Bivens, Herbert

Morland, D. Verne

NSU Works

Innovate: Journal of Online EducationVolume 1Issue 2 December 2004/January 2005 Article 21-1-2005Designing Instructional Articles in Online Coursesfor Adult LearnersD. Verne MorlandHerbert BivensFollow this and additional works at: http://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovatePart of the Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education at NSUWorks. It has been accepted forinclusion in Innovate: Journal of Online Education by an authorized administrator of NSUWorks. For more information, please contactnsuworks@nova.edu.Recommended APA CitationMorland, D. Verne and Bivens, Herbert (2005) "Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult Learners ," Innovate:Journal of Online Education: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 2.Available at: http://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate/vol1/iss2/2Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult LearnersAll exhibits, tables and figures that have remained available have been included as additional content withtheir respective articles to be downloaded separately. Click here to return to the article page on NSUWorksand view the supplemental files.Unfortunately, not all the supplemental files have survived until 2015 and some will be missing from thearticle pages. If you are an author in Innovate and would like to have your supplemental content included,please email the NSUWorks repository administrator at nsuworks@nova.edu.This article is available in Innovate: Journal of Online Education: http://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate/vol1/iss2/2Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult Learnersby D. Verne Morland and Herbert BivensAspiring teachers are taught the elements of pedagogy, originally the art and science of teaching children.Many aspects of teaching adults, however, are fundamentally different than those employed in teachingchildren. In order to acknowledge these differences, a new word—andragogy—gained currency in the late20th century. This article highlights the important principles in teaching adults and suggests teachingstrategies to support these principles in online courses for higher education and corporate learning programs.To demonstrate these principles, the full-text of this article is also available in an online instructional formatthat the reader may wish to follow in lieu of or in parallel with this standard journal format.Pedagogy and AndragogyAccording to the fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, the word pedagogy is derived from theGreek paidagogos, which referred to "the slave who took children to and from school," and the term iscommonly understood to mean "the art or profession of teaching." Most schools of education require thestudy of child development and train new teachers in methods that account for children's stages ofmaturation.To their detriment, most training courses for educators in higher education and corporate learning programspay less attention to learners' needs, though the literature on adult education is quite rich. In 1833 theGerman educator Alexander Kapp coined the term andragogik or andragogy (Reischmann 2004, "Why'Andragogy'?"). The term was not widely used until it was resurrected, refined, and popularized in the 1970sand 1980s by Malcolm Knowles. According to Knowles, adult learners differ from child learners in their desireto be self-directed and to take responsibility for decisions (Carlson 1989; Atherton 2002). Courses thataddress adult learning must be sensitive to these desires and should be designed accordingly.Principles of Adult InstructionAn article on andragogy in the Theory Into Practice (TIP) database, an excellent online resource thatsuccinctly presents 50 learning and instructional theories, lists Knowles's assumptions (Kearsley n.d.,paragraph 2):• Adults need to know why they need to learn something. • Adults need to learn experientially. • Adults approach learning as problem-solving. • Adults learn best when [they believe that] the topic is of immediate value. In their book Telling Ain’t Training, Stolovitch and Keeps (2002) summarize Knowles’s work into four keyprinciples of adult instruction:• Readiness: Training must clearly address learners’ needs so that they will be ready to learn. • Experience: Training must respect and build on the life experience learners bring to the learningsession. • Autonomy: Training must invite learners to participate in shaping the direction, content and activities ofthe learning experience. • Action: The connection between the training and the application of what is learned must be clear. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8 1Morland and Bivens: Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult LearPublished by NSUWorks, 2005These principles suggest that teaching strategies such as case studies, role playing, simulations, andself-evaluation are most useful. Well-designed case studies, for example, provide engaging vignettes ofreal-world situations with which the students can identify and for which the subjects under study are clearlyrelevant. Students are encouraged to augment what they are learning with insights from their own lifeexperience. And since case studies rarely have a single solution, they invite students to define and defendtheir own conclusions and to reflect on the application of these solutions in their own lives.Applying the PrinciplesPrinciples are great, but how do we apply them? How do we transform this great advice into online coursesthat are more interesting and effective for adult learners?Over several decades of developing and delivering traditional and technology-enhanced training in thecorporate world, we have often witnessed the gap between good principles and their application. In theremainder of this article, we attempt to avoid this gap by examining one common online teachingstrategy—the instructional article—in detail and explaining how the ideas we have discussed so far can beput into practice.Instructional Article PrinciplesWhile adult learning tends to be more problem-centered than content-centered, it is still usually necessary forstudents to learn specific knowledge prior to moving on to more advanced levels of performance. In manyclassroom courses, this knowledge is gained through the time-honored instructional method called a lecture.However, reading long lectures on the Web will not work because it is extremely difficult to tie the lecture'slinear presentation of information, assertions, and (necessarily) rhetorical questions to the needs of the adultlearner as expressed in the principles of readiness, experience, autonomy, and action outlined above. Inplace of a written lecture, several instructional articles that distill the major concepts addressed in the lectureare more appropriate for online learning.Instructional articles are short and concise documents conveying relevant, critical information to supportconcepts, procedures, and/or performance-based skills. An instructional article is written specifically tocommunicate the content-knowledge necessary for improved, more advanced performance. For self-pacedcourses and online or Web-based training, instructional articles function like a subchapter of a book—thecontent is consistent with and essential to an understanding of the overall subject.Yet unlike the subchapter of a book, an instructional article is written to stand largely on its own; it can beread and understood independently. This independence is important because flexible navigation in mostonline courses allows learners to jump easily from one article to another, studying some articles in detail andskipping or skimming others. Although some designers may consider this user behavior undesirable sincethey have worked hard to plan an optimal path through the course material, skipping and skimming is likely tohappen, and we would be wise to design our instructional articles to maximize the probability of studentsuccess.Article Content GuidelinesSuccessful adult learning experiences are relevant and critical. As skilled instructional designers developingcourse content, we should continually ask ourselves: What types of information and knowledge will thelearner need to comprehend a concept and later to perform a certain task or skill? We should remember theold instructional design distinction between "need to know" and "nice to know." As explained above, adultlearners will be attentive to self-paced instruction only if the content is relevant to them and if they see theknowledge as critical to their mastery of the desired skill. Good designers, like good authors, know whatmaterial needs careful elaboration and what material can be made available as an additional resource.http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8 2Innovate: Journal of Online Education, Vol. 1, Iss. 2 [2005], Art. 2http://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate/vol1/iss2/2We recommend the following specific content guidelines for the creation of instructional articles:• Ensure that each instructional article supports the learning objectives/goals of the course. • Get the learner's attention immediately by clearly making the topic relevant to something importantwithin the learner's frame of reference (e.g., job, studies, professional development). • In the body of the article, follow the traditional form of expository writing with an introductory paragraph,one or more explanatory paragraphs, and a summary paragraph. • Integrate questions or other interactive activities—such as exercises, problem-solving situations, and/orshort simulations—into the body of the article. • Always limit the instructional article to one or two main ideas or concepts. • Use only the most important "need-to-know" supporting details. • When possible, support the article content with audio and/or video clips containing relevant information,such as "how to" instructions or examples that further clarify key learning points. Article Organization and NavigationOrganize the structure and navigation of an instructional article to enable the learner to read and review theinstructional content in a short time as well as take advantage of any links, graphics, or animations thatsupport learning the content. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure an effective structure and navigation:• Minimize the need for the learner to scroll through text. A printed instructional article should not exceedthree pages. • Use graphics, diagrams, or pictures only when they lend meaning and clarification to the topic. (In somecases, graphics can also be used to get the learner's attention, but these graphics should not beoverused because their effectiveness will diminish if the learner considers them an annoyingdistraction.) • For ease of navigation, provide a link to the next article or interactive exercise at the end of aninstructional article. Also make a link to the main course menu available on every page. • Hyperlink all key words, phrases, and/or concepts within the instructional article to some type ofglossary or reference that provides definitions and additional clarification as needed by the learner. The online instructional format of this article provides examples of several of these points. Each page is short,and most pages require no scrolling. Graphics are used judiciously. Each page provides clear links to theprevious page, the next page, and the beginning of the article. Since there is no overarching course of whichthis article is a part, there is no link to a main course menu. The example does not contain a global glossary,although at least one important online learning environment (Moodle) provides a powerful automatedglossary feature as part of its course development toolset.Remember: Simple, clear navigation will help the learner feel in control, avoiding distraction and frustrationwith the course materials. These simple guidelines for content, structure, and navigation create instructionalarticles on sound design principles that support effective learning.Integrating Articles with Other Interactive Instructional MethodsInstructional articles should be only one of several instructional methods or teaching strategies used in anonline course. As mentioned earlier, teaching strategies such as case studies, role-plays, simulations, andself-evaluations should be used as appropriate to support the problem-centered orientation required forsuccessful adult learning.Case studies like Exhibit 1 are one of the most effective strategies and generally do not require a great dealof special programming. Case studies are highly experiential and job-related, and they work best whenhttp://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8 3Morland and Bivens: Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult LearPublished by NSUWorks, 2005coupled with supporting instructional articles. In this way, the learning experience can be morelearner-directed, as Knowles suggested.A case study may be included within the body of the article, encouraging learners to notice connectionsbetween the article's text and the example as they learn a particular fact or concept. Alternatively, the coursecould be set up with a single case study that includes links to all the pertinent instructional articles andstudent exercises. Learners would then use instructional articles as needed to help develop solutions to theproblems presented in the case study. How learners use the instructional articles will depend upon how theyapproach the case study, which in turn is based upon their level of knowledge and the mistakes they make.Simulations also may incorporate links to instructional articles to be used as resources or prior research.Simulations usually require more Web-development expertise but can be a useful strategy for learners whoneed to practice using software or working through the installation or repair of complex equipment.Simulations also can enable students to explore various paths through important human interactions, like asales call (Exhibit 2). This type of learning strategy is task-oriented and self-directed, another application ofthe principles of andragogy.Self-evaluations typically tend to be quiz questions in multiple-choice or true/false format. Increase motivationand learner involvement by making self-evaluations more interactive: Use a "drag-and-drop" design to matchcorrect answers with their questions, or construct a game. In a crossword puzzle, for example, the criticalcues for the Down and Across words could be taken from the definitions of key terms within the course.Instructional articles may be used with self-evaluations as links for review or more in-depth explanations.ConclusionBusiness trainers, coaches, instructional designers, and university educators need to understand thedynamics of adult learning as described by Knowles and others. Although Knowles's work has elicited somecontroversy (particularly among those who feel that he set up an artificially narrow definition of pedagogy inorder to promote his ideas), his insights into adult learning behaviors and motivations are supported by otherresearch and are generally accepted today.Excellent online training courses for adults apply creative combinations of teaching strategies, using methodslike instructional articles, case studies, simulations, and self-evaluations to engage learners. Such coursesadhere to the following:• the readiness principle, enabling adult learners to see the relevance of the material; • the experience principle, respecting the expertise learners bring to the course; • the autonomy principle, allowing learners to control their own learning paths through meaningfulexercises and activities; and • the action principle, emphasizing clearly and continually the connections between what is being learnedand the real world in which it will be applied. The two versions of this article—the Internet journal format presented here and the online instructional formaton our Web site—demonstrate the difference format makes. This journal format is an easy, quick read and, ifbookmarked, it can be very useful as a compact future reference. It is also easy to make a printed copy thatcan be augmented with personal highlighting and handwritten notes. The instructional format that actuallyemploys these teaching strategies, on the other hand, is a more engaging experience in which the learningobjectives are more effectively presented and reinforced. Each format has its place, but the instructionalformat is more specifically designed to take participants beyond the passive acquisition of informationassociated with their interests by providing the experiences necessary to deepen their understanding andenable them to apply what they have learned.http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8 4Innovate: Journal of Online Education, Vol. 1, Iss. 2 [2005], Art. 2http://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate/vol1/iss2/2ReferencesAtherton, J. S. 2003. Learning and teaching: Knowles' andragogy.http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~jamesa/learning/knowlesa.htm (accessed December 1, 2004).Carlson, R. 1989. Malcolm Knowles: Apostle of andragogy. Vitae Scholasticae 8 (1): 217-33.http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/malcolmknowles.cfm (accessed December 1, 2004).Kearsley, G. n.d. Andragogy (M. Knowles). Explorations in learning & instruction: The theory into practicedatabase. http://tip.psychology.org/knowles.html (accessed December 1, 2004).Reischmann, J. 2004. Welcome to ANDRAGOGY.net! http://www.andragogy.net (accessed December 1,2004).Stolovitch, H. D., and E. J. Keeps. 2002. Telling ain’t training. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Trainingand Development.COPYRIGHT AND CITATION INFORMATION FOR THIS ARTICLEThis article may be reproduced and distributed for educational purposes if the following attribution is included in the document:  Note: This article was originally published in Innovate (http://www.innovateonline.info/) as: Morland, D., and H. Bivens. 2004.Designing instructional articles in online courses for adult learners. Innovate 1 (2).http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8 (accessed April 24, 2008). The article is reprinted here with permission ofthe publisher, The Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University.To find related articles, view the webcast, or comment publically on this article in the discussion forums, please goto http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8  and select the appropriate function from thesidebar. http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=8 5Morland and Bivens: Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult LearPublished by NSUWorks, 2005

Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult Learners

http://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1197&context=innovate

Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult Learners

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

NSU Works