Anatomy of an eLearning Lesson: Merrill’s First Principles. By Shelley A. Gable A post from a couple weeks ago explained that there are instructional design models that offer formulas for assembling training in a way that captures learners’ attention, conveys content, and provides learners with an opportunity to practice and receive feedback on new skills. That post described Robert Gagne’s nine events of instruction, which is one of the more popular instructional design models and is based on cognitive and behavioral psychology. Another well-known and broadly accepted instructional design model is M. David Merrill’s first principles of instruction. Merrill built this model based on a comprehensive review of instructional theories and models in the field. Both models provide sound structure for developing effective eLearning.
Merrill’s first principles consists of five principles, each with supporting corollaries. Image from So why present both models? Firstprinciplesbymerrill.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Muirhead_book_review.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Learning Objectives - Enhancing Education. Before you decide on the content to cover in your course, endow your course with a strong internal structure conducive to student learning. Alignment among three main course components ensures an internally consistent structure.
Alignment is when the: OBJECTIVES articulate the knowledge and skills you want students to acquire by the end of the courseASSESSMENTS allow the instructor to check the degree to which the students are meeting the learning objectivesINSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES are chosen to foster student learning towards meeting the objectives When these components are not aligned, students might rightfully complain that the test did not have anything to do with what was covered in class, or instructors might feel that even though students are earning a passing grade, they haven’t really mastered the material at the desired level.
Aligning these three components is a dynamic process, since a change in onenecessarily affects the other two. Learning objectives should use action verbs. 05-2Bloom-02&03+The+Cognitive+Process+Dimension+New+B+1-2.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Thinking-skills-and-taxonomies.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Bloom'sDimensions.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Tivity 2 - Effective use of Learning Design - OpenLearn - The Open University. Time: 30 minutes In this activity, you will use an instrument called the "taxonomy of educational objectives" to align learning outcomes with learning activities, which are part of teaching methods. The taxonomy was originally developed to align learning outcomes with assessment items (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).
It has since been used in instructional design to ensure that the components of a learning design are "aligned". In the revised version (depicted in Table 1 below), the taxonomy features two dimensions: the knowledge dimension, and the cognitive process dimension. Each learning outcome should ideally contain a verb that states an action the learner is to perform or demonstrate. The definitions for the different types of knowledge and cognitive processes are as follows (after Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001): Knowledge Dimension Factual knowledge: The basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems in it Cognitive Process Dimension Your task:
RevisedBloomsHandout.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Knowl-CogProcDimension.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt) Align_handout.pdf (application/pdf-Objekt)