eJournal #5

Identifying Instructional Strategies

The steps in the instructional design process covered up to this point have been deciding what you are going to teach; the purpose of this assignment is to determine how you are going to teach the instruction. Aninstructional strategy refers to sequencing and organizing content, determining learning activities, and the content delivery system. A good instructional strategy takes into account what is known about facilitating learning via research in educational psychology—what theory or theories should you apply? However, in designing your instructional strategy, you have to go beyond naming the theory or methodology. At a minimum, you also need to identify the following three major components that when part of an instructional strategy will facilitate learning:

1) motivation: how will you engage and motivate your learners to learn?

2) prerequisite and subskills: what is that they will learn and in what order?

3) practice and feedback: how will you know that they have learned it? and how will you let learners know whether they’ve learned?

In your journal this week, solidify your instructional goals and think through what theories or methods you’ll draw upon to help learners attain them. Then begin formulating your instructional strategies. 

Motivation, Skills, Practice and Feedback

Motivating individuals in an online environment is a challenging task. Hopefully, the learners will have some intrinsic motivation to learn the material since it is relevant to their jobs. Since the Drug Free Workplace eLearning is a requirement of their employment within the first 45 days after new employee orientation, learners are motivated to complete it, and many others, due to the requirement. However, to actually encourage them to learn the material and learn from it is a different story.

To engage the learners in this new eLearning, I will include interactions where learners can click on answers and receive immediate feedback about their choice and how it relates to a drug free workplace. I will include learning scenarios based on specific incidents within the Department of Mental Health that are relevant to every person’s job level. They will read the scenarios and apply the policy when making their choice for the best action to take. Also, I will include some questions throughout the eLearning to see if they are understanding the content. Besides being interactive, the eLearning will be visually appealing. The current one includes a cat and dog talking to each other. Yikes.

The eLearning for Drug Free Workplace is in the following order:

Section I: Welcome

• A description of the eLearning
• How to navigate the eLearning
• Who to contact if the eLearning is not functioning properly

 Section II: The Process

• Content on process
• Scenario with interactive steps for process to follow
• Tabs with content: pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, follow-up tests
• List of drugs that are tested
• Alcohol test scenario/policy application
• Drug test scenario/policy application

 Section III: Timing of Tests

• Content on timing of tests
• Costs of tests to agency and employee
• Employee status during tests
• Transportation
• Refusal or tampering with a test
• Tabs with content: positive test results, right to justify, negative test results
• Confidentiality

 Section IV: Test and Application

• Required multiple choice test questions (base them on scenarios)

Besides what was mentioned above, the Department requires a multiple choice quiz at the end of the eLearning. Learners must make an 80% or higher in order to receive credit for the eLearning and receive their certificate. The quiz provides immediate feedback on what was missed and participants are allowed to go back and review the material. I am not a big fan of the end of learning quiz, which is why I’m trying to create more interaction and learning scenarios throughout the modules rather than rely solely on the multiple choice quiz at the end.