Chapter 9
Designing Instructional Interventions
According to Instructional Design Competencies: The Standards (2013), instructional designers should be able to “design instructional interventions (essential). This is an essential competency and it includes six performance statements, all of which are essential: (1) identify instructional strategies that align with instructional goals and anticipated learning outcomes (essential); (2) apply appropriate interaction design and interactive learning principles (essential); (3) Use appropriate message and visual design principles (essential); (4) Apply appropriate motivational design principles (essential); (5) Accommodate social, cultural, political, and other individual factors that may influence learning (essential); (6) Select appropriate technology and media to enhance instructional interventions, taking into account theory, research, and practical factors (essential)” (Koszalka, Russ-Eft, and Reiser 2013, 48).
This chapter provides additional information about this competency, noting how instructional designers should identify instructional strategies, use message and visual design principles, apply appropriate motivational design principles, and accommodate factors—social, cultural, and political—that will influence learning. Selecting technology and media to enhance instructional interventions is addressed in another chapter.
Having written and sequenced performance objectives, instructional designers are ready to plan instruction. They should begin by asking this question: How can the desired results of instruction be achieved? The answer is through instructional strategy. (See Table 9.1.) While instructional strategy sometimes refers to the methods, techniques, and devices for instructing, the term is used here to mean strategies for instructing others how to go about the instructional process (see Chen and Bryer 2012; Gregory and Chapman 2012; Moore 2014). Methods, techniques, and devices for instructing are described in the next chapters.
Table 9.1 Instructional Strategies and Tactics
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* Key steps of instruction are in bold print; tactics are underlined.
Source: Taken from W. Rothwell and H. Kazanas, Mastering the Instructional Design Process: A Systematic Approach (4th ed.) (San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2008), 241–244.
In this chapter, we will define instructional strategy. We will also distinguish between two kinds of strategy (macroinstructional and microinstructional strategy) and between instructional strategy and instructional tactics. In addition, we will describe how to conceptualize instructional strategy, choose strategy and tactics, choose media and delivery methods, and judge and justify strategy once chosen. We also summarize cognitive strategy. We also identify ethical and cross-cultural issues in specifying instructional strategies.
Great care should be taken in selecting the media—the approach used to deliver instruction. While much attention has focused on using e-learning and blended learning in recent years, there is still room for less technologically dependent methods.
Identifying Instructional Strategies Aligned with Instructional Goals and Anticipated Learning Outcomes
In the most general sense, an instructional strategy is perhaps best understood as an overall plan governing instructional content (What will be taught?) and process (How will it be taught?). Any strategy is an effort intended to achieve a goal (a result) using various methods. Military strategists attempt to win a war or battle; business strategists seek competitive advantage; instructional strategists try to achieve an instructional goal.
An instructional strategy is no different. It is a plan for systematically exposing learners to experiences that will help them acquire verbal information, establish cognitive strategy, or develop intellectual skills, motor skills, or new attitudes. Instructional strategy should grow out of an analysis of the work tasks that learners are being instructed to perform and from the corresponding performance objectives established to achieve those desired results.
An instructional strategy demonstrates what to do to achieve results. Once decided on, an instructional strategy helps to select or prepare instructional materials and provides a way to evaluate materials. Instructional strategy should usually be described in writing, although not in the detail typical of final instructional materials comprising a module, unit, or lesson. It should be prepared before instructional materials are designed or selected from other sources.
The aim of establishing an instructional strategy is to plan holistically. It helps instructional designers conceptualize, before they begin time-consuming and expensive preparation or selection of instructional materials, what must be done to facilitate learning. In planning instructional strategy, instructional designers should take care to match the method with the objectives. They should also avoid the tendency—too often evident—to seize on using emerging instructional technologies for their own sake. Discussions in recent years have focused around the need to ensure interactivity, variously defined, when using e-learning. Of greatest interest at the moment is so-called blended learning, which makes use of several media in a “blend.” But ensuring that blend calls for skill in using each medium.
Distinguishing between Two Kinds of Instructional Strategy
There are two kinds of instructional strategy. A macro-instructional strategy is, on the one hand, an overall plan governing a discrete learning experience, such as a course or module. It is the way instructional designers plan to help learners achieve terminal performance objectives. Think of it as a big-picture road map for an entire planned learning experience, akin to a syllabus for a college course. A micro-instructional strategy is a plan governing each part of the learning experience, such as a unit or lesson within a course or module. It is the way instructional designers plan to help learners achieve enabling objectives. An example would be an outline for one planned learning experience or course session. Macro-instructional strategy should typically be specified first.
Distinguishing between Instructional Strategy and Instructional Tactics
An instructional tactic is related to, but more specific than, an instructional strategy. It is any instructional activity undertaken to facilitate a strategy. All grand instructional strategies are enacted through simple instructional tactics, just as any long-term strategy for winning a game is realized through many short-term plays or activities.
Conceptualizing Instructional Strategy
There are two ways to think about instructional strategy. The first stems from the philosophy of the instructional designer about learning and instructing; the second stems from events of instruction and conditions of learning. Each way provides guidance when instructional designers find it necessary to identify the range of available instructional strategies.
Instructional Strategy Based on Philosophy of Learning and Instructing
Instructional designers have fought contentious battles, stemming from contrasting philosophical views, about learning and instructing. Two theoretical positions about learning and instructing seem to represent major anchor points on a philosophical continuum of instructional strategies, according to a classic description by Romiszowski (1981). Some instructional designers believe that all learning can be described best as resulting from a process of reception. This view leads to expositive instructional strategies. But other instructional designers believe that all learning is best described as resulting from a process of learner discovery. This view leads to experiential instructional strategies.
To the behaviorist adherents of reception learning, learning centers on the communication process. Learning occurs through exposure to environmental variables outside the learner; instructing means manipulating those variables to achieve predetermined ends. Learning occurs as people receive, understand, apply, and act on information directed to them by others. Learners are passive recipients of instructional messages, instructors or instructional designers are active transmitters of those messages, and instruction itself is synonymous with the message. When instructional designers believe that learning occurs through this communication process, they select an expositive instructional strategy. Most traditional educators favor this approach. It is a four-step process in which the instructor should (1) present information to (passive) learners, (2) test learners on their recall or understanding of the message, (3) present opportunities for learners to practice or apply the message, and (4) present opportunities for learners to generalize what they have learned to real situations or problems (Romiszowski 1981, 293).
At the other anchor point on the continuum is a different philosophy about learning and instructing. To adherents of discovery learning, learning is intensely personal. Set in the intimate mental world of the learner, it results not so much from manipulation of environmental variables outside the learner as from the learner's own internalized insight, reflection, and experience. When instructional designers believe that learning occurs through this experience-oriented process, they favor a discovery strategy for instruction. It is a four-step process in which the instructional designer will (1) structure opportunities for learners to receive important experiences and observe or reflect on them, (2) question the learners about the experiences and observe learner reactions, (3) help learners think about the general principles and significant emotional experiences they have experienced, and (4) structure opportunities for learners to apply what they have learned to actual situations and problems (Romiszowski 1981, p. 294).
While expositive and discovery instructional strategies constitute more or less opposite anchor points on a continuum, there are many points in between. Instructional designers may select from numerous methods that are appropriate to achieve the desired outcomes of an instructional experience. Romiszowski's summary of these methods is given next (p. 180).
| Strategy | Description |
| Impromptu discovery | Unplanned learning: no instruction was involved directly (for example, free use of a library or resource center). |
| Free exploratory discovery | Broad learning goals are fixed; otherwise, the learner may choose how to achieve the desired outcomes. |
| Guided discovery | Objectives are fixed; the learner is guided on methods, conclusion. |
| Adaptively programmed discovery | Guidance and feedback are given individually. |
| Intrinsically programmed discovery | Guidance and feedback are given according to preplanned program, based on the “typical” student. |
| Inductive exposition | The trainer “talks through” the discovery process. |
| Deductive exposition | Lectures. |
| Drill and practice | Rote reception learning: instruction demonstrates what to do and provides practice. No conceptual understanding must be involved. |
Much attention has focused around another form of instructional strategy called action learning, which may also be an approach to carrying out the instructional design process itself. When action learning is used, learners are given a real-world problem, assembled in teams to solve it, and are permitted the freedom to experiment to find solutions.
Instructional Strategy Based on Events of Instruction
Another way to think of instructional strategy is based on the events of instruction and the conditions of learning, not on the philosophy of the instructional designer. In this sense, instructional strategy is rooted in assumptions about what does—or should—happen during any planned learning experience and about what type of learning the instruction should facilitate. Different instructional strategies must help learners acquire verbal information, establish cognitive strategies, develop intellectual skills, build motor skills, or appreciate new attitudes.
To select instructional strategy instructional designers start by examining performance objectives to determine what type of learning is to be facilitated. They should choose instructional strategy based on the learning. If learners are to acquire verbal information, it will be necessary to discover a way to make that information meaningful to them. The instructional designer may adopt a strategy of fitting isolated information, like definitions, into some pattern, such as rhymes, mnemonics, or acronyms that will be meaningful to learners and will improve their retention. If learners are to be aided in establishing a cognitive strategy or in changing their attitudes, they should be led through a process of discovery using the discovery strategies listed earlier. If learners are to develop intellectual or motor skills, expositive strategies are often appropriate.
Once the overall instructional strategy has been selected, instructional designers should focus attention on each event of instruction. “The events of instruction,” note Gagné, Briggs, and Leslie (1979, 155) in a classic description, “are designed to make it possible for learners to proceed from ‘where they are’ to the achievement of the capability identified as the target objective.” Events of instruction constitute what should be done in a planned learning experience: instructional strategy, a closely related notion, constitutes how they will or should be done. To plan instructional strategy for a learning experience, instructional designers begin by identifying each step in a learning experience. Then, bearing in mind the learning being planned, they pose the simple question, how can that be done?
Authorities on instructional design have devised many schemes for describing the events of instruction over a year. Pucel (1989) identified eight key instructional events based on his own independent research and the classic research of Ausubel (1962), Chase and Chi (1980), and Herbart (1898). To apply the results of their research, instructional designers should:
- State the performance objectives for the learning experience to clarify:
- What is to be learned?
- How the learner can demonstrate the desired performance.
- How performance will be judged.
- Explain the importance of the learning experience.
- Provide crucial background information that the learner must have to achieve the performance objectives (“tell” the learner what to do and why).
- Demonstrate the behavior (“show” the learner).
- Guide practice (ask the learner to “do” it or apply it).
- Allow for unguided practice (ask the learner to “do” it or apply it without benefit of extensive instructor feedback).
- Evaluate the learner's performance and knowledge base (“follow up” with the learner).
- Provide feedback and direction for future learning.
Possibly more widely known than these eight steps are the nine key instructional events identified in a classic treatment by Gagné, Briggs, and Leslie (1979) and updated by Gagné, Wager, Golas, and Keller (2005):
- Capture the attention of the learner.
- Describe to learners what performance objectives are to be achieved.
- Help learners recall prerequisite learning.
- Present instruction to facilitate the learners' achievement of the performance objectives.
- Guide the learners through the material so they meet the objectives.
- Prompt the performance desired from the instruction so learners meet the objectives.
- Give the learners feedback, and make suggestions for improvement so learners sense how well they are meeting the objectives.
- Evaluate how well learners are achieving the objectives.
- Work toward helping the learners retain what they have learned and apply it.
The appropriate instructional strategy for each event depends on the desired results. Hence, types of instruction aimed at helping learners acquire verbal information, establish cognitive strategy, or develop intellectual skills, motor skills, or new attitudes will require its own strategy within the planned learning experience. Those strategies are summarized in Table 9.2.
Table 9.2 Instructional Events and the Conditions of Learning They Imply for the Five Types of Learned Capabilities
| Capability | ||||||
| Event | Intellectual Skill | Cognitive Strategy | Information | Attitude | Motor Skill | |
| 1. | Capture the attention of the learner | Introduce a change in stimulus | ||||
| 2. | Describe to learners what performance objectives are to be achieved | Describe the performance to be achieved and give an example | Inform learners of the kind of solution that is expected | Describe what question is to be answered | Give an example of what action is called for | Demonstrate the expected performance |
| 3. | Help learners recall prerequisite learning | Encourage learners to recall subordinate concepts and rules | Encourage learners to recall related strategies and intellectual skills | Encourage learners to recall the context of the information | Encourage learners to recall information and other relevant skills | Help learners remember what to do |
| 4. | Present instruction to facilitate the learners' achievement of performance objectives | Give examples of concepts or rules to be learned | Give unique problems to be solved | Give the information in the form of propositions | Give learners a choice in their actions | Give learners what they need to perform—such as appropriate tools, equipment, or other resources |
| 5. | Guide the learners through the material so they begin to meet the objectives | Give cues to the learners | Hint at solutions | Link to a broader context | Give learners the opportunity to observe the model or choice of what to do | Give learners the chance to practice and the chance to receive feedback about their performance |
| 6. | Prompt the performance | Have the learners apply the performance | Request solutions | Have the learners provide information or other examples | Have the learners describe what they would do in real or simulated situations | Have the learners demonstrate performance |
| 7. | Give feedback to the learners | Affirm that the rule or concept has been applied correctly | Affirm that the solution to the problem is correct | Affirm that information has been stated correctly | Give the learners reinforcement based on their choice | Give learners feedback on what they chose |
| 8. | Evaluate how well the learners are beginning to achieve the objectives | Learner demonstrates application of concept or rule | Learner originates a novel solution | Learner restates information in paraphrased form | Learners choose the desired course of action as appropriate | Learners are capable of demonstrating the skill/performance |
| 9. | Work toward helping the learners retain what they have learned and apply it | Review the material periodically with learners, giving them various examples | Give the learners opportunities to grapple with different solutions | Link the material to other information | Give learners new opportunities to choose the desired course of action | Encourage learners to practice |
Source: Adapted from the classic work of R. Gagné, L. Briggs, and W. Wager, Principles of Instructional Design (4th ed.) (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace, 1992).
Choosing Instructional Strategy and Tactics
For instruction to be effective, instructional designers should be able to choose among many instructional strategies and tactics.
Choosing an Appropriate Instructional Strategy
Although authorities on reception and discovery learning have usually been interpreted as favoring a single instructional strategy for every learning situation, there really is no one universally appropriate strategy. Any instructional strategy can achieve any performance objective. Likewise, any instructional strategy can carry out any instructional event. However, no one instructional strategy works uniformly well under all conditions. To choose the strategy, consider the learners, the desired learning outcomes, the learning and working environments, and constraints on the instructional design process.
If learners are inexperienced, instruction based on an expositive strategy is usually the most efficient approach. Exposition leads learners through a subject at a uniform rate, with the pace set more by the instructor than by the learner. Experienced adult learners will often rebel against an expositive strategy. They often prefer a process of discovery that uses their own experiences and allows them to become involved in, and committed to, learning.
The desired learning outcomes should also influence choice of instructional strategy. Learners should not be asked to acquire verbal information precisely as they are led to develop a cognitive strategy, intellectual skills, motor skills, or new attitudes. Learning experiences are of different kinds, and a different instructional strategy is appropriate for each kind.
The learning and working environments also influence the choice of instructional strategy. If the two environments are the same, as with on-the-job training, an expositive strategy is usually most efficient; however, if they differ, a discovery strategy usually works best. The closer the relationship between conditions in the learning and working environments, the greater the likelihood that learners can apply on the job what they learn during instruction.
Finally, constraints on the instructional design process should also be considered during selection of strategy. Of primary consideration are time and control factors. A discovery strategy requires more delivery than an expositive strategy. Learners must be led to reach their own discoveries. That takes time, since individuals learn at different rates. However, greater control is possible with an expositive strategy in which the instructor transmits the same information to all learners. There may be differences in how that information is received and interpreted. But an expositive strategy usually leads to greater control over outcomes than a discovery strategy in which learners reach their own independent conclusions about their experiences.
Choosing Appropriate Instructional Tactics
Tactics are the ways instructional strategies are implemented. They are the detailed approaches and activities used by an instructional designer to accomplish a strategy. In this respect, they bear the same relationship to instructional strategy as daily operational tactics bear to corporate strategy. Just as a corporate strategy of growth is achieved through such tactics as increasing sales, decreasing expenses, increasing market share, or a combination of all these, so, too, can instructional strategies of reception or discovery learning be achieved through various methods (tactics).
The choice of instructional tactics has often been more art than science. Instructional designers should first identify the results they wish to achieve through instruction and then plot out how they will achieve those results. Choosing tactics has usually been left to instructional designers' creativity and imagination, whether they are working as individuals or on a team.
Choosing Media and Delivery Methods
The variety of media and delivery methods may present unique challenges to instructional designers. The choice should be made carefully and be based on the medium used.
Choosing Media
To plan to achieve performance objectives, instructional designers should also choose a medium, or media, after selecting an instructional strategy. The term medium just means the way an instructional message is communicated to the learner. Although the term media has not always been used consistently by instructional designers, examples are easy enough to identify: books, programmed texts, computers, slides or tapes, videotape, and film.
A media selection model, sometimes called just a media model, is a decision-making aid. It should guide selection of instructional media according to their instructional and cost effectiveness. Many media selection models have been devised to help instructional designers, such as the classics by Reynolds and Anderson (1992). However “half a century of research on media has yielded little in the way of general guidelines for media selection. That is, we are not able to conclude that one medium or combination of media is more effective overall, or even that one medium works better for a particular type of learning or category of subject matter” (Gagné and Medsker 1996, 181).
The Range of Media
Instructional media range from simple to complex. This distinction can be understood in two ways. First, a medium that requires little advance preparation can be simple, while one requiring much preparation can be complex. Direct experience—possibly on the job—is simple because it requires little preparation. Second, a medium that appeals to only one sense can be simple; a medium appealing to more than one sense can be complex. The fewer the senses to which instruction appeals, the less need there is to be concerned about the effects on each sense and about how media can appeal to the learners' senses in combination.
The classification scheme below is listed from complex to simple media. The simplest media are placed at the bottom of the media “cone”; more complex media are placed at the top. This scheme is based on a classic list by Kemp (1985).
| Media | Examples |
| Combinations of media | Interactive video |
| Multi-image and sound computer-based training | |
| Multi-image/video | |
| Multi-image/audio | |
| Microfiche/audio | |
| Filmstrip/audio | |
| Slides/audio | |
| Print/video | |
| Print/audio | |
| Projected motion pictures | Video |
| Film | |
| Projected still pictures | Computer programs (displayed) Slides |
| Audio recordings | Compact disc recordings |
| Audio recordings | |
| Nonprojected materials | Job aids |
| Photographs | |
| Diagrams | |
| Charts | |
| Graphs | |
| Flip charts | |
| Chalkboards | |
| Print materials | |
| Tangible objects | Models |
| Objects/devices/equipment | |
| Instructors/speakers |
Of course, new social media add more choices to those listed above and may need to be considered separately because such a large number of choices are available.
Instructional designers distinguish among instructional methods, presentation methods, and distribution methods. How do they decide just which medium is best to achieve performance objectives? Unfortunately, there is no one right answer to this question. Substantial research has been conducted over the years to determine which media are most appropriate for achieving desired instructional outcomes and supporting instructional strategy. But that research has not led to firm conclusions. Any medium can achieve any performance objective. But not all media should be used in precisely the same ways.
Media selection decisions may improve as artificial intelligence and expert systems are applied to the instructional design process. However, the best approach to media selection is to make a primary media selection decision for an entire learning experience first, and then make secondary media selection decisions for each part of the experience. Do that by asking questions and noting the answers.
When making a media selection decision, ask these questions first: What are the desired outcomes of instruction? Do they provide clues about what medium or media to choose? Suppose that instruction is being prepared so learners “will be able to troubleshoot problems with a diesel engine when given diagnostic instruments and a diesel engine.” Given that performance objective, what medium is appropriate? In this example, the performance objective itself specifies that the learner will be “given diagnostic instruments and a diesel engine.” That phrase suggests that learners will use tangible objects (as identified in the media classification scheme presented earlier). The objects may, however, range from real to simulated objects. The same principle applies to other performance objectives. Consult them first to determine whether they imply the medium (or media mix) to use during the planned learning experience.
When making a media selection decision, ask this question second: What constraints on time, equipment, staff skills, and costs affect this planned learning experience?
When making a media selection decision, ask this question third: How will the instruction be delivered? While that question cannot be answered until a delivery mode has been chosen (see the next section), instructional designers should remember some media are more appropriate than others for particular audiences. PowerPoint slides (or their equivalents in other media, such as Prezi) are frequently used in group presentations but are not very effective by themselves for individualized instruction.
When making a media selection decision, a fourth and final question to ask is this: How often will this planned learning experience be revised? Obviously, it makes little sense to invest large sums in a medium that will be difficult to revise. Yet that can happen to those who opt for video-based programs, when their organizations have no video production facilities. An expensive consultant is hired, the video is prepared and edited, and it is outdated by the time it is shown. Some media—print materials, slide shows, and overhead transparencies—are relatively easy to revise. Other media may not be that easy or inexpensive to revise.
Selecting Delivery Modes
To plan performance objectives, instructional designers should also choose a delivery mode. A delivery mode means the choice made about the conditions under which instruction is to be offered. Not to be confused with media or instructional strategy, delivery mode is synonymous with the situation that confronts learners as they learn.
The range of delivery modes is not great. There are only four basic choices, according to a classic discussion of this issue (Ellington 1985):
- Mass instruction involving many learners.
- Group instruction involving fewer learners.
- Individualized instruction involving only one learner at a time.
- Direct experience involving real-time learning, such as informal on-the-job training.
Make a selection of delivery mode based on the performance objectives to be achieved. (See Figure 9.1.) If many people share the same instructional need, select mass instruction. It is appropriate, for instance, when everyone in the same organization should receive the same instruction. If only some people, such as employees in one work unit, require instruction, select group instruction. It is often appropriate for introducing new work methods or new technology. If only one person experiences an instructional need, select individualized instruction. If the need is minor—not enough of a “chunk” of information to warrant preparation of a planned learning experience—then rely on such direct experiential methods as supervisory coaching or on-the-job training to supply learners with what they need to perform competently.
Figure 9.1 Algorithm for Selection of Instructional Mode
Source: Taken from W. Rothwell and H. Kazanas, Mastering the Instructional Design Process: A Systematic Approach (4th ed.) (San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2008), 249.
Once the delivery mode for the entire learning experience has been selected on the basis of terminal performance objectives, reconsider media selection for each enabling objective.
Allowing for Constraints on Choice of Delivery Mode
Instructional designers rarely enjoy complete freedom to choose whatever delivery mode they wish. They face the same constraints when choosing delivery mode that they face when choosing media. Limitations of time, equipment, staff skills, and costs can and often affect choice of delivery mode. In addition, managers—and sometimes the learners themselves—will make their preferences about delivery modes known. For instance, middle managers in some organizational cultures dislike mass instruction delivered during working hours because it removes workers from the production process and results in too much lost production time. They may require that mass instruction be delivered after hours or on weekends reducing the chances that all workers can participate in it. Likewise, some learners prefer individualized instruction because they have a storehouse of unpleasant memories from their formal schooling about classroom learning situations. When choosing delivery mode consider constraints and management and worker preferences.
Appreciating the Learner's Perspective: A Brief Overview of Cognitive Strategies
Just as much attention should be devoted to appreciating the learner's perspective as the instructional designer's perspective. Savvy instructional designers will think about cognitive strategies for learners that will encourage their information processing. Cognitive strategies are the learned ways that enable learners to manage their own learning.
While this book focuses primarily on what instructional designers do, cognitive strategies regulate how learning progresses. Individuals acquire cognitive strategies from their experience and schooling. While various taxonomies have been suggested to describe cognitive strategies, Gagné and Medsker (1996) skillfully described how to encourage the conditions of learning for training. One way to view cognitive strategy is through the lens of the open systems model (described in Chapter 1), which includes input cognitive strategies, process cognitive strategies, output cognitive strategies, and feedback cognitive strategies.
Input Cognitive Strategies
An input cognitive strategy depends on what learners pay attention to. Learners may be stimulated to pay attention by events external to them, by their own choice, or by a combination. An example of external stimulation might include job loss, which would create a significant emotional event for learners that would stimulate their learning on the job search. An example of internal stimulation might include remembrance of career goals, which could motivate individuals to seek new approaches to meeting those goals.
Process Cognitive Strategies
A process cognitive strategy helps learners make sense of what they learn. Gagné and Medsker (1996, 75) list several:
- Rehearsal: trying out something new.
- Elaboration: associating something new with something previously learned.
- Organization: imposing a structure on what is newly learned through such methods as outlining, categorizing, or diagramming.
Output Cognitive Strategies
An output cognitive strategy means that learners acquire new knowledge or skill by applying what they have learned and making meaning of their experiences. An example would ask learners to prepare instruction on something they would like to learn. The teaching (output) focuses the learners' attention on organizing the new knowledge or skill to teach it to others. That is an output-oriented cognitive strategy. Individuals could use the same approach to make sense of what they want to learn.
Feedback Cognitive Strategies
A feedback cognitive strategy means that learners acquire new knowledge or skill by giving feedback to others. An example would ask learners to hear a speech and provide feedback to another person about that speech. Giving feedback focuses the learners' attention on organizing the new knowledge or skill to provide feedback to others. That is a feedback-oriented cognitive strategy.
Using Appropriate Message, Visual, and Motivational Design Principles
This section addresses message, visual, and motivational design principles.
Message Design
According to Kathy Dye (1997, 1):
A message is a discrete unit of data transmitted through various sensory abilities: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. When data is received accurately, it becomes information. The transaction is called communication. Messages are sent for a variety of purposes: to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to anger, to soothe. Message design is the systematic and purposeful process of deciding about communication. This involves decisions about both the content (“what”) and the delivery (“how”) of a message. Most of us make message design decisions either unconsciously or from habit: whether we phone or send a note, whether we sit with our legs crossed or not, whether we speak loudly or softly.
As Dye continues to explain, good message design centers on:
- Grid-based design
- Perceptibility (physiological and psychological)
- Chunking and sequencing content
- Spatial relationships (size and placement)
- Secondary messages
- Color
Grid-based design means that the information is presented in a consistent format. A printed page is, for instance, a consistent design. Perceptibility is related to human perception, which has the elements of sensory perception and cognitive perception. People need to be able to see, hear, smell, or touch. Anything that makes that difficult, such as insufficient lighting, will block sensory perception. Cognitive perception relates to understanding. Anything that makes it difficult for people to understand will affect cognitive perception—such as changing the meanings of words, use of jargon without definitions, or other barriers to clear communication.
Chunking means that people must be given information in ways that will make it easy to understand—such as positioning on a printed page. Sequencing means there must be an order to a message so people receive essential definitions first and then build what they need to learn based on those definitions. Spatial relationships indicate how messages are presented relative to each other. For instance, pictures should be presented in ways that easily support print, audio, or other media. Secondary messages relate to redundancy and clarity—such as a picture that supports a print explanation. Colors help message information stand out. But colors have different psychological meanings that may influence what people perceive and how they perceive them. Exhibit 9.1 summarizes important issues in message design.
Visual Design
According to usability.gov, visual design focuses on aesthetics. It is sometimes related to graphic design. It is creating a balance among images, colors, fonts, and other elements. An effective visual design makes it appealing to the user by balancing these and other elements.
Critical issues in visual design include (see www.usability.gov):
- Lines
- Shapes
- Color palette
- Texture
- Typography
- Form
While graphic design is a field of its own, instructional designers working in smaller organizations may need to do their own layouts and become somewhat familiar with graphic design. An excellent resource for that purpose is discussed next.
Motivational Design
How can learners be motivated? That is an essential issue in motivational design. According to Keller (2006), “motivational design refers to the process of arranging resources and procedures to bring about changes in motivation. Motivational design can be applied to improving students' motivation to learn” (p. 3). It draws on empirical theories of human motivation.
Addressing reasons for learner motivation—or lack of it—go all the way back to the beginnings of instructional design. Workers rarely participate eagerly in learning experiences because they do not see how or why the learning is useful or benefits them. Adults, it is said, are problem-focused in their learning and must see why something is worth learning. People also attend learning events for different reasons—for sheer love of learning, to solve a work or personal problem, to socialize with others, or some combination of these reasons. When learning events are designed in ways that do not appeal to these motivations, then learners lose interest. That could be one reason online learning often has high dropout rates—that is, learners are given insufficient opportunities to interact, to be challenged, or to see why (in practical terms relevant to them) they are learning what they are given to learn.
While many books have been written about motivation—and their principles can apply to instructional design—perhaps best-known is John Keller's ARCS Model of Motivational Design. According to Keller, four issues should be addressed in motivational design.
First is getting the learner's attention. That can be done by inspiring their perceptions through surprise or through appealing to a problem to be solved. Second is demonstrating relevance. Show them why they should care about the learning. Third is confidence. That means build learner self-esteem by providing quick wins or by providing positive feedback on their efforts. Fourth and finally is to build learner satisfaction. Inspire them. More details about this important and useful theory can be found in Keller's (2010) classic book Motivational Design for Learning and Performance: The ARCS Model Approach.
For more on message and visual design, see Bishop (2014) and Darr and Seel (2014).
Accommodating Social, Cultural, Political, and Other Individual Factors Influencing Learning
Learning and instructional design do not occur in a vacuum. Factors external to the learning experience influence it. Among them are the social, cultural, political, and other individual contexts. In a global world, instructional designers must remain sensitive to the issues that may help or hinder learning. It is wise to avoid references to politics, religion, or humor in most instruction in today's business settings.
Consider, for instance, humor. What is funny to some people may prove offensive to others. Perhaps a story is appropriate here. Years ago, one of the authors attended a training session conducted by a licensed professional psychologist with a Ph.D. He opened his onsite session with a joke. One group found the joke funny and laughed. A second group became angry but remained silent, sitting sullenly through the remainder of the session. They voiced their true feelings later on in the written session evaluations, where they blasted the presenter. A third group got up and walked out, complaining about the joke and the speaker to the organizer of the event.
The point to the story is that some words, phrases, and concepts can be deeply offensive to some groups. It is wise to avoid humor unless it has been checked in advance. It is also wise to ask reviewers of instructional materials to pinpoint any words or phrases that may be problematic. That may have to be done in each culture where instruction may be used, because translations do not always carry the same meanings.
A second wise practice is to use cultural informants when working cross-culturally. Use more than one informant because some individuals are not sensitive to cultural issues in their own cultures. Several informants are more likely to pick up what one person might miss.
Consider these 13 general tips when designing or delivering training in other cultures (Rothwell 2012, 28–42):
- Be sensitive to other cultures but realize that human beings are more alike than they are different.
- Do your homework before entering a new culture.
- Work with reliable local partners and informants.
- Pay attention to marketing.
- Consider language and cultural issues.
- Recognize differences in how people participate and how they expect to participate.
- Be prepared to negotiate.
- Realize that people in other cultures don't always communicate as openly as in the United States.
- Recognize the importance of personal relationships.
- Be tenacious in your efforts.
- When traveling, make personal safety the first priority.
- Be cautious in what you take for granted with foreign training audiences.
- Don't take training technology for granted.