The central purpose of instructional design is to develop high quality, effective instruction consistently. We therefore base our instruction on grounded instructional theories and conduct formative evaluations to improve the quality of our instructional products. While the instructional theories we use are grounded in research, the quality of our instruction could be increased by improving these grounded instructional theories over time. What research methods would be most helpful for creating and improving instructional design theories?
Let's think back on our own experiences as instructional designers. As designers, we use Formative Evaluation tools to assess the effectiveness of the products we develop. How does this relate to Formative Research?
“Formative research [is] a kind of developmental research or action research that is intended to improve design theory for designing instructional practices or processes” (Reigeluth and Frick, p. 633).
Formative research is also referred to as design and development research or just design research. Listen to Dr. Brenda Bannon-Ritland describe design research using the story of flight.
Objectives:
Terminal Objective: Given a set of instructional materials and a copy of relevant design documents, generate a formative evaluation research plan.
Enabling Objectives:
Get started by visiting Challenge #1… (Click on the Next Button on the top left of the screen.)