Literature Review

Instructional Theory Review

The purpose of the instructional theory review is to provide prescriptive advice to the designer (Osguthorpe, 1985, p. 21). The primary design model used to develop the EAC Web site was the Systems Approach Model advocated by Dick and Carey (1990). While primarily a model for the design of instruction, several of the Systems Approach model's components were directly applicable to the information-based medium of the web. These components include:
  1. Identify Instructional Goals
  2. Conduct Instructional Analysis
  3. Write Performance Objectives
  4. Develop Instructional Strategy
  5. Develop and Select Instructional Materials
  6. Design and Conduct Formative Evaluation

Identify Instructional Goals. The main objective of the EAC web site is to publish advisement materials via the World Wide Web so that students will be able to conveniently locate the academic and career information they need to complete their General Education and Professional Requirements so that they can graduate and become certified teachers. A complete listing of the terminal and enabling objectives for the Web site may be found in Appendix A.

Conduct Instructional Analysis. After the main objective was defined, a task analysis was conducted with members of the target audience. Several undergraduate students were interviewed to determine the specific tasks that education students must complete in order to be admitted to their respective programs, to complete their degree and certification requirements, and to graduate and enter the workforce. These students were also asked to describe what information was needed to complete each of the tasks described, and to identify the sources where this information could be obtained. The information resulting from these interviews was used to create a written representation of the task analysis which was then shown to each person interviewed so that they could review it for accuracy and make recommendations for changes. The task analysis went through several revisions and later served as a blueprint for determining what content should be included in the web site and how it should be organized. A representation of this task analysis may be found in Appendix A.

Write Performance Objectives. The performance objectives for this project were written in conjunction with the task analysis using two of the five elements that Gagne, Briggs and Wager (1992) advocate including in performance objectives. These elements include the object of performance and the specific action to be taken by the learner (p. 127).

Develop Instructional Strategy. Many of the instructional strategies used to design the EAC web site were chosen based on the research performed in both the instructional materials search and the content research review. These approaches have already been discussed previously, such as including academic information like program requirements and transfer information, furnishing the answers to frequently asked questions, and providing interactive methods for communicating with EAC staff.

Develop and Select Instructional Materials. The materials search identified a pool of existing advisement documents from three main sources: the EAC, BYU's Career Placement Services, and the School of Education's Web site. The documents included in the EAC site were chosen from these sources based on how well they would facilitate the performance objectives. Printed documents were then converted to HTML format and stored on the School of Education web server. Finally, a web interface was created to organize all the materials and provide the interactivity needed to access each piece of information. During the development of these materials, several articles and texts were consulted for information on such issues as web design, navigation, and page layout. They include: Web Concept & Design, (Waters, 1996); Web Page Design: A Different Multimedia, (Morris & Hinrichs, 1996); and Designing Large Scale Web Sites: A Visual Design Methodology, (Dano, 1996).

These texts provided numerous tips for organizing and displaying content, as well as navigating through that content. Waters (1996) recommends organizing web content into no more than five to ten categories at the first level. Accordingly, the EAC information was analyzed and divided into ten main sections. In each of the individual sections, an effort was also made to group information into manageable "chunks" for the users. Morris & Hinrichs (1996) define chunking as "the process of breaking up information into separate topics." They suggest that items like lists, bullets, graphics, tables, and sections should be arranged in clusters of five to seven (p. 96-98). This rule of thumb was used to structure the EAC pages that contained tables or lists of hyperlinks so that students were not overloaded with too much information. To simplify navigation, Dano (1996) recommends using a button bar within a frame that remains constant on each web page. He also advocates highlighting the user's current location in the button bar so that there is always a navigational point of reference. These guidelines were very helpful in designing the button menu used in the EAC web site.

Design and Conduct Formative Evaluation Formative evaluation played a critical role throughout the design and development of the EAC web site. Three texts were used to design the formative evaluation for this project. They include: Planning and Conducting Formative Evaluations, (Tessmer, 1993); Formative Evaluation for Educational Technologies, (Flagg, 1990); and Handbook of Usability Testing, (Rubin, 1994). The procedures used to conduct the formative evaluation for this project will be discussed in greater detail in the evaluation section.

In addition to the Systems Approach methodology described above, two other sources were consulted for prescriptive advice: "Designing and Implementing a Computer-Assisted Academic Advisement Program, " (Spencer, Peterson, & Kramer, 1983) and "Procedures for Creating Useful Web Sites," (Rice, Merrill, & Hawkins, 1996).

Spencer, Peterson, and Kramer (1983) outline an eight-point checklist for designing and implementing a computer-assisted advisement program. While not oriented specifically toward a web-based advisement program, two of the initial phases described in the checklist seem especially applicable. The first phase of the design model involves a review and evaluation of the present system, including a review of all incoming and outgoing documents and a careful analysis of the jobs and tasks performed by both the advisement center staff, and the students served by the program (pp. 514-515). The second principle described in the checklist calls for "written statement of needs and wants" to be obtained from all parties served by the present advisement system. The needs are then ranked according to priority and used to outline the objectives for the new advisement system. The authors also suggest that the primary goals of the new system should be to:

  1. eliminate fragmentation and duplication,
  2. coordinate and integrate related systems,
  3. streamline procedures,
  4. provide decision-making `information,
  5. use the strengths of the existing system and data,
  6. improve services, and, most important,
  7. use machines to do what they do best, and free people to do what they do best (p. 515).

The approach outlined by Rice, Merrill, and Hawkins (1996) does not address any academic advisement issues, but it provides some extremely valuable guidelines for planning and designing useful web sites. The authors point out that useful web projects typically pass through three main planning stages:

  1. preliminary planning,
  2. design planning, and
  3. management planning.
During the preliminary planning stage the goals of the site are defined and other issues such as funding, deadlines, and evaluation procedures are addressed. The design planning stage includes audience analysis and needs assessment procedures which will determine the content to be included in the site. This stage also calls for consideration to be given to screen design, navigation and usability issues. Finally, the management planning stage involves setting up procedures for organizing documents on the server, keeping hyper-links current, and performing general maintenance of the information contained in the site.

While each of these planning stages was relevant to the EAC web site, the guidelines given for the design planning stage had the most significant influence on the development of the EAC web pages. The authors recommend following a series of steps to assess the information needs of the target audience. These steps include:

  1. selecting a few representative members of the target audience,
  2. interviewing these individuals and conducting a task analysis, and
  3. generating a work model or depiction of the task analysis.
These three steps were used in conjunction with the instructional analysis process defined by Dick and Carey (1990) to determine what content information would best support the advisement needs of the target audience.

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©S. Todd Jones 1997