<p> This qualitative multi-case study examined the instructional design and development processes utilized by instructional designers and designers by assignment in higher education that created mobile learning for iTunes U delivery. Current research into the instructional design practices for mobile learning delivery leaves a gap in the literature. This study aimed to identify the instructional design and development processes specific to mobile learning delivery within iTunes U. Ten participants from higher education were purposively selected for participation in the study. Each of the 10 participants met the selection criteria; participants designed or served on a design team that created an iTunes U course for a higher education audience. Five of the participants were instructional designers and the other five were instructional designers by assignment. Data was collected from three sources including the participants' iTunes U courses, sample model designs or processes, and in-depth participant interviews. The study identifies instructional strategies, instructional design processes, advantages, and constraints of instructional design and development for mobile learning through iTunes U delivery. Included in the findings is a design and development model for instructional design of mobile learning through iTunes U.</p>

<p> As online courses become more established, there has been a clear impetus to build interactivity, personalization, and real-time feedback into courses. Faculty and course designers have cast envious eyes at video and online games that engage and enthrall players for hours and some are experimenting with gamification&mdash;a blanket term that covers all manner of attempts to build student intrinsic motivation into online courses. In this study I analyze four cases of gamified online courses at accredited institutions of higher education. I've looked at game elements the course builders are including and whether this might be a means of progress toward educational and societal goals. My conclusion is that there is potential significantly to increase student engagement in the concept of gamifying online courses. I outline areas for future study by suggesting frameworks within which gamification might be further analyzed and assessed.</p>

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<p> Recent advancements in the cost, availability, and capability of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices and software are spurring their mass distribution to the public. This fundamental shift in the use of AR and VR predominantly from military and academic research laboratories to the public presents new opportunities and challenges for the design of instructional technology. While studies of AR and VR have been conducted to inform the design of individual instructional products, few studies have focused on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) products in which AR and VR learners work together toward shared learning goals. </p><p> The museum education industry possesses unique and inherent characteristics that position it as a strong candidate for the development and deployment of CSCL-ARVR products. Tourism locations, such as museums, provide an exemplary environment for advanced learning technology experimentation in which information technology infrastructure and programs of instruction are often already in place and in which many tourists already possess smartphones and or tablets that may be used to mediate location-based educational experiences. </p><p> The goal was to conduct formative research to develop a tentative instructional design theory that can be used to guide the creation of CSCL-ARVR instructional products. Instructional design theory and software engineering practices were applied to guide the design of a CSCL-ARVR instructional product prototype to support museum education. The prototype, named Co-Tour, was designed and developed to enable remotely-located VR participants to collaborate with AR participants located within a tourism location to jointly navigate the location, examine exhibits and answer questions about exhibits related to a problem-based learning instance. Formative data were collected and analyzed, and the results were used to develop a tentative instructional design theory. </p><p> Mixed Reality Museum Co-Visit Theory is proposed to inform the design and development of CSCL-ARVR co-visitation experiences for museums. A theoretical framework was developed and was informed by CSCL, game-based learning, social constructivist theory, flow theory, and the construct of camaraderie. Five values supporting the goal were elaborated to guide theory methods production including fostering of collaboration, leveraging of informal learning activities, incorporation of motivational elements, favoring of loose organization, and provision an effective user interface. Future research should focus upon replication towards validation and generalizability of results and upon the broader museum going population.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how wiki-based collaboration is affected by the generational characteristics of Baby Boomer (1943&ndash;1960) and Millennial (1982&ndash;2000) instructional designers in midsized corporations. Collaboration theory was applied to strengthen the depth and accuracy of the data analysis and justify the study findings. A basic qualitative methodology was applied to explore the research problem. The target population consisted of Baby Boomer and Millennial instructional designers who worked in midsized corporations within the continental United States and had collaborated on a wiki-based work project within a team. The sample consisted of three instructional designers between the ages of 52&ndash;65 years old (Baby Boomers) and three instructional designers between the ages of 21&ndash;35 years old (Millennials) who possessed master&rsquo;s degrees in instructional design or a related field, were employed in midsized corporations within the continental United States for at least 1 year, and collaborated on a wiki-based project within a team during the past 12 months prior to participation in the study. Data analysis included evaluation and synthesis of participant interview transcripts to identify patterns that emerged from constant comparative analysis while identifying changes to the patterns when combined. Wiki-based collaboration was not affected by the generational characteristics of Baby Boomer and Millennial instructional designers in a midsized corporate context. </p><p>

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the factors that influence students&rsquo; intentions to continue to use digital texts. Specifically, the purpose was to investigate what impact the external factors of instructor modeling and instructor expectation to use had on the intention to continue to use digital textbooks as well as how the internal factors of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction with the digital textbook impact students&rsquo; intentions to continue to use digital textbooks. </p><p> <b>Theoretical Framework.</b> The theoretical framework for this study is the Technology Adoption Model (TAM). This user acceptance model was developed by Fred Davis (1986) and is used extensively to provide an understanding of user acceptance processes as well as theoretical insights into the design and implementation learning technology. </p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> This study used a quantitative, cross-sectional survey instrument based on the E-Book Adoption Scale (Jin, 2014b), an instrument that was tested for reliability and validity using a Cronbach&rsquo;s alpha test. </p><p> <b>Findings.</b> Students&rsquo; perceived ease of use and usefulness of the digital text predict student satisfaction with the digital text. Students whose instructors did not provide resources for using a digital text were more likely to be satisfied with the digital version of the textbook yet, there is no significant relationship between instructor expectations and intervention to students&rsquo; intentions to continue to use digital textbooks. </p><p> <b>Recommendations.</b> The ease of use of a digital interface is the aspect most likely to impact student satisfaction. College student purchasing patterns of digital texts are significantly influenced by the perceived ease of use of the text and the perceived usefulness of the text. Perceived ease of use is related to the interface of the text. Publishers who clearly apply this field of research to their product development will provide digital texts that students are more likely to be satisfied with and to adopt as a preferred learning platform. Institutions that develop support systems to help their faculty members make the most of the digital features of the texts will better support students.</p><p>

The field of Instructional Design and Technology has produced several instructional frameworks grounded in educational psychology to provide guidance for effective learning. The realm of athletics is an area that can benefit from these instructional frameworks by providing systematic methods to facilitate an efficient learning process. This study employed Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction to develop instructional guidelines for psychomotor skill learning of athletic movements to enhance athletic performance. This design and development study conducted model research through model development and model validation. Components of the guidelines reflected the Nine Events and were supported by research in motor skill learning in sports. These guidelines were then validated by subject matter experts and revised based on their recommendations. / Ph. D.

This study was conducted to identify combinations of self-efficacy enhancing strategies and language learning strategies and to align them with Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction (1985). If worked together, these combinations can be used by educators to encourage students studying abroad to acquire second language skills in a shorter amount of time. This design and development study conducted model research through model development and model validation. The considerations were created and supported by current research in the literature and validated by experts from these three areas and revised based on their recommendations. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study was conducted to establish instructional considerations that combine strategies that show, in the literature, to have an effect on second language acquisitions such as self-efficacy enhancing strategies and language learning strategies and apply these strategies in everyday instructions using Gagne's Nine Events (1985). It is hoped that the proposed considerations, after revised by expert reviewers, can be utilized when teaching second language learning skills to international students who seek higher education degrees and have limited time to acquire these skills. The considerations were created and supported by current research in three areas of the literature: self-efficacy enhancing strategies, language learning strategies, and Gagne's Nine Events (1985) and validated by experts from these three areas.

The work described in this thesis falls under the umbrella of the Aurora project (Aurora 2000). Aurora is a long-term research project which, through diverse studies, investigates the potential enhancement of the everyday lives of children with autism through the use of robots, and other interactive systems, in playful contexts. Autism is a lifelong pervasive disability which affects social interaction and communication. Importantly for this thesis, children with autism exhibit a deficit in narrative comprehension which adversely impacts their social world. The research agenda addressed by this thesis was to develop an interactive software system which promotes an understanding of narrative structure (and thus the social world) while addressing the needs of individual children. The conceptual approach developed was to break down narrative into proto-narrative components and address these components individually through the introduction of simple game-like tasks, called t-stories, presented in a human-computer interaction context. The overarching hypothesis addressed was that it is possible to help children with autism to improve their narrative skills by addressing proto-narrative components independently. An interactive software system called TouchStory was developed to present t-stories to children with autism. Following knowledge of the characteristics and preferences of this group of learners TouchStory maintained strong analogies with the concrete, physical world. The design approach was to keep things simple, introducing features only if necessary to provide a focussed and enjoyable game. TouchStory uses a touch-sensitive screen as the interaction device as it affords immediate direct manipulation of the t-story components. Socially mediated methods of requirements elicitation and software evaluation (such as focus groups, thinking aloud protocols, or intergenerational design teams) are not appropriate for use with children with autism who are not socially oriented and, in the case of children with ‗lower functioning‘ autism, may have very few words or no productive language. Therefore a new strategy was developed to achieve an inclusive, child-centred design; this was to interleave prototype development with evaluation over several long-term trials. The trials were carried out in the participants‘ own school environments to provide an ecologically valid contextual enquiry. In the first trial 18 participants were each seen individually once. The second and third trials were extended studies of 12 and 20 school visits with 12 and 6 participants respectively; each participant was seen individually on each school visit, provided that the participant was at school on the day of the visit. Evaluation was carried out on the basis of video recordings of the sessions and software logs of the on-screen interactions. Individual learning needs were addressed by adapting the set of t-stories presented to the participant on the basis of success during recent sessions. No ordering of difficulty among the proto-narrative categories could be known a priori for any individual child, and may vary from child to child. Therefore the intention was to gradually, over multiple sessions, increase the proportion of t-stories from proto-narrative categories which the individual participant found challenging, while retaining sufficient scope for the expression of skills already mastered for the session to be enjoyable and rewarding. The adaptation of the software was achieved by introducing a simple adaptive formula, evaluating it over successive long terms trials, and increasing the complexity of the formula only where necessary. Results indicate that individual participants found the interactive presentation of the simple game-like tasks engaging, even after repeated exposures on as many as 20 occasions. The adaptive formula developed in this study did, for engaged participants, focus on the proto-narrative categories which the participant needed to practice but was likely to succeed; that is it did target an effective learning zone. While little evidence was seen of learning with respect to the fully developed narratives encountered in everyday life, results strongly suggest that some participants were actively engaged in self-directed, curiosity-driven activity that functioned as learning in that they were able to transfer knowledge about the appropriateness of particular responses to previously unseen t-stories. This thesis was driven by the needs of children with autism; contributions are made in a number of cognate areas. A conceptual contribution was made by the introduction of the proto-narrative concept which was shown to identify narrative deficits in children with autism and to form a basis for learning. A contribution was made to computational adaptation by the development of a novel adaptive formula which was shown to present a challenging experience while maintaining sufficient predictability and opportunities for the expression of skills already mastered to provide a comfortable experience for children with autism. A contribution was made to software development by showing that children with autism may be included in the design process through iterative development combined with long term trials. A contribution was made to assistive technology by demonstrating that simplicity together with evaluation over long term trials engages children with autism and is a route to inclusion. We cannot expect any magic fixes for children with autism, progress will be made by small steps; this thesis forms a small but significant contribution.

The levels of income and employment rates of people with disabilities are often lower than those without them. An effective way to free disabled people from these circumstances would be to design proper job accommodation for them. Ordinarily, physical conditions severely restrict their ability to carry out their work efficiently unless they have are provided with appropriately designed assistive technology (AT). However, due to the physical conditions unique to each disabled person, understanding the requirements of a disabled person is often a challenge to an AT designer. The aims of this research were to develop a design model for an empathy tool that would assist in the process of designing AT for job accommodation, and to explore the relationship between the use of empathy tools and the improvement of design elements in job accommodation AT. The design models employed were developed by analysing interviews with AT users and examining the results of observations and a literature review. The model was then used to build an empathy tool to be used in designing job accommodation AT for a selected subject; the empathy tools were used in a series of assessments of designer users. The results show that, when compared with tools used in traditional design briefs, empathy tools can successfully help designers to improve design elements in terms, respectively, of their understanding of users' physical abilities (22 per cent), work requirements (26.6 per cent), ergonomic requirements (22.8 per cent), and environment characteristics (21.4 per cent). Meanwhile, it is difficult for the tool to improve upon other design elements, about which one must learn by gaining design experience.