Research Article
Meina Zhu, Merve Basdogan, Curtis J. Bonk
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 12, Issue 2, Article No: ep267
ABSTRACT
Instructional design and training skills have become a key competency that is expected of public health professionals. However, the research on educating public health students as instructional designers (ID) is lacking. The purpose of this study is to better understand how novice IDs design trainings using their design judgment in an authentic instructional design project in order to provide them with effective educational supports. The data sources of this case study include 11 training lesson plans generated by 37 students through a semester and six semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that: (1) online games, (2) instructional videos, (3) handouts, (4) PowerPoint presentation slides, and (5) infographics were designed and used by novice IDs. In the midst of the various challenges that were encountered, framing judgment, core judgment, instrumental judgment, navigational judgment, and appearance judgment were manifested in the design process of novice IDs. Based on the findings, practical implementations are recommended to develop effective instructional design curricula for novice public health student designers.
Keywords: design judgment, instructional design, instructional design challenges, instructional design practices, novice instructional designers, public health
Research Article
Turkan Karakus Yilmaz, Kursat Cagiltay
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 7, Issue 3, pp. 206-222
ABSTRACT
Many virtual worlds have been adopted for implementation within educational settings because they are potentially useful for building effective learning environments. Since the flexibility of virtual worlds challenges to obtain effective and efficient educational outcomes, the design of such platforms need more attention. In the present study, the aim was to investigate design issues and the concerns of novice instructional designers who were developing a virtual learning environment with a gaming approach. Active Worlds (AW), an immersive virtual environment, was selected as a platform to develop virtual world projects that presented instructional materials. Twenty-three novice instructional designers participated in this study. Data were collected through observations, interviews, document analysis, and a questionnaire. The results indicate that the novice instructional designers were most challenged when attempting to incorporate motivational and assessment features in their project designs. They ignored collaboration opportunities of the design platform. They also accepted that they could not achieve to provide a feel of real game. The results suggested that design and development in virtual worlds has many challenges but a broad experience for novice instructional designers.
Keywords: Instructional design, Novice instructional designers, Instructional design education, Virtual worlds, Active Worlds