What Are You Doing?
No, what are you doing? AHHHHHH!
Like puns, I make no apologies for twenty-year-old pop culture references.
Reflection on Chapter 12 of “What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer”
Each blog post in this series will take a moment to reflect on the questions at the end of each chapter. Feel free to join the conversation by responding in the comments with your answers to the discussion questions (with plain text or a link to your post).
I enjoyed this chapter and found it to be the most applicable one yet to help aspiring and novice instructional designers plan effective courses. Early in the chapter, Dr. Hobson states:
“The purpose of multiple choice questions and quizzes is to strengthen retrieval practice and short-term memory... [but] these activities will not strengthen critical thinking, problem solving, or decision making abilities.”
Hobson talks about how after one attempt to remove them from the course completely, he found it best to incorporate them into other content while using other activities to promote deeper thinking about course topics. He even helped develop a pedagogical model for his school which emphasized active learning by splitting the course content into five categories:
Exploration (30%) - Videos, papers, articles, podcasts, and webinars
Practice (15%) - Multiple choice questions, scenarios, and simulations
Application (30%) - Case studies, self-reflections, essays, and journals
Share (10%) - Discussions, surveys, and polls
Assess (15%) - Pre- and post-assessments
This approach encourages active, social learning instead of just the "sit and get" model.
With that said, here is the reflection question for the tenth chapter:
Think back to your favorite course. What activities did you do that made you feel like you were part of the learning process?
I've had a lot of great courses, some from formal education at schools and universities, but the class with the format I enjoyed the most was Eduflow's course on Instructional Design Principles for Course Creation. I wasn't able to immerse myself in the course as much as I would've liked due to work, graduate school, and regular responsiblities, but my experience was still incredible.
The course was designed to be a social experience that taught about the basics of instructional design and walked you through building a course of your own. Learners were encouraged to collaborate with each other in the course, through discussions and peer-grading, as well as outside of the course through online meetups and connecting on LinkedIn.
The course content was great, though it was largely review from many of my courses at ACE, but the chance to practice, apply, and share made the course exceptional. I'd highly recommend this course to anyone who is looking to move into the field of instructional design and am looking forward to taking another course with Eduflow in the future (though I'm definitely going to wait until after I graduate before doing so).
References
Hobson, L. (2021). What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer. Independently published.
