2. Application of an Instructional
Design Model for Industry
Training:
From Theory to Practice
3. This chapter examines reflections,
considerations (pertimbangan), and the
problems encountered when attempting to
apply an instructional design model in the
design and development of two online
courses for industry training. Specific issues
addressed include: tight budgets, limited
cooperation from SMEs, high expectations of
clients, major changes to ‘finalized designs,’
and the importance of dealing with such
matters promptly and effectively.
4. DEFINITIONS
O Instructional design “is the process of designing the
environment, methods, and resources for effective
learning of specified goals and objectives” (Boettcher &
Conrad, 1999, p. 49).
O According to Hall (1997), Web-based training is
instruction that is delivered over the Internet or over a
company’s intranet. This instruction is accessed using a
Web browser, and is characterized by the readily
available, interactive, multimedia nature of the Web and
its associated plug-ins.
5. DESCRIPTION OF COMPANIES AND
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A brief description of the companies for which the
online courses were built will help you better
understand many of the instructional design decisions
that were made and the problems encountered while
developing the courses.
O The first online course was built for a health care
company, situated in Chicago. The pharmaceutical
division of this company requested that our team build
an online course on the topic of Release Specifications.
It would be used to train managers internationally.
Previously the course was taught via traditional
classroom instruction; however the instructors were
involved in so many projects that they no longer had
time to teach the course.
6. O The second online course was built for a
chemical company in Canada To build
awareness of the system among its
employees, and to educate managers on
how to plan and implement the system,
the company requested that our team
develop instruction that was user friendly
and easily accessible at all their
petrochemical locations.
7. PROJECT TEAM ROLES
The project team for the development of
these two courses consisted of a project
manager, two instructional
designers/programmers, a graphic de- signer,
and a network specialist. The instructional
designers worked on the projects for almost a
month full time, while the remaining team
members worked on the project on a part-time
basis or whenever their expertise was
required. Work on this project was completed
in a collaborative manner.
8. DESCRIPTION OF COURSES
• A B R I E F D E S C R I P T I O N O F B O T H O N L I N E
C O U R S E S , I N C L U D I N G T H E I N S T R U C T I O N A L
A N D N AV I G AT I O N A L C O M P O N E N T S , I S
P R O V I D E D B E L O W T O E N H A N C E T H E
R E A D E R S ’ U N D E R - S TA N D I N G O F T H E
I N S T R U C T I O N A L D E S I G N P R O C E S S
F O L L O W E D T O B U I L D T H E M .
• T H E N AV I G AT I O N A L B U T T O N S O N T H E L E F T
I N C L U D E A R AT I O N A L E , A P R E T E S T B U T T O N
T H AT L I N K S T O M U LT I P L E - C H O I C E
Q U E S T I O N S , A N D A N O B J E C T I V E S B U T T O N ,
F R O M W H I C H T H E L E A R N E R C A N A C C E S S A L L
T H E L E A R N I N G R E S O U R C E S ( I N C L U D I N G
T E X T, I M A G E S , P R A C T I C E A C T I V I T I E S , A N D
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T E X E R C I S E S ) .
9. APPLICATION OF AN
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN MODEL
A combination of two instructional design models where
utilized for this project. The first is the Dick and Carey
model (1990), which comprises five phases: analyze,
design, develop, implement, and evaluate. This is the
model that we used when communicating with the
clients, because it is straightforward and easy to
understand.
According to Kemp, Morrison, and Ross (1998), a
comprehensive instructional design plan consists of the
following tasks: (1) identify instructional problems, (2)
examine learner characteristics, (3) identify subject
content and analyze task components, (4) state
instructional objectives, (5) sequence content, (6) design
instructional strategies, (7) plan the instructional
10. ANALYSIS
From this experience it is possible to conclude that even if a
budget is not allocated for the analysis phase, the instructional
designer must attempt to verify at a bare minimum:
a.the skills that need to be taught (if any),
b.the learning resources already in place,
c.the intended audience, and
d.the client’s expectations and requirements.
As seen from this example verifying the above information is not
always easily accomplished.
11. DESIGN
According to Kemp, Morrison, & Ross
(1998). During the design phase,
information obtained from the needs
assessment, whether formal or informal,
is used to plan a strategy to develop
effective instruction.
12. CONTENT FOR
INSTRUCTION
A first step towards developing effective instruction
is to identify and outline the content.
This observation emphasizes the importance of
managing the project effectively, a responsibility that
is primarily the project manager’s and to some
extent the instructional designer’s.
14. I N S T RU C T I O NA L S T R A T E G I E S W E R E
S E L E C T E D :
Instructional Strategies The instructional designer
determines how to present the content related to
each individual learning objective in a manner that
helps the learner master that objective.
15. Overview of what will be learned (objectives);
Presentation of information through the use of visuals,
texts, and animations (knowledge/learning);
Opportunities for practice and feedback (in the form of
matching exercises and dynamic spreadsheets); and
Self-assessment/evaluation questions (in the form of fill-in-
the-blank/short answer).
16. FLOWCHARTS
Flowcharts are graphical presentations of how the
HTML pages are mapped out and connected to
form the online course.
Such flowcharts were used for both courses and
seemed to enable effective communication among
the project team when they were building the online
courses
17. Storyboards and Style Guides
When designing instruction, storyboards should be drawn
on paper to visually illustrate how the text and graphics will be
presented on each page.
Style guides can be created to provide an outline of how a
document should be structured, including elements like
corporate logos, screen design, methods of interaction, links
graphics, and animations (Lemiski, 2000). For both the Release
Specifications course and the Business Systems course, no
storyboards or style guides were created, because there was a
very tight timeline. The pages for the online modules were
immediately built in HTML. If there is no time to create a
storyboard, at the least cascading style sheets and templates
should be used to allow the instructional design team to quickly
make mass changes.
18. Development
Once the storyboards and design specifications have been
decided on, the next steps involve the production of the final
product.
For both the Release Specifications and the Business
Systems courses, the instructional design team built a prototype
module, based on specifications outlined in the design phase.
This sample of the whole course was provided to the client
early on to identify any problems or concerns, and to resolve
these prior to finishing the whole course. This process took
longer than expected, as the SMEs (from the client side)
seemed to find it difficult to schedule time to collaboratively
review the prototype module.
19. As a final step within the development phase,
technical testing — other- wise known as quality
assurance testing — was conducted for the Release
Specifications course. This involved checking every link
from within each module to ensure that the links were
working as intended (Hall, 1997).
20. Implementation
Since the Release Specification course was
terminated prior to completion, only the Business Systems
course was implemented.
Learners were expected to complete the Business
Systems awareness course at their own pace, when they
had time. While there was no formal instructor, an
individual from the company was assigned to maintain
and update the course. Therefore a session was arranged to
provide coaching and advice to this individual on
maintaining and updating the learning modules using
Dreamweaver.
21. Evaluation
Formative testing and revision are conducted throughout
the design and development of the online courses, to identify
and eliminate weaknesses before full-scale implementation,
contributing to the success of the project (Kemp, Morrison, &
Ross, 1998).
For both the Business Systems and Release Specifications
courses, formative evaluation was conducted when the
instructional content was examined and revised, when
storyboards were examined and modified, when the prototype
module was reviewed, and when the modules that were
completed were tested.
Summative evaluation is conducted at the end of a project
to measure the degree to which the major project objectives are
attained (Kemp, Morrison, & Ross, 1998).
22. This type of summative evaluation, examining the
final product, was not conducted for either of the two
courses, since the Release Specifications course was not
completed, and there was no budget allocated for
summative evaluation of the Business Systems course.
If a business does not have the expertise internally to
complete a summative evaluation or would like a ‘fresh’
perspective and outlook on the project, an uninvolved
external evaluator can be hired to complete a summative
evaluation.
24. • There are two additional reflections regarding
project management responsibilities of
the instructional designer and the overall
approach to the courses.
25. Project Management and
Instructional Design
• The writer make Project management = writing the
initial proposal for the project, managing the work of
the graphic designer, and ensuring that he met
deadlines, as well as tracking and reporting the hours
and resources utilized for the development of the
course.
• according to Kerzner (2000) indicates that a project
is successful are to complete the project within the
estimated timeline and budget, and ensure that the
client’s expectations were met
26. • For example, the SMEs/Application of an
Instructional Design Model for Industry
Training instructors of the Release
Specification course communicated that they felt
uneasy about converting their traditional
classroom course into an online course, despite
the eagerness of senior management to go ahead
with the project. According to McCallie and
McKinzie (1999), if industry people do not feel
comfortable and at ease with the online course,
the project will be terminated
27. Constructivism VS Behaviorism
• Constructivist values such as collaboration,
personal autonomy, reflectivity, active
engagement, personal relevance, and pluralism
(Lebow, 1993) were overlooked to a great extent
in the Business Systems courses. The client
advocated that these types of activities would
take too much time to complete, and that they
would not appeal to learners who are used to
being “fed with information.”
28. • So, between students and instructor need
communication. As instructional designer, we
must know about what the client wanted.
29. • Behavioristic approaches to learning, such as
competency-based learning, may be more
appropriate than constructivism. Through self-paced
modularized learning, immediate feedback, and
remedial instruction, employees are expected to
achieve 100% mastery of skills.
30. • a combination of the two approaches, as was
seen in the Release Specifications course, may be
the most effective approach, where elements
from both are utilized, allowing mastery of
specific skills, while spending some time
reinforcing learning through collaboration and
communication (i.e., threaded discussion
board).