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INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEM DESIGN N.J. Rao 1. Introduction Learning is part of everyday life. Typically the process of acquiring knowledge in an educational context involves two key elements: one (teacher) who actively imparts knowledge and two (student or the learner) who actively gains knowledge. Each of these elements is equally essential for learning to be successful. The success is earned mutually for both the teacher giving the

knowledge and the student gaining the knowledge. In teaching students we hope to engage their minds and passions. The teacher must consider what he has to give and how he hopes to increase the students knowledge. The student not only gains new information but also he/she weaves this information into his/her life. For the student, the key is how he/she acquires information and what he/she might do to make this information part of his/her experience. Teaching and learning are two different processes that take place in the context of an educational system that is determined by the economic and social forces. This note presents basics of some of the education, teaching and learning theories that could be used by the designers of curricula and learning material, and methods of systematic design of courses, especially in engineering programs. 2. Education, Teaching, Learning and Development 2.1 Education Theories of education deal with the goals and values that educational systems embrace and propagate. Their primary concern is with ends rather than with means, and their importance lies in keeping us aware of the alternate goals of all our educational efforts. In a democratic society the electorate determines the values of the schools and the goals toward which they work. Philosophies of education influence theories of teaching. While many may cherish the belief that theories of learning and teaching can develop in a climate of philosophical and ethical neutrality, we know that such absolute neutrality is not possible, especially when the teachers have the dual and overlapping roles of educators and citizens. There may be considerable folly in professional educators fiercely pursuing goals and values that are seriously at odds with those of the lay public, which provides both the students and the money we need to run the educational institutions. Four major theories of education of Twentieth Century (George F. Kneller in chapter three of Introduction to the Philosophy of Education)

Progressivism (John Dewey, William H. Kilpatrick, John Childs) 1. Education should be life itself, not a preparation for living. 2. Learning should be directly related to the interests of the child.

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3. Learning through problem solving should take precedence over the inculcating of subject matter. 4. The teacher's role is not to direct but to advice. 5. The school should encourage cooperation rather than competition. 6. Only democracy permits - indeed encourages - the free interplay of ideas and personalities that is a necessary condition of true growth. Perennialism (Robert Hutchins, Mortimer Adler) 1. Despite differing environments, human nature remains the same everywhere; hence, education should be the same for everyone. 2. Since rationality is man's highest attribute, he must use it to direct his instinctual nature in accordance with deliberately chosen ends. 3. It is education's task to import knowledge of eternal truth. 4. Education is not an imitation of life but a preparation for it. 5. The student should be taught certain basic subjects that will acquaint him with the world's permanencies. 6. Students should study the great works of literature, philosophy, history, and science in which men through the ages have revealed their greatest aspirations and achievements. Essentialism (William Bagley, Herman Horne) 1. Learning, of its very nature, involves hard work and often unwilling application. 2. The initiative in education should lie with the teacher rather than with the pupil. 3. The heart of the educational process is the assimilation of prescribed subject matter. 4. The school should retain traditional methods of mental discipline. Reconstructionism (George Counts, Theodore Brameld) 1. Education must commit itself here and now to the creation of a new social order that will fulfill the basic values of our culture and at the same time harmonize with the underlying social and economic forces of the modern world. 2. The new society must be a genuine democracy, whose major institutions and resources are controlled by the people themselves. 3. The child, the school, and education itself are conditioned inexorably by social and cultural forces. 4. The teacher must convince his pupils of the validity and urgency of the reconstructionist solution, but he must do so with scrupulous regard for democratic procedures. 5. The means and ends of education must be completely re-fashioned to meet the demands of the present cultural crisis and to accord with the findings of the behavioral sciences. These theories provide a framework for planning education in schools. The theories of higher

education cannot be so universal, and they are stated as outcomes of programmes in some broad disciplines like Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Management etc. 2.2 Teaching

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Any theory of teaching should answer three questions: how do teachers behave; why do they behave as they do; and what are the effects? It should be a general concept which applies to all teachers, to all students, to all subject matter, and to all situations, both in and out of school, in which teaching may occur. It should consider the behavior of teachers, the cause, and the

learning of students, the effect. Further, it should explain, predict, and control ways in which the behavior of the teacher affects the learning of the students. There is no single conception of

teaching. Teaching embraces far too many kinds of processes, of behavior, and of activity to be the proper subject of a single theory. We must not be misled by one word, teaching into

searching for one theory to explain it. Teaching theory and alternative views of teaching derive from many sources. Some of these are (1) the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget, (2)

different social and political views of the organization and role of the school, (3) alternative systems of values and social priorities, (4) aspirations for various types of utopias, and (5) favored choices of new life styles. 2.3 Learning Theories of learning describe and explain the conditions under which learning does and does not occur. A theory of learning is a general concept which applies to all organisms, to all learning

tasks, and to all situations where learning occurs. It considers the conditions which give rise to learning as the cause, and the learning itself as the effect. It explains, predicts, and controls the way in which environmental conditions affect the learning of the organism. A theory of learning is much broader and more basic than a theory of teaching. In fact, theories of teaching must be based on theories of learning. The behavior of teachers is only one special

category of environmental conditions under which learning occurs. Learning also occurs without teachers. Learning is a more ubiquitous experience than teaching. Theories of learning are much

more highly developed than theories of teaching. We have no single theory of learning, and it is unlikely that one such would evolve in near future. 2.4 Development Theories of development describe the biological and psychological changes that occur in people during various stages of their lives. Theories of development apply to all people with similar These theories assume that

biological capabilities and similar physical and social background.

people experience about the same stages or steps of development approximately in the same sequence and at the same time in their lives. Theories of development are much broader than theories of learning and theories of teaching. Theories of development link behavioral change both to biological inheritance and growth, and to environmental change. 3. Teaching Models Basic Teaching Model of Robert Glaser divides the teaching process into four components or parts. It provides an uncomplicated, yet fairly adequate, conceptualization of the teaching process. It helps you organize the great body of facts, concepts and principles which makes up the field of

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educational psychology, and helps you understand other more complicated teaching models. This model is pictorially presented in the figure 1.

Instructional Objectives

Entering Behavior

Instructional Procedures

Performance Assessment

FIG. 1: Glasers Model of teaching Instructional objectives are those the student should attain upon completion of a segment of instruction. Entering behavior describes the students level before instruction begins. It refers to what the student has previously learned, his intellectual ability and development, his motivational state, and certain social and cultural determinants of his learning ability. Instructional procedures describe the teaching process; most decisions a teacher makes are on those procedures. Proper management of this component results in those changes in student behavior which we call learning or achievement. Procedures must vary with the instructional objectives. Performance assessment consists of the tests and observations used to determine how well the student has achieved the instructional objectives. If performance assessment indicates that the student has fallen short of mastery or some lesser standard of achievement, one or all of the preceding components of the basic teaching model may require adjustment. The feedback loops show how the information

provided by performance assessment feeds back to each component. Ned Flanders (1960) developed a psychological model called social-interaction model. Flanders

classifies the statements of students and teachers into ten categories; they include seven assigned to teacher talk, two to student talk, and one to silence or confusion. Flanders states the three principles of teacher influence to which the interaction model applies. Restricting student freedom of participation early in the cycle of classroom learning activities increases dependence and decreases achievement. Restricting student freedom of participation later in the cycle of classroom learning activities does not increase dependence but does increase achievement. Expanding student freedom of participation early in the cycle of classroom learning activities decreases dependence and increases achievement. The teacher restricts student freedom of participation when he exercises direct influence through lecturing, giving directions, and criticizing or justifying authority. In these behavior categories the teacher talks more and therefore plays a dominant role in the classroom. Expansion of student participation occurs when the teacher accepts feeling, praises or encourages, accepts or uses student ideas, and asks questions. The directness or indirectness of the teachers influence in

each part of the cycle affects two aspects of learning: the students dependence and his achievement. Dependence is defined in terms of the degree of concern the student has for

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pleasing the teacher. A dependent student is more concerned about which method the teacher wants him to use than about which method will solve the problem. According to Flanders, Achievement is the

sustained direct influence by the teacher results in increased dependency. difference in pretest and posttest scores.

There are three other historical models: the lecture-recitation model, the Montessori model, and the human relations model. 4. Behaviorist approach to Learning The father of behaviorism was John B. Watson, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the 1910s, who argued that environmental pressures not genetic blueprints, could explain adult human behaviors from criminality to genius. Adherents to behavioral perspective believe that

psychology should focus only on observable behaviors and their relationship to events that can be objectively measured. By the extreme behavioral definition a psychologist should be concerned with neither the biochemical actions of genes, nor the invisible stream of an individuals conscious memories. According to this perspective, inner events have no place in a scientific psychology. Since a psychologist cannot see what is going on inside a persons head, behaviorists argue that your personal memories are not admissible scientific data. Skinner argued that psychology should focus instead on the prediction of our behaviors - head nods, hand shakes, and showing up for work - and the environments in which those behaviors take place. In particular, behaviorists have been interested in the relationship of learning history to behavior: how you eat today is influenced by earlier rewards and punishments from your parents and teachers, for instance. This perspective has been quite useful to predict and control

problematic behaviors. However, some psychologists believe that psychology without inner events is more appropriate to the study of animals like rats and dogs than to the study of humans. According to the opponents of behaviorism, humans are different from other animals precisely because we can describe our inner experiences. Robert Gagnes theory of learning is based on behaviorist view. According to his theory, the

learner must first be instructed on component skills. These were combined to create the final skill. Each seemingly simple action could be broken down into sub-skills. identified by asking what must the learner know to do this? These sub-skills were

This method was called task

analysis. If a task analysis were performed on the act of typing, recognizing letters, knowing the position of letters on the keyboard and pressing the key corresponding to the letter read were prerequisite skills. Some skills must be achieved before other skills could be developed. Gagne called this theory learning hierarchy. There are both internal and external conditions of learning. Internal states include things that are intrinsic in the learner and prerequisites. were described as those without which learning was not able to occur. Essential skills

Supportive skills were

those that assist learning, but are not essential. The training had to provide a proper sequencing of component skills. The proper sequencing was essential to ensure transfer to the final skill.

Gagne viewed learning as cumulative, and the prerequisite skills were the foundation on which

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new skills could be built. The analysis of skills, sub-skills and prerequisite skills was considered imperative to the design of effective instruction. Gagne identified five categories of material that is learned, and called them varieties of learning. These are: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. They reflect the distinct types of skills that individuals acquire as a result of learning. Different methods of instruction need to be applied to each type of learning. Verbal information included names of object, or labels, facts and memorization of passages. In order for learning of verbal information to occur, the content must be meaningful to the learner. Teaching verbal information included relating new information to previous knowledge. Intellectual skills included use of

symbols, making decisions, applying rules or knowing how to do something. Intellectual skills were built by presenting a variety of examples and rules that would guide the learner to the correct answer. Intellectual skills were evaluated by asking the student to give examples or solve a problem. Motor skills were described as learning to do something. For example, tie a shoelace or shoot a basketball. A novice was clumsy and performed the task tediously, while an expert

performed swiftly and efficiently. A teaching method that promoted development of motor skills was drill and practice. making. Attitudes were internal states that influenced behavior and decisionObserving behavior or

Teaching attitudes was primarily by example, or modeling.

decision-making was used to evaluate change in attitudes. desired behavior was exhibited. Cognitive strategies

Reinforcement was given when the involved problem-solving abilities.

Development of cognitive strategies was taught by describing or demonstrating the strategy and allowing for learner practice. Presentation of new problems for solving was a method of assessing cognitive ability. Gagne described nine essential and sequential steps, which he called phases of learning. These nine steps can be divided into three categories: preparation, performance, and transfer. In

planning instruction it was imperative to relate the phase of learning to the instructional events in order to design effective instruction. Preparation included the phases of attending, expectancy and retrieval. Attention was gained by asking a question, showing a picture of making an Expectancy was defined as alerting the learner to the objective of the

intriguing statement.

lesson. This was important so that the learner could process information presented, in light of the goal. Retrieval was described as the recall of prerequisite skills or knowledge. This was

accomplished by use of questions or placing the learning in a problem-solving situation that required them to recall information that was learned previously. Questions included does anyone recall why . . . or what was our lesson about yesterday? Performance includes the phases of selective perception, semantic encoding retrieval and responding, and reinforcement. Selective perception was described as the presentation of the

content in such a way that the learner could process it into short-term memory. Encoding is the processing of the content and examples into long-term memory. Retrieval and responding was the phase where encoding was evaluated by the ability or inability of the learner to meet the objective.

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The teacher and the environment give feedback on the quality of the learners response in reinforcement phase. Transfer of learning included cueing retrieval and generalization. Cueing retrieval is an

extended evaluation of the students ability to perform the new skill or apply the new knowledge in a variety of situations. Generalization refers to relating the learnt skill or the knowledge to similar things. 5. Cognitive approach to Learning Cognition, or mental activity, involves the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of knowledge. The cognitive approach is a theoretical orientation that proposes theories based on mental structures and processes. Cognitive psychology began to emerge in the mid-1950s, encouraged by disenchantment with behaviorism as well as a growth of interest in linguistics, human memory, Piagetian psychology, and the information-processing approach. According to the information-

processing approach, mental processes can be understood by comparison with a computer, and a mental process can be represented by information flowing through a series of stages. Cognitive psychology is part of broader field known as cognitive science. Cognitive science is a

contemporary field of study that tries to answer questions about the nature of knowledge, its components, its development, and its use. Cognitive science is interdisciplinary, including within its scope the field of psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, sociology and economics. Theorists within the broad field of cognitive science agree that thinking involves the manipulation of internal representations of external world. Because

cognitive scientists focus on these internal representations - also called mental models - one can see that this perspective clearly differs from the behaviorist approach. An extremely influential

new framework, called the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach, argues that cognitive scientist should abandon the serial computer as the basic model, instead provides the ideal model of human brain. The PDP approach emphasizes that cognitive processes operate in parallel, neural activity is distributed across broad regions of the brain, cognitive processes can be executed even when the information is incomplete or faulty, and some are more effective than others in locating information in memory. According to Edward Tolman, a cognitive map is an internal representation of outside world that an animal or human being stores in its/his memory. behavior. This map can be used to guide the future We watch other people and observe

Everyday learning often occurs vicariously.

whether they are reinforced or punished.

Observational learning is defined as the learning of

environmental contingencies by observing the actions of other. The ability to learn by observation enables us to profit from the successes and failures of others without engaging in time-consuming trial and error learning. Animals and people also form expectancies in the process of forming

connections between behaviors and consequences. Research on the cognitive aspects of learning demonstrates that learning is not a mechanical stamping-in process. Animals and people

evaluate their environment. They respond on the basis of what they perceive as likely outcomes.

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Instead of viewing learning as the result of the environment acting upon passive learners, many psychologists now believe that learners actively respond to their environmental experiences. Ausubel's theory of learning is based on the cognitivist view: His theory supports the following ideas: Inputs to learning are important. Learning materials should be well organized. New ideas and concepts must be "potentially meaningful" to the learner. Anchoring new concepts into the learner's already existing cognitive structure will make the new concepts recallable. 6. Constructivist view of Learning In the Constructivist theory the emphasis is placed on the learner or the student rather than the teacher or the instructor. It is the learner who interacts with objects and events and thereby gains an understanding of the features held by such objects or events. constructs his/her own conceptualizations and solutions to problems. initiative is accepted and encouraged. Constructivists view learning as the result of mental construction. Students learn by fitting new information together with what they already know. People learn best when they actively construct their own understanding. In constructivist thinking, learning is also affected by the context and The learner, therefore, Learner autonomy and

the beliefs and attitudes of the learner. Learners are encouraged to invent their own solutions and to try out ideas and hypotheses. They are given the opportunity to build on prior knowledge.

Today constructivist teaching is based on recent research about the human brain and what is known about how learning occurs. Constructivism emphasizes learning and not teaching encourages and accepts learner autonomy and initiative sees learners as creatures of will and purpose thinks of learning as a process encourages learner inquiry acknowledges the critical role of experience in learning nurtures learners natural curiosity takes the learner's mental model into account emphasizes performance and understanding when assessing learning bases itself on the principles of the cognitive theory makes extensive use of cognitive terminology such as predict, create and analyze considers how the student learns encourages learners to engage in dialogue with other students and the teacher supports cooperative learning involves learners in real world situations emphasizes the context in which learning takes place

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considers the beliefs and attitudes of the learner provides learners the opportunity to construct new knowledge and understanding from authentic experience Key words and phrases of constructivist theory are: Meta learning Meaningful learning Discovery learning Situated learning Cognitive learning and thinking Thinking about thinking Learner initiated inquiry and exploration Holistic approach Problem-solving Prediction Case-based Simulations Conceptual Intrinsic Reflection Learner control Teacher facilitation, and much more...

In constructivism, knowledge is seen as relativistic (nothing is absolute, but varies according to time and space) and fallibilist (nothing can be taken for granted). For our purpose there is an important distinction within the constructivist school of learning. There are many different schools of thought within this theory, all of which fall within the same basic assumption about learning. Basically we have "Cognitive oriented constructivist theories" and "Socially oriented constructivist theories". Cognitive oriented constructivist theories emphasize the exploration and discovery on the part of each learner as explaining the learning process. In this view knowledge is still very much a symbolic, mental representation in the mind of the individual. However, and this is very

important since it is the basis of much of CSCL, the socially oriented constructivist theories stress the collaboratory efforts of groups of learners as sources of learning. Pea states; "...the focus in abstract property or quantity

thinking about distributed intelligence is not on intelligence as an

residing in minds, organizations or objects. In its primary sense here, intelligence is manifested in activity that connects means and ends through achievements".

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7. Approaches to Learning: A Comparison While the behaviorists viewed knowledge as nothing more than passive, largely automatic

responses to external factors in the environment, and the cognitivists viewed knowledge as abstract symbolic representations in the head of individuals, the constructivistic school views knowledge as a constructed entity made by each and every learner through a learning process. Knowledge can thus not be transmitted from one person to the other person and it will have to be (re)constructed by each person. This means that the view of knowledge differs from the "knowledge as given and absolute" views of behaviorism and cognitivism. Many educational psychologists found the behavioral approach unsatisfying. In the areas of problem solving and learning strategies they became more concerned with what was unobservable - what was going on inside the brain. These theories are based on the work of educational philosopher John Dewey, and educational psychologists Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner among others. They propose that children actively construct knowledge and this construction of knowledge happens in a social context. Vygotsky proposed that all learning takes place in the 'zone of proximal development'. This 'zone' is the difference between what a child can do alone and what he/she can do with assistance. By building on the child's experiences and providing moderately challenging tasks teachers can provide the 'intellectual scaffolding' to help children learn and progress through the different stages of development. The methods of constructivism emphasize students' ability to solve real-life, practical problems. Students typically work in cooperative groups rather than individually; they tend to focus on projects that require solutions to problems rather than on instructional sequences that require learning of certain content skills. The job of the teacher in constructivist models is to arrange for required resources and act as a guide to students while they set their own goals and 'teach themselves'. 8. Instruction The purpose of instruction is to help people learn and develop. The kinds of learning and

development may include cognitive, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual. Learning can certainly occur without instruction. We are continuously encountering and interpreting our environment and the events in it. Learning is a natural process that leads to changes in what we know, what we can do, and how we behave. However, one function of an educational system is to facilitate intentional learning, in order to accomplish many goals that would take much longer without instruction. Educational institutions teach knowledge and skills that the community feels are desirable, even if they are not of immediate personal interest to the student, and even if they would not be encountered naturally in non-school environments. The government and commercial industries provide both skills and training and continuing refresher training to help employees acquire the skills and learning needed to succeed in a changing workplace (Gagne et. al. 2005). We define instruction as a set of events embedded in purposeful activities that facilitate learning. These events can be external to the learner, for example, events embodied in printed pages, an

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instructors lecture, or the activities of a group of students. There are also internal mental events, such as directing attention, rehearsing, reflecting, and monitoring progress. Educational psychologists hypothesize about the nature of these internal events, and from that research derive principles about the learning process. Instructional designers apply these principles to the design of external events we call instruction. For example, it is generally accepted that the working

memory has limited capacity. With this principle in mind, organizing information into clusters or categories has been found to facilitate learning. Is teaching different from instruction? Teaching is only one part of instruction. The word teach infers that a person is lecturing or demonstrating something to the learner. However, the teacher

or trainers role includes many different tasks, such as selecting materials, gauging student readiness to learn, managing class time, monitoring instructional activities, and finally serving as a content resource and a learning facilitator. Instruction puts emphasis on a whole range of activities the teacher uses to engage the students. An instructor who has knowledge of the principles of instruction design has a broader vision of what it takes to help students learn: when it would benefit students to be put into groups, when practice and feedback will be most effective, and the pre-requisites for problem-solving and higher-order learning skills, for example. Application of principles of instructional design would benefit a number of persons connected with education, including those who are in the business of producing instructional materials, such as textbook writers, curriculum material developers, web-based course designers, and knowledge management system designers. Instruction is more likely to be effective if it is planned to engage students in those events and activities that facilitate learning. Using principles of instruction design, the teacher can select, or plan and develop activities to best help students learn. 9. Instructional-Design Theories (Reigeluth 1999) An instructional-design theory is a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn and develop. For example, an instructional-design theory called Theory One (Perkins

1992) offers the following guidance for what the instruction should provide: Clear information. Descriptions and examples of goals, knowledge needed, and the performances expected. Thoughtful practice. Opportunity for learners to engage actively and reflectively whatever is to be learned. Informative feedback. Clear, thorough counsel to learners about their performance, helping them to proceed more effectively. Strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Activities that are amply rewarded, either because they are very interesting and engaging in themselves, or because they feed into other achievements that concern the learner. Instructional-design theory is a design-oriented (focusing on means to attain given goals of learning or development), rather than description oriented (focusing on the results of given

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events). Secondly, instructional design theory identifies methods of instruction (ways to support and facilitate learning) and the situations in which those methods should and should not be used. Third, in all instructional-design theories, the methods of instruction can be broken into more detailed component methods. Fourth, the methods are probabilistic rather than deterministic, which means they increase the chances of attaining the goals rather than ensuring attainment of goals. Theories can be thought of as dealing with cause-and-effect relationships or with flows of events in natural processes, keeping in mind that those effects or events are almost always probabilistic. Most people think of theories as descriptive in nature, meaning that the theory describes the effects that occur when a given class of causal events occurs, or meaning that it describes the sequence in which certain events occur. Descriptive theories can be used for prediction or for

explanation. Designoriented theories are very different from descriptive theories. Design theories are prescriptive in nature, in the sense that they offer guidelines as to what method(s) to use to best attain a given goal. Simon (1969) referred to the distinction between descriptive theories and design theories as the natural sciences and and the sciences of the artificial, respectively. Design theories are intended to provide direct guidance to practitioners about what methods to use to attain different goals, whereas descriptive theories attempt to provide a deeper understanding of effects that result from phenomena. Descriptive theories, therefore, are also

useful to practitioners, because they provide an understanding of why a design theory works and because they can help practitioners to generate their own theories for those many situations for which no adequate ones exist. The major concern for people developing and testing descriptive theories is validity, whereas for design theories it is preferability. Instruction design theory requires at least two components: methods for facilitating human learning and development (which are also called instructional methods), and indications as to when and when not use those methods (which may be called situations). An essential feature of instructional-design theories is that the methods they offer are situational rather than universal. There are two major aspects of any instructional situation: the conditions under which the instruction will take place and the desired outcomes of the instruction. include: The nature of what is to be learned (e.g., understandings are learned differently from the way skills are learned) The nature of the learner (e.g., prior knowledge, learning strategies, and motivation) The nature of learning environment (e.g., independently at home, in a group, in a classroom, a team in business) The nature of the instructional development constraints (e.g., resources available for planning and developing instruction) The second major aspect of any instructional situation is the desired instructional outcomes, which are different from learning goals. They do not include the specific learnings that are desired. Instead, desired instructional outcomes include the levels of effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal Instructional conditions

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you want or need from the instruction. outcomes. Instructional methods are also componential, meaning that each can be done in different ways and therefore made up of different components (or features). For example, group discussion can be viewed as a method of instruction. But group discussion is made up of many smaller methods, such as forming groups, presenting an issue for discussion, rules to be followed for discussions, and evaluating groups as well as individuals efforts and so forth. In addition, there are usually many different ways in which a method can be performed. The discussion topic can be presented in many ways; the rules for discussions can be made differently, and so forth. More details can be provided for a method by offering criteria that the method should meet. An instructional-design theory is easier to apply if it describes methods on a relatively detailed level. Another characteristic of methods of instruction is that they are probabilistic. This means that Some trade-offs are necessary, among the desired

methods do not guarantee the desired instructional and learning outcomes. They only increase the probability that the desired results will occur. This is because there are so many factors that influence how well a method of instruction works. So, instructional-design theories can vary greatly in terms of the level of guidance they provide, ranging from very general theories to highly dedicated theories. Instructional-design theories differ in important ways from learning theories, curriculum theories, and instruction-design processes. Learning theories are often confused with instruction-design theories. Learning theories are

descriptive. They describe how learning occurs. For example, one kind of theory, called schema theory, proposes that new knowledge is acquired by accretion into an existing schema, by tuning that schema when minor inconsistencies emerge, and restructuring that schema when major inconsistencies arise. If I am able to successfully identify useful methods for a particular situation, I have created an instructional-design theory. In contrast to learning theories, instructional-design theories are more directly and easily applied to education problems, for they describe specific events outside of the learner that facilitate learning (i.e., methods of instruction), rather than describing what goes on inside a learners head when learning occurs. The same kind of analysis applies to theories of human development. Curriculum theories are concerned with what to teach, whereas decisions about how to teach constitute the province of instruction-design theories. However, the interrelationships between

these two kinds of decisions are so strong that it often makes sense to combine the two. Regarding what to teach (goals), the Instructional System Design (ISD) process has traditionally looked at only what works, through the process of needs analysis. But many curriculum theories are based on a philosophy (a set of values). In fact both empirics (data about what is needed) and values (opinions about what is important) are relevant and should be addressed in the ISD process for deciding what to teach, perhaps with different degrees of emphasis for different situations. Decisions regarding how to teach need also to take into consideration how one

situation differs from another, because people differ in their values about what outcomes are

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important. Thus, both values and empirics are important for making decisions about how to teach as well as what to teach, so elements of curriculum theory and the ISD process should be combined. Instructional-Design Process or Instructional System Development (ISD) is the process a teacher or instructional designer should use to plan and prepare for instruction, while instructionaldesign theory concerns what the instruction should be like (i.e., what methods of instruction should be used). However, instructional-design theories and instructional-design processes are

closely related. Different theories require differences in the process used to apply those theories to particular situations. Instructional practice is a subsystem that is part of different kinds of systems, such as public education system, higher education systems, corporate training systems, health agencies, the armed forces, museums, informal learning systems, and many others. Systems thinkers know

that, when a human-activity system (or societal system) changes in significant ways, its subsystems must change in equally significant ways to survive. This is because each subsystem must meet one or more needs of its supersystem in order for the supersystem to continue to support it. The supersystem of instruction, consisting of all public, private and nonprofit organizations, has been changing significantly as the world is fast moving from industrial age to information age. Some of the markers that characterize these two ages are shown in following table. INDUSTRIAL AGE Standardization Bureaucratic organization Centralized control Adversarial relationship Autocratic decision making Compliance Conformity One-way communications Compartmentalization Parts oriented Planned obsolescence CEO or boss as king INOFRMATION AGE Customization Team-based organization Autonomy with accountability Cooperative relationships Share decision making Initiative Diversity Networking Holism Process oriented Total quality Customer as king

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These fundamental changes in instructions supersystems have important implications for instruction. Employees need to be able to think about and solve problems, work in teams,

communicate, take initiative, and bring diverse perspectives to their work. Also, people need to learn more, yet they have less time to learn it, and they need to demonstrate an impact on the organizations strategic objectives. Our current paradigm in education and training is based on standardization. We know that different learners learn at different rates and have different learning needs. Yet our current paradigm of education and training entails teaching a large group of learners the same content in the same amount of time. One reason is that group-based learning represents logistical and economic efficiencies, even though it does not do a good job of learners needs. Even the student assessment has typically been norm based to see who the really bright ones are. Standardized instruction allows valid comparisons of student with each other, which was an important need in the industrial age. So our current paradigm was never designed for learning; it was designed for sorting. Current paradigm of training and education is also based on conformity and compliance. Students training is directed by the trainer or teacher. But employers now want people who will take

initiative to solve problems and who will bring in diversity especially diverse perspectives to the work place. We have seen that the current paradigm of education and training needs from one focused on sorting to one focused on learning from the Darwinian notion of advancement of the fittest to the more spiritual and humanistically defensible one of advancement of all and on helping everyone to reach their potential. This means that the paradigm of instruction has to change from standardization to customization, from a focus on presenting material to a focus on making sure that learners needs are met. This, in turn, requires a shift from passive to active learning and from teacher-directed to student-directed (or jointly directed) learning. It requires a shift from It

teacher initiative, control, and responsibility to shared initiative, control, and responsibility.

requires a shift from decontextualized learning to authentic, meaningful tasks. And, most importantly, it requires a shift from holding time constant and allowing achievements to vary, to allowing each learner the time needed to reach the desired attainments. But to change the paradigm of instruction in this way, the teacher cant teach the same thing to a whole class at the same time. This means the teacher has to be more of a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage. So, if the teacher is facilitator rather than the agent of most of the learning, what other agents are there? Well-designed resources are one, and instructional-

design theory and instructional technology can play particularly large roles in developing these. But others include fellow learners, local real-world resources (e.g., practitioners), and remote resources (available on the Internet). Instructional-design theories are needed to offer guidance for the use of all these kinds of resources for the learning-focused paradigm off instruction.

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Instructional System Development is explored, particularly with reference to courses in formal engineering programs, in the following sections. 10. Instructional System Design Model 10.1 Introduction Instructional Systems Design (ISD) Models are the systematic guidelines instructional designers follow in order to create a workshop, a course, a curriculum, an instructional program, a training session, or the instructional materials and products for educational programs. ISD is a process to ensure learning does not occur in a haphazard manner, but is developed using a process with specific measurable outcomes. The responsibility of the instructional designer is to create instructional experiences, which ensure that the learners will achieve the goals of instruction. ADDIE is generic model for instruction system design. particularizations of this model for specific purposes. All other ISD models can be treated as For example, the very popular Dick and

Carey model can be seen as particularization of ADDIE model for training programs, though the authors did not refer to ADDIE. One particularization of ADDIE model to courses in formal engineering programs is presented in the following. 10.2 ADDIE Model The ADDIE Model is a colloquial term used, since 1980s, to describe a systematic approach to instructional development. The term is virtually synonymous with instructional systems

development. The label seems not to have a single author, but rather to have evolved informally through oral tradition. It is not a specific, fully elaborated model in its own right, but rather an umbrella term that refers to a family of models that share a common underlying structure. ADDIE is an acronym referring to the major processes that comprise the generic ISD: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. These processes are sequential and iterative, as depicted in figure 2. The basic engine of ISD models (Molenda 2003) is the systems approach: viewing human organizations and activities as systems in which inputs, outputs, processes (throughputs), and feedback and control elements are the salient features. Advocates of this model claim that the process of designing instruction can be carried out more efficiently and effectively if the steps are followed in a logical order so that the output of each step provides the input to the next. For example, the outputs of the Analysis phase are a set of instructional objectives prepared based on a selected set of competencies, a concept map that arranges the concepts to be mastered to achieve instructional objectives, and course contents arranged as modules and units. In the Design phase instructional objectives at the level of modules and units are prepared, media in which learning material would be presented is selected, and instructional methods are chosen for different learning units/modules. The blueprint created in the Design phase is converted into instructional materials and procedures in the Development phase. The materials and procedures are used by actual learners in the Implementation phase. The learners and the instructional

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system are probed, in the Evaluation phase to decide whether revisions are necessary, in which case the process would be repeated with the next version of instruction.

ANALYSIS

DESIGN EVALUATION

DEVELOPMENT

IMPLEMENTATION

EVALUATION
FIG. 2: ADDIE model of ISD The iterative aspect of the model is represented vertically down the model by the arrows in both directions between each phase, as depicted in figure 2. Each major phase of the process is accompanied by some sort of formative evaluation, as depicted on the left side of the model, to test the adequacy of the decisions made during that phase. After Analysis, for example, the accuracy of descriptions of the audience and the learning needs are evaluated by a group of experts. After Design, the concept map and instructional methods are judged by experts. After Development, the efficacy of prototype work in a small-scale tryout is evaluated and improvements to the learning materials are worked out. Did the entire intervention achieve its goal, or what remains to be done after Implementation? This summative evaluation is what is symbolized by the final Evaluation phase. At each of these phases, the results of the evaluative activity could lead the developers to revisit earlier steps, hence the arrows between phases in both the directions. The single most important feature of ADDIE model is the identification, during the analysis phase, of instructional objectives of the course. The activities under all these four phases will greatly depend on the nature of what is being created and the context in which it is being created. The context is defined by the audience and their background, environment in which the instruction takes place, and the technologies accessible.

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10.3 Analysis Phase Analysis is the first stage of ADDIE model. The first task in this phase is identification of audience and determination of their entry behavior. As engineering programs are formal, elaborate

mechanisms exist for selection of students to these programs, and the curriculum identifies the course structure and prerequisites of each course, the analysis of audience and entry behaviors need not be undertaken for each course. The time and budget constraints also do not change

from one course to the other very much. All courses are of one semester duration and have well defined credit load. The instructor has limited choices with regard to assessment depending on the nature of the subject, his/her personal preferences, number of students registered, and the technologies available. Therefore, the major task of the analysis phase is identification of

instructional goals. An engineering program has well defined program outcomes (ABET 3a-3k or Washington Accord traits of graduating engineers), which are generic in nature. Each course

attempts to meet a subset of these outcomes. The selected outcomes need to be translated into a set of technical and non-technical competencies related to the subject matter of the course. Instructional objectives are written for the identified list of competencies. The stages of analysis phase for an engineering course may be listed as

1. State the Vision and Mission of the College, Program Educational Objectives, and the
Curriculum of the program.

2. Select a subset of Program Outcomes proposed to be addressed by the course. 3. Write the Course Overview indicating the assumptions made and approach taken by the
instructor, its relationship to other courses in the Curriculum.

4. Identify factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge elements of the subject matter of the
course and Tools proposed to be used.

5. Identify the competencies that the student should achieve at the end of the course that also
achieve the selected program outcomes, draw the competency map, and prepare competencyprogram outcome matrix

6. Elaborate each competency in terms of instructional objectives that can be test items, reports,
and projects. Test items are to be at the highest cognitive level as identified by the competencies. Solutions to test items are to be given. Test items and their solutions should reflect instructors way of integrating competencies and program outcomes.

7. Have the outputs of analysis phase peer reviewed

Instructional methods refer to the activities in which the instructor and learner will be involved during the lesson. These are used to create learning environments considered to be effective by the instructor in achieving the instructional objectives. Some examples of instructional methods are direct teaching, structured overview, case studies, conducting experiments, field studies, projects, and group discussions. 10.4 Design Phase

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The design phase represents activities that enable the instruction designer to generate a plan according to which the instructional material would be identified and/or developed. The stages of design phase for an engineering course may be listed as

1. Prepare the concept map, and identify Modules and Units from the concept map 2. Select an instructional strategy (a collection of instructional methods) and assessment pattern
for the course

3. Select delivery technologies 4.

Design all the Modules (overview, competencies, its instructional objectives in 2-tier or 3-tier format as per Gronlund, the instructional methods proposed to be used, and reference materials and relevant internet links, plan for non-lecture oriented sessions (assignments, laboratory experiments, field trips, reports, group projects, discussion sessions etc.) and the associated assessment instruments)

5. Have the outputs of design phase peer reviewed.

10.5 Development Phase The development phase represents activities that convert the blueprints created in the design phase into instructional materials, learning materials, and materials and procedures for planned activities. The stages in the development phase of an engineering course consist of 1. Prepare instructional materials (slides, lecture plans, discussion topics/questions, problems to be worked out in the class etc.) for all Units as per the selected instructional methods and educational technologies. 2. Select and/or prepare learning materials for all Units of the course. 3. Have the outputs of development phase peer reviewed. 11. Summary Instruction design of a course is done in five stages as per ADDIE model. The Implementation and Evaluation phase were not considered in this note. The analysis and design phase activities

require an in depth understanding of the present day context and an awareness of different technologies available. The instructor needs to appreciate availability of a large number of

instructional methods and learning resources. He has now an opportunity to facilitate students to learn as per his beliefs. References 1. Gagne, R.M., Wager, W.W., Golas K.C., and Keller, J.M., Principles of Instruction Design, 5th Edn., Thomson-Wadsworth, 2005 2. Glaser, R., Psychology and Instructional Technology. Training Research and Education. Edited by Glaser, R. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962 3. Kneller G.F., Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, 2nd Edn., John Wiley & Sons Inc; 1971

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4. Molenda M: The ADDIE Model, in, Educational Technology: An Encyclopedia (Eds. A. Kovalchick & K. Dawson) ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, CA, 2003. (Draft at http://www.indiana.edu/~molpage/The%20ADDIE%20Model_Encyclo.pdf ) 5. Perkins, D.N., Smart schools: Better thinking and learning for every child, New York, The Free Press, 1992 6. Reigeluth, C. M., What Are Instructional Strategies and Theories? [online] Available: http://php.indiana.edu/~reigelut/3.1inst.html , 2001 7. Reigeluth, C. M., (Ed.) Instructional-design theories and Models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Volume II, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999. 8. Simon, H., Sciences of the artificial, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1969 9. Teaching Models: http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/models/index.html; http://www.emu.edu/education/model.html; http://www.jefflindsay.com/EducData.shtml; http://specialneedseducation.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_cooperative_teaching_model

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