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Full-Text Articles in Education
Learner Responsibility: Questions And Implications, Jesse Fuhrman
Learner Responsibility: Questions And Implications, Jesse Fuhrman
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Recently, I was discussing the issue of personal responsibility with a colleague. Specifically, we were discussing the responsibility of students to know where certain kinds of information is found within a course, or how a certain type of action is accomplished within a given learning management system. At what point is it no longer the responsibility of the course designer to create learning objects to convey this information? When does the student bear the responsibility to either already know or to learn this information on their own?
My Reflections On The Association For Educational Communications And Technology (Aect) 2017 International Convention, Lewis Chongwony
My Reflections On The Association For Educational Communications And Technology (Aect) 2017 International Convention, Lewis Chongwony
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
From November 6 – 11, 2017, the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida was a beehive of activity, as members of the AECT, one of the oldest professional organizations, passionate about uncovering better ways of helping people learn, congregated for the 2017 convention. With close to 400 concurrent sessions, several workshops, and more than 1,000 attendees, the place was beaming and brimming with excitement and an aura of freshness as attendees imbibed from pots of research, best practices, and experiences of speakers and peers both in sessions and during breaks. Looking around, I could easily tell that the 2017 …
O Designer, Look In The Mirror, Matthew Barclay
O Designer, Look In The Mirror, Matthew Barclay
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
What chef ever made a meal that he or she would not be happy to eat or was doubtful the paying customer would relish? It may happen but it is likely rare. People in the profession of cooking and creating excellent meals take pride in their work to satisfy their customers. They strive for the joy of those they serve.
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Instructional Design Reflections, Rob Wood
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Instructional Design Reflections, Rob Wood
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Franklin University graduate student Amie Tope is preparing to enter the instructional design field in early 2018. Dr. Rob Wood has been practicing instructional design since 1988 and serves as a faculty member at Franklin University. Amie and Rob recently sat down for an informal, collegial discussion to talk about their perspectives. While Amie looks forward to stepping across the threshold and formally beginning her instructional design career, Rob is looking back over nearly 30 years as an instructional designer and considering what eventual retirement might look like.
Clients As An Instructional Resource, Xiaopeng Ni
Clients As An Instructional Resource, Xiaopeng Ni
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Higher education is under pressure to change from both within and outside (Christensen & Eyring, 2011). One such pressure is from future employers. According to the survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education (Supiano, 2013), most employers significantly value students’ authentic experience over their classroom activities or grades. Authentic learning experience is a direction for teaching and learning innovations. As I discussed in my previous blog post (“Let’s Get Real about Learning”), authentic learning facilitates the transfer of learning and provides students contextual knowledge and skills. Students who learned decontextualized knowledge can answer items on a test but may …
Human Resource Development For Learning And Performance Improvement, Jessie Kong
Human Resource Development For Learning And Performance Improvement, Jessie Kong
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Having studied Human Resource Development (HRD) in my Ph.D. program, I have received many questions from students, colleagues, and others about what HRD is. Therefore, this post briefly discusses the definition and functions of HRD as they relate to the role of an instructional design leader
7 Skills Of Knowledge Work, Joel Gardner
7 Skills Of Knowledge Work, Joel Gardner
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
We are now working in the knowledge society, in which information and knowledge are the primary commodity. The majority of employees in this society are knowledge workers, which means their primary function is to gather and create new knowledge. The nature of work in the knowledge society is cross-disciplinary, complex, varied, and ambiguous, and knowledge workers must be able to access and use broad knowledge in flexible yet disciplined manner.
Everyone Needs An Editor, Gregory Kurtz
Everyone Needs An Editor, Gregory Kurtz
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Walt Disney once said, “Everyone needs deadlines.” That statement may seem straightforward enough, but it’s important to note that the entertainment legend was referring not merely to arbitrary dates on a calendar. Rather, Disney was talking about the benchmarks to which each contributor to a project must adhere in order for a creative process to reach its ultimate goal—the delivery of a product or production on time and with a minimum of frantic, last-minute activity. Failing to recognize and meet deadlines can easily lead to ill-advised shortcuts and the resulting deliverable either falling short of its full potential or even …
How To Select An Instructional Design Master’S Program – List #1, Yi Yang
How To Select An Instructional Design Master’S Program – List #1, Yi Yang
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Instructional design jobs are continuously becoming more in demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by the year 2022, jobs in instructional design are expected to increase by 15 percent. Most of these positions either require or prefer a master’s degree. Getting a master’s degree is thrilling. Searching for the best program and school that meets your needs is exciting and daunting. If you are shopping for an instructional design master’s program, first of all, consider your needs and goals. To help you out, try answering the questions in the following list, LIST #1: My Needs and Goals.
A Non-Traditional Journey To Instructional Design: An Interview With Roberta Niche, Niccole Hyatt
A Non-Traditional Journey To Instructional Design: An Interview With Roberta Niche, Niccole Hyatt
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow had this to say about humans: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.”
Maslow then followed up with this haunting quote: “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.” In light of Maslow’s work on self-actualization and our quest to find the meaning of work in our lives, I decided to interview a colleague who has …
Cognitive Load Theory: Helping Students' Learning Systems Function More Efficiently, Jesse Fuhrman
Cognitive Load Theory: Helping Students' Learning Systems Function More Efficiently, Jesse Fuhrman
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Cognitive load is the amount of working memory being used, like the RAM in your computer, only for the human brain. When memory usage on your computer is high, the system starts to slow down; it doesn’t function as efficiently. The same thing happens with learning. When the cognitive load is high, learning is less efficient
Why Your Course Needs An Editor, Carolyn Levally
Why Your Course Needs An Editor, Carolyn Levally
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Instructional design is definitely an iterative process; we design courses, get feedback, make adjustments to the course, etc. But who is reviewing our courses and providing us with feedback? More than likely, the Subject Matter Expert (SME) or the instructor who will be teaching the course reviews the course design. Having SMEs review the design is excellent, as they know the content and the course objectives best. However, at the International Institute for Innovative Instruction, we also strongly recommend that all courses be reviewed by a content editor.
Critical Reflection Is More Than Just Looking In A Mirror, Barbara Fennema
Critical Reflection Is More Than Just Looking In A Mirror, Barbara Fennema
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
"Magic mirror on the wall--who is the fairest of them all?" spoken by the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Looking in a mirror (and most of us don’t have a magic mirror!) provides us only with a surface reflection of how we look – not who we are or what we’ve learned. In this blog post, we’ll look at what critical reflection is and its importance in a learning experience
Caring For Lawns And University Courses: Fixing Common Problems With Deliberate Treatments For Good Growth, Matthew Barclay
Caring For Lawns And University Courses: Fixing Common Problems With Deliberate Treatments For Good Growth, Matthew Barclay
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
It is springtime and that means lawns are growing. What do you do to help your lawn along in the spring? Many people just start mowing. They also rely on spring rains for water. A lawn might look okay for a while with just this treatment. However, a minimalist approach does not usually result in a green, healthy lawn for the whole season. While mowing and watering are necessary, leaving out additional intervention puts a lawn at risk for various weeds and other problems. Grass needs added nutrients, aeration, grub prevention, mowing with a proper blade, water in correct amounts …
3 Key Principles For Increasing Self-Confidence & Engagement In Online Developmental Math Courses, Jessie Kong
3 Key Principles For Increasing Self-Confidence & Engagement In Online Developmental Math Courses, Jessie Kong
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Most students who enter colleges need basic math skills to succeed in college-level mathematics. Therefore, most colleges provide “a sequence of developmental mathematics courses that starts with basic arithmetic, then goes on to pre-algebra, elementary algebra, and finally intermediate algebra, all of which must be passed before a student can enroll in a transfer-level college mathematics course” (Stigler, Givvin, & Thompson, 2013, p. 1).
3 Top Leadership Competencies For Instructional Designers, Yi Yang
3 Top Leadership Competencies For Instructional Designers, Yi Yang
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
A successful instructional designer not only needs to be excelling in design and development, but also needs to be a leader, a change agent, and a strategist. Within higher education organizations, instructional design leaders are in demand because they are uniquely qualified to envision the future of education, give critical and strategic direction to others, and ultimately provide an organization with the leadership necessary to move institutions deeper into the 21st century and beyond (Shaw, 2012). However, both International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI , 2012) competency standards and the ATD (2014) competency model put strong …
Begging The Question: Strategies To Increase Student Performance, Roberta Niche
Begging The Question: Strategies To Increase Student Performance, Roberta Niche
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
If you’re an instructional designer or an instructor, you undoubtedly know a lot about questions. You know that simple yes-no questions are often a dead end and that open-ended questions generally make for more interesting discussions. You know that students typically aren’t given enough think time; teachers’ average wait time is less than one second before they pick someone to answer or answer the question themselves.
Let’S Get Real About Learning, Xiaopeng Ni
Let’S Get Real About Learning, Xiaopeng Ni
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
The primary reason instructors are interested in integrating real world tasks into the classroom stems from a belief that learning that emulates real life is more likely to promote student motivation, engagement, transfer of learning, and professional development. Students who learn decontextualized knowledge are likely to be able to answer items on a test, but often struggle to apply what they have learned when attempting to solve real problems. In this post, I would like to discuss the following three questions related to real-world/authentic tasks
Change, Ambiguity, And Uncertainty: On Becoming An Expert Instructional Designer, Rob Wood
Change, Ambiguity, And Uncertainty: On Becoming An Expert Instructional Designer, Rob Wood
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
“If you can learn to tolerate change, ambiguity, and uncertainty, you will be successful in this field.” That was the answer my supervisor gave me when I asked him how I could be a really good instructional designer. It was 1989, and I had been working at it for a whole year. I really wanted to know! I must have looked crestfallen, because he added, “Don’t worry. You’ll get it later.” Great. Thanks, Boss.
Online Experiential Learning: Bringing The Courtroom To The Classroom, Karen Miner-Romanoff
Online Experiential Learning: Bringing The Courtroom To The Classroom, Karen Miner-Romanoff
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Experiential learning (EL) is the “process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Corbett, 2005, p. 479). As Kolb (1984) posited, individuals learn through experience, reflection, thought, and experimentation. Knowledge and understanding are created and refined through the application and transformation of experience. Many scholars and educators agree that experience and active participation can help students connect theory to practice, develop higher order thinking skills, and enhance the educational environment (Burke & Bush, 2013; LaRose, 2011). Much research has indicated that authentic and experiential online learning experiences can lead to greater student success (Broadbent & Poon, 2015; Inan, …
The Difference Between Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, And Instructional Science, Joel Gardner
The Difference Between Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, And Instructional Science, Joel Gardner
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
What is the difference between instructional design, and instructional technology, and instructional science? There are many different subsets of the field of instructional design, and in this post I will clarify the differences between these different terms.
Learning Styles: The Ugly Christmas Sweaters Of Education, Matthew Barclay
Learning Styles: The Ugly Christmas Sweaters Of Education, Matthew Barclay
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
When Christmastime comes, there are often ugly Christmas sweater parties. It’s fun to see who sports the ugliest sweater and everyone has a good laugh. However, would you still be laughing if people wore the same style of sweaters in January, February, and March, or all year round? Or what if they wore them as part of their regular wardrobe at any time? Would it not seem out of place, even if well-intentioned?
Emotional Intelligence And Instructional Design Leadership, Niccole Hyatt
Emotional Intelligence And Instructional Design Leadership, Niccole Hyatt
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Emotional Intelligence may be described as the “ability to reason about emotions” (Salovey & Mayer, 1997). Although psychologists Salovey and Mayer (1997) developed the concept, Daniel Goleman is known as the father of Emotional Intelligence and authored multiple bestselling books on the topic (Goleman refers to it as EQ, but it may also be abbreviated as EI). Recently, Yadav (2014) has posited that organizations can no longer depend solely on the knowledge level of employees but must also consider their EQ in measuring an organization’s success.
How To Develop Yourself As A Learning Professional, Joel Gardner
How To Develop Yourself As A Learning Professional, Joel Gardner
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
The world is constantly changing and, as a learning professional, your role is constantly evolving. To remain relevant and have a positive impact in your profession, you must continually acquire and expand your knowledge and skills to improve yourself in your craft.
Paradox Of Social Presence In Online Learning In The Age Of Social Media, Lewis Chongwony
Paradox Of Social Presence In Online Learning In The Age Of Social Media, Lewis Chongwony
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
How often do you think of social presence (a feeling of being there and connected with others in a computer mediated communication) when designing and/or delivering your online course(s) or instruction? Does it even make sense to worry about it in the age of social media?
How Do Students Respond To Microlearning?, Natalya Koehler
How Do Students Respond To Microlearning?, Natalya Koehler
The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog
Microlearning is a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in small, very specific bursts. The learners are in control of what and when they’re learning