The formal definition of the term ‘design’ as it will be used in this book, and as it applies at the micro level, is: The plan, structure and strategy of instruction used, conceived so as to produce learning experiences that lead to pre-specified learning goals. Continue reading 1.3 What is design?
Author: Jan Nedermeijer
1.4 Where does the ‘design process’ begin and end?
The activities involved in designing a course or lesson are illustrated in Fig. 1. By name, they will be quite familiar to those of you who know and have used the so-called ‘systems approach’ at the micro level. Activity 4 in the activity cycle (Fig. 1) is the one which interests us most in this book. Continue reading 1.4 Where does the ‘design process’ begin and end?
1.5 Is there a special language of design?
The answer to this, for design decision-making at the micro level, is ‘yes’. Continue reading 1.5 Is there a special language of design?
1.6 What is a ‘learning experience’?
Tyler (1949) has provided a useful definition for designers working at the micro level:
‘A learning experience refers to the interaction between the learner and the external conditions in the environment to which he can react. Learning takes place through the active behaviour of the student; it is what he does that he learns not what the teacher does.’
This definition has many implications for the design of instruction. We will come back to it again, directly or indirectly, more than once.
1.7 What tells a designer that she or he has had success?
Four words can be used in rating the quality of the learning experience generated by the design of a course or lesson. These words are: ‘effective’, ‘valued’, ‘liked’ and ‘efficient’. They have been mentioned earlier, in the foreword. A learning experience is:
- effective when the learning goal is met
- valued when the learner found her or his learning time and activity worthwhile
- liked when the learning experience has been enjoyed and has motivated the learner for more
- efficient when the time and energy spent in learning what had to be learned is minimum.
To what degree a course or lesson is rated highly by the learners will depend upon the skill of the teacher (if one is involved), the quality of the materials and, not least, the quality of the design which generates the learning experience.
In this book, Emax Vmax Lmax E’max will be used as the shorthand form of ‘maximally effective’, ‘maximally valued’, ‘maximally liked’ and ‘maximally efficient’.
1.8 Case study no. 1: The design of an educational encounter
Here is our first case study. It describes the designing of an educational visit to a doctor and to a patient at home. The substance of the story is from an article (Earl, Everwijn and de Melker, 1980) in Medical Education. It will introduce you step by step to the activities illustrated in Fig. 1. In this way you will have a better idea of where the learning experience design step fits into the whole picture of activities at the micro level of design decision-making. Continue reading 1.8 Case study no. 1: The design of an educational encounter
1.9 A reminder
1.10 Some tips chapter 1
- A so-called `SME: or Subject Matter Expert, for helping course design thinking, is not always the one who knows most.
- Keep a ‘crazy ideas list’. It will help you in many subtle ways.
- Keep in mind what every sensitive teacher and designer intuitively keeps in mind: that each of us (Kiibler-Ross, 1981) has four quadrants in our make-up; the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. If we use the stimulus-response (S-R) paradigm without bearing this truth in mind, we will be using the paradigm in a mechanistic and invalid way. All four quadrants in any design decision must be respected and cared for. We ignore them, as designers, at our peril!
- If your design doesn’t work, don’t blame the student who is willing to learn. Blame yourself!
- Write ‘effective’, `valued’, liked’ and ‘efficient’ in your mind before you go to sleep tonight.
- Do you like curious reflections? If so you might like this one from Spike Milligan (1973): ‘A lot of learning can be a little thing’. It has a lot of relevance for the decision-making of course and lesson designers.
Foreword Tony Earl
One of the greatest gifts each of us has is our intuition. This book is about the combination of intuition, creativity and logical thinking in solving one of the trickiest problems in the development of successful courses and lessons: the problem of making an optimum choice of design for the instruction that is to be given. Our own exposures to instruction tell us that the quality of designs (didactical strategies) can and does vary greatly. There are few learning experiences that all or most of the learners involved would rate as effective, valued, liked and also efficient. There are many alternative strategies from which to choose.
A didactical design must be chosen at the point in time that Tyler (1949) could have had in mind when he wrote: ……..As the teacher considers the desired objectives and reflects on the kind of experiences that can occur to him or that he has heard others are using, he begins to form in his mind a series of possibilities of things that might be done, activities that might be carried out, materials that might be used.’
Many interacting and sometimes unpredictable variables have to be taken into account if one’s choice of a didactical design is to be an optimum one. This is so whether the design sought after is for a unit of courseware in a computer-based course in Russian, a video that has to demonstrate techniques for stopping anterior and posterior nosebleeds, instruction on avoiding conflict between police and public in ticketing situations, or a visit to a museum in an analysis exercise over the style of Vincent Van Gogh. The road to finding an optimum design for a learning experience is always a fascinating one, albeit sometimes a long one.
Chapter 1 introduces you to some basics. It draws attention to the difference between didactical design decision-making at the macro (policy) level, the meso (curriculum) level and the micro (course and lesson) level. It suggests a definition for the term ‘design’ and explains the activities that design decision-making at the micro level involves. It introduces you to a special language of design, defines the term ‘learning experience’ and suggests a criterion by which the designer of a course or lesson can tell whether she or he has had success. These basics are essential for what follows in Chapters 2 to 5.
A design is first thought up and exists as a concept in the privacy of the designer’s mind. It is then worked out and given concrete form. Whenever possible the worked-out design must be tested (with the help of a representative group of learners) and any necessary revisions made before the course or lesson it steers is installed and operating in the learning curriculum.
In Chapter 2 attention focuses on the process of thinking up a design. It proposes four decision-making aids or referents that can be used to accelerate and optimize this process.
Chapter 3 explains how to give a plan, structure and strategy of instruction (a didactical design) its concrete form. It tells you how to work out a thought-up design.
Chapter 4 introduces you to eight critical faults that are often made in giving a thought-up design concrete form. These can be met during the developmental testing and revision of a worked-out design.
Chapter 5 draws attention to the role of the designer once a course or lesson is installed. It touches on the subject of ad hoc (on-the-spot) designing in response to unanticipated ,individual learner needs. It suggests four critical questions for use in an end evaluation of a design.
The Appendix summarizes the concepts and ideas that you will have been exposed to in the book. It also gives you some ‘design thinking’ to do, either as an individual reader or together with others who have also read the book.
Cases and questions are used from time to time in the text. These are to challenge your thinking as a reader and also to validate the ideas put forward about the use of intuition, creativity and logical thinking in designing courses and lessons. At the end of chapters 1 to 4 are a number of tips. These tips are drawn from practice and are relevant for design decision-making at the micro level. They have served me well over the years in my work as a course and lesson designer; I hope they will serve you too.
For Ineke, Caddi and Harriet. We learn only from those we love. Goethe
Tony Earl Utrecht, January 1987
Acknowledgements Tony Earl
In putting together the ideas in this book, I have enjoyed the encouragement and support of the Department of Research and Development in Higher Education at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. In writing the book my special thanks must go to a colleague — Ans Ronduite. Without the special quality of her critique and suggestions for revisions, the book would never have been completed. Colleague Jan Nedermeijer insisted on an introduction to a Dutch Publisher (J W M Baron van Boetzelaer, Director, Uitgeversmaatschappij W.Versluys, Almere) and so gave the push which started the whole process.
My interest in the use of ‘intuition, creativity and logical thinking’ in course and lesson design decisionrmaking was first kindled by my colleagues and teachers in Basic Systems Inc, New York, USA back in the early 1960s.