' enthusiastic comments were not translated back to me. Surprisingly, the women used the official language's words for numbers so, although most discussion was a mystery, I was able to understand verbalized computations. The lesson was almost immediately out of my control, in the way educators hope a class will be when learners take ownership of their experience. The women were lively, engaged, and eager to learn. Instead of relying on my explanations, the women justified solutions to each other, and the translator shared her own knowledge. I simply provided exercises and judged correct answers. When the women had all correctly finished a problem, the translator would suggest to me, another, please, and we would negotiate whether it was time to increase the difficulty level or switch from addition to subtraction. To me, the most surprising and impressive aspect of the experience was the women's collaboration and support of one another. Each would finish her work and then turn to help the others who were still thinking, without ever giving the answer away. Every woman was required to obtain the answer for herself. …

Development and formative evaluation of multimedia case studies for Instructional Design and Technology students

This study describes the development of three case studies that included a combination of multimedia production and instructional design skills within a particular setting. These case studies incorporated real-life incidents from 47 professional instructional designers. These instructional designers described a total of 146 activities involving instructional design and/or multimedia production activities. Employing an emergent theme analysis approach, nine distinct themes developed from these activities and were included in the case studies. These themes included: Collaboration; Diffusion of Innovations; Formative Evaluation; Instructional Design; Interactive Instruction; Learner Analysis; Online Instruction; Technical Infrastructure; and Video Solutions. Fifty-seven Instructional Design and Technology graduate students evaluated the effectiveness of these case studies and considered the case studies as being valuable in furthering their understanding of related multimedia production and instructional design activities. The intent of these case studies was to enable Instructional Design and Technology students to comprehend the relationship between multimedia production and instructional design activities.

Instructional Design Models for Online Instruction: From the Perspective of Iranian Higher Education

Today, online instruction is a new approach among many higher education institutions and is also becoming more prevalent in higher education. In terms of importance and effectiveness of online instruction in academic achievements, motivation and attitudes of students, this study investigates current uses of instructional design (ID) models in designing and developing online instruction for higher education. The purpose of this study is to understand how ID models are being used in the design and development of online instruction. It is also to identify which elements of an ID model are necessary in developing online instruction. In order to address the research objectives, a Delphi research methodology was employed. The population of this study consists of academicians who are actively involved in the instructional design activities of online instruction with particular focus on the Iranian higher education. The instrument to gather the data for this descriptive research was a survey questionnaire. A survey questionnaire was designed and executed to collect the necessary data which will then be coded and analyzed using SPSS.

Outcomes Assessment and Legal Research Pedagogy

This article explores application of a taxonomic approach in legal research pedagogy to outcomes assessment based on Prof. Paul Callister's adaptation of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives which integrates instructional design and learning activities compatible with formative assessment during the learning process and summative assessment at its conclusion. It reviews the development of outcomes assessment initiatives by legal educators and the development of outcomes assessment standards by the American Bar Association for the accreditation of law schools.

Analyzing Learning Styles of Students to Improve Educational Practices for Computer Literacy Course

Analyzing the students' learning style is a rather important factor in the preparation of learner-centered instructional design activities. The purpose of the present study was to determine the learning styles of students at Uludag University Faculty of Education in order to develop teaching strategies for the Computer Literacy Courses to be conducted in the future years. The study was conducted during the spring semester of the 2010 academic year. A total of 921 students from different departments of the faculty participated in this study. According to the data obtained from the study, it was concluded that students' learning style profiles were similar across all of the departments.

A Domain-Specific Modeling approach for supporting the specification of Visual Instructional Design Languages and the building of dedicated editors

This paper presents, illustrates and discusses theories and practices about the application of a domain-specific modeling (DSM) approach to facilitate the specification of Visual Instructional Design Languages (VIDLs) and the development of dedicated graphical editors. Although this approach still requires software engineering skills, it tackles the need of building VIDLs allowing both visual models for human-interpretation purposes (explicit designs, communication, thinking, etc.) and machine-readable notations for deployment or other instructional design activities. This article proposes a theoretical application and a categorization, based on a domain-oriented separation of concerns of instructional design. It also presents some practical illustrations from experiments of specific DSM tooling. Key lessons learned as well as observed obstacles and challenges to deal with are discussed in order to further develop such an approach.

Shared Epistemic Agency: An Empirical Study of an Emergent Construct

This article reports on a qualitative study of the construct of shared epistemic agency, investigated in the context of collaborative instructional design activities of university students. The aim of the study is to shed light on the notion of shared epistemic agency and to create empirical grounding for its theoretical description. The current study provides an account of the construct, based on a review of several theoretical conceptualizations and on the analysis of empirical material from 2 case studies from university education. We investigate shared epistemic agency within the specific framework of the knowledge creation perspective on learning, viewing it as the capacity that enables deliberate collaborative efforts of groups to create shared knowledge objects. Our study identifies and describes 2 core dimensions of shared epistemic agency: the epistemic and the regulative dimensions. We identify actions within each dimension that indicate the manifestation of shared epistemic agency in the practice of collaborative creation of shared knowledge objects. This study also distinguishes patterns of action that provide indications of how shared epistemic agency is differently articulated in the 2 groups' collaborative object-oriented activities.

Development of Preservice Teachers’ Ability to Critique and Adapt Inquiry-based Instructional Materials

Current standards emphasize student engagement with inquiry practices. However, implementing inquiry instruction is a formidable challenge for teachers as they often lack models for using and adapting inquiry-based instructional materials. Teacher education programs can provide scaffolded contexts for developing teachers’ ability to critique, adapt, and design inquiry-based materials. We describe a qualitative study of 17 preservice teachers enrolled in two consecutive science methods courses. The study characterizes the development of preservice teachers’ ability to critique and revise instructional materials. Our findings suggest that teachers improved in their ability to critique lesson plans and to suggest revisions that would make them more inquiry oriented. In particular, the teachers’ critiques and revisions increased in sophistication after engaging in instructional design activities during the second methods course.