Beauty and precision in instructional design

Research Lab

Educational Technologies

Beauty and Precision Beauty and Precision in Instructional Designin Instructional Design

Michael Derntl*, Pat Parrish, Luca BotturiMichael Derntl*, Pat Parrish, Luca Botturi

*Research Lab for Educational Technologies*Research Lab for Educational TechnologiesUniversity of Vienna, AustriaUniversity of Vienna, [email protected]@univie.ac.at

ED-MEDIA 2008 July 2. 2008 – Vienna, Austria

ED-MEDIA 2008 - Michael Derntl ([email protected]) 2July 2, 2008

Research Lab Educational Technologies

OverviewOverview

Using design languages for creating aesthetic (beauty) and formal (precision) instructional design solutions

Design languages and ID languages

Based on a concrete ID case– Designing for aesthetic learning experiences using

narrative diagrams– Translating into precise specifications using formal

learning object and activity plans



Design languagesDesign languages

… a set of concepts that support structuring design or development and conceiving new solutions (Gibbons & Brewer, 2006)– managing complexity

– shared vocabulary, shared understanding

– communicating solutions, …

Long tradition in many design fields, only recently becoming popular in instructional design



Instructional design languagesInstructional design languagesExamples of visual languages: E2ML, CPM, MOT+, coUML, poEML, IMS LD, … (Botturi & Stubbs, 2008)

ID languages differ on several dimensions: stratification, formalization, elaboration, perspective, and notation (Botturi, Derntl, Boot & Figl, 2006)

In practice, instructional designers find most ID languages difficult to use (Boot et al., 2007)

Here: Use an informal visual language to create an aesthetic design idea + add precision through refinement of design using a more formal language

include tutorials and otherinteractive elements

Project Management

Basics and Techniques

Project-BasedLearning

«Pattern»

B

Interactivelecture P

BlendedEvaluation

«Pattern»

B

Diary

«Pattern»

w

Team Building

«Pattern»

w

Preliminary Phases

«Pattern»B

CollectFeedback

«Pattern»

w

Grade participants

*

PROJECT-BASEDLEARNING

BASICS OF PROJECT-MANAGEMENT

MILESTONE ELABORATIONS

MS PROJECT TUTORIAL

INTERACTIVE LECTURE

DIARY

MS PROJECTTASK

PRESENTATIONS OF MILESTONES

A1

A2

C3

Develop a critical attitudetoward daily emailcommunication.Arise some questions about the meaning of effective

[no pre-requirements]

Good and bad emails with short explanations (to be sent to the instructor)

[no side-effect]

[no support]Anywhere

Personal work: one week prior to the course, each participant isasked by the head to do this activity. They should take 10 minutesevery day to review their email exchanges and to select the best and worst emails they wrote and received. They then write a summary, including the email bodies and send it to the instructor.

Invitation to do the job by the head

Daily email use

LEARNINGAll participants individuallyPRE WORKPRE WORK ON EMAIL




[no side-effect]




Daily email use

LEARNINGAll participants individuallyPRE WORKPRE WORK ON EMAIL Team Building

Participant

Administrator

Join a team

Approveteam

Leave thecurrent team

Add participant toteam «extend»

«extend»

Create a team

«include»

«include»

Optimally 2 to 5members per team

Proposal

(from Proposal)

TeamProposal

Proposer(from Proposal)

Participation

(from Course)

1

2..*

On first floor Moving up

Moving tofirst floor

Movingdown

Idle

go up (floor)

arrive at first floorarrive at floor

go up (floor)go down (floor)

arrive at floor

time out

play

Act 1 Act 2 Act 3

Role-part 1

Role-part 2

Role-part 4

Role-part 5

Role-part 1

Role-part 2

Role-part 4

Role-part 5

Role ActivityRole Activity

Activity-Description

<XML>

include tutorials and otherinteractive elements

Project Management

Basics and Techniques

Project-BasedLearning

«Pattern»

B

Interactivelecture P

BlendedEvaluation

«Pattern»

B

Diary

«Pattern»

w

Team Building

«Pattern»

w

Preliminary Phases

«Pattern»B

CollectFeedback

«Pattern»

w

Grade participants

*

PROJECT-BASEDLEARNING

BASICS OF PROJECT-MANAGEMENT

MILESTONE ELABORATIONS

MS PROJECT TUTORIAL

INTERACTIVE LECTURE

DIARY

MS PROJECTTASK

PRESENTATIONS OF MILESTONES

A1

A2

C3




[no side-effect]




Daily email use

LEARNINGAll participants individuallyPRE WORKPRE WORK ON EMAIL




[no side-effect]




Daily email use

LEARNINGAll participants individuallyPRE WORKPRE WORK ON EMAIL Team Building

Participant

Administrator

Join a team

Approveteam

Leave thecurrent team

Add participant toteam «extend»

«extend»

Create a team

«include»

«include»

Optimally 2 to 5members per team

Proposal

(from Proposal)

TeamProposal

Proposer(from Proposal)

Participation

(from Course)

1

2..*

On first floor Moving up

Moving tofirst floor

Movingdown

Idle

go up (floor)

arrive at first floorarrive at floor

go up (floor)go down (floor)

arrive at floor

time out

play

Act 1 Act 2 Act 3

Role-part 1

Role-part 2

Role-part 4

Role-part 5

Role-part 1

Role-part 2

Role-part 4

Role-part 5

Role ActivityRole Activity

Activity-Description

<XML>



Case studyCase study

Key elements– NPO with funds to develop instruction using multimedia tools– Target audience

• public education drop-out students

• age 14-18

• difficult family situations

• many with inability to form supportive relationships

– Decisions• 80 LOs for basic knowledge and skills in reading, writing, math, history,

geography

• LOs should prepared for use by other schools in the district (adaptability + reusability)



ApproachApproach

1. Define design goals to create aesthetic learning experiences

2. Use narrative diagrams based on Aristotle‘s Incline to create an engaging storyline

3. Refine and prepare for development through formalizing LO structure and learning paths using coUML



Beauty through aestheticsBeauty through aesthetics

Four principles for creating aesthetic learning experiences– learning experiences have beginnings, middles, and endings– learners are protagonists– activity is the theme of instruction– immersion in the activity through context

Design and sketch for an aesthetic learning experienceDesign and sketch for an aesthetic learning experience

(cf. Parrish, 2008, in ETR&D)

awareness engagement tension anticipation

observation unitycompletenessconsummation

immersion...coherence



Beauty: design goalsBeauty: design goals

Observations

Design goals

Engagement difficult with drop-outs

Context-free LOs might hinder coherence

Importance of supportive interactions

Reuse of LOs

Design goals

Engagement: overarching structure with narrative qualities

Incremental accomplishment: LOs should relate to and build upon one another

Peer collaboration: use of LOs within social contexts

Design and sketch for an aesthetic learning experienceDesign and sketch for an aesthetic learning experience

Flexible scenarios: plan for flexible combinations of LOs (learning paths)



Beauty: narrative diagramBeauty: narrative diagram

Narrative skeleton: overarching structure

Aristotle’s Incline

Phase One(~20 LOs)

Phase Two(~40 LOs)

Phase Three(~20 LOs)

Conclusion

Opening

Catharsis

Mid-Point Plot pointTwo

Plot PointOne

RisingEngagement



Conclusion

Beauty: narrative diagramBeauty: narrative diagram

Instantiation: Adventure learning game

Galactic Explorers

Success

Assignment toexplore Earth’speoples andgeography

Evacuation planevaluated anddeemed worthyor improvedLearners

report whatthey’velearned andadvise

Learnershelp planevacuation

Learn ofasteroid inthe path ofEarth

Opening

Catharsis

Mid-Point Plot pointTwo

Plot PointOne

Phase One(~20 LOs)

Phase Two(~40 LOs)

Phase Three(~20 LOs)

RisingEngagement

how to turn this grand view into a product? how to turn this grand view into a product?



Transition to precisionTransition to precision

Transform the grand view into a product

Communicating design to developers and instructors– supported by a shared language– limited & well-defined set of concepts and perspectives– visual representation using easy-to-use notation

Visualization triggers reflection and refinement of previous decisions

Precision = formal specification of structural and procedural composition of design elements

Many languages available: E2ML (conceptual), CPM, coUML (specification), poEML, IMS LD (implementation), etc.



Learning objects structureLearning objects structure

Requirement: 80 sharable LOs, flexible arrangement

Decision: three phases = three LO packages for each subject– basic LOs: first phase, introductory, independent– core LOs: towards engagement and stepwise accomplishments

dependencies– final LOs: resolution, building on core and basics– Initial specification of LO dependencies abstracted from content –

allows creation of multiple alternative storylines



History

History Basics

History Core

HB1 HB2

HB3 HB4

(not detailed here)

History Finale

HC2 HC3

HC4 HC5

HC7

HC6

HC8

HC1

At least 2 basic LOs needed for accessing core LOs.

... Package

HC6 ... LO

... Dependency

Legend:





Dependencies allow specification of reference process, showing feasible paths through LOs

HistoryHistory

History BasicsHistory Basics

History CoreHistory Core

HB1 HB2

HB3 HB4

HB1 HB2

HB3 HB4

(not detailed here)

History Finale

(not detailed here)

History Finale

HC2 HC3

HC4 HC5

HC7

HC6

HC8

HC1 HC2 HC3

HC4 HC5

HC7

HC6

HC8HC8

HC1HC1



HC1

HC4HC5

HC6

HC8

HC2

HC3

HC7

History Core - Start

History Core - Completed

... Activity / task

... Start / end ofconcurrent threads

... Transition

Legend:

HC3



Tasks and activitiesTasks and activities

Specification of process– Sequence of activities, tasks, assignments, ...– Involved documents and LOs– Involved roles

Example: “Asteroid impact” assignment towards the end of Phase 1– Announcement: Earth is on a lethal collision path with

some asteroid– Assignment: team up, individually collect information on

previous asteroid impacts, take notes, share information in team, write and present report

– Instructor facilitates student work and grades reports

Learn ofasteroid inthe path ofEarth

Plot PointOne

Many ID languages support this (E2ML, coUML, poEML, IMS/LD, …)



Asteroid Impact: Activity planAsteroid Impact: Activity planInstructor Student Group

Announce asteroid assignment

Build small groups

Take notes on personal research

Research previous asteroid impacts

Collect group-specific assignment

Research geographic

impact aspects

Write reportNotes

Assignment

Report

Present & discuss reports

Grade reports

Facilitate student work

HC1

HC2

GC1

GC5



Precision through refinementPrecision through refinement

• Zooming in/out enables a more or less aggregate view on certain phases, activities, assignments

• Activity plans and object structures facilitate– Preparing instructors– Provision of project documentation– Design sharing– Selection and development of LOs– Creation of alternative storylines– Evaluation of implementation– …



ConclusionsConclusions

Types of languages– Disparate languages can act in concert– Reflection of different design orientations– Supporting the grand view and the details of an ID project– Integration of generative and conceptual language with finalist

and specificational language

Beauty and precisionID is about learning experiences, engagement, accomplishment –

requires creative solutions

ID is also about communicating and implementing design intentions for those experiences – requires precise specification

Supported by different ID languages



Call for ParticipationCall for Participation

VIDLATEL’08 – International Workshop on Visual Design Languages and Applications in

Technology-Enhanced Learning

Sept 16, 2008Maastricht, The Netherlands

in conjunction withEC-TEL’08 – Third European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (Sept 17-19)

http://elearn.pri.univie.ac.at/vidlatel



Book RecommendationBook Recommendation

IGI Global Publishinghttp://www.igi-global.com

(contact me for an additional 20% off the online price)



ReferencesReferences

Please contact [email protected] for details of papers cited here and additional stuff on this topic.

Beauty and precision in instructional design

Education

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