Steps in the Development Phase

• Introduction to the Development Phase
• List Learner Activities
• Choose Delivery System
• Review Existing Material
• Develop Instruction
• Synthesize
• Validate Instruction
• Return to the Table of Contents

Related Resources

Instructional Design Toolkit

ISD Concept Map

Action Mapping

Cathy Moore has an excellent slide show on showing the learning requirements by using concept mapping at Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping.

Development Activities

List Learner Activities

While the main instructional setting and media were chosen in the first two phases, in this phase, the learning strategies and supporting activities that will best assist the learners in mastering the objectives are selected and built.

Developing Activities

When developing and selecting activities it often helps to use a series of If/Then statements;

Goal: If we want this outcome _____, then the employees will need to perform in this manner _____ (Performance). If we want them to perform like this, then they need to learn these skills _____ (Skills). If we want them to learn these skills, then they need to know this information _____ (Knowledge). If we want them to have these skills and knowledge then these to to practice these activities _____.

In addition, think beyond the classroom:

• Onramping: What do they need to learn before the class?
• Create a Learning Platform that will support the learning process, rather than a one-shot activity.
• Create performance aids so that the learners' training time is reduced to the bare minimum.
• On-the-Job Application: What do they need after the class?

Some designers might prefer to design and develop the learning activities using a more visual method:

 

Selecting Activities

When selecting activities to help the future performers learn the new skills and knowledge, it helps to think in terms of Bloom's Cognitive Domain, but rather than use the old versions of his cognitive domain, use the updated version developed by Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom:

Note that this chart lists the categories in reverse order (complex skills to easier skills). This is the opposite from most other charts. This is because in a knowledge based society, these types of skills are normally more important. For example, rather than remembering a lot of things that might soon change, we rely on our connections to others and relying on the internet and computer apps.

The chart below list examples of activities that will help promote the skills and knowledge of the various cognitive domains:

Note: you can get the files for the Drag and Drop example link contained in the table above by downloading this file.

Defining Learning

To select the proper activities, it helps to know what learning is and what activities enhance a particular form of learning.

Learning has been defined as a relatively permanent change in behavioral potentiality that occurs as a result of reinforced practice (Kimble, 1961). The following elaborates on this basic definition:

• Learning is indexed by a change in behavior, which must be translated into observable behavior.
• After learning, learners are capable of performing something that they could not do before the learning experience.
• This change is relatively permanent, it is neither transitory nor fixed.
• The change in behavior need not occur immediately following the learning experience. Although there may be a potential to act differently, this potential may not be translated into a new behavior immediately.
• The change in behavior results from experience or practice.
• The experience or practice must be reinforced.

Learning has also be defined as:

The process by which people acquire new skills or knowledge for the purpose of enhancing performance (Rosenberg, 2001).

Learning a subject seems to involve three almost simultaneous processes:

1. There is acquisition of new information. Often the information runs counter to or is a replacement for what the learner had previously known.
2. Learning may be called a “transformation” — the process of manipulating knowledge to make it fit new tasks. Transformation comprises the ways we deal with information in order to go beyond it.
3. Some type of evaluation takes place by the learner in order to check whether the information and skills are adequate for the task.

Some describe learning as being “social.” The physicist Freeman Dyson wrote that when writing, he closes the door, but when doing science, he leaves it open, “up to a point you welcome being interrupted because it is only by interacting with other people that you get anything interesting done.” He wrote two papers that were published in Physical Review that brought together Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger's theories of quantum mechanics. After Dyson's papers, Feynman and Schwinger's ideas became understandable to others and thus led to the two being awarded the Noble prize in physics. There is no doubt in most minds that the two would never have been awarded the prize if it was not for Dyson being able to explain their ideas to others.

Thus, you have Freeman Dyson, learning from Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger. However, Feynman was such a genius that he learned from whenever he came across information, such as books and lectures. Einstein is another example — people learned a lot from being around him, yet he learned from what ever was available.

In addition, there is more than one type of learning. A committee of colleges and universities studied learning behaviors and broke learning into three main domains or Taxonomies (Krathwohl, at. el., 1964). Knowing the type of knowledge, skill, or attitude that is discussed in the taxonomy will assist you in determining the best instructional strategy.

References

Kimble, G. A. (1961). Hilgard and Marquis' Conditioning and Learning (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

Rosenberg, Marc (2001). E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B. S., Mesia, B. B. (1964). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (two vols: The Affective Domain & The Cognitive Domain). New York. David McKay.

Next Steps

Read Media, Strategies, & Methods for more help in choosing activities.

Go to the next section: Choose Delivery System

Return to the Table of Contents

Notes

Updated November 17, 2010. Created July 13, 1995.

Find out more about me (copyright, APA formatting, etc.) ~ Email me at donclark@nwlink.com ~ A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge Jump Production