Developing the Instructional Materials

Somewhere between grade school and our college grammar class, we had a teacher who required us to write a three to five page paper. Until that frightening event, most of us had never written more than a paragraph. Writing a paragraph seemed difficult enough because we had to have 50 to 100 words. Now, we are expected to write a longer paper with 500, a thousand, or maybe 2500 words, and we had to use correct grammar and spelling. That first attempt was often a disaster and had more red ink than black ink! Listening to the teacher, we soon learned that the starting point was not the introductory paragraph, but a well-planned and detailed outline.

The instructional design process is similar to the process your grammar teacher was asking you to use. All the analysis that you have done provides a detailed outline for the content of your instruction. But, how do you translate this analysis, objectives, and instructional strategies into instruction? This week, we will focus on developing the instruction.

We started our project by defining an instructional problem. Before you start developing the instruction, you should take a moment to reflect on your analysis. If we could line up our learner analysis, task analysis, objectives, strategies, and test items we would expect to sight down a straight line with all our analysis leading back to our problem.

Consider the following questions as you read this section.

1. What should you consider as you review your objectives?
2. How can you use the learner analysis to guide the development of your instruction?

Read pages 198-202.

Review your objectives and your assessments. Do the assessments accurately measure your objectives? Do your objectives relate to your problem statement? If they do not, what modifications can you make?

Review your learner analysis. What are some key characteristics of your learners that will help guide the development of your instruction?

Use a word processor such as Microsoft Word and write an introductory paragraph. Now, check the readability index of your paragraph. If you select Spelling and Grammar from the Tools menu, the Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level index is displayed (see Figure 9-1 on page 201; you may have to turn on this function to see the index). Did you write the paragraph at the appropriate level? Try writing a second, similar paragraph 2 grades lower than the first paragraph. What techniques did you use to reduce the grade level?

Now that you have made the final tweaks to your design plan, you are ready to start developing the unit of instruction. You have a solid outline that describes your plan in great detail. But, how do you translate the analysis in instruction that learners can easily comprehend? For example, you have probably read textbooks and found some were very easy to understand while others were really difficult, or maybe too difficult to understand. As instructional designers and teachers, we want to do everything possible to help our students comprehend the instruction we have developed. What can we do to make our instruction understandable? Consider the following questions as you read this next section.

1. What is the value of making instruction concrete? What are some methods you can use?
2. How can I make the transition from one idea to the next easy for my students?
3. How can I make my content user friendly?

Read pages 202-205.

Select a textbook that you have used in a course you have taken or one that you might use when you teach. Select a topic or two of 3-5 pages in length and analyze how the author has crafted the section. Use the following chart to guide your analysis. When you complete the column of what the author has done, offer your suggestions for improvement.

Once you have completed your analysis and suggestions, select one heuristic (e.g., pacing) and describe what the author did well and one heuristic where you feel the author did not do a good job. What do authors tend to do well and what do they tend to do poorly? How can you avoid these same problems when you develop your instruction?

Now, it is time to put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard. Let,s take one final look at how to develop the instruction. As you read this next section, consider how you will approach each step of developing your instruction.

Read pages 205-216.

Exercise 3

Most people enjoy variety in their lives whether it is the food they eat, the clothes they wear, or the movies they watch. Students also like variety in the ways they learn. This final reading examines three different delivery methods. The instructional design process we are using is readily adaptable to providing instruction for each of these methods. As you read this next section, consider the appropriateness of each method for your classroom.

Read pages 216-233.

Select one of the methods and write a brief description of how you might use this method to teach a lesson in a class you might teach. Post your description to the discussion board for this lesson.

Review what others have written and consider the approaches and content. Which approaches best fit your style of teaching? Which approaches would you prefer not to use? On the discussion board describe which of the methods you would most prefer using and why. And, describe the method you would least prefer using and explain why.

Final Project

As you prepare to develop your instruction, identify ways you can make your instruction concrete, adjust the step size, vary the pacing, maintain consistency, and use cues to improve the instruction.

Translating your analysis and design opens opportunities to be creative with the instruction. Simply translating your analysis and strategies into prose can yield rather dry and boring instruction. As a teacher and instructional designer, you need to consider ways to add interesting and motivating approaches to the instruction. For example, consider the various introductions to the units used in this course. We have used a variety of styles and approaches to make the units interesting and appealing to the students. Making good instruction is part science and part art, the trick is finding the right mix to challenge and engage your students.