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Instructional Design Annotated Bibliography

Posted by Hugh on November 25, 2013 in Instructional Design and eAuthoring, References |

Allen M. (2007), Designing Successful e-Learning: Forget What You Know About Instructional Design and Do Something Interesting, Pfeiffer, San Franciso.

This book I believe is trying to steer course designers away from the just putting a lot of text up on screen and narrating it and make it appealing to the prospective learner. The author, Michael Allen, states two concepts must be present 1) Interactive events – context, challenge, activity and feedback; 2) Instructional Events – must be meaningful, memorable and motivational. Influencers on the user also need to be taking into consideration; before, during and after the instruction. The author is drawing from research but also from experience, he believes that experience will enrich the design. I was introduced to Nick Van Dam’s (2003) Online Learning Continuum and the range of activities between eReading and eLearning.

I found this book well laid out and structured. The practical examples in Part I gave good examples on how different companies use instructional design in elearning to deliver training. Then the book covers what instructional design is, identities that designers to be aware that their training has to be Meaningful – Memorable – Motivational and from the designers point of view measurable. The importance of phase such as pre-instructional – instructional – performance – accumulating influences were discussed with Spaced learning events – Informal learning – Blended Learning allowing designers to think outside the box. Part III then takes a detailed look of designing successful e-Learning from pre-instructional to performance giving good foundations and performance aids. Self-evaluation is key to help the learner see what they have learnt.

I liked this book as I found it very easy to navigate and read. There is a sense that the author is basing it on real life practical experience that a reader can relate to. It is well structured with appropriate heading and Rapid Reader sections so you know what each chapter will cover. It is the second book in the authors e-Learning Library series and I will look up the others as I think they will also be informative.

 

Bentosela M., Barrera G., Jakovcevic A, Elgier A.M., Mustaca A.E. (2008), Effect of reinforcement, reinforcer omission and extinction on a communicative response in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), Behavioural Processes, Volume 78, Issue 3, July 2008, Pages 464-469.

This article shows how reinforcement can be used along with gaze to increase inter species communications between dogs and humans. I found it interesting as it details changes in behaviour through positive reinforcement techniques, such as food, and negative reinforcement, i.e. ignoring behaviour. It discusses whether the changes in behaviours is a result of conditioning or higher cognitive skills. The trials showed that responses increased with repeated reinforcement and diminished with non-reinforcement. The dogs gaze with the trainer is vital as this is how it picks up the cues, dog can be trained to ignore everything but their own handler. I believe this article is important as it gives insight into dog behaviour, which is very relevant to our group work.

 

Beetham H., Sharpe R. (2007), Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital age Designing and Delivering E-Learning, Routledge, Oxan UK.

The book is well structured and has the objective to explore different ways to exploit modern digital technology in the education environment. Part I looks in detail at Models of learning where we revisit constructivism, social constructivism, Kolb, Bloom, Gayné and collaborative work. I was also introduced to new theories such as activity theory and neural network theory to name a few. Part II looks at the importance of design so we can bridge the gap between theory and practice. In an online environment you do not have the same flexibilities as you would have in a classroom situation; this makes lesson plans more important as you need to try to cover all variables. Design is intentional and systematic and must look at learning as a holistic process. Part III list many Appendices that gives direction with checklists and tables to help you understand what the book is covering.

The authors look at the digital revolution and how it can be used to assist in teaching. It is to be used as tool in pedagogy to support learners. There is a nice quote that we are in transition from an ICT-free past to an ITC-aware future of learning. In the past paper technologies have been utilised in every increasing sophisticated ways, with simple paper and pen having an impact when it was new. We need to move away from technology being used to simply just transmit information to utilise it to help interaction in collaborations or discussions forums, wikis, blogs and enable knowledge to be constructed individually but socially mediated – Blackboard used on this course would be a good example of this. I agree with the authors when they say we have the ambition and the technology but the link is missing.

Learning must be learner focus with support in communities and adaptive. The post compulsory sector is challenging with educational cycle being long, however influences on learners, such as youth culture, can be short making transition very difficult. For any change to be effective the teacher needs to look through the learners lens to put themselves in their position to transform the learning experience. The medium is every changing with mobile and wireless devices giving learners even faster connectivity for shorter periods of time. Learners must be active not passive participants in their learning experience. Care should be taken not to lose context or tacit knowledge.

 

Bush K. (2010), The Dog Expert, Expert Books, London.

This is book I bought in a book shop. Admittedly it is not a peer review resource, however there is a lot of good information in it from Dog exerts. It describes dogs as loyal, loving, intelligent and playful. A dog is ‘man’s best friend’ for good reason. It states if you give a dog a safe, happy environment, proper training, a balanced diet and sufficient exercise you will be rewarded with devotion, entertainment and many years of companionship as a much-loved member of the family.

I found this book very informative, even though we have always had a dog in our household from as young as I can remember. It gives a lot of very common sense tips. The topics the book covers are choose the right dog for you; create the ideal environment for your dog; ensure your dog is well fed and properly exercised; groom, train and have problem-free fun with your dog; travel with your dog; spot when something is wrong and how best to help.

I found the book particular helpful in the research we were doing on dog training, including toilet training, and how dogs react to different stimulus. It covered environment training is taking place, the need for consistency and rewarding of good behaviour through positive reinforcement, this reminded me of Pavlov and Skinners classic conditioning. Mainly the book try to get the owner to know their pet and recognise different behavioural traits associated with behaviour. It gave some very good dos and don’ts when training.

I found the book very helpful and insightive.

dogscholar.com (2010), Rubbing Your Dog’s Nose in Its Mess Is a Waste of Time for Both Owner and Pet, http://dogscholar.com/rubbing-your-dogs-nose-in-its-mess-is-a-waste-of-time-for-both-owner-and-pet/, accessed 7 November 2013.

This is a snappy little article about dogs’ sensitive sense of smell. When I was younger I can remember my parents rubbing puppy’s noses in their own faeces if they went to the toilet in the house. In later life however when I was training puppies myself I could not bring myself to do it. Reflecting back on my actions I would credit any success I had to rewarding good behaviour, classic conditioning, rather than punishing bad behaviour. Through the research I have done for this project, especially this article, it would appear that I was on the right track.

The article reinforces that reward or praise should be given as soon as the dog has earned it, it no good several hours (or even 15 minutes) later as the dog will not be able to associate the reward with the specific action. Set yourself a plan and stick to it, routine such as letting the dog out first thing in the morning and last thing at night help; not feeding the dog just before bedtime; will give the dog a routine that it knows and can try holding itself until the next toilet break.

I found it interesting that not only is the action of rubbing a dog’s nose in its own faeces is counter productive but it can also damage the dog sensitive nose. I currently am training a puppy and it definitely positive reinforcement all the way.

Morrison, G. R. (2011). Designing effective instruction 6th Edition, Hoboken NJ, Wiley.

Throughout the sixteen chapters of this book theories and concepts are described in a straightforward and pleasant manner. The model used is based on the authors own design which is conceptual and draws from many other models. This is a book that can be used by academic researchers and by students as a reference. The book is filled with situations and examples of the real-world practices both in education and in corporate environments.

The main areas covered in the book are: Introduction to the ID process; Identifying the instructions’ need; Learner and contextual analysis; Task analysis; Instructional objectives; Designing the instruction sequencing; Designing the instruction strategies; and Designing the instructional message. There is also a chapter dedicated to the planning of a project and its evaluation.

I particularly like the how the needs of the designer as well as the learners are addressed in this book, needs analysis I believe is an important part of the design process. This book looks closely at evaluation as well, how to evaluate the learners learning and also how to evaluation the course as a whole. I was aware of the cognitive domain before reading this book, however it introduced me to the psychomotor and affective domain.

Perhaps this book seems to be addressed to professionals from industry, business and technology environments rather than to educational or academic fields. However this not could be considered a weakness by the fact that it is an excellent and valuable source of reference and guide to those who study or work with instructional design.

 

Rani S. & Kant K. (2013), e-Learning Tools- A New Innovation in Teaching Learning, Golden Research Thoughts, Volume 2, Issue 9, Pages 1-5.

I came across this article in my research for the group project and thought it was very interesting. It starts by explain how the author feels education is to make people more literate, knowledgeable and empower them into the future. I can agree with them when they state we are now in the computer and internet age and it is bringing about astonishing change in how we communicate and share information. There is a nice quote from Gupta (2008) saying we have moved from the Industrial Age to the Network Age and are now part of the information revolution.

The article list several e-learning tools but focuses on wiki’s and mobile 3G (third generation) technology which allow greater interaction, collaboration with greater speed and there is no need for everyone to be in the same location. The current approach to teaching deals with the student in a passive manner with no interaction and suggests more innovative teachers are already using elearning channels. There is good grounding of theory in the paper also that we have covered including Vygotsky’s social constructivism; Piaget’s cognitive development; Dewey’s learning by doing; Laurillard’s cultural and intellectual influence. There a good recap of the benefits of elearning.

I agree with the authors that we are now in a new educational paradigm where elearning can be used to teach or impart knowledge. However it states in a teacher-less environment, this is not necessarily the case as some elearning courses can have a teacher live on video, webinar or a discussion board at certain times. They state in the developing world that people are deprived of quality education and elearning could be the way to deliver teaching to a large number of people quickly that is learner centric and is not geographically specific.

I believe that this article was useful as it shows how people in developing countries, such as India, are now an untapped source of revenue for established education and training establishments, with elearning significantly reduces the set up cost. From our group work point of view it also shows that the website we develop with be accessed from anywhere around the world and although we have stated that we are developing an English based tool we will need to be aware not use regional phrases.

 

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