Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2008Increased use of computing technology in support of learning necessitates the collaboration of instructional designers with technology designers. Yet the instructional designer portrayed in current instructional design textbooks does not participate in technology design but instead designs instructional strategies and materials that are implemented by others. For instructional systems design as a field to move towards the kinds of collaborative work required for the development of effective, innovative educational technologies, there is a need for methods that can integrate the concerns and activities of both instructional and technology designers. This research critically examines a human-computer interaction design method, contextual design (CD), assessing how practitioners employ and characterize it as a method and explores its potential utility in instructional systems design.
CD is briefly described and available evaluative studies are summarized. Next, three studies are presented: a case study of CD usage in the design of a digital music library, a case study of CD integrating with another design approach called PRInCiPleS, and a learning-oriented analysis of CD work models. Based on the findings of the literature review and these three studies, a practitioner survey and interview guide were developed. Results from 106 survey respondents and 16 interviews characterized CD as a guiding framework and a collection of useful techniques. However, because of its resource requirements and other limitations, the method is rarely used in full or exclusively. Respondents reported valuing the ability of CD to uncover and communicate user needs but also suggested CD did not provide a means of resolving conflicts between user needs and organizational objectives.
Implications of these results are explored for three constituencies: developer-designers of instructional places or interactive materials, educators of instructional designers who will work with software developers, and educational researchers and their graduate students
