Education Commons^™

Leadership Competencies For Instructional Designers: Identifying Critical Incidents Used To Lead Design Projects That Improve Performance, Heidi Elaine Kirby

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Even though an instructional designer may not have formal authority or direct reports, to be successful, they need leadership skills. Although the literature calls for instructional designers to possess several critical leadership skills, it does not consistently present the same important skills and often defines them very broadly. Further, authors who have argued that leadership skills are not taught to instructional designers in a sufficient way often call for more education on leadership competencies in graduate school, but the literature does not state where these skills are currently being learned and fostered.

This qualitative research study used methods of grounded …

The Creation Of Successful Student Subjects: Foucault’S Power/Knowledge Framework And The Danger Of Failing Early Alert, Sue Ann Cecilia Curran

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of learning analytics is to improve and optimize learning using student data (Siemens, 2013). An early alert warning is learning analytics designed to promote student success (Baneres et al., 2019; Foung, 2019; Lawson et al., 2016; Villano et al., 2018). An early alert has an intervention component that includes, at minimum, an email that provides information about college resources to address the issue (Arnold & Pistilli, 2012). Some early alert interventions include a personal outreach by a staff member at the college through a phone call or text message (Choi et al., 2018).

At Care Community College, when …

Instructional Systems Design And The Diffusion And Adoption Of Technology: (Volume 1), Miguel Ramlatchan (Author & Editor), Mark Parsons (Author), Meghan Soldani (Author), Josie Joswick Mendoza (Author), Maria Satre (Author), Brittany Spitz (Author), Jasmine Bundy (Author), Amanda Kline (Author)

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

Instructional designers, instructional systems designers, and other educational technologists are, by their nature, innovators. These professionals apply and extend the applied science of learning, systems, communication, and instructional design theory to help students learn. Technology in some capacity is used to make the connections between subject matter experts, teachers, instructors, and their learners. It is common for instructional designers to seek new tools, techniques, and innovations for the improvement of learning, access, quality, and student satisfaction. However, the adoption and diffusion of new educational technology and innovation is a complex process that depends on many variables. Understanding these processes and …

Instructional Message Design: Theory, Research, And Practice (Volume 2), Miguel Ramlatchan, Elisa L. Shaffer, Marissa A. Jimenez, Spyridoula Tsouganatou, Yolanda Montague, Maria Satre, Brittney Heath, Bradley Sanders, Jim Shifflett, Meghan Soldani, Shuree Altantsetseg, Melissa Hatfield, Casey Kohler

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

Message design is all around us, from the presentations we see in meetings and classes, to the instructions that come with our latest tech gadgets, to multi-million-dollar training simulations. In short, instructional message design is the real-world application of instructional and learning theories to design the tools and technologies used to communicate and effectively convey information. This field of study pulls from many applied sciences including cognitive psychology, industrial design, graphic design, instructional design, information technology, and human performance technology to name just a few. In this book we visit several foundational theories that guide our research, look at different …

Instructional Message Design: Theory, Research, And Practice (Volume 2), Miguel Ramlatchan (Author & Editor), Elisa L. Shaffer (Author), Marissa A. Jimenez (Author), Spyridoula Tsouganatou (Author), Yolanda Montague (Author), Maria Satre (Author), Brittney Heath (Author), Bradley Sanders (Author), Jim Shifflett (Author), Meghan Soldani (Author), Shuree Altantsetseg (Author), Melissa Hatfield (Author), Casey Kohler (Editor)

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Message design is all around us, from the presentations we see in meetings and classes, to the instructions that come with our latest tech gadgets, to multi-million-dollar training simulations. In short, instructional message design is the real-world application of instructional and learning theories to design the tools and technologies used to communicate and effectively convey information. This field of study pulls from many applied sciences including cognitive psychology, industrial design, graphic design, instructional design, information technology, and human performance technology to name just a few. In this book we will visit several foundational theories that guide our research, look at …

Chapter 05: A Brief Introduction To Instructional Message Design In Synchronous Online Learning Technologies, Spyridoula Tsouganatou

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

This chapter will analyze and discuss concepts related to instructional message design as it relates to synchronous online learning technologies. Synchronous online learning is becoming increasingly popular especially in the pandemic era and it is able to provide students with a lot of opportunities and benefits for their learning processes. This chapter specifically will provide an analysis of the major benefits and challenges of synchronous online learning technologies. It will also discuss learning platforms such as Zoom, that can be used to further provide the reader with concrete examples of an online tool that is able to successfully develop a …

Chapter 11: Instructional Message Design In E-Learning, Meghan Soldani

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Instructional message design is an essential aspect of an effective e-learning experience for learners. E-learning is the use of online and mobile technologies to develop learning material, content, and applications for online learners. As an instructional designer, it is important to analyze and know your audience, engage the user, use relevant information, and provide a good user experience. Other critical aspects of message design for e-learning include the reduction of extraneous cognitive load, the aesthetic look and feel of the design, designing for learner motivation, and a focused simplicity of design. User engagement can also be encouraged by relevant content …

Chapter 12: Perception In Instructional Message Design, Shuree Altantsetseg

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

This chapter aims to discuss perception from various academic disciplines and its relations and effects on information processing in instructional message design. Improved awareness of this concept assists instructional designers in conveying their message effectively and improves effective instruction in immersive learning environments. In this chapter, Gestalt, neurological, ecological, and computational perspectives and processes on perception are first discussed and followed by applications in instructional message design and instructional design.

Chapter 01: Message Design For Instructional Designers - An Introduction, Miguel Ramlatchan

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Instructional message design is the use of learning theories to effectively communicate information using technology. Design is guided by theories including gestalt, cognitive load, multimedia learning, media selection, media attributes, and general communication systems. Our communication designs can be based on a wide variety of technologies or a combination of technologies. Technology in the form of tools and techniques includes, among others, the study and the use of typography, color, illustrations, photographs modeled graphics, augmented reality, animation, video, video games, simulations, and virtual reality. This introduction serves as a brief overview of these theories, tools, and techniques while subsequent chapters …

Chapter 02: Cognitive Load Theory And Instructional Message Design, Elisa L. Shaffer

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Cognitive Load Theory’s (CLT) purpose is to aid in the design of messages, instructional and otherwise, so that learning and message retention are more effective. CLT was introduced in 1998 by John Sweller and his colleagues. They used the constructs of three areas of memory, sensory, working, and long-term memory, to develop a theory to address the limited capacity of working memory. Through these efforts, they created the concepts of intrinsic, extraneous , and germane cognitive load and used these concepts to explain how various loads are placed on working memory. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the …

Chapter 03: Multimedia Learning Theory And Instructional Message Design, Miguel Ramlatchan

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Multimedia learning theory describes how the designers of instructional messages, systems and learning environments can optimize learning. The principles and heuristics of multimedia learning theory have application in traditional and online environments, with young and adult learners, in K-12, higher education, military, corporate, government, and informal learning environments. This diversity of application is based on the foundational premise that all learners can independently process auditory and visual information, have limited working memory resources, and require cognitive resources to process new information and to learn. This chapter describes the basic tenets of multimedia learning theory, best practices that can improve our …

Chapter 07. Message Design For Healthcare Simulation, Maria Satre

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Simulation is a teaching method that motivates and engages learners (Ifenthaler et al. 2020; Martin & Betrus, 2019), can provide better student performance outcomes compared to traditional classroom education (Chernikova et al. 2020; D’Angleo et al., 2014; Di Natale et al., 2020; Gralnick & Levy, 2011; Pellas et al., 2019), and can even replace some real-world learning experiences (Alexander et al., 2015). Instructional designers who develop healthcare simulations should use relevant learning theory and instructional message design to ensure that the simulation is learner-centered and based in evidence-based practice to maximize the potential for the learning experience.

Chapter 08: Designing With Disabilities In Mind, Brittney Heath

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Instructional message designs are everywhere, and not everyone that interacts with the messages do so with ease. We need to begin thinking about those with disabilities while we are creating our designs to make understanding the importance of each message easier for everyone. Some strategies that can be used are: chunking information, using one main theme, and visual supports. This chapter focuses on a few common disabilities that can easily be accommodated: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Specific Learning Disabilities, and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Chapter 06. Instructional Applications Of Augmented And Virtual Reality, Yolanda Montague

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Virtual and augmented reality are two examples of message design tools in the arsenal of educators that can be employed in order to create relations between content and the real life experiences of students. Virtual reality can take many forms and augmented reality may be an option that provides more relatable hands on experience for learners. As leaders in education are on a continual journey towards more innovative means of teaching, these two choices provide opportunities for educators to be innovative, while maintaining learning as the primary focus. Within the realm of both virtual and augmented reality, there are many …

Chapter 09: Messaging For Performance - Instructional Message Design In Human Performance Technology, Bradley Sanders

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Human performance technology (HPT) is the practice of applying systematic models and methods to uncover the causes of systemic performance issues, particularly within organizations. HPT seeks to improve human performance outcomes by placing an emphasis on the investigation of causal factors outside of training and education deficiencies; only looking for those causes after all factors outside of the individual have been exhausted. In these instances, instructional interventions are chosen to close the identified performance gap and improve performance. This chapter defines HPT as a practice and provides the professional foundation of prominent models and methods used to improve performance. In …

Chapter 13: Web Conferencing Best Practices For K-12 Online Teachers, Melissa Hatfield, Miguel Ramlatchan

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

There is no shortage of online advice on how to use web conferencing applications like Zoom, that allow for real-time audio, video, and content engagement between teachers and students. While much of this advice is based on practitioner experience, a growing number of guides are now based on applied research and theory. This is one of those later guides, presenting best practices based not only on practical experience but on applied research from instructional message design. While not meant to be an all-encompassing treatise on all things Zoom, this chapter does present and encourage the use of Zoom’s functionality to …

Chapter 14: Zoom Conferencing Best Practices For Professional Presentations, Conferences, And Events, Brian Watkins, Miguel Ramlatchan

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

The adoption and diffusion of online web conferencing has allowed for expanded access to professional seminars, workshops and webinars. However, unlike in-person, face-to-face presentations, delivering a Zoom Meeting or Webinar creates a number of new and different concerns and configuration challenges that are not present in an in-person event. This chapter summarizes instructional message design best practices for Zoom conferencing and serves as a guide for how to set up your computing environment, physical location, presentation, and how to keep your audience engaged. This section of our instructional message design book also presents a guide to planning for the delivering …

Chapter 04: Instructional Message Design In Moocs, Marissa A. Jimenez

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are appealing to higher education institutions, as they consider MOOCs a way to reach a large, varied group of students. With a completion rate of less than 10%, however, institutions struggle to maintain MOOCs (Major, 2016). While there is little to no cost for students to enroll in them, the cost for the institution to develop and maintain MOOCs can be high from a time and resource perspective. Improving student motivation and interaction in MOOCs may impact completion rates. Designers of MOOCs could leverage instructional message design strategies to improve social presence, and as a …

Chapter 10: Game Literacy And Message Design, Jim Shifflett

Instructional Message Design, Volume 2

The popularity of video games with today’s learners requires that educators and instructional designers develop game literacy , or an understanding of game mechanics and design. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss game literacy within the context of instructional message design and to illustrate how video game designers apply and adapt principles of instructional message design to manage cognitive load through an immersive experience. These techniques include customizing the screen to display only necessary information and signaling changes in gameplay through sound cues and cinematic perspective. Game mechanics that foster germane load include tutorial missions and interface design. …

Active Military Student Persistence In Online Courses At California Community Colleges, Stephanie E. Gernert

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The diversity of higher education institutions is changing, and more post-traditional students, including those associated with the military, are engaging in higher education. Almost every post-secondary institution in the United States has military students. In 2020, $11.5 billion was spent on over 875,000 eligible military students. Military students often prefer online courses at community colleges due to flexibility around their military career, open-access, and affordability.

Yet, few studies examine active military servicemembers alone and, when research is performed, a lack of thorough data collection exists. Therefore, this study focused on active military students in online education in California Community Colleges. …

An Instrumental Case Study Of Confirmative Evaluation In The Continuous Improvement Of Online Remote Leaders’ Work, Chad Lawrence Mclane

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Confirmative evaluation is often noted as an important element of models of Human Performance Technology and Performance Improvement, but there exists confusion around what is and what is not confirmative evaluation. A significant issue limiting the use of confirmative evaluation is the Performance Improvement field’s inability to clearly classify confirmative evaluation in terms of its purpose and scope. Additionally, the performance improvement field lacks sufficient examples of confirmative evaluation in the literature necessary to adequately define confirmative evaluation and demonstrate its use. Without sufficient examples of confirmative evaluation, practitioners of performance improvement are left without a clear path of how …

The Message Design Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark On The Atari 2600 & A Fan’S Map, Quick Start, And Strategy Guide, Miguel Ramlatchan, William I. Ramlatchan

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

The message design and human performance technology in video games, especially early video games have always been fascinating to me. From an instructional design perspective, the capabilities of the technology of the classic game consoles required a careful balance of achievable objectives, cognitive task analysis, guided problem solving, and message design. Raiders on the Atari is an excellent example of this balance. It is an epic adventure game, spanning 13+ distinct areas, with an inventory of items, where those hard to find items had to be used by the player to solve problems during their quest (and who would have …

Metacognitive Supports In Online Community College Learners, Bethany L. Emory

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Community colleges provide educational, social and professional lifelines for students. Community college students are often characterized by their need to balance school amidst conflicting life needs, such as employment and family. As a result, many community college students struggle to find time to commit to on campus classes. Asynchronous online courses offer these students flexibility. Without the ability to self-regulate their learning, this mode of learning has been shown to be more challenging, resulting in students who succeed and persist in coursework less consistently.

This quantitative, quasi experimental study involving 92 asynchronous online community college participants from the southeast, explores …

Factors Promoting And Inhibiting The Practice Of Needs Assessment By Human Performance Practitioners, Christopher D. Adams

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Needs assessment is an essential activity for human performance improvement practitioners. This qualitative study employed the critical incident technique to determine factors, encountered by practitioners during needs assessment, which promote or inhibit successful needs assessment by exploring practitioners work across 50 incidents. Using extreme cases representing practitioners’ most and least successful needs assessment experiences allowed participants to recall rich detail of their process and the context in which they were working. Participants were also asked to reflect on what criteria they used to select most and least successful examples. From that basis, the study explored three research questions and associated …

A Case Study On Targeted Support Using Tpack Model For Newly Hired Secondary Mathematics Teachers, Kristin Leigh Mckitrick-Rojas

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

As teachers plan for instruction, technology integration is an important factor in the planning and implementation process. This is become imperative in a virtual learning environment for instructors to be competent (Gregory & Lodge, 2015). Problems exist with integrating technology that aligns with teaching and learning in content areas. Among the many possible factors that contribute to these problems is lack of understanding of technology, lack of support for teachers with technology, everchanging technology tools, inadequate training alignment to instruction, technology training that is not content-specific, lack of support with the integration of technology, pedagogy, and content (Koehler et al., …

Conducting A Formative Evaluation On A Course-Level Learning Analytics Implementation Through The Lens Of Self-Regulated Learning And Higher-Order Thinking, Pauline S. Muljana, Tian Luo, Greg Placencia

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Self-regulated learning (SRL) and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) are associated with academic achievement, but fostering these skills is not easy. Scholars have suggested an alternative way to scaffold these important skills through learning analytics (LA). This paper presents a formative evaluation of a course-level LA implementation through the lens of self-regulated learning (SRL) and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). We explored the changes in students’ SRL, HOTS, and perceptions at the end of the course term. Results indicate an increase in some elements of SRL and HOTS, and positive student perceptions. Discussion on implications and opportunities for informing future teaching strategies …

Organizational Analysis In Preparation For Lms Change: A Narrative Case Study, F. Eamonn Powers, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Collaboration and teamwork are concepts routinely attributed to organizational success and successful change management. Yet often the details of these collaborative experiences are limited to participants in the team involved. In this case study we highlight how a learning experience architect, as part of an organizational working group, could leverage human performance technology (HPT) principles to lead the analysis efforts surrounding an LMS platform change at a professional training organization. Human performance technology is the study and practice of improving productivity in organizations. This includes designing and developing effective interventions, processes, and methodologies that are ethical, results-oriented, comprehensive, and systemic …

Past Precedent Reconciling Established Multimedia Principles In 3d Virtual Learning Environments, Kristin Herman, Jim S. Shifflett, Courtney W. Schoolmaster, Charles Thull, Noah Glaser

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This design case documents the inception, development, and installation of a virtual exhibit on ethical use of learning analytics (LA) for the Museum of Instructional Design (MID), hosted in Mozilla Hubs. Tension emerged as the design team attempted to negotiate established principles of multimedia design theory (see Mayer, 2014; Mayer & Fiorella, 2021; Richardson, 2014) within an emerging learning environment. A rapid prototyping model, combined with elements of critical museology and dialectics, allowed for ongoing formative evaluation of design fidelity. Exhibit artifacts consisted of scenarios illustrating the ethical ambiguities of LA; a data justice timeline pairing recent peer-reviewed articles on …

Examining The Impact Of Online Math Games On Student Performance And Attitudes, Tian Luo, Catherine Hickman, Pauline Muljana

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Low mathematics scores in the U.S. have been pressing the educators to find engaging strategies and effective tools to promote math performance. While emerging technologies, such as digital math games, show promises in improving mathematical education, existing studies have garnered mixed findings and thereby necessitating further investigation. This study aims to examine the impact of skill-based online math games on students’ math performance and attitudes, as well as students’ perceptions of the games. Thirty-eight students ranging from fifth to eighth grade participated in the study. The results showed a mixed picture of the impact of the online games on math …

Practice With Feedback Makes Permanent: Ecoaching Through Online Bug-In-Ear During Clinical Experiences, Annemarie L. Horn, Marcia L. Rock

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Federal mandates (e.g., Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015) require special educators to use evidence-based practices (EBP) when working with K-12 students. However, for this expectation to become a reality, teacher educators must make changes in educator preparation program (EPP) curriculum, policy, coursework, and clinical experiences (Kolb et al., 2018). The need for changes
in EPP clinical experiences has been underscored by the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC’s) shift from knowledge to practice-based standards for special educators (CEC, 2020). Real-time performance feedback (PF) delivered via online bug-in-ear (BIE) technology is an EBP (Sinclair, 2020) for coaching and supervising during early, …