Yet Another Day of Class

Keller Article
Good Instructional Design
Motivation
Relevance to the learner
Meet the needs of the students

Lajoie Article
Developing Computer-Based Learning Environments Based on Complex Performance Models

model - something set of held before one for guidance or imitation
learning can be facilitated by observing others perform the task in question
learners do not always have learn from their own mistakes but can sometimes learn by observing others do a task efficiently and then incorporating the ideas thereby obtained

3 Questions:

• What to model
• Who or what does the modeling
• How to model

What:

• the cognitive process in problem solving, ex. self-monitoring and metacognition
• they must observe and then try it with feedback
• meaningful context
• study expertise - cognitive task analysis (CTA)
• *develop Computer Based Learning Environments (CBLE) based on cognitive task analysis (tutoring/learning programs, for example)

Who or What:

• human beings or computers?
• problems with computers? - are the tasks realistic enough? - most difficult is real-world, changing, complex models (ill-defined problems)
• benefits of computers? - I argue they can be more realistic than we can often provide in the classroom (danger, access, etc.)
• benefits of human? - feedback, interaction, flexibility
• Combination of both? - use the 2 together, esp. if you don't have a sophisticated enough computer program

How

• Cognitive-Apprenticeships & Communities of Learning
• expert must be able to assist by modeling content, methods, sequence, sociology
• meaningful research activities
• work as a team, each member playing a role
• sociology of the environment is key: turn taking, role-play, sharing, discovering
  
• Things to do: coaching, feedback, scaffolding, exploration, articulation, reflection

*The key is to create technology tools that can accomplish good modeling as discussed above. Can we do it? Yes, if the program or technology is self-regulated, self-paced, and sophisticated.

Ross & Kemp Chapter 8
What is the best way to introduce concepts to our learners?

• Prestest
• Objectives
• Overviews
• Advanced Organizers

How can you cue the learner to the most important information?

• Signaling the Text's Schema
• Signaling Structures to Learner

Should you use pictures with your instruction?

• Effectiveness
• Function - decoration, representation, organization, interpretation, transformation
  
• Enhance learning
• Availability
• Cost of reproducing the materials

Ross & Kemp Ch. 11
The Relationship between Evaluation and Instructional Objectives
There should be a direct relationship between instructional objectives and test items

3 Types of objectives:

• Cognitive
• Behavioral
• Affective

Cognitive
Testing the knowledge

• Objective Tests
• Constructed Response

Behavioral
Testing the performance

• test the process, test the product, or both?
• constraints and limitations
• simulated or real-life?

Affective
Testing (assessing) attitude

• Observation
• Anecdotal Records
• Questionnaires
• Surveys

Sugar Article
What Is So Good About User-Centered Design?

Problems with Novice Designers

• Focus on overt problems - don't consider how surface problems could indicate deeper issues within the design
• Simplistic Solutions - deletions or band-aid solutions
• Limited description of users

Instructional Interventions

• Creativity
• Perspective Taking - we want in-depth and social perspective taking rather than undifferentiated and egocentric perspective taking

5 Things I Want In My Website Interface:
simplicity
consistency
clarity of design - things are easy to find - easily navigable
label download links - pdf, doc, etc.
good layout

5 Things I Want to Avoid In My Website Interface:
clutter
dead ends
dead links
too much scrolling
too much text
multilevel drop-down menus
too many links
needing plug-ins

Golden Rules of Interface Design
Consistency

• identical terminology
• menus
• help screens
• color
• layout
• capitalization
• fonts
• prompts

Universal Usability

• expert - novice
• age ranges
• disabilities
• technology diversity

Informative Feedback

• color (hyperlinks)
• feedback screen
• sound (trash files)
• action (loading files, ie. a message saying loading status)
  

Design dialogs to yield closure

• organize sequences of actions into groups with a beginning, middle, and end (ex. e-commerce moving customers from selecting products to the checkout) (ex. letting students know when they have completed a training session)

Prevent Errors

• gray out items (ex. the user will not be permitted to type his name if the zip code entered is invalid)
  
• correct actions
• complete sequences

Permit Reversal of Action

• When is it necessary to have reversal of action?
• Problems without reversal of action?

Support Internal Locus of Control

• The learner has control - choices - levels of expertise - design your own page with add-ons
  
• Learners should be Initiators vs. Responders

Reduce short-term memory load

• consequences of overloading users' short-term memory
• avoid the web becoming information overload

Avoid Navigation Problems

• Looping
• Dead End
• Dangling Page