This article aims at clarifying and conceptualizing game-based learning (GBL) in order to pinpoint directions for practices and research. The authors maintain that GBL should be conceptualized toward the transformation of a textbook-learning culture. The authors emphasize the importance of a paradigm shift in learning and a reorientation in…

To better understand the impacts of participatory design in English language arts teacher education, this critical case study focuses on the National Writing Project's Connected Learning Massive, Open, Online Collaboration (CLMOOC) that engaged educators in playing with the connected learning framework. The authors draw from 5 years of interaction…

Technology can enhance teachers' practice in multiple ways. It can help them better understand patterns in their students' thinking, manage class progress at individual and group levels, and obtain evidence to inform modifications to curriculum and instruction. Such technology is most effective when it is aligned with teachers' goals and…

Educators are seeing rapid developments in online instruction with regard to not only available technologies, but also in design and teaching practices. Developing and maintaining social presence in an online environment is paramount to the success of a learning environment. This article touches upon some historical perspectives of social presence…

Advances in technology offer a vast array of opportunities for facilitating elearning. However, difficulties may arise if elearning research and design, including the use of emerging technologies, are based primarily on past practices, fads, or political agendas. This article describes refinements made to a framework for designing and sequencing…

Increasingly, "research" is not being conducted in a separate group in an organization; rather, it is being integrated into the fabric of the organization. Google recently described such an integrated, "hybrid" model of software research that is characterized by cycles of short duration and small-scope activity that is ongoing…

The design of online learning environments is a complicated process because it entails the use of technological tools to mediate the various forms of interaction situated in the learning process. One possible way to help reduce such complication inherent in various forms of interaction is to look at design as a problem-solving activity. This means…

The field of instructional design does not collect and share actual completed instructional designs and designers' reflections on the creation of those designs as an integral, widespread aspect of its practice. This article defines the instructional design case as a means of knowledge building. It lays out the components of instructional design…

The purpose of this modified Delphi research study was to investigate instructional designers' beliefs about the instructional strategies and activities to be included in a universal framework for designing quality, self-directed, multimedia, open educational resources (OERs). With the rapid growth of availability and use of OERs by a widely…

Instructional design models have been criticized for being too inflexible and taking too long to follow to be useful in today's fast-paced environment. As a result, some have rejected instructional design. This article offers an alternative view of instructional design as flexible and able to be accomplished in much shorter time periods than…

Instructional design (ID) in its short life has been dominated by behaviourist approaches despite critique focusing on issues of practice as well as theory. Nonetheless, little research has addressed two fundamental questions: "What constitutes good instructional design?" and "How do instructional designers create good design?"…

In 1986, the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI) published the first edition of "Instructional Design [ID] Competencies: The Standards." It was the culmination of work that began in 1978. In this third edition, IBSTPI presents its latest view of the competencies of instructional designers. It is a…

Robert Gagne has been a central figure in the infusion of instructional psychology into the field of instructional technology, and in the creation of the domain of instructional design. Gagne's design principles provide not only a theoretical orientation to an instructional design project, but also have prompted a number of design conventions and…

Despite the fact that e-Learning exists for a relatively long time, it is still in its infancy. Current e-Learning systems on the market are limited to technical gadgets and organizational aspects of teaching, instead of supporting the learning. As a result the learner has become deindividualized and demoted to a noncritical homogenous user. One…

To successfully create a Web site, schools and jurisdictions must plan for the site's content, design and development and learn the principles of effective page design. This report contains technical advice on implementing and managing Web site development in schools. Following an introduction which discusses functions of jurisdiction and school…