Designing an instructional outline is not an easy task, even we are using all the greatest learning tools. When I was doing my part-time job, which is being an English tutor, I always need to spend a lot of time thinking about how can I make sure this class is fun, students will like it and learned something. Does this material is useful? So on and so on. My head is full of this type of question when I was preparing lessons. According to Dr. Merrill’s video, he gave some suggestions about instructional design:
“We need to show people what we were trying to teach them. Instead of just tell them. Second, we need to give students an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned. Doesn’t mean we just need to answer multiple-choice questions; get them involved in actually carrying out a procedure, do that in the context of real-world problems” (Merrill, 2008).
In the video, Dr. Merrill (2008) discussed what motivation is, he stated that “real motivation comes from learning, [so] best motivation is for students to be able to learn some real-world tasks”. This sentence is my favorite. The reason is I found out a lot of students don’t know how to apply their knowledge in the real life. Their motivation of the study is just for getting a good grade, or graduate. So that they are very easy to forget their knowledge. As Dr. Merrill said, we still have lots of things that need to do with instructional design.
Reference:
Merrill on Instructional Design. (2008, August 11). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_TKaO2-jXA&t=282s
Hi Andy, you did a good job summarizing how we should make learners learn the courses more efficiently. I agree with your idea from your reference which the real motivation comes from learning and the best motivation is for students to be able to learn some real-world tasks. Moreover, In my opinion, students should not only study for exams but also apply what they have learned to real-life as much as possible. I wonder if you can give us some examples of your study life which you not only use for exams but also in real life? Thanks
Hi, Andy. In the same way, I think it is very good for you to combine what you have observed in real life with the knowledge you have learned. I very much agree with you that many students are motivated to study only for grades and graduation. Therefore, in teaching, we should design as many real-world tasks as possible to make students more motivated to learn.