SCSU: Instructional Tech: Instructional Design

Instructional Strategies

The next step in the instructional design process is to select the instructional strategies. Instructional strategies include organizational strategies, delivery strategies and management strategies.

Organizational Strategies

Micro-strategies - instructional events for lessons
Macro-strategies - scope and sequence structures for units or courses

Delivery Strategies

Media Selection
Grouping Strategies

Management

Scheduling
Acquisition of resources

Let's look again at the information processing model.

Micro-strategies

Successful instructional strategies help students process new content effectively. It will activate student motivation, and set their expectations. It will direct student attention (selective perception) to the important content. It will then help students code the new information for storage in long term memory by helping students recall previously learned information so they can connect the new information to that which is already stored. It also helps students process the information in short term memory by providing learning guidance such as a definition, example and non-example to clarify a concept or a memory aid or mnemonic to aid retention. Retention will also be enhanced when students review and retrieve the information more than once. Instruction which helps students generalize and recode the information can help them transfer the learning to new situations (for example, transferring what they have learned from the classroom to the job). Finally, instruction which allows the student to practice the new performance and get appropriate feedback will reinforce the learning. Gagne (1972) suggested that based on how we process information there are nine "events of instruction." What you see below is a modified list of the events.

Information Processing	Events of Instruction
Expectancy	Activate attention Establish instructional purpose Inform learner of objectives Arouse interest and motivation Preview the lesson
Selective perception	Direct attention
Coding for memory storage	Recall relevant prior knowledge Employ learning strategies (Provide learning guidance)
Performing and Reinforcement	Practice, provide feedback
Retrieval	Summarize and review (Enhance retention)
Generalization: Recoding	Transfer knowledge
Expectancy	Remotivate and close lesson
Performing	Assess performance Provide feedback Remediate

A lesson might look like this:

Introduction

Activate attention
Establish purpose
Inform learners of objectives
Arouse interest and motivation
Preview the lesson

Body of lesson (must be repeated for each cluster of objectives)

Recall relevant prior knowledge
Provide information and examples
Focus attention
Employ learning strategies
Practice
Feedback

Conclusion (not repeated)

Summarize, review, synthesize
Generalize, transfer learning
Remotivate and close

Assessment

Assess performance (not repeated)
Evaluate feedback, provide remediation or enrichment

There are many ways of providing information and employing learning strategies to guide the learner (see the list in your packet). Some methods, called supplantive strategies explicitly provide many of the events of instruction, which reduces cognitive loading. The purpose of this is to conserve the learner's capacity for acquiring the new skills and knowledge by limiting the effort necessary for structuring the learning the situation. Lessons such as this workshop, and particularly self paced material, tend to provide much of the structure. Generative strategies, on the other hand, encourage learners to construct their own structure, and provide many of the events of instruction themselves. This approach can result in improved depth of information processing. The "constructivist" view of learning, derived from the generative approach, is that the learner must actively construct their own meaning for learning to occur. The decision about which approach to use can be complex. It depends on the time available and how critical the task is, the prior knowledge, aptitude and motivation of the learners, their cognitive strategies, and their future learning requirements. For instance, traditional medical schools have used a more structured or supplantive approach. However, doctors will need to be life long learners, capable of structuring ambiguous situations and keeping up with the advances in medical research, and certainly their medical skills are critical to us as their patients. As a result, a generative approach may be appropriate.

Practice

Select a lesson you want to design. Write an organization strategy plan for your lesson.

Using the list in your packet, select some appropriate ways of providing information and employing learning strategies to guide the learner.

Macro-strategies

Instructional strategies which cover multiple concepts or skills include the sequence of instruction, clustering and segmenting information, and reviewing, summarizing and synthesizing each lesson.

Instruction is often organized by the way things seem to be organized around us: by time, space or physical characteristics. For instance, art history is most often taught in a timbered or chronological sequence, geography is taught by regions or space, and biology is taught by grouping things into physical characteristics, beginning with cells and moving to more complex organisms.

An inquiry related structure might be used to teach research. In our "Research in Information Media" we follow the steps that a researcher would follow in conducting a study: formulating a question, reviewing the literature, formulating research questions or hypotheses, designing the study and instruments for data collection, collecting the data, analyzing and interpreting the data.

Use related structure would prioritize and teach skills which are used first or most commonly before later or less commonly used skills. An example is this workshop: we cover the analysis phase of instructional design before development and evaluation. This is related to a procedural sequence. For psychomotor skills, or any objective that must follow a sequence in time, the sequence should follow step-by-step approach beginning with the first step of the procedure (for instance recording with a camcorder).

Learning related structures organize information to begin by teach prerequisite skills first. For instance, in a course on heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, control theory is a prerequisite concept, and would be taught before teaching how cascade control loops work. This is related to the easy to difficult sequence, where you begin with concepts which are easier and move to concepts which are more difficult.

Elaboration theory suggests an effective approach to concepts, principles and procedures. The lesson shows the learners the overarching generalizations (called epitomes) first, so they can see how each concept or skill fits into "big picture." Then you "zoom in" on a more detailed instruction (called an elaboration). You then "zoom out" again to look at the "big picture" before focusing on the next concept.

Delivery Strategy

Delivery strategies such as media and grouping strategies should be chosen with the audience and objectives, as well as local logistics (such as equipment, software and facilities) in mind. For instance, hypertext can be an effective method of delivery for cognitive objectives. However, if you wanted to teach pole vaulting, for instance, another medium would probably be preferable. Most lessons have several objectives which may cover multiple domains (cognitive, psychomotor, affective). So a combination of delivery strategies might be the most effective choice. Shown below are some media and their characteristics to consider when selecting instructional media (based loosely on Newby, T. J., Stepich, S. A., Lehman, J. D., & Russell, J. D. (2000) Instructional Technology for Teaching and Learning. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. p. 123.)

Learning will be enhanced if media:	Real Objects	Text : handouts, books, computer	Easel or white board	Transparencies or electronic presentations	Slides	Video: tape, discs, TV	Graphics: photos, charts, diagrams	Audio: tape, CD	Computer software
shows motion						u			u
reproduces sounds								u	u
shows realistic images					u	u	u		u
is portable		u			u
can be used as a reference or job aid after the lesson		u
allows hilighting, drawing or writing during lesson		u	u	u
allows students to interact			u						u
can be used independently		u			u	u		u	u
allows user to review or control pace				u	u	u	u	u	u
allows students to touch or see objects	u
allows students to observe dangerous processes or distant locations						u			u
can be easily modified		u	u	u
can be easily reordered		u		u	u		u
allows participants to respond simultaneously		u	u
shapes attitudes						u
presents problem solving situations						u			u
provides a discovery learning environment						u			u
is easy to create		u	u	u
is easy to use					u	u		u	u
is inexpensive		u	u
is appropriate for small groups (25 or fewer)	u	u	u				u

Grouping also depends on the audience and objectives. In teaching instructional design for students going into training for businesses, grouping students in teams to develop instruction as they would in the "real world" is an important delivery strategy.

Management Strategy

Management strategy includes the logistics that must be planned to deliver instruction effectively. This includes scheduling and allocation of resources. For instance, to teach a course in microcomputers in training, I heed to schedule media, equipment, software and facilities such as the computer lab.

Practice

For your lesson, describe the macro-strategies you will use. List any management and delivery strategies that would be relevant to your lesson. strategies

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