Principles of Instructional Design

Fourth Edition

Rober M.Gagne

Leslie J.Briggs

Walter W.Wager

pages 20-31

designing instructional systems

an instructional system may be defined as an arrangement of resources  and procedures used to promote learning

instructional technology also includes the quest for new knowledge about how people learn and how best to design instructional systems or materials

instructional designers generally design smaller instructional systems such as courses,units within courses,or individual lessons

instructional systems design of the smaller components is simply referred to as instructional design since the focus is the piece of instruction itself,rather than the total instructional system

instructional design

all the stages in any instructional systems model can be categorized into one of the three function:

1.identifying the outcomes of the instruction

2.developing the instruction

3.evaluating the effectiveness of the instruction

stage 1:instructional goals

a goal may be defined as a desirable state of affairs

global instructional goals must be made more specific before systematic instruction can be designed to attain them.one responsibility of an instructional designer is to recognize which goals are instructional goals and which are not

what goals will represent a desiable state of affairs

after goals have been stated,the designer may conduct a needs analysis

a discrepancy between desirable performance and present performance identifies a need

stage 2:instructional analysis

the purpose of instructional analysis is to determine the skills involved in reaching a goal

for example,if the goal happens to be that every healthy adult will be able to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation,an instructional analysis would reveal what component skills would have to be learned,in this case,the designer would use a task analysis,the product of which would be a list of the steps and the skills used at each step in the procedure

another kind of instructional analysis is an information-processing analysis,which is designed to reveal the mental operations used by a person who has learned a complex skill

an important outcome of instructional analysis is task classification

the final type of analysis to be mentioned is learning-task analysis,the purpose of a learning taks analysis is to reveal the objectives that are enabling and for which reaching sequence decisions need to be made

stage 3:entry behaviors and learner characteristics

learner traits and abilities may affect some of the general qualities of instruction,such as its employment of particular media and its pacing,in this respect,abilities and traits contrast with such learners characteristics as the possession of particular skills and verbal know-ledge , the latter has quite specific effects on the content of effective instruction

stae 4 :performance objectives

at this stage,it is necessary to translate the needs and goals into performance objectives that are sufficiently specific and detailed to show progress toward the goals

reasons for working from general goals to increasingly specific objectives

be able to communicate at different levels to different persons

to make possible planning and development of the materials and the delivery system

to be able to measure student performance to determine when the objectives have been reached

performance objectives are statements of observable,measurable behaviors

the functions of performance objectives are to 

1.provide a means for determining whether the instruction relates to the accomplishment of goals

2.provide a means for focusing the lesson planning upon appropriate conditions of learning

3.guide the development of measure of learner performance

4.assist learners in their study efforts

the objectives should be determined before thelesson plans or the evaluation instrument

stage 5:criterion-referenced test items

the purpose of diagnostic testing is to ensure that an individual possesses the necessary prerequisites for learning new skills,test item allow the teacher to pinpoint the needs of individual students in order to concentrate on the skills that are lacking and to avoid unneccessary insturction

check the results of student learning during the progress of a lesson

used to document student progress for parents or administrators

evaluations designed to provide data,whereby instruction is to be improved,are called formative evaluations

when no further changes are planned and when it is time to determine the success and worth of the course in its final form,summative evaluations are conducted

stage 6:instructional strategy

a plan for assisting the learners with their study efforts for each performance objectives

teacher-led,group-paced instuction,teacher use the instructional design process to produce a guide to help implement the intent of the lesson plan without necessarily conveying its exact content to the learners,the teacher gives directions,refers learners to appropriate materials,leads or directs class activities,and supplements existing materials with direct instruction.

when a learner-centered,learner-paced lesson is planned,a module is typically presented to the learner,it usually presents a learning objectives,an activity guide,the material to be viewed or read,practice exercises,and a self-check test for the learner,in this case,the instructions or activityy guide in the module is written for the student rather than for the teacher

different instructional media have different capabilities for providing the various event of instruction

designer must be able to combine knowledge of learning and design theory with his experience of learners and objectives

stage 7:instructional materials

teachers can be hard-pressed to arrange instruction when there are no really suitabel materials available for part of the planned objectives,often,they improvise and adapt as best they can,most often,however,teachers do find suitable material,the danger is that teachers sometimes choose existing materials for convenience,in effect changing the objectives of the instruction to fit their available materials,in such cicumstances,the student may be receiving information or learning skills that are unrelated to instructional goals(需⚠）

the more innovative the objectives,the more likely it is that a greater portion of the materials must be developed since they are not likely to be available commercially

developing materials for a particular delivery system is almost always more expensive than making a selection from those available

it is possible to save development expenses by selecting available materials and integrating them into a module providing coverage of all the desired objectives of instruction

the role of the teacher is affected by the choice of delivery system and the completeness of the materials because the teacher will have to provide whatever missing events may be needed by the learners

stage 8:formative evaluation

three level process 

the prototype material are tried one on one with learners representative of the target audience

a small group tryout,in which the materials are given to a group of six to eight students

a field trial in which the instruction,revised  on the basis of the one-to-one and samll-group trials,is given to a whole class

the purpose of formative evaluation is to revise the instruction so as to make it as effective as possible for the target number of students

stage 9:summative evaluation

as the term implies,a summative evaluation is normally conducted after the system has passed through its formative stage-when it is no longer undergoing point by point revision