Reflection

Overview

I began working in instructional design about three years ago with nothing more than a 25-year-old
technical writing degree and a love for learning. At that time, instructional design wasn’t even in my
vocabulary. With no surprise, I found myself ill-prepared to complete my assigned projects. About a year
ago, I decided to take the first course of U of W’s graduate certificate. It helped to gain background
information about the field, but I still struggled to put together the pieces of the overall process. This
second class, Instructional Strategies and Assessment Methods, has allowed me a safe place (away from
paying clients) to spread those pieces out on the table and inspect the critical instructional design
elements (objectives, assessment, and alignment) individually. More than that, I have discovered how
each of these are linked together.

Objectives

Let’s begin with objectives. Their importance cannot be overstated. Horton says on page 16 of eLearning
by Design, “Everything stems from the objectives. From the objectives, we identify prerequisites, select
activities, and design tests. Good objectives focus efforts, reduce false starts and cut waste
enormously.” I understood the importance of writing objectives. We work hard to develop concise, clear
sentences to guide the learner. But the concept that objectives also guide the designer’s decisions
throughout the whole project was cemented.

I carefully studied the objectives, activities, and assessment

triangle (shown here) from the online Carnegie Mellon University
article Why Should Assessments, Learning Objectives, and
Instruction Strategies be Aligned? The article posed three
questions (below) to determine alignment in a course. This helped
me to understand this overall connection.

o Learning objectives: What do I want students to know how to

do when they leave this course?
o Assessments: What kinds of tasks will reveal whether
students have achieved the learning objectives I have identified?
o Instructional strategies: What kinds of activities in and out of class will reinforce my learning
objectives and prepare students for assessments?

Following a hierarchy of learning while writing objectives allowed me to lead the learner through each
objective step-by-step to connect the components needed to reach the overall learning objectives. While
writing objectives, I carefully constructed terminal objectives that reflected the overall task. I then
aligned each enabling objective in sequential order so that each of these objectives were an
upward motion toward reaching the terminal objective. This makes perfect sense now but was one
of those Ah ha! moments.
Assessment

The assessment portion of the course was one I simultaneously anticipated and dreaded. Writing true or
false, pick one, pick multiple, and fill-in-the-blank quiz questions leaves me a little queasy. Okay, a lot.
So, I put on my hard hat, turned to Chapter 5 of Horton’s eLearning by Design and began reading.

Horton opens this chapter by emphasizing the importance of assessments, saying that “creating
effective tests does more to improve effectiveness of e-learning than anything other than defining clear
objectives.” He simplifies it further by saying that tests are nothing more than an indication of how well
learners are meeting the learning objectives. This chapter was enlightening. Useful tips, tricks, and
techniques abound!

Previously I wrote assessment quizzes by selecting the content which I hoped was hitting on the
important points. Horton reveals that you must first determine what you want to measure (described in
the course objective) before writing. Again, this pointed to how much the objectives affect the design as
a whole. Horton lists the reasons for assessments in his What do you hope to accomplish? table on
page 217. And since the purpose of my project was to provide resources for the participant to exercise
independent-learning skills, I understood that an informal, in person assessment sufficiently provides
the feedback participants needed. Beyond choosing what to ask was information on selecting types of
questions. I studied Horton’s list of Common types of test questions on page 221 and determined
Performance questions would work best in my project.

I continued working with assessments by choosing the activity to post quiz questions for discussion. I
practiced writing questions by first reviewing the terminal and enabling objectives. The KISS method (pg.
246) under Phrase questions and answers simply as well as “all of the above” advice from Avoid
common mistakes (pg. 252) held practical suggestions for clarity. The tips under Make all choices
plausible (pg. 256) were especially helpful, even basic information like keeping all the answers the same
length hadn’t occurred to me as a tipoff to the correct answer. Overall, I discovered writing quiz
questions is easier when I allowed the objectives to lead the way, used clear language, and provided
useful feedback for the learner.

Activities

The last side of the triangle is activities. In my professional experience, including more than one activity
per objective does not always happen. So, it is helpful to see how using a variety of activities (Absorb,
Do, Connect) solidifies the learner’s knowledge.

Absorb:

Absorb activities are common and straightforward. I included three types of Absorb activities in my
project: in person demonstrations, online videos, and written step-by-step resources of software steps.
These activities are good preparation for the learner to orientate them within the software and practice
the steps independently.

Absorb Best Practices: Pick the best mix of media, include an introduction of the demonstration (the
videos already contain some of this material) and extend an invitation for the learner to follow along.
Do:

After completing the Absorb activities, it’s time for the learners to practice. The Do activity allows the
learner to analyze, verify and apply the knowledge that was learned in the Absorb activities. Using the
three-step sequence that Horton describes on page 131, I assigned a task for the learner to perform,
instructed the learner to perform the task, and evaluated the performance and provided feedback. As I
completed the Do activities portion of the alignment chart, I had to make revisions because my
assessment was not aligned with my activities. In black and white, I could see where my design had lost
that Carnegie Mellon University triangular shape. Another Ah-ha! for me.

Do Best Practices: Allow the learner to determine how much to practice, and in the scenario activity, I
require screenshot evidence to produce visible results.

Connect:

How do you decide if an activity is Do or Connect? Horton advises to look at the purpose (page 163). The
goal of a Do activity is to teach something new while Connect activities seek to link or apply the learned
information. I incorporated Connect activities in my design by asking the learner to create a post in the
FAQ section of the online resource. By creating a FAQ posting, the learner reflects of some of the
information that may have caused confusion as they learned and describes how it was resolved. This
Connect activity provides learning for the participant and enables them to teach the next new learner.

Connect Best Practice: Summarize in a FAQ file.

That’s a Wrap

I have made some crucial connections between what I understood about Instructional Design before
and after taking the Instructional Strategies and Assessment Methods course. The learning objectives,
instructional activities, and assessments triangle has taken formation in my design. I discovered the
impact that the objectives have on the overall design, taken away tips and techniques to create
assessments that measure if the learner has achieved the objective, and have learned to create the best
activities for the learners to achieve the objectives. This class has better prepared me not just for the
next course but for my next project at work. Filled with a lot of little ah ha moments, I began to fully
comprehend concepts that are regularly discussed at work. I’ve been able to not only place the pieces
on the table, inspect them, and fit them together but create a much clearer picture of the whole
instructional design process.