Week 11 Blog

How was it to design a research study for online vs. FTF? Does it make sense to do it the way you did after reflecting on it?

Any design process involves some planning. For any planning I personally go through the Rapid Instructional Design (Piskurich, 2006) process to do the needs assessment for design, develop, implement, and evaluate any project. It was neither hard nor easy to design a research study for online versus face-to-face (FTF). Even though initially I thought it will be the same process to develop the study for both environments. Later I have realized that designing research for online bit different than FTF. Online learning requires more special attention on how to bring social presence in online learning comparing to FTF. According to my understanding it is important to understand social constructivism epistemological concept while designing online or FTF because this is most effective in constructing knowledge. So, an instructional designer has to have understanding how to apply the knowledge of learning theory to design activities into practice that will provide a community of learning for learners where they can engage in dialogue and construct knowledge.

Developing research method is the fundamental to design instructions in both online and FTF/blended that will help teaching and learning effectively. Ertmer & Newby (2013) noted that the critical question instructional designers must ask is not “Which is the best theory?” but “Which theory is the most effective in fostering mastery of specific tasks by specific learners?.” So based the needs assessment report instructional designer will choose what framework will work best to design instructions. It could be ADDIE, ASSURE, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Cognitive Apprenticeship, Backward design by Wiggins, or Learning and Teaching as Communicative Actions (LTCA) by Scott Warren and his colleagues.

Regarding research design for our assignment I personally preferred to use LTCA as it promotes social constructivism learning environment for learners which is equally good for both online and FTF. I have used it to design an online course for large class in biomedical ethics course last summer and got good feedback from learners. It helps learners to engage more in collaborative works as well as some exercise in individualized learning.