Distance Education Innovations and New Learning Environments: Com ...

In summary, the criteria for judging promising instructional design theories includes the presence of goals in general (i.e., desired outcomes), as well as instructional goals (i.e., desired learning outcomes) more particularly. Instructional design theories that have well-defined goals and instructional goals are more likely to hold promises than those that lack goals. At times, principles and goals are coterminous in the literature.

Methods

Once goals are established for an instructional design theory, then methods must be identified that will lead to the fulfillment of those goals (Reigeluth, 1999c). Methods comprise all instructional strategies and devices that, when implemented properly, increase the likelihood of reaching instructional goals. Instructional design theories with an abundance of well-defined methods tend to be more promising than those that have but few instructional methods.

Conditions

Instructional design theories must carefully delineate the types of methods most likely to be successful under various circumstances. This concept highlights the fourth important element in any instructional design theory—conditions, or contexts, for implementing methods (Reigeluth, 1999c). The requirement for identifying contexts in which instructional methods are most likely to be successful may seem intuitive, but it is often bypassed when designers and theoreticians spread advice around about how to design instruction.

What does it mean that methods require conditions or contexts for implementation? Take, for instance, an instructional principle that learning should occur in a social network and an instructional goal to help learners develop collaboration techniques for use in group work. The following question then arises: What instructional methods will most likely help me attain the instructional goal of helping learners develop collaboration techniques for use in group work? The answer to this question depends in part on the conditions that will be present in the learning environment.