Week 3 Blog

 Instructional Development Process

“Perhaps the best guide to planning instructional events is the students themselves” (Driscoll, 2000, p370). It is hard to say it better than that.

This week’s reading was a fascinating look at the process of design. I must admit I learned quite a lot from the readings and how they defined the terms that were used. More than the terms and the processes, I appreciated how they, especially Molenda (Molenda, Pershing, & Reigeluth; 1996; p268), indicated that although some processes could be used as step-by-step instructions, they generally were better suited as a general guide. With the idea that design, especially good design, contained a “good deal of craft and art” (p268).

One of the things that jumped out at me were the tables in Driscoll’s article on cognitive outcomes, affective outcomes, and psychomotor outcomes. I had seen a breakdown of Gagne’s learning outcomes, but had never seen the breakdown of each individual domain. It was instructive, and helped me to better understand where Gagne was coming from.

I am also glad that I have been exposed to Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory (Reigeluth, 1999). I admit that learning the “when” of its use will take practice and further reading.

-Kevin

 

References:

Driscoll, M. P. (2000). Gagné’s theory of instruction. Ch. 10 in Psychology of Learning for Instruction, 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 341-372 (see also a Tribute to Robert Gagne (57:30): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJ1-AjlGeE).

 

Merrill, M. David. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research & Development 50(3), 43-59 (see in 2012 video interview with David Merrill (53:56): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7COb2aZDrcs).

 

Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). The elaboration theory: Guidance for scope and sequence decisions. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory (pp. 425-453). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.


Comments

  1. ShannaSeptember 11, 2021 at 1:33 PM

    Kevin,

    Both yours and Keirsten's blog posts this week focuses on some similar themes that I have been contemplating a lot this week. I particularly loved this statement from your blog post: "With the idea that design, especially good design, contained a 'good deal of craft and art'". What a great demonstrative quote to summarize what we've been learning this week! There are many design frameworks and philosophies regarding the course development process and while it is helpful to be knowledgeable regarding the existing theories, you may absolutely pick the process that works best for you as an instructional designer. Therein, using a chosen framework or templates (as Rachel Koblic discussed in her guest lecture this week), lies the ability to be creative within the course development process. It has been helpful to learn about a wide array of course development frameworks to help guide how we think as instructional designers.

    -Shanna Sanders

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  2. DilnozaSeptember 11, 2021 at 4:26 PM

    Hi Kevin,

    Thank you for sharing this quote and started your post with it. It is so true that planning, designing education/instruction should be based on learners. This includes learner-centered learnng, personlalised learning, supporting them with feedback, guiding them and etc.

    I agree, further reading and practice is needed even after many years of studying and researching this field. As Socrates said "I know that I know nothing".

    ~Dilnoza

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  3. KeirstenSeptember 12, 2021 at 12:01 PM


    Great quote to start your blog this week Kevin. I agree, students should be at the center of instructional design and development. I also like how you mentioned that the processes we have learned this week will serve us as a guide versus a step-by-step instruction manual. That was also one of my biggest takeaways this week. We will learn about the different theories, processes, and principles, but then we will take those to develop our own philosophies as designers.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 25, 2021 at 10:20 PM

    Kevin, I agree with you on Gagne's learning outcome breakdown. I never really thought about learning things from more than a cognitive perspective. I thought the motor skills and attitude learning outcomes were most interesting. I am an active person who enjoys sports but I never thought how much work it would be to teach someone how to learn something with so much thought. Who know how important it was to understand the learner and not just how to teach the material, especially something physical like golf.

    It is fascinating to think of learning based on the attitude. It would appear that the learners must choose a mental direction and make an effort to learn how to continue on that course of action. So a learner's goal may be to be familiar with a topic or be an expert. This will shape how they learn and the amount of effort used to learn the topic.

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