In the developmental testing of a design, you are testing for the unexpected: for unexpected wrong responses, unexpected interfering responses and unexpected attitudes of learner and teacher (if one is involved). These things are ‘unexpected’ because with the help of the four referents and the protocol for working out a design, you have done your best to avoid unwanted results. But in this respect, ‘all that glitters is not gold’. You must expect the unexpected. The symptom that all is not what it should be is an unexpected low rating on one or more of the elements in the Emax Vmax Lmax E’max criteria. Continue reading 4.2 Testing for the unexpected
Tag: Criteria of good design
3.4 What does ‘controlling the quality of an S-R event’ involve?
This activity in the working out of a design is something which is going on intuitively and automatically when you have had some experience in working out designs. This is because, as you come to work out a thought-up design, the criteria for a good design which helped you think it up have taken on an imperative ring. Continue reading 3.4 What does ‘controlling the quality of an S-R event’ involve?
3.5 Case study no. 3: Pictures in your mind
From our own experience in learning situations we know how special and important it can be to imagine something. Why then don’t we (as designers and teachers) give more attention to the use of the student’s imagination in a teaching-learning situation? Imagination can be a very powerful tool for learning. Below is a description of an S-R event in which didactic use is being deliberately made of a doctor’s imagination. Continue reading 3.5 Case study no. 3: Pictures in your mind
2.3 Referent 1: A set of criteria for a good design
If a designer is to come up with an optimum solution to the problem of thinking up a design, the existence of a set of criteria against which to test an idea that is being considered can be very helpful. When drawn into the think tank, such criteria become referent 1: a set of criteria for a good design. Continue reading 2.3 Referent 1: A set of criteria for a good design
2.4 Referent 2: The nth generation of the specified needs
Think about designing a course for teaching six-year-olds to tell the time. Let digital watches, cuckoo clocks and every other sort of clock chase each other through your mind . . . . Have you ever had to teach a child to tell the time? If so, what were the difficulties? What strategies would you think of using? Continue reading 2.4 Referent 2: The nth generation of the specified needs
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’.