New: Book Report: Designing Effective Instruction

Notes about another Instructional Design book. Please pardon the dry nature of this book report.

Again, emphasis on measuring learning. Consider making up the final exam questions before you write the instructional material.

Talk to people to find out what folks need to learn. If some topic's application isn't obvious, find out why someone asked for it.

Psychological scales to measure how a student wants to learn. But that might not help you much, since different students want to learn different ways.

A bag of techniques (with personality types who like to learn that way)

• Relate information being presented to what has come before and what is still to come (inductive/global)
• Provide a balance of concrete information and abstract concepts (sensory/intuitive)
• Balance material that emphasizes practical problem-solving methods (sensing/active) with material that emphasizes fundamental understandings (intuitive/reflective)
• Use pictures, schematics, and simple sketches along with verbal information (sensory/active)
• Provide demonstrations (sensing/visual), hands-on activities (active), and computer-based learning (sensing/active)
• Provide intervals during presentations for students to think about what they have been told (reflective)
• Assign drill exercises to provide practice (sensing/active/sequential)
• Provide open-ended problems and exercises that call for analysis and synthesis (intuitive/reflective/global)
• Give students opportunities to work together on assignments and group activities (active)
• Provide concrete examples of how a theory describes or predicts events (sensing/inductive); then develop the theory or formulate the model (intuitive/inductive/sequential); and show how the theory can be validates and deduce its consequences (deductive).
• Recognize students' creative solutions or activities (intuitive/global)

Depending on what kind of material they learn, what kinds of actions should they be able to carry out if successful?

• knowledge (recall of info) arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, match, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce
• comprehension (interpret info in one's own words) classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, sort, tell, translate
• application (use knowledge or generalization in a new situation) apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, prepare, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use
• analysis (divvy knowledge into parts) analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, inventory, question, test
• synthesis (bring together parts of knowledge) arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, synthesize, write
• evaluation (judge based on criteria) appraise, argue, assess, attack, choose, compare, defend, estimate, evaluate, judge, predict, rate, score, select, support, value.

Teaching facts: concrete evidence is nice for demo. rehearsal-practice. mnemonics.

Teaching concepts: Show best example, then variations.

Teaching principles: rule-eg: state rule then cite examples. eg-rule: start w/examples, let student figure out the rule.

Teaching interpersonal: present model, let them think about it, mental rehearsal, demo.

Instructional designers seem to lose interest when a "job aid" comes along, but that's half my bread and butter.

Group presentations most applicable: introduce a new topic. create interest. presenting basics before folks split into groups. intro recent developments. let learners talk back. review/summary of what folks have learned. teach a large group economically. Guidelines ask questions. encourage note-taking. handouts. use clear terminology.

Self paced "learner contract", textbook/worksheets, visuals/guide sheet, audio tutorial

Small groups Discussion. Panel discussion. Guided design, Case study, role-playing, simulation, games, cooperative learning

A cute pargraph on dealing with SMEs' sacred cows.

Labels: book, instructional design