Instructional Design: A Case Study

"Designing Learning Objectives for Primary Learners" by Sue Bennett, Lori Lockyer, and Barry Harper

Summary:  Scott Allen, Jeff Parker, Penny Johnson, and Tracey Ward are tasked with designing  small-scale resources that could be adapted to classroom and individual use while utilizing a specific pedagogical approach within a three-month time frame.  The project also had to be small in file size as well.  They would need to avoid things like full color in order to restrict the file size.  The focus is with primary and secondary learners in Australia.  There would be a considerable amount of consultation with two other teams in the process of design.

The team discusses two possible options, "Mission to Mars" and "Let's Go Camping."  The goals included being realistic while offering choices that were not necessarily value driven while adjusting the concepts for age appropriateness.  Learners would need to be able to interact by making choices, as well as seeing the possible consequences of those actions within the realistic setting.  The choices were not right/wrong but with various outcomes based on a number of variables.  The team struggled to maintain the desired objectives and size requirements, while trying to ensure capturing the attention of the intended audience.

 Reflections: Many of the difficulties that occurred with this case appeared with the limitation in size and the very general learning outcomes the team was given.  I believe the team needed more specific outcomes in order to maintain the size requirements and to simply create the project in general.  It can be very difficult to be minimalist when trying to cover a wide range of ages and to keep it engaging for each of those ages.  

 Application:  As I read this case study, I could not help but focus on Understanding by Design.  As the team bantered back and forth about the project, it fit quite nicely into the UbD framework.  There was a desired result, acceptable means, and then a learning plan- basics of the UbD frame.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Merrill Vs. Bloom

Image
The Contenders: In this corner... Merrill! Merrill's First Principles of Learning present a method of design that makes it easy for the designer to focus on real-world learning.  Merrill's presents a problem or task as the method of engagement in the learning process, therefore the mind is automatically stimulated into problem-solving mode. Once the brain enters the problem-solving mode, educators/designers are then able to use the learner's prior knowledge to present new information.  This practice enhances learning as information is in context of known information rather than as an abstract idea unrelated to the  student's knowledge.  Without a point of reference, students easily forget the new information or have difficulty applying the knowledge.  Merrill's First Principles circumvents this difficulty making the new information both applicable and relate-able.   And in this corner... Bloom!  One of the primary components of the R
Read more

A Shark in the SAMR Pool

Image
SAMR is a dynamic model for designing learning activities for students of all ages in the digital age. SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, represented like so: As the diagram shows, the bottom tiers represent enhancement, while the upper tiers reflect transformation of traditional pen and paper assignments.  Let's review SAMR a little more: Now that we understand how SAMR works, we need to also recall that there is a slightly different view of SAMR, the SAMR Pool.  In the SAMR Pool, it no longer looks like the traditional ladder where redefinition is the ultimate goal to reach with each assignment.  It is more of a flow back and forth between each type of task. As you can see, in swimming, you can go back and forth between the different levels more fluidly than one be able to climb the steps of a ladder. "But, Julie," you say, "that is a picture of an ocean, not a pool." Ah! Right you
Read more

The Impact of Communication and Feedback

Validation. "Likes," comments, and "shares" on Facebook. FEEDBACK. As humans, we crave having that interaction, that communication from others that what we said or did was worthwhile, or at least that someone was paying attention. Submitting assignments, evaluations, and activities in the educational environment is no different. Students, and instructors, need more than just a numeric or letter grade. Constructive feedback fosters improvement for the future. Sources of feedback Feedback can come in many forms: a grade, a comment. Feedback can be written or verbal. It is interesting to note that, when coming from instructors, audio feedback seems to have the most impact on students for long-lasting improvement (Johansson, 2017). Other sources of feedback included evaluations, which is typically to determine effectiveness of instruction; the use of feedback devices like polls and clickers (Sun, Martinez, & Seli, 2014), and written or media feedback on assig
Read more