EDID6505-Systems Approach to Instructional Material

Reflection 

Systems Approach to Designing Instructional Materials presented many learning opportunities for me and I am grateful for them.The opportunities to practice, engage with other instructional designers and learn were preiceless.One major take away from the group meeting was that the OpenEmis was not the most suitable option for the group  when meeting the criteria to satisfy the high order thinking skills for the group assignment. The group suggested that  the steps in my individual project  could easily be completed in  a few days  and we therefore needed to revisit our selection and so we choose Lokaya’s.

The individual assignment revealed a notable  misconception among staff  that, the computers would be used to replace them over time or there would be a lack of privacy whereas senior administrators would be able to read their  correspondence using the system to other members of the student support social care services and  monitor their daily activities.This information was useful me as the designer. Some participants were unable to complete activities  because they lacked access to portable computers. The computers in the labs were  useful however the systems were used by both students and teachers .This posed a challenge to those participants; the systems were slow and prone to issues and viruses. Notwithstanding this, the  majority of   participants were able to complete activities and participate in discussions and lessons on a timely basis. 

Instructional strategies such as demonstrations, simulations, and co-operative learning were used to guide participants to meet the enabling objectives. These instructional strategies appeared in  presentations and tutorial sessions. PowerPoint presentation tools were also integrated to give participants a  feel of what was expected as well as integrating Merril’s First Principles of Instruction, to allow participants to explore their problem solving skills. These strategies create ways of conveying information to participants to enable them to learn in order to achieve a particular educational purpose. While there is no right or wrong instructional strategy  the  aim was to ensure that the participant was able to  grasp what was  being conveyed. However there are some strategies that allow for more interaction in the learning process whether it is interaction between participant  and participant or participant and teacher.

According to Mikre (2010) describes an assessment as a process of obtaining information in order to make decisions. Fundamentally  assessments represent the foundation for any instructional implementation. They can serve to  affect decisions on whether to continue instruction or to revise and repeat training if necessary (Morrison et al., 2010). It is through pre, during and post assessment data that instructions are developed. The course was designed with a series of assessments to gather knowledge at each phase of learning. This approach was adopted, not only because there is an undeniable link between instruction and assessment, but also because it helps to confirm whether or not the goals set in the objectives were met and if participants achieved the baseline set in those instructional objectives. All items covered the full range of Bloom’s Taxonomy – from recall/knowledge to evaluation.