The objective of the Instructional Design and Authoring Module is to instruct learners in order to develop competence in planning, design and development of elearning activities or resources. This module aims to allow students to apply, in a practical manner, relevant learning and instructional design theories to elearning.  It is hoped that students will develop an understanding of the design, development, application and evaluation issues relating to elearning. Students will gain practical skills in web and elearning resource development and usage of other tools for elearning development such as podcasting, video editing and experience in rapid elearning development. 

 

PART 1    The Storyboard

 Our eLearning resource was designed using a storyboard this allowed us to work together as a group and it shows the planning and rationale of our resource. Within the storyboard are the detailed plans that set out the exact specifications for building each step of our elearning resource.   Initially we had to decide on what our message was and how we were going to communicate it. The storyboard permitted us to  establish clear aims and rationale for our project early on so as to ensure the development process would be transparent and unambiguous, ensuring that we had clear path on  how we were going to achieve our goals. The storyboard sets out what we are going to do as a group with our resource in terms of (i) overall design (ii) use of colour and images (iii) accessibility (v) cross platform compatibility (vi) pedagogy. 

The storyboard also contents three separate sections on the learning outcomes of each section. Click here to view these sections. 


 PART 2      Our Resource                                    

Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child’s health or wellbeing.  Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many negative effects, it is now recognised a as serious health problem. The purpose of this resource is to help parents understand the current 'epidemic' of childhood obesity. 

Our resource is in three sections:

Ø  Section 1:  Parents can explore the obesity problem and find out how to identify their child’s Body Mass Index or BMI. 

Ø  Section 2:  Parents will be able to revisit the practical steps they can take to improve their whole family’s diet and lifestyle.  

Ø  Section 3: Parents will access their knowledge and understanding of obesity, nutrition and lifestyle guidelines.

Click on picture below to open  resource

 To go to Part 4, The Reflection, click on

 link below

     Part 3    

 Annotated Bibliography

 

Reference 1

Cooper, A. Reimann, R. Cronin, D. (2007) About Face. The Essentials of Interactive Design. Wiley Publishing. Indiana

This book is introduced by a discussion by the writers that we are now in a post-industrial world. That manufacturing no longer dominates, having lost its leadership to digital technology, and software now dominates our economy. More and more products now have software in them and more and more businesses are utterly dependent on software. With this in mind the book analyses the design process and examines why in the authors opinion so many software products fail to be genuinely interactive. 

eLearning products are examined by using the focus of design principles and design patterns. One of the books main arguments is that integrating design principles, processes, and patterns is the key to designing effective product interactions and interfaces. Throughout the authors hold the view “Goals motivate people to perform activities, understanding goals allows you to understand the expectations and aspirations of your users, which in turn help you decide which activities are truly relevant to your design”. Further clarification of this viewpoint is provided by the following “Looking through the lens of goals allows you to leverage available technology to eliminate irrelevant tasks and to dramatically streamline activities”. Understanding user’s goals can help designers eliminate the tasks and activities that better technology renders unnecessary for humans to perform.

 I found this book useful for getting an overall feel of good interactive design principles and practices, it emphasises the importance of thinking from the users viewpoint. It examines at a fundamental level good design principles. Since these principles hold true for good design they will be important in guiding us as we develop and design our resources, and that end user goals will be the greatest influence on our final design.  The practice that most relate to our project which I took from this book is the emphasis on developing our resource from the viewpoint of user goals, that analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation should be judged from the lens of the user. Therefore for example, the design of the questions in the quiz element of the resource will be based on the health and lifestyle issues that will be directly relevant to the parents of overweight and obese children.  

Reference 2

Kinzie, M. (2005).  Instructional design strategies for health behaviour change.  Patient Education and Counselling, 56(1), 3-15. 

This article helps to focus attention on what the author regards as the best of a selection of health behaviour change theories, to take what is most effective from them and then to offer a unified set of instructional design strategies that are specifically focused for health education interventions. In the example given strategies are discussed that can have a positive influence on reducing adolescent smoking. The author is aiming to provide in readymade form an instructional design package that is designed specifically for health education issues; its aim is to provide guidance, to help educators to design effective programs without wasting too much time and getting side-tracked in the myriad of different theories and design models. A review of 536 articles found 66 different theories and models informing design efforts Glanz et al. 

The theories that were focused on as being the most effective for this particular instructional design strategy were selected by using a modified version of Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction Framework, namely, what is used to gain attention, how to present the stimulus material, how to provide guidance, elicit performance and provide feedback. According to the author some of the theories that aligned closest with the specific objectives of developing strategies for encouraging health behaviour change were “The Health Belief Model” (Rosenstock), “Social Cognitive Theory” (Bandura), and “Diffusion Theory”, (Dearing). 

 Major criticism of the approach used is the lack of an ongoing strategy to encourage the continuity of the desired behaviour; this can also be looked at, as a failure to maintain the required supports on an ongoing basis. There a not enough support for the   maintenance of non-smoking behaviour through the lack of provision of social supports e.g. coach students to help each other, articles in school newspapers, projects, posters, social events and newsletters. 

There is useful feedback here for the development of our eLearning resource which deals with childhood nutrition and focuses on issues of been overweight, underweight and obese and the effects on short and long term health. We are aiming to develop a resource that not only has an immediate impact, but offers solid guidance and encouragement to parents who attempting to promote positive lifestyle changes in their children.

 

Reference 3

Austin, D. Mescia, N. (2001). Strategies to Incorporate Active Learning into Online Teaching

This paper examines the most effective methods that can be used to Incorporate Active Learning strategies for an online environment. “Active learning is probably not going to happen in an online environment unless the interaction is deliberately planned and the instructor encourages it” (Moore and Kearsley 1999). Active learning is seen as a key element in the learning process and most adult learning models view active learning as a crucial component, to create an effective learning environment. Active learning requires “intellectual effort, encouraging higher order- thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation)” and provides a means for learners to assimilate, apply and retain learning (Bonwell and Eison, 1991; Harasim, et al, 1997). Active learning accommodates a variety of learning styles, promotes student achievement, enhances learner motivation, changes student attitudes and causes learners to learn more (Astin, 1985). 

Within this paper the process, objectives and aims of active learning are examined, alongside the objectives of instructional design. the author argues that when developing active learning strategies for an online environment, the instructor/designer should first consider sound design practices  including assessing the learners, knowing the context and environment in which the learners will be operating, knowing instructional tools and techniques for delivery, developing supporting strategies in the form of directions and resources, incorporating assessment of learning outcomes and course design, and designing with active engagement in mind. (Mantyla, 1999). 

Through various readings in this module the importance of active learning has been emphasised and active learning is a key element in the design of our resource, our resource will be designed to engage and actively interact with the learner, and the key active learning principles discussed in this paper will be part of our design effort. One of the main aims of our resource will be to develop learner or user skills in recognising the conditions of overweight, underweight and obesity in children, and to be knowledgeable in using various health intervention strategies to prevent these conditions occurring and engaging supports to reduce their occurrence.   

Reference 4

Sharples, M. Taylor, J. Vavoula, G. (2005). Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning, The Open University

The objective of this paper is to offer an initial framework for theorising about mobile learning, the author postulates that there are many theories of learning but none have emphasised the mobility of learners and learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning. The paper emphasis that a first step in postulating a theory of mobile learning is to distinguish what is special about mobile learning compared to other types of learning activity, some of the assumptions of mobile learning discussed are that we learn across space, we learn across time, we move from topic to topic, and that we also move in and out of engagement or connectivity with technology. The author argues that by placing mobility of learning as the object of analysis we may understand better how knowledge and skills can be transferred across contexts such as home and school. 

A second step in formulating a theory of mobile learning must embrace the considerable learning that occurs outside classrooms and lecture halls as people initiate and structure their activities to enable educational processes and outcomes. A study by Vavoula (Vavoula, 2005) of everyday adult learning found that 51% of the reported learning episodes took place at home or in the learner’s own office at the workplace. The rest occurred in the workplace outside the office (21%), outdoors (5%), in a friend’s house (2%), or at places of leisure (6%). Other locations reported (14%) but only 1% occurred on transport.  To be of value, a theory of learning must be based on contemporary accounts of practices that enables successful learning. Research by the US National Research Council concluded that effective learning is Learner centred, Knowledge centred, Assessment centred and community centred these findings match a social-constructivist approach. 

Any theory of mobile learning must take account the growing proportion of the population that own mobile technology. In the UK, over 75% of the general population and 90% of young adults own mobile phones (Crabtree, 2003). The paper describes the relationship between technology and learning by using an adapted version of Engeström’s expansive activity model. Within the expansive activity model learning is analysed as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills.

For our resource to be genuinely accessible and usable by mobile phone users, especially those with smart phones we need to aware of the instructional design environment and the design of mobile learning systems. The paper supports using a social-constructivist approach, “Learning occurs as a socio-cultural system, within which many learners interact to create a collective activity framed by cultural constraints and historical practices”. Control, context and communication within the context of mobile technology and learning are briefly discussed.

 

Reference 5

The Digital Divide (2004) (http://www.waterfordeducatetogether.ie/files/digitaldivide.pdf) Department for Education and Employment (DFEE), (1998) Survey of Information and Communications Technology in Schools 1998. Statistical Bulletin Number 11/98, section 20.

Department of Education and Science (DES), (1997), Schools IT2000, A Policy Framework for the New Millenium.

European Commission, (2001), European youth in a Digital Age: eEurope 2002 Benchmarking. Draft Working document of the Commission services.

Ginsburg, L. Sabatini, J. & Wagner, D. (2000), Basic Skills in Adult Education and the Digital Divide in OECD, Learning to Bridge the Digital Divide, OECD, Paris. 

Hawkridge, 1990

In many countries concern has been expressed about a potential digital divide, where some groups in society have greater access to and skills with ICT, and thereby gain an economic and social advantage over other groups. In the information society citizens will have access to vast quantities of information, but the skills required will be skills of judgement, synthesis and analysis of this information (OECD, 2001b, p11). In most developed countries the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education has become a significant part of education policy, and has resulted in substantial expenditure. Many reasons have been given for this investment in ICT in education. Writers such as Hawkridge have distinguished four major rationales for the introduction of computers in to education, the social, vocational, pedagogical and catalytic rationales (Hawkridge, 1990). 

This paper examines the state of ICT in Irish schools from the perspective of the social aim of ensuring equality of access to ICT, but more importantly from the point of view of research material to back up the construction of our resource the first part of the paper considers the inequalities in access to ICT in society generally.  There is already evidence to suggest that such divides may exist along lines of gender, geographical location and socio-economic status. 

Gender: The Information Society Commission reported that the nearly two thirds- of Irish Internet users were male (ISC, 1999). There is some limited evidence that these gender patterns in ICT use may vary with socio-economic status. One UK study reported that girls in the lowest socio-economic group were least interested in computers, while boys in the lowest socio-economic group were very interested in computers (Kirkman, 1993, p58). Gender differences in the type of use of ICT. Selwyn reported that boys were more likely to play games than use a word processor, while girls reversed this pattern. Girls were also more likely to use art packages and the Internet and email, while boys were more likely to use databases, spreadsheets, and programming (1998, p218).  (Selwyn, 1998). 

Geographical  patterns:  Irish data from the Information Society Commission shows that those living in rural areas are over-represented among the “late adopters” of the Internet (ISC, 200, p68). 

Socio-economic patterns:  The Irish Information Society Commission also reported a socio-economic dimension to the pattern of use of ICT. The data revealed higher use of ICT among the employed, professionals, people with high income and people with high educational attainment. By contrast those with the lowest use of ICT were outside the workforce, non-professional, or with low income or educational attainment (ISC, 2000, p68). 

The divide may not be confined simply to access to computers or the Internet, but may be found in the type of use of the technology. Becker, using data from a US survey in 1997, found that children from the higher socio-economic groups used their home computers for a broader range of activities, including school assignments, e mail, graphic design, and educational programmes (1998, p14-15). 

IT literacy involves a person having the basic IT skills to understand and have the skills of judgement, synthesis and analysis of information (OECD, 2001b, p11), this is especially important for our group to be cognisant off in the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation of our resource especially as to how it relates to where people gather information relating to the their children’s health. 

 

Reference 6

Health literacy (2011). www.healthliteracy.ie  http://www.nala.ie/news/4-out-10-people-have-difficulty-understanding-health-information Time to Talk CARDIO educational program developed in partnership with the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, Canyon Ranch Institute and RIAS Works. www.timetotalkcardio.com  American Medical Association  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (International Adult Literacy Survey)

 In 1997 the OECD carried out an  International Adult Literacy Survey concluded that one in four – that is, about half a million -Irish adults have problems with even the simplest literacy tasks, such as reading instructions on a bottle of aspirin.  Health literacy involves a person having the skills to understand basic health information whether they receive it in writing, in person or from an electronic source. It also involves a person having the knowledge to understand treatment options and make informed decisions about their children’s health.  Being health literate includes being able to understand a healthcare professional’s directions, plans for treatment and how to take your medications correctly. Health literacy is not simply the ability to read, but also to listen, analyse, and make decisions. Patients must be able to apply these skills in actual health settings including a surgery, clinic, hospital or accident and emergency room. 

Over the years, medical care has become increasingly complex. Patients are being asked to undertake more and more complicated self-care regimens.  (Time to Talk CARDIO educational program developed in partnership with the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation). 

According to the International Adult Literacy Survey conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1997, over 50% of the Irish population is affected in some way by literacy difficulties such as problems with reading, writing and numbers. They may lack sufficient health literacy to be able to understand health information provided to them and to take their medication correctly. 

According to the American Medical Association, poor health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person’s health than age, income, employment status, educational level or race. Independent studies among patients with asthma and diabetes showed that poor health literacy skills were strongly linked with improper use of a metered-dose inhaler and poor glycaemia control. In addition to the effects of low health literacy on individual patients, the economic impact can be significant. Low health literacy has been found to be linked to higher rates of hospitalisation and lower levels of medication compliance. (Various sources American Medical Association). 

Populations most likely to have low health literacy are older adults, certain racial and ethnic minorities, people with less education, people with low income levels and non-native English-speaking adults. However, it is important to acknowledge that health information and medical advice can be challenging at times for everyone to understand, regardless of their literacy level or background. (Time to Talk CARDIO educational program developed in partnership with the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation). 

One of the key findings of the study is that there is a strong relationship between health literacy and education, those with lower education has a lower level of health literacy. Vulnerable groups such as those experiencing long term illness, financial hardship and those from lower-socio-economic groups were seen to have the lowest levels of health literacy. 

What comes across strongly from a variety of sources is the compelling need to provide clear, easy to understand, unambiguous, accurate and relevant information using plain English, to avoid hard to understand medical terminology and to offer clear explanations to medical terms. The articles surveyed also indicate that our resource should assume that the audience may have very little prior knowledge of the subject matter and existing knowledge may not be accurate.

When providing patients with information:

- routinely review important information;

- provide handouts in easy-to-read formats; 

- use illustrations to help describe a specific medical condition or treatment.

 

                                                                                   

     Part 4    

Instructional Design and Authoring Module Reflection

In the third session of the Instructional Design and Authoring module, learners were asked to vote for a subject out of a list of subjects that would interest them the most.  People then formed groups with a shared interest in a particular subject, our group was formed around the field of nutrition, and out of this wide area, we selected a topic on which to develop our eLearning resource. 

Our group chose the topic of Childhood Obesity; we discussed at length the reason we should select this area to develop our resource.  All three group members are parents so we had an innate idea of the importance of the subject also the “Growing up in Ireland” (2011), report had just been published as we were starting our report and it produced some very controversial media and press coverage.  

We wanted to allow the Principles and processes of Instructional Design (Gagne. Wager. Golas. & Keller. 2005) to maximise the effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of our learning resource.   The process consists of determining the current state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some "intervention" to assist in the transition. Our early research was aimed at finding out as much as possible about our audience, Parents of children that are concerned about the weight of their child. 

Ease of use was of paramount importance when developing an eLearning resource for an audience in which our research indicated had varying degrees of IT Literacy.   The importance of ease of use was emphasised by my readings on the subject of IT Literacy, IT literacy involves a person having the basic IT skills to understand and have the skills of judgement, synthesis and analysis of information (OECD, 2001b, p11), this is especially important for our group to be cognisant off in the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation of our resource especially as to how it relates to where people gather information relating to their children's health. (The Digital Divide  2004). 

 Health literacy was an area we decided to analyse from the very start, while researching the area of our audiences ability to understand health related terminology, what came across strongly from a variety of sources is the compelling need to provide clear, easy to understand, unambiguous, accurate and relevant information using plain English, to avoid hard to understand medical terminology and to offer clear explanations to medical terms. The articles surveyed also indicate that our resource should assume that the audience may have very little prior knowledge of the subject matter and existing knowledge may not be accurate.  ( Healthliteracy Nov 2011). 

Early on as a group we had to decide a fast effective means of communication, we examined some social media sites, twitter, facebook and google plus and decided that a wiki would be most suited to our requirements. We could easily add, modify, delete, edit pages, upload files, images and video and have discussions via a web browser allowing us to work collaboratively in a private site.  The discussion board proved to be a great means of communication; we also developed special pages for the analysis, design and development of our resource on the wiki. It allowed for a degree of transparency in that we could examine group resources and see how they might fit in to the overall development. 

Some of the main rationales of our learning resource were that it would address the following issues. 

 1/ To develop a resource that will help tackle the current 'epidemic' of childhood obesity (Whelan et al, 2010).

 2/ To provide families with an eLearning resource which can encourage parents and children to discuss openly an issue, which may be difficult to address initially. 

3/ To provide parents with the information necessary to discuss issues of concern and share thoughts & ideas

4/ To act as a motivational tool for change by educating families about healthy eating & lifestyle habits

As a group we had to reach consensus as to the aims of off our resource, we decided to break down our aims into 3 main parts, 

A:  This resource is being developed to:  explain the problems associated with weight-related issues in childhood and let parents identify if their child is a healthy weight, overweight or obese

B: Provide parents with appropriate information and support if a potential weight issue is identified

C: Enable parents to assess and reinforce their current knowledge of childhood nutrition & lifestyle influences

We researched and then evaluated various design models we then decided that an appropriate Instructional design model would be one that would relate to the following general process

     What are the requirements we need to fulfil?

     Design the process,

     Build the process

     Test/evaluate the process

Following an examination of the macro instructional design models available, the ADDIE model proved to be most pertinent for our requirements; this model specified the analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation of our resource. The following readings helped to confirm our choice and our initial thoughts concerning health literacy and ease of use. 

Principle of instructional design outlined an appropriate model to follow i.e. ADDIE and one key aspect from our working group is the importance of analysing our audience and ensuring that our design tailors our resource so that parents from a particular social background (pedagogical rationale) can access our resource, but more importantly, feel comfortable using it and discussing the content with other concerned parents.  

 In this book the author uses the ADDIE approach for instructional design it specifies that at an early stage the designer needs to be aware of the objectives and goals of the project i.e. objectives are written for trainees while the goals are written from the course's perspective. 

Proper evaluation procedures are to be built in at the design stage and that any evaluation must relate back to the programme objectives.  During the development stage the author suggests that pre and post lesson activities are important to clarify objectives and to reinforce learning and to keep the game simple, entertaining and provide directions. (Piskurich  2000). 

In my reading of this book it became evident that the practices that most relate to our project is the emphasis on developing our resource from the viewpoint of user goals and, that analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation should be judged from the lens of the user. Therefore for example, the design of the questions in the quiz element of the resource will be based on the health and lifestyle issues that will be directly relevant to the parents of overweight and obese children. (Cooper. Reimann. Cronin. 2007). 

We decided to use the rapid eLearning development model this dovetailed with our development needs, as much of the content required to develop our resource was readily available. We used the Articulate suite of programs, which are specifically designed as e-learning software tools that facilitate the development of presentations, quizzes, and surveys.  We initially created, slides in PowerPoint, copied the slides to Articulate, completed final editing, added images, recorded narration and developed an on-line quiz. When each of our sections was complete we published them and saved them to an on-line dropbox for final development and editing. 

 “Rapid design and development is best used when needed content is already available or easily obtained. A more rigorous design and development approach makes sense in certain circumstances such as, when learners must be able to perform critical skills with great accuracy.” In other words, the authors suggest that intricate higher level learning objectives merit more instructional design rigour than more broad-based lower order processes. (Shank. &  Bircher. 2009). 

Consideration of the micro instructional design models available lead us to select Gagne' Nine Events of Instruction (Gagné. 1958-65)  as being the most judicious micro model in the design stage namely, A/ Gain attention.  B/ Inform learners of objectives. C/ Stimulate recall of prior learning. D/ Present the content. E/ Provide “learning Guidance”.  F/ Elicit performance. G/ Provide feedback. H/ Assess Performance.  I/ Enhance retention and transfer to the job. Applying Gagne's nine-step model to any training program is the single best way to ensure an effective learning program.  In this event of instruction, the learner is required to practice the new skill or behaviour. Eliciting performance provides an opportunity for learners to confirm their correct understanding, and the repetition further increases the likelihood of retention. 

A multimedia program that is filled with glitz or that provides unlimited access to Web-based documents is no substitute for sound instructional design. While those types of programs might entertain or be valuable as references, they will not maximize the effectiveness of information processing - and learning will not occur.  In brief, it is found that females (pedagogical rationale) (who might be considered the main target audience for our learning resource) prefer:

   Puzzle type games

   Board games, quizzes, puzzles and card/dice games

   Educational games

   Female characters are under-represented in games

   Social interaction between characters in games

(Connolly. Stansfield. & Boyle. 2009)  

Why we are using a quiz?   The ultimate goal of our resource is to produce effective and clear instruction, which will aid learning on an individual basis and within a group context.  A quiz is considered one of the most effective methods that can be used to Incorporate active learning strategies for an online environment.  “Active learning is probably not going to happen in an online environment unless the interaction is deliberately planned and the instructor encourages it”. (Moore and Kearsley 1999).  Active learning is seen as a key element in the learning process and most adult learning models view active learning as a crucial component, to create an effective learning environment. Active learning requires “intellectual effort, encouraging higher order- thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation)” and provides a means for learners to assimilate, apply and retain learning (Bonwell and Eison, 1991; Harasim, et al, 1991). Active learning accommodates a variety of learning styles, promotes student achievement, enhances learner motivation, changes student attitudes and causes learners to learn more (Astin, 1985). 

Through various readings in this module the importance of active learning has been emphasised and active learning is a key element in the design of our resource, our resource will be designed to engage and actively interact with the learner, and the key active learning principles discussed in this paper will be part of our design effort. One of the main aims of our resource to develop learners or users skills in recognition of the conditions of overweight, underweight and obesity in children, and to be knowledgeable in using various health intervention strategies to prevent these conditions occurring and engaging supports to reduce their occurrence.  (Austin. Mescia. 2001).  Within the field of social constructivism the authors (Beetham & Sharpe 2007).determine that there is no factor x that makes eLearning effective and the tools  used need to add interest, engagement and transformative potential to learning.  The idea of social constructivism is very much alive with digital technologies and the authors suggest that students should be encouraged to think and think together.  The design process must incorporate this type of learning.  

Social constructivism; A study by Vavoula (Vavoula. 2005) of everyday adult learning found that 51% of the reported learning episodes took place at home or in the learner's own office at the workplace. The rest occurred in the workplace outside the office (21%), outdoors (5%), in a friend's house (2%), or at places of leisure (6%). Other locations reported (14%) but only 1% occurred on transport. 

A theory of learning must be based on contemporary accounts of practices that enable successful learning. Research by the US National Research Council (1999) concluded that effective learning is learner centered, knowledge centred, assessment centred and community centred these findings match a social-constructivist approach. Any theory of mobile learning must take account the growing proportion of the population that own mobile technology. In the UK, over 75% of the general population and 90% of young adults own mobile phones (Crabtree. 2003). 

For our resource to be genuinely accessible and usable by mobile phone users, especially those with smart phones we need to aware of the instructional design environment and the design of mobile learning systems. The paper supports using a social-constructivist approach, “Learning occurs as a socio-cultural system, within which many learners interact to create a collective activity framed by cultural constraints and historical practices”. Control, context and communication within the context of mobile technology and learning are briefly discussed. (Sharples. Taylor. Vavoula. 2005). 

 Connectivism theory; The author argues that new networks are developing and users of the Internet get far better information and support from fellow users than from vendors or producers.  These changes are placing the control of learning in the hands of the learner and the role of the educator is changing.  The author identifies with George Siemens's Connectivism theory, where learners connect with one another and form new networks and opinions. This will give parents the opportunity to connect with one another, and hopefully the resource can be used as tool for parents to discuss and share information, which can benefit them as parents and more importantly their own children. (Downes. 2005)  

 Aims of Quiz: 

We are aiming for long term positive lifestyle change, express importance of lifestyle change, children exercising with family (emphasising negative effects of obesity may only have limited effects, make people feel guilty\ negative about themselves) (Kinzie. 2004).

1.   Provide learners with information about alternative choices. In our case, if you are trying to convince people to eat healthily, you need to explain what healthy eating is.

2.   Provide learners with the pros and cons associated with the desired behaviour.  As the book states, “A lot of behaviour occurs out of habit and learners need to know the consequences of the desired behaviour”.

3.   Provide relevant models for the desired behaviour - the more relevant, the model is for the learner, the greater, the likelihood the learner will adopt the behaviour.

4.   Identify and teach the skills that make the desired behaviour possible. People cannot choose to eat lower-fat food if they are unable to identify which foods are high in fat.

 Use alternative instructional strategies such as simulation, role-playing, collaborative processes, or other interactive experiences in which benefits from the desired behaviour become obvious. These types of experience compliment modelling experiences.  (Gagne. Wager. Golas. & Keller. 2005) 

References: 

Astin, A, W. (1985). Achieving educational excellence. San Francisco: JosseyBass.

Austin, D.  Mescia, N. (2001) Strategies to Incorporate Active Learning into Online Teaching

Beetham, H.  Sharpe, R. (2007). Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. London: Routledge

Bonwell, C,C.  Eison, J, A. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. 

Cooper, A.  Reimann, R.  Cronin, D. (2007) About Face. The Essentials of Interactive Design. Wiley Publishing. Indiana

Crabtree, J.  Nathan, M. & Roberts, S. (2003). MobileUK: Mobile phones and everyday life. London: The Work Foundation. 

Downes, S. (2005) E-learning 2.0.  On eLearn Magazine.  New York:  ACM. Available at http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1 

Whelan, E.  Russell, L.  Sekhar, S. May 2010, how the Health Care Reform Law Will Help Prevent and Reduce Obesity.  

Gagne, R. (2005) Principles of instructional design. Belmont CA:Thomson/Wadsworth.

Gagne, R.(1965, 1970, 1977, 1985).The Conditions of Learning.

Connolly, T. Stansfield, M. & Boyle, L. (2009). Games-Based Learning Advancements for Multi-Sensory Human Computer Interfaces.London: Information Science

Gagne, R. Wager, W.  Golas, K. & Keller, J,M. (2005) Principles of Instructional Design (5thed.) Belmont CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.

Growing up in Ireland (2011). National Longitudinal Study of Children: Overweight and Obesity among 9-year-olds.  Department of Health and Children.

International Adult Literacy Survey (1997) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2001b, p11)

Kinzie, B, M. (2004) Instructional design strategies for health behaviour change. Patient Education and Counselling, 56 (2005) 3-15.

National Research Council. (1999). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.  ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1. 

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