ISD Project: Plan the Instructional Activities

ISD Project: Plan the Instructional Activities (continued)

"Materials themselves do not teach but provide a medium that with appropriate use can support learning," (Oliver, Herrington, & Omari, 1996). Accordingly, the instructor must incorporate the organization, presentation, and integration of materials into the distance education environment. Although the instructional medium can change from paper based to classroom-based, to online delivery, to mobile delivery, all effective course materials need to maintain basic elements that support solid instructional design. Keep in mind that all courses and lessons should contain:

Preinstructional Activities (prerequisites & objectives),
Information Presentation (content),
Learner Participation (practice),
Assessment (based on objectives),
Follow-Through (summary, review).

Now that we've discussed various elements of instructional strategy, it is time to create an instructional strategy. You should not create your instructional strategy in a vacuum, rather, your strategy should be informed by all of the materials you have generated to this point. This includes your analysis, objectives, and assessments.

Keys to Successful Distance Education Courses Design: Plan to Orient the Learners

When planning preinstrutionals and orientation activities, remember to plan to provide:

an overview and/or an orientation of the lesson or course.
a clear explanation about how to navigate course or how the course materials are organized.
a list of priorities, responsibilities, and expectations (including the amount of time that is expected to be devoted to the lesson/ course. Learners often hold the misconception that if a lesson, workshop, or course is online or taken in a distance education format that it will take a significantly less amount of time to complete.

Providing this extra organizational information can prevent students from feeling "lost" or "overwhelmed" by the materials, as disorientation can significantly limit instructional outcomes. (Oliver, Herrington, & Omari, 1996)

Dick, Carey, and Carey (2005) suggest that you follow a sequence when you are creating your instructional strategy. Their process has five steps. In your ISD report, these steps should be addressed in narrative and chart form. Note that these correspond with Davidson-Shiver and Rasmussen (2006) 4 components of Instructional and Motivational Strategies.

Sequence and cluster objectives.
Plan preinstructional, assessment, and follow-though activities for the unit, workshop, or lesson
Plan the content presentations and student participation sections for each objective or cluster of objectives.
Assign objectives to lesson or time period and estimate the time required for each.
Review the strategy to consolidate media selections and confirm or select a delivery system.

As you plan your instructional strategies, first decide on the sequence in which you will address the objectives and cluster your objectives for instructional purposes as needed.

The sequence and the size of clusters should be appropriate for the length of time available for the lesson or workshop and appropriate for the characteristics of the learners. Since you are only developing one lesson of workshop, you may only have one cluster. However, you may still have small groupings of objectives that you want to divide up into different types of activities (e.g. review, practice).

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