Real world instructional design
Prompt: Go out into the world (e.g., grocery store, mall, etc.) and locate two examples of instructional design in which you, the viewer/reader, are expected to learn something. What were the goals of the instruction? How effective was it? What are three things you learned that you are not likely to forget?
My first example of running into, and experiencing instructional design in the "real world," came when I was at the gym, attempting to keep my annual new years resolution of getting back into shape. When I hopped on to a treadmill, it donned on me that I have never truly experienced someone showing me how to use a treadmill, but it was something that's interface was designed to train you how to use it. According to Piskurich "the purpose of instructional design is to provide both an appropriate destination, and the right road to get you there," (Piskurich 2015) and this treadmill interface does just that.
The person running takes the role of the facilitator of the training, using the guides on the screen to learn how to achieve their goals off the work out. There is a big start, stop, and pause button to begin the workout. Once you have begun, there are a few output screen that show your progress such as time spent, distance gone, and calories burned. These outputs give the user a measurable that will determine if they have achieved their goal of the workout yet or not. There are also many buttons to show you the different variables you can change to affect your workout. Variables such as incline and speed of the treadmill. These variables take advantage of Gibson's affordance theories that Greeno writes about (Greeno 1994), such as the faster the treadmill moves, the quicker the calorie count goes up. This system is designed to give the user the tools to start a workout, determine what the goals of the work will be, monitor progression toward the goal, variables to change how quickly the goal will be achieved, and a summary of the "training" when they are finished. This is all designed in hopes a user can do all of these things with no direct training.
The second example I experienced and wanted to talk about is probably one of the reasons I needed to go the gym in the first place, ordering drinks at a tab house. This particular tap house is a restaurant that had over 40 different beers / wines on tap, and they have them all displayed on a big LED board at the bar. The LED consisted of the number of the tap, the name of the beer/wine, the brewery/winery it came from, the type of beer/wine (for example, pilsner or sharaz) , and some more information after it (alcohol %, IBU's, amount left in keg). This information can be very overwhelming to a first time patron of this establishment, and thus so thus a thoughtful instructional design would be need to be put in place to insure patron feel comfortable.
The goal of the bar is for the consumer to have pleasurable time by drinking beverages that they enjoy. But with so many different kinds of drinks, there must be a system of learning for those who need it. In the case of this tap house, they had a facilitator of learning in the form of a bartender who was there to explain and demonstrate how the system worked. They also had a content matter expert (a different bartender), who was able to relate like drinks. "If you like this aspect of that beer, you should try this," is an example the content matter expert educating a patron. Either the facilitator or the expert will then explain what all the differences on the LED board mean. For examples, a beer written in blue is a dark or stout beer, or the amount of IBU is directly related to the amount of bitterness you will taste in the beer. These explanations allows the user to find things they like, don't like, and help them achieve their personal goals for being at the tap house.
Conclusion
In both my examples from this weeks reflection I noticed a few commonalities that I believe to be fundamental in instructional design. These include creating a self sustaining user, giving the user multiple opportunities to monitor the current progress toward a goal, and giving the user multiple ways for the user to achieve that goal. I want to take all of these concepts to creating more meaningful classes and trainings in my classroom. I will attempt to have a clear definition as to what kind of user there will be, what the goals of that user are, and then giving the user not only multiple ways of achieving that goal, but also multiple ways of viewing the progress toward achieving that goal. Just like running on a treadmill or drinking at a tap house!
References:
Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. ISBN-13: 9781118973974
Greeno, J. G. (1994). Gibson’ s Affordances. Psychological Review, 101(2), 336–342. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295X.101.2.336
My first example of running into, and experiencing instructional design in the "real world," came when I was at the gym, attempting to keep my annual new years resolution of getting back into shape. When I hopped on to a treadmill, it donned on me that I have never truly experienced someone showing me how to use a treadmill, but it was something that's interface was designed to train you how to use it. According to Piskurich "the purpose of instructional design is to provide both an appropriate destination, and the right road to get you there," (Piskurich 2015) and this treadmill interface does just that.
The person running takes the role of the facilitator of the training, using the guides on the screen to learn how to achieve their goals off the work out. There is a big start, stop, and pause button to begin the workout. Once you have begun, there are a few output screen that show your progress such as time spent, distance gone, and calories burned. These outputs give the user a measurable that will determine if they have achieved their goal of the workout yet or not. There are also many buttons to show you the different variables you can change to affect your workout. Variables such as incline and speed of the treadmill. These variables take advantage of Gibson's affordance theories that Greeno writes about (Greeno 1994), such as the faster the treadmill moves, the quicker the calorie count goes up. This system is designed to give the user the tools to start a workout, determine what the goals of the work will be, monitor progression toward the goal, variables to change how quickly the goal will be achieved, and a summary of the "training" when they are finished. This is all designed in hopes a user can do all of these things with no direct training.
The second example I experienced and wanted to talk about is probably one of the reasons I needed to go the gym in the first place, ordering drinks at a tab house. This particular tap house is a restaurant that had over 40 different beers / wines on tap, and they have them all displayed on a big LED board at the bar. The LED consisted of the number of the tap, the name of the beer/wine, the brewery/winery it came from, the type of beer/wine (for example, pilsner or sharaz) , and some more information after it (alcohol %, IBU's, amount left in keg). This information can be very overwhelming to a first time patron of this establishment, and thus so thus a thoughtful instructional design would be need to be put in place to insure patron feel comfortable.
The goal of the bar is for the consumer to have pleasurable time by drinking beverages that they enjoy. But with so many different kinds of drinks, there must be a system of learning for those who need it. In the case of this tap house, they had a facilitator of learning in the form of a bartender who was there to explain and demonstrate how the system worked. They also had a content matter expert (a different bartender), who was able to relate like drinks. "If you like this aspect of that beer, you should try this," is an example the content matter expert educating a patron. Either the facilitator or the expert will then explain what all the differences on the LED board mean. For examples, a beer written in blue is a dark or stout beer, or the amount of IBU is directly related to the amount of bitterness you will taste in the beer. These explanations allows the user to find things they like, don't like, and help them achieve their personal goals for being at the tap house.
Conclusion
In both my examples from this weeks reflection I noticed a few commonalities that I believe to be fundamental in instructional design. These include creating a self sustaining user, giving the user multiple opportunities to monitor the current progress toward a goal, and giving the user multiple ways for the user to achieve that goal. I want to take all of these concepts to creating more meaningful classes and trainings in my classroom. I will attempt to have a clear definition as to what kind of user there will be, what the goals of that user are, and then giving the user not only multiple ways of achieving that goal, but also multiple ways of viewing the progress toward achieving that goal. Just like running on a treadmill or drinking at a tap house!
References:
Piskurich, G. M. (2015). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. ISBN-13: 9781118973974
Greeno, J. G. (1994). Gibson’ s Affordances. Psychological Review, 101(2), 336–342. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295X.101.2.336
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