Representation is utilized when a person is dealing with some information, but the information cannot be directly transferred into the person's mind. Therefore the information is represented in a different form, so that the transfer for information can be completed. According to Dr. G's screencast this week, instructional designers should organize and represent content considering a number of different things:
1. Intentional design decision should be based on: accuracy, clarity and learner involvement
2. With consideration for context/ content complexity, learner expertise and goals of the environment
3. Also with consideration for resources and constraints within the environment
My team and I are planning to create an online career support service for IST master's students. The goal of the online support is provide career guidance for future IST master's students. The website will provide information on the different career venues available upon graduation with a master's degree in IST, alumni contact information, and other external resources for career development. Since our learners are not experts on this subject, we will attempt to provide detailed and accurate information through text. In order to engage the learners' interests we may produce an infographic (decision tree/flow) for the career paths for students depending on their research and interests.
MC
Your team is making great progress so far in your design thinking. One thing to consider: there are times when you DO want the learner to remember details. Consider the following: do you want your brain surgeon to have detailed knowledge or just the gist?
ReplyDeleteDr. G, I think you raise a critical point, which I may have overlooked when writing my blog entry. The design should also derive from context of the learner and the goals.
ReplyDeleteMinae,
ReplyDeleteThat’s an excellent example! The while not meant to be the primary take-away, the design aspects do help to support the main gist of the movie by setting the tone and drawing attention to the main instructional message points. Using my daughter’s favorite Disney movies as an example, the clothes that Cinderella wears (animated, I know, but same point) when she is under her stepmothers thumb paint the picture of a hard life of cleaning and chores, where the clothes she wears with the Prince at the ball capture her transformation into a princess; both of these are key elements of the overall story. (Note, I tried to think of movies I like, but Caddyshack, Big Lebowski, and Office Space didn’t really have as many striking design elements).
I really liked the sound of your group’s project, and think that it has huge potential to help a lot of people in this field, especially since this career path can permeate so many wildly different types of organizations, including schools, higher education, Fortune 500 companies, government, military, small companies, consulting, etc. Despite being so widespread, it is a niche skill set. The diversity within this degree, and the potential employment opportunities, presents design challenges that I am excited to see someone with your skills and brains tackle! Having worked with you on other project, I think you have a unique and applicable ability in design! I also think you will learn a lot about the field which will be helpful to you, and our classmates!
With your artistic background, are you finding a lot of congruency between the design principles in IST and your undergrad degree?
-Bryan
Minae,
ReplyDeleteBased on the explanation of representation you gave, it sounds like so far you have only considered the passive learning aspects (provide information, produce an infographic, etc) but these are only things for the viewer to read/see/view. How will your representation access their active learning skills (producing, doing, participating). Are their interactive elements to your design for the learners? Preferably portions where they will receive feedback based on their demonstration of learning of the content. Obviously there are certain constraints built into an online learning environment, but I can see areas where students could answer questions, rank career interest and receive directed resources, and maybe even submit a resume to a forum section where peers and/or career specialists can review and give feedback.
So often with online learning, our design only takes into consideration what we can SHOW to the student, but to really engage them, we need to also remember to design in elements where the student can show us what they can do.
I typed bunch only to find out it crashed...;( Anyways, the gist was... that, in my opinion, instructional designers should be able to distinguish the kinds of information that are better represented in the "gist" way, whereas other kinds of information is better in a full extensive version. Defining your instructional goal is critical. Do you want your leaner to have an overall understanding of the big picture or do you need them to memorize the fact, or even, demonstrate something? Up to you!
ReplyDelete