SUPPORTING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
IN FORMAL LEARNING
A Knowledge Management System for Planning, Implementing and Evaluating
Courses in Traditional Classrooms
Eleni Fatourou
26
th
Primary School of Nikea, Nikea, Greece
Keywords: Instructional Design, ADDIE, Formal Learning, Knowledge Management System.
Abstract: Instructional Design is not an exact science, especially in a traditional classroom context. Teachers plan,
perform and evaluate their lessons in an ad-hoc manner. Their decisions, however, share a common basis,
which includes but is not limited to didactic methodologies, past courses experience, students'
characteristics and prior knowledge, available material and time, goals to be achieved and expectations to be
fulfilled. All this information is fragmented in various and heterogeneous material, ranging from tests and
evaluation reports to classroom management software and administration documents. It is proposed to apply
ADDIE Instructional Design Model to the context of formal learning. Based on the processes identified by
ADDIE, a knowledge management system is designed to enable assessment of the past decisions and
facilitate the forthcoming.
1 INTRODUCTION
Instructional Design is the process through which an
educator determines the best teaching methods for
specific learners in a specific context, attempting to
obtain a specific goal (IEEE Reference Guide for
Instructional Design). It is a descriptive rather than a
prescriptive definition, in other words it addresses
what should be done but not how.
As it is the right decisions that determine the
effectiveness of a design, Knowledge Management
Systems have been designed to support Instructional
Design. They primarily focus on content sharing
(Learning Management Systems), but also
Knowledge Management Systems have been
introduced that target collaboration between teachers
(Marshall and Rossett, 2000).
A Knowledge Management System that can ease
and evaluate an instructor's choices is proposed. In
order to design a system targeting teachers’ work, a
certain workflow must be issued. Many
methodologies, known as Instructional Design
Models, have been proposed, which provide a step-
by-step process to designing an instruction. Each
model may be more or less applicable to a learning
context. In order to choose the appropriate
Instructional Design Model, the particular features
of formal learning must be identified and evaluated.
2 FORMAL LEARNING
CONTEXT
Although a clear distinction between formal and
informal learning is hard to make (McGivney, 1999,
p1), the former typically describes a structured
process in terms of objectives and time. Teachers are
to enable their students to reach didactic goals
already defined by an institution in accordance with
a strict timetable.
On the other hand, no particular assumptions can
be made as to what Instructional Design Model a
teacher should be consulting, since none of the
models proposed in bibliography has been proved
more efficient than other. What is more, a model that
was proved successful for a particular teacher or
class, may fail in another situation.
Despite the differences in the way teachers work,
researches have reviled common steps that
instructors take when planning their lesson.
According to a research performed by the University
of Vienna, "Comparing Instructors’ Approaches to
432
Fatourou E..
SUPPORTING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN IN FORMAL LEARNING - A Knowledge Management System for Planning, Implementing and Evaluating
Courses in Traditional Classrooms.
DOI: 10.5220/0003956504320435
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2012), pages 432-435
ISBN: 978-989-8565-07-5
Copyright
c
2012 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
Course Design across Europe", six typical steps
were adopted by more than 50% of participants
during Instructional Design. These are design/select
material, define content-oriented structure of the
course, define learning outcome, design teaching
method, set up learning management system and
define time structure of the course. No important
differences between countries were detected.
A model that can typify these common steps must
be chosen. ADDIE is a generic model. It is used to
describe a systematic approach to instructional
development, virtually synonymous with instructional
systems development (Molenda, 2003). As the
majority of Instructional Design Models can be easily
deducted to it, ADDIE does not enforce a specific
workflow to the instructor and is most applicable for a
context as vast as formal education.
3 ADDIE ADAPTATION
ADDIE is short for Analysis, Design, Development,
Implementation, and Evaluation, that is five,
flexible, context-free phases that can describe an
instructor's steps. Each of the first four phases has an
outcome that feeds the next one in the sequence,
while evaluation phase occurs throughout the
process and may affect one or more of the outcomes
of the other phases.
Figure 1: ADDIE Instructional Design Model.
3.1 Analysis
This is where the outline of the course is considered.
The system must report to the instructor the scope
and objectives, as they were officially stated by the
institution responsible for the course. Analysis phase
also keeps track of the typical audience, the common
characteristics that learners of this course usually
share, such as age and prior knowledge.
3.2 Design
Design phase includes a prototype Instructional
Design for a course not yet planned. Based on the
information provided by the previous phase, the
system must store educational resources and
prototype workflows, referred to as Learning
Designs, which correspond to one or more
objectives of the course. Information about the time
and the place the course will occur are not yet
addressed.
3.3 Development
In development phase the actual place and time of
the course is inserted in the system and specific
learners are registered. In other words, a new
classroom in created. The teacher sets up plans
according to learning designs of the previous phase
that are most applicable for the situation. The
appropriate educational resources are chosen and
matched to plans.
3.4 Implementation
At implementation phase the course takes place.
During implementation, the system should allow the
instructor to make alterations on the outcomes of the
previous phase, as well as report classroom
incidents, like absences and drop-outs.
3.5 Evaluation
Evaluation phase typically occurs during any of the
other phases, for example a revision of the outline of
a course at analysis phase will result to
modifications at design phase and so on.
Evaluating an Instructional Design is difficult as
many parameters have to be considered and
measurable evidence can not always be provided. It
is however possible to evaluate each element of the
Instructional Design based on the including
elements. For example the effectiveness of a
Learning Design may be evaluated from the level of
success of the derived plans and the plans may also
be evaluated by the lessons they consist of.
The system must provide the instructor with
specific metrics that can be used to choose
educational material, plans and learning designs both
absolute and in relation to the audience and other
features of the implementing course. These metrics
will be useful when new decisions are made.
4 SYSTEM DESIGN
ADDIE was used to identify the main issues that the
system must tackle. Only for the sake of
SUPPORTINGINSTRUCTIONALDESIGNINFORMALLEARNING-AKnowledgeManagementSystemfor
Planning,ImplementingandEvaluatingCoursesinTraditionalClassrooms
433
presentation, the design of the system is broken into
the five phases. No entities or separate modules will
be created for each phase, as it must be as model-
unaware as possible.
4.1 Analysis
A course outline (Course) may have zero or more
objectives that can be shared with other courses.
Course can also be related to zero or more typical
audiences (Audience). An Audience describes the
typical characteristics of a type of learners, for
example 5-year-old pupils.
Figure 2: Analysis phase.
4.2 Design
An educational resource (Resource) may be a test, a
presentation, an exercise, a link to educational
software and anything content-specific material. A
Learning Design describes the course workflow as a
prototype design, without specifying date, place or
participants. A Learning Design may have zero or
more objectives and resources. It is important to note
that Resource and Learning Design are not directly
linked to Course, as the same material may be
reused in different courses. Resources in learning
designs may overlap, as each one may be chosen at
the next phase.
Figure 3: Design phase.
4.3 Development
A classroom entity (Classroom) describes the actual
course that is implemented and stores information
like date and time. A course may have more than
one classrooms, for example mathematics A' grade
at school years 2011-2012 and 2010-2011.
Learners are registered (Registration) to a
classroom and may belong to zero or more groups
(Group).
A classroom has plans (Plan). Plans are learning
designs that have been adapted to the specific
context and include references only to the chosen
resources. A plan may originate from a prototype
learning design. A learner may have zero or more
roles (Role) in a plan.
Figure 4: Development phase.
4.4 Implementation
A plan consists of lessons (Lesson) which is a fixed
time event. A teacher may note attendances
(Attendance) according to the registrations made.
Figure 5: Implementation phase.
4.5 Evaluation
Both evaluations, given manually by the instructor
and derived by the system, must be supported.
Instructor may use a grade or a description to
evaluate:
Attendance: learner's comprehension
during a lesson
Lesson: effectiveness of a lesson
Role: learner's participation in a role of
a plan
Registration: overall learner's outcome
during a specific classroom
Evaluation may be derived from associated
elements, for example the effectiveness of a lesson
may be calculated as the means of the grades of the
attendances. Table 1 demonstrates the evaluation
input by an instructor and derived by the system.
Weights are also applicable when the means of
associated elements is calculated.
CSEDU2012-4thInternationalConferenceonComputerSupportedEducation
434
Table 1: Evaluation table.
Element
Evaluation
Instructor
Derived by means of
associated elements
Attendance Yes -
Lesson Yes Attendance
Role Yes
Re
g
istration Yes Attendance
Plan
N
o Role
Leaning
Design
No Plan
Classroom No
Attendance, Lesson,
Re
g
istration, Plan
Course
N
o Classroo
m
5 CONCLUSIONS
Although there are almost as many instructional
design models as there are practitioners of
instructional design, teachers’ decisions in formal
learning context are based on common factors.
ADDIE model of design was used to classify most
commonly addressed factors. A knowledge
management system that presents available material
and estimations, along with the results of the
learning process which was designed according to
them, integrates information crucial to an instructor.
Therefore it may facilitate decision making process
and raise productivity.
REFERENCES
Bersin, J., Howard, C.; O’Leonard, K., Mallon, D. 2009,
Learning Management Systems 2009, Bersin &
Associates.
Gagne, R.M. , Briggs, L.J., Wager, W.W.1992. Principles
of Instructional Design, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Fort Worth, Texas, 4
th
edition.
Marshall, J., Rossett, A. 2000. Knowledge management
for school-based educators. In J. M. Spector & T. M.
Anderson (Eds.), Integrated and holistic perspectives
on learning, instruction and technology:
Understanding complexity. Boston, MA: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
McGivney, V. 1999. Informal Learning in the Community.
A trigger for change and development. National
Institute for Adult Continuing Education Leicester,
1999, 1st edition.
Molenda, M., 2003. "In Search of the Elusive ADDIE
Model". Performance improvement 42 (5): 34–37.
Neumann, S., Oberhuemer, P. & Derntl, M., 2010.
Comparing instructors’ approaches to course design
across Europe. 2010 European LAMS & Learning
Design Conference.
Reference Guide for Instructional Design. 2002. Retrieved
January 21, 2012, from <https://www.ieee.org/
education_careers/education/reference_guide/index.ht
ml>.
SUPPORTINGINSTRUCTIONALDESIGNINFORMALLEARNING-AKnowledgeManagementSystemfor
Planning,ImplementingandEvaluatingCoursesinTraditionalClassrooms
435