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Hi students, and welcome to another unit on case study design.
By now you should have started writing
an interesting and thought-provoking group case study
based on your common professional knowledge and interests.
To date, we have explored the difference
between ill-structured and well-structured problems,
and their characteristics.
We have also looked at the importance and power of stories and narrative.
We have also explored the components of a case study
and what should be included in the write-up of one.
This module builds on that knowledge base,
and extends it further by focusing on educational software
and the goal of educational software and core skills of the team.
In all likelihood, upon graduation, most of you will be qualified
to be instructional designers.
This course will help you understand the role of an instructional designer –
a job title that is in high demand.
Thus, it is important to learn the stages
of instructional design in this module thoroughly,
so you know what you're doing
and how to lead your future team when you're on your own.
This module also helps you understand
the interconnectedness of all the units in the course.
While we're leaving software evaluation tools for last,
this module does cover characteristics of high quality educational software,
so that you can begin to understand the components
of the checklists you will all be designing later.
This module will also introduce you to the key phases
of the educational software development process,
and it i- and it is indeed a process –
a systematic and defined process that inter-feeds itself.
Analysis Questions.
As we begin this module,
I would like you to think about the following questions.
One, what should the goal of educational software be?
Two, what skills should the educational software development team have?
Three, what features should high-quality educational software have?
And four, what are the main phases
in the educational software development process?
These questions focus on the skills the team you work will- work with
will need to have.
As an instructional designer, you are part of a larger team.
You work under a project manager,
but contribute your educational expertise
to the entire team.
This will dis- be discussed in the module in greater detail.
What is the goal of educational software?
According to Johnson and Schleyer, 2003,
the goal of educational software is to, quote,
"Teach and assess skills." Unquote.
Whether this be from simulations, websites, CDs, DV- DVDs,
videos, or games,
the purpose of educational software is to effectively instruct a learner
through a program, so that they may achieve some knowledge
at the completion of the online exercise.
Core Skills of the Educational Software Team.
On the educational software development team is a project manager,
an instructional designer, a subject matter expert,
a programmer, a graphical designer and an evaluation specialist.
Ideally, these are the six major roles on the team.
However, in some cases, the instructional designer
may be the evaluation expert as well as the program-
as well as program the educational technology too,
given the ease of development tools that exist these days.
For this slide, we will focus on the role of the instructional designer,
as that is the role you will be qualified for
at the completion of this program.
As an instructional designer, you will understand the usability issues,
target audience, interface protocols,
as well as have an understanding
of the theories of educational psychology.
You will conduct the content analysis
and determine instructional strategies best suited to deliver the content.
You will design smooth program navigation
and work with the programmer on program and database requirements.
You will also work with the multimedia artist on interface design
and write the video and audio scripts.
These days, educational technology experts
are doing all six roles together,
learning the educational technologies which create,
and learning the educational psychology theories
which underpin the pedagogy and instructional d- design,
evaluating the programs through the development and usage of checklists.
Much the same way, this is what the course intends on doing for you too.
Characteristics of High-Quality Educational Software.
When designing educational software,
we should first look at examples of educational software that exist,
and critique them based on a standard.
Johnson and Schleyer, 2003, have identified some characteristics
of high-quality educational software, such as –
utilizes effective pedagogy,
uses quality and interesting subject matter,
uses proper and correct language and grammar,
informative and correct feedback is given,
and uses both summative and formative evaluation.
Of particular interest to us is the first one, pedagogical issues.
What that means is that the instructional method
matches the content and audience needs,
practice reinforces content learned,
lessons are short and spread out over a number of sessions,
learners progress at their own pace, interface is easy to use,
interactions have instructional purpose,
learners apply information learned,
and new learning is applied repeatedly over time.
Educational Software Phases and Deliverables.
Educational software development has its phases,
an- and almost every researcher and educational technologist
presents the cycle in a high- in highly different ways.
Some models are linear, and show the process
as a linear development process,
whereas, I like to see it more like a cycle.
Starts with the content creation in the form of a case study.
This content is then broken down instructionally into little fragments,
using principles of instructional design.
Then the storyboarding process,
and finally the technical development and evaluation process.
However, there are two types of evaluation.
There is formative and summative.
And the two work together in an- in educational technology development.
Formative occurs throughout the process of development
and summative at the end.
However, in constructivist learning,
the summative evaluation at the end of the product development
feeds back into the design of the new learning object
or the revision of the current one.
Thus, in my perspective, educational software development phases
go through a cycle.
Synthesis Questions.
In recapping the main ideas in this module,
I would like you to think of the following two questions.
One, what features of high quality educational software
are most important to you?
And two, what features of high quality educational software
are not important to you?
In answering these questions, I would like you to explore
why you chose what you did,
and explain to your group your rationale.
Thank you.