Merrill

First Principles of Instruction M. David Merrill Utah State University

If a product does not teach then it has no value! James L’Allier

Tell & Ask Instruction
Present (Tell) information
Ask remember-what-you-were-told questions
T&A instruction is not effective instruction.

Simon Says Instruction
Simon says, “Click on the File menu.”
“No! That’s not the File menu.”
Simon Says instruction is less effective instruction.

What is a principle?
A principle is a relationship that is always true under appropriate conditions regardless of program or practice.

What is a First Principle?
Facilitates Learning
Applies to any Delivery System
Applies to any Architecture
Design Oriented

First Principles of Instruction Problem Activation Demonstration Application Integration

A Problem to Solve
Show the problem
Task and problem level
Progression of problems

Activate Knowledge
Recall Experience
Provide Experience
Provide Structure

Demonstrate Knowledge
Consistency
Learner Guidance
Relevant Media

Apply Knowledge
Consistency
Gradually Diminishing Coaching
Sequence of problems

Integrate Knowledge
Demonstrate
Reflect
Create

First Principles of Instruction ACTIVATION DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION INTEGRATION PROBLEM NAVIGATION

Navigation
Let learners see the boundaries of their universe
Let learners see how the contents are organized
Let learners go forward
Let learners back up
Let learners correct themselves
Use learner control for learners with high prior knowledge or high metacognitive skills
Make important instructional events the default condition
Add advisement to learner control

First Principles of Instruction ACTIVATION DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION INTEGRATION PROBLEM MOTIVATION NAVIGATION

Motivation
Relevant, achievable, and interesting learning environments are motivating.
Taking risks and going public is motivating.
Formal objectives are not motivating – seeing a real-world task is motivating.
Content that is already known is not motivating – individualize the content.
Novelty and glitz are not motivating – real-world tasks are motivating.

Motivation
Performing decontextualized actions and operations is not motivating – performing whole tasks or problems is motivating.
Right/wrong feedback is not motivating – intrinsic feedback is motivating.
Immediate feedback decreases motivation – delayed judgment increases motivation.

First Principles of Instruction ACTIVATION DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION INTEGRATION PROBLEM MOTIVATION NAVIGATION COLLABORATION

Collaboration
Make assignments that require collaboration among learners.
Assign learners to small (2 or 3) heterogeneous groups to optimize interactions.
Structure group assignments around products or processes – whole tasks or problems.

First Principles of Instruction ACTIVATION DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION INTEGRATION PROBLEM MOTIVATION NAVIGATION COLLABORATION INTERACTION

Interaction
Navigation is not interaction.
Interaction is solving real-world problems or doing real-world tasks
Interaction requires:
context – a framework and conditions for a learning environment
a challenge – a real–world problem to be solved or a task to be completed.
Learner activity – decisions and actions to solve the problem or complete the task
Feedback – consequences of learners decisions and actions.

First Principles of Instruction ACTIVATION DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION INTEGRATION PROBLEM

Pebble in Pond Development production design strategy analysis progression problem

Problem
Select audience.
Identify problem.
Create problem.
specific, input, output
Solve problem.

Problem

Work the problem Step 1: Create the Gross Sales formulas. 1. Click cell D6. 2. Type =B6*C6. Press Enter. 3. Click D6. 4. Copy the formula using Fill Handle from D6 to D7 through D11. Sample diagnostic procedures for step 1: Problem: The learner types the formula incorrectly. Solution: Click cell D6. Type the formula again and press Enter. Step 2: Create the Total Sales formula. 1. Click D12. 2. Click the AutoSum button on the Standard toolbar. 3. Press Enter to accept the formula =SUM(D6:D11).

Problem progression
Identify set of problems.
Create and solve each problem.
Sequence problems.
complexity, difficulty, amount of component information
Check sequence for coverage.
Does the sequence of problems introduce all the topics that are required?
Modify or adjust problems.

Progression of problems?
Susan has opened a small restaurant. She has been very successful and wants to expand her business. To finance this project, Susan needs a bank loan. She knows that an accurate and well-designed presentation will help her get the loan. You have agreed to prepare the last month’s sales figures for Susan.
Susan has given the Total Lunch Earnings worksheet to Isaac, one of her main suppliers, who has been successful in getting bank loans for his business. He is impressed with your work and offers three improvements. First, include a column that calculates percentage of sales. Second, add some nice borders and shading formats. Finally, set up the page to give the printout a professional appearance.
Susan expanded her business. Her restaurant is busier, and she needs more staff. To judge her new staffing requirements accurately, Susan conducted a count of customers before and after the renovations. Each survey was taken over a four-week period. You have agreed to help Susan determine her new staffing levels by calculating statistics from her second survey.

Instructional Component Analysis
Identify information components of problem.
Identify new components for subsequent problems.
Identify, select, create component information and portrayals.
Relate components to problems.

Components of a whole Task
Almost all tasks include 5 kinds of learning outcomes:
Information-about
Parts-of
Kinds-of
How-to
What-happens

General vs Specific Information
Information
General
Inclusive
Generality
refers to many cases or situations
Portrayal
Specific
Limited
Instance
refers to one case or a single situation

Information
LEARNING OUTCOMES
information about
parts of
kind of
how to
what happens
REMEMBER INFORMATION
remember facts or associations
remember names and description
remember definitions
remember steps and sequence
remember description of process (conditions and consequence)

Portrayal
LEARNING OUTCOME
Information about
parts of
kinds of
how to
what happens
APPLY TO PORTRAYAL
NA
locate part
classify examples
perform task
predict consequence or
find faulted conditions

Components of a Whole Task

Component Analysis MS Excel Skill Builder Reference Table Scenario 2 Skills & Topics Step 1 Creating percentages Unit 1, Lesson 1, Topic 7: Worksheet: Navigating Unit 1, Lesson 2, Topic 2: Formulas: Entering Unit 1, Lesson 2, Topic 3: The Fill Handle Unit 1, Lesson 2, Topic 4: Formulas: Cell Referencing Unit 1 Lesson 2, Topic 5: Data: Copying Step 2 Formatting percentages Unit 1, Lesson 3, Topic 2: Cell Range: Moving Unit 1, Lesson 4, Topic 4: Formatting: Textual Data Unit 1, Lesson 4, Topic 5: Formatting: Text Alignment

Instructional Strategy Analysis
Determine overall strategy
Determine strategy for instructional components
Integrate instructional components with problems
Provide strategy wrap around
Overview, summary, transition

Instructional Sequence

Instructional Sequence components components components guidance P P P P P

Present Problem

Teach components

Worked example Scenarios 1 and 2 Step 1: First, you want to create percentage labels and formulas.  Enter your User ID in cell D1.  To begin the procedure, click cell E5, type % of Sales in cell E5, and press Enter. To create the percentage of sales figure for the Sandwiches lunch item, type =D6/$D$13 in cell E6 and press Enter. The $ sign in front of the column reference D and the row reference 13 makes $D$13 an absolute cell reference. The cell D6 is a relative cell reference because it does not contain any $ sign. When you copy a cell formula from one row to another with absolute cell references in it, the absolute cell references do not change from one row to the next. In this step, you make the cell reference for the Total Sales, D13, absolute so that its reference will not change when you copy the formula.  Now copy and paste this formula from cell E6 to cells E7 through E13.  Create the percentage of sales figures for each lunch item and Total Sales. Begin by selecting E6 to E13. On the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box, click Percentage. Under decimal places: select or type 0.  Since there is no lunch item that corresponds with cell E12, use the keyboard to delete this cell.

Gradually diminishing learner guidance In the previous Scenarios, you were guided step-by-step in the application of the commands to complete the Scenario. In this Scenario, you will not be given this step-by-step guidance. You should first review the modules teaching the commands that you will need to complete this Scenario. Then, you should try to complete each task in the Scenarios on your own. If you need help, there is learner guidance provided at the end of the exercise for each of the tasks. You will learn more if you try to do the task before you look at this guidance material and use this guidance only when you are unable to perform the required commands. After each task, you will be shown an interim spreadsheet that you can use to compare with your own work. In this Scenario, you will design a new worksheet.

Prompted examples Scenarios 3 & 4 Gradually diminishing guidance principle Step 1 :  Enter your User ID in cell D1.  Create Income formulas in cells B9, C9, and D9  Create Cost formulas in cells B15, C15, and D15  Create Profit/Loss formulas in cells B17, C17, and D17 for the Theater Final worksheet. If you have completed Scenarios 1 and 2, you are familiar with creating formulas since this information was covered. The detailed guidance for creating formulas in this exercise is provided at the end of the Scenario in a section called Learner Guidance. You should not simply type in the values. You need to apply the appropriate formulas. You have successfully created Income, Cost, and Profit/Loss formulas for the Theater Final worksheet. At this point, your worksheet should contain the following data. If your worksheet does not look like the following worksheet, you may want to try again or go to the Learner Guidance Section.

Unprompted example Gradually diminishing learner guidance -- Scenario 5 In this exercise, there is no Learner Guidance section. If your screens do not match the sample screens provided, you should return to the Excel course and review the appropriate modules. Step 1: Enter your User ID in cell D1. Add formulas to compute the totals in column G and generate the expenses (with no decimals) in Row 18. Step 2: Format the data. Use 12 pt bold for table headings. Add months as column headings.

Authentic tasks Authentic Task 1 In this authentic task, you apply your knowledge of Microsoft Excel 2000 to redesigning a worksheet.Jake has returned from a holiday in France. He had set a budget for the vacation and wants to compare his actual and planned expenses. He is unsure of the correct exchange rate. You have agreed to work this out for Jake in return for a bottle of vintage French Chardonnay. Jake has given you the basic information on the following worksheet named Holiday . (worksheet appears here) You must create formulas and redesign the worksheet to make it look like the following example. (worksheet appears here)

Authentic task Objectives Refer to the target screen on the previous page to ensure the columns and rows in that example and your final screen are identical.  Insert a new row under row 1.  Calculate the value of goods purchased in $ terms.  Calculate the variance of goods purchased in $ terms compared to the budget.  Calculate the totals for each of the four columns of numeric data.  Center and bold the title across the five main data columns and change the font size to 12 point.  Italicize the Items row labels.  Bold the Total row.  Bold all column labels, except for the exchange rate column label.  Right align column labels over numeric data.  Format the numbers, except for the Exchange Rate value, with thousand separators, two decimal places, and red negative.  Create a double line border around all the data, except for the exchange rate data.  Shade the column labels, except for the exchange rate, with dark green background and white font.  Change the exchange rate to 6.685. Is the total variance better or worse?  Save the file with the name Finance Final.

Instructional Interface Design
Determine delivery vehicles.
Script, story board instruction for delivery.
Prepare media specifications.
Determine navigation.
Determine instructional management.
Effective design requires creative use of the media.

Production
Content should be specified prior to design.
Strategy should be specified prior to design.
Don’t confuse development with production.
Don’t let graphic artists design your instruction!

Thompson Job Impact Study Scenario Based Instruction Stacey L. T. Boyle and M. David Merrill Does it work?

Thompson NETg Study
Design
3 Groups
Scenario Group (N= 49)
Straight e-learning (Simon Says) Group (N=49)
Control Group (no training) (N=30)
Subjects
128 Participants from several companies and colleges

Content for Study
Microsoft Excel Application Course
Topics included the same for both groups
Both Experimental Groups also had
On-line mentor
Frequently asked questions

Effectiveness Results Differences among groups significant at beyond .001 level. Mean Performance on Authentic Tasks Group 34% Control Group 68% Straight e-learning Group 89% Scenario Group

Efficiency Results Difference between groups is significant beyond the .001 level. Most were unable to complete task no time Control Group 49 minutes Straight e-learning Group 29 minutes Scenario Group Mean time to complete 3 authentic tasks Group

Does it Work?
Scenario-based 30% performance gain
and 41% efficiency gain compared with straight e-learning.
A progressive scenario-based instructional sequence results in increased efficiency and effectiveness in learning a procedural task.

Thank You ! Merrill, M. D. (2002). A Pebble-in-the-Pond Model for Instructional Development. Performance Improvement , 41(7), 39-44. See Study Guide for First Principles Ask Me A Question

Plan to attend The 15th Annual Utah State University Instructional Technology Institute August 26 -29, 2003 www.itinstitute.usu.edu

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