Chapter 1 – Atwood

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the impact that mobile technology developments have had on instructional design practices used to develop online course material at the Ohio State University. According to Neilson, smartphone usage in the United States is at approximately 82% and that number is continuing to grow annually (Daily Dose: Smartphones Have Become A Staple Of the U.S. Media Diet, 2016). The number of smartphones in use is also increasing globally and universities need to provide learning opportunities on a global basis in order to remain competitive. In the U.S. alone 92% of younger adults ages 18 – 29 now own a smartphone. That number is also increasing for other age groups as well. For example, the number of lower income Americans owning a smartphone is now at 64% and the percentage of older Americans owning a smartphone is also on the rise. In addition to the rising number of smartphones owned by Americans, the number of Americans owning a tablet is now 51% as of November of last year (Smith, 2016). The question this chapter is attempting to answer is “How have instructional design practices for online education changed at OSU in order to be more mobile friendly?” In order to answer the defining question, the chapter examines design theories and models used at OSU, requirements for being an instructional designer, the impact on these practices at OSU related to mobile technology, and considerations of the future impact of mobile technology on design practices.

Introduction to Instructional Design

The Ohio State University is one of the largest public universities in the nation with approximately 60,000 students and 25,000 employees. OSU offers over 200 undergraduate degree programs and over 150 graduate programs totaling around 12,000 course offerings. The university is currently starting to offer more and more online courses and degree programs. As with most large universities, OSU is expecting to see continued growth in the number of online course offerings that will be needed in the future. As stated on the ODEE (Office of Distance and Extended Education) website, “The growth of our distance education initiative is important. Equally important is that we grow responsibly and with the highest regard for quality. Our strategic plan is to develop 15 new distance education programs by the end of the fiscal year 2018 and continue to expand our online general education course offerings.” The university currently offers 18 different online programs ranging from associate degree programs to doctoral programs and a total of over 1600 individual online courses. Online courses are available at the Columbus campus as well as all of the branch campuses.  All of these online courses need to be accessible from mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets. This need to make course content available for mobile technologies has had an impact on instructional design practices used at the university.

Instructional design is a process that involves the development of instructional content using pedagogical knowledge in a manner that presents the content in a meaningful way to the learner. Instructional design at the university involves more than just deciding the layout and presentation of educational content. The process also involves careful consideration about the learner and how to present the material in a manner that is most appropriate for the learning process. The learning process itself and the science of pedagogy must be understood by the instructional designer in order to effectively present the material for the learner. Instructional design is needed at OSU and other universities in order to provide a methodology for the development of course content for presentation. Typically, something that is designed properly is much easier to implement, evaluate, and support into the future. The easier implementation usually translates into cost savings to the overall project and helps to ensure a better outcome for the student and the organization. Instructional design practices also contribute to a better overall learning experience for the student due to the analysis and collaborative effort that goes into the design process.

There are many benefits of instructional design for both the student and the organization offering the web and mobile based course material. One of the benefits of a well-designed course is that it might translate into a better learning experience. The better learning experience for the learner is due to the accessibility and availability provided by the properly designed course content. Also, having the ability to access learning content from anywhere at any time is a huge benefit to the learner. This ability to learn from anywhere can translate into a cost savings for the learner by eliminating the need to travel in order to learn something new.

Another benefit of using instructional design techniques is the increased quality of the product produced by the process. Using already proven techniques can increase the quality through lessons learned from past experiences. The end result is that something that is designed properly translates into a success for both the student and the university.

Technology specialists and web developers can also benefit from some knowledge of instructional design methods. This is because there exists some crossover between instructional design practices and web development practices used by the university. Both are developing content to be accessed in multiple environments with constantly changing technologies.

Other benefits of properly designed mobile course offerings include student retention and a rise in completion rates (Beam, 2016). This can be attributed to the ability to use multiple devices for lessons and that sometimes the lessons are broken into smaller segments for viewing on a smartphone. The smaller lesson size helps to keep the student more engaged in the learning process. In addition, integration of the learning module with phone based organizational applications provides the ability for the learner to receive alerts related to course material.  This could prove beneficial to both the student and the instructor in the event of an assignment update such as a deadline change.

All of the reasons that have been discussed here along with the expected growth in the mobile phone and tablet markets make it necessary for OSU to constantly adjust their design practices in order to be assured that they are providing mobile friendly course content for their students.

Overview of Instructional Design at OSU

For the instructional designers at OSU, it is important to consider different design theories while developing course content for online and mobile technologies. One of the design theories considered by instructional designers at OSU is behaviorism, where the mind is viewed as a black box and learning is based on the association of events or in other words learning is associated with stimuli and response. Another theory considered is the constructivist perspective on learning, which suggests that students acquire knowledge through past and current experiences. The learner then builds on these experiences in order to continually learn new things. Each learner has a different perspective on the process of learning and is not considered a blank slate due to the acquisition of prior knowledge. The constructivist theory is a popular theory among instructional designers and is the theory often referenced by instructional course developers at OSU.  Since the constructivist theory is the theory considered the most by OSU mobile course developers, I will cover it in more detail. Using this theory, the instructor should try to engage the learner in discovering principles by themselves. According to information on the constructivist theory available at instructionaldesign.org (Bruner, 1966) states that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments. Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information. These values of having learners that are willing to learn and structuring content and evaluations in a manner making it easier to learn are concepts that any good instructional designer should keep in mind.

The constructivist theory is also based on the study of cognition or cognitive psychology, which deals with the study of problem-solving, creativity, and thinking. In the cognitive approach, it is believed that the way we think influences our behavior. Having knowledge of these instructional design theories is beneficial to the instructional designers doing course development work at OSU.

Instructional design models are also an essential part of the course development process and are taken into consideration by the instructional designers at OSU as well. An instructional design model is a framework for organizing the process of creating instructional activities. A particular design model is often associated with the overall design system, which includes the Learning Management System (LMS) used by the institution.

OSU designers sometimes use the ADDIE design model as a design model along with a summative assessment model. In the summative assessment model, the student is often assessed at the end of the course by needing to complete a project or a paper of some type. The number of summative assessments in a course is based on the number of objectives for that particular course.

The concept of instructional design originated in the 1950’s but it wasn’t until around 1975 that the ADDIE design model was first introduced. ADDIE is an acronym for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The initial ADDIE design model was based on a five-step approach that had been developed by the US Air Force known as the ID model. Over the years there have been several iterations of the design model with the current version appearing in the 1980s.

In addition to following the ADDIE design model, a backward design model is also practiced by OSU instructional designers. In the backward design model for developing instructional content, learning outcomes are set first, then forms of assessment are identified and instructional methods are chosen. The backward design model typically consists of the below three phases:

• Identify the results to be achieved
• Determine what will be used as evidence to verify that the desired results have been achieved. Here the teacher must first think as an assessor before designing the course material
• Design activities around the desired results to ensure that the results should happen

This design model can be somewhat paralleled to a road map where the destination is chosen first and then the route used to get to the destination from the source location is developed. In other words, knowing where you are trying to get to is just as important as knowing how to actually get there.

Requirements for Being an Instructional Designer at OSU

An instructional designer must possess an understanding of the toolset available and know how and when to use the appropriate tool. Some of the tools used by instructional designers at OSU are Canvas, Adobe Captivate, Articulate, Photoshop, SoftChaulk, PowerPoint, and MediaSite. The designer should have a desire to continually learn new tools and techniques as the different technologies continue to evolve and transform.

The instructional designers at OSU need to be able to effectively translate knowledge from the subject matter experts into learning material that can be easily understood and used by the learner. Subject matter experts (SMEs) are typically consulted for any large software development effort and need to work closely with the course designers. As an instructional designer, one must be able to work as part of a team involving other designers, subject matter experts, faculty members, information technology support staff, students, and business process managers. Designers should have knowledge of the process owners and the sponsors of the course development projects.

Instructional designers need to be both creative and innovative and also look objectively at problem-solving. They must be knowledgeable of proven problem solving and troubleshooting techniques, especially techniques for dealing with technology. Troubleshooting production issues or production support is often an essential part of the job for ODEE personnel. The designer should also be familiar with issue tracking techniques and be knowledgeable of issue tracking software packages used by the organization, such as Jira and ServiceNow.

Additionally, instructional designers should have an understanding of all of the basic concepts involving teaching and learning. When designing a course, having the ability to think as both a teacher and student can be beneficial to the designer.

An instructional designer must be aware of the environment that hosts the LMS and the tools provided by the LMS for course development. Being aware of the host environment means the designer should also have some knowledge of the limitations of the network. Having this knowledge will also aid in understanding how the tools used for course development like Captivate and Articulate interface with the host LMS.

Course developers also need to be versed in testing platforms and understand the need to test the courses in environments that they anticipate will be used by the students. The designer should test on multiple operating systems supported by any available devices they have access too.

Additionally, instructional designers should be familiar with techniques used for visualizing a webpage for course content. In other words, the designer should be familiar with storyboarding techniques and know what software is used for storyboarding. Having this knowledge along with knowledge of the other areas mentioned in this section aid in being a successful instructional designer at OSU for both web and mobile content.

General Development Considerations for Mobile Friendly Online Course Content

Following are some considerations to keep in mind when developing mobile friendly course content. One thing that the designer should always keep in mind when developing course content is that screen space is a precious commodity. During development, you should cut out any unnecessary clutter and keep things clean and concise. Another concern when developing mobile content is bandwidth. Something that typically loads fast on a Wi-Fi connection may have a tendency to load much more slowly on a smartphone. When testing your online courses test using multiple browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Puffin, and Dolphin. If possible, the developer should have a set of clearly defined unit tests permitting small segments of the course material to be tested along the way. In addition to the unit test, there should be a full regression test in place for testing changes to the application after the product is moved into production.
As mentioned previously, one thing to always keep in mind when developing online course content is that screen space is a precious commodity. This also means using a responsive design for eLearning course material that will be accessed across multiple devices. By responsive design, we are talking about creating an application that looks and reacts the same across multiple devices. When a page is displayed on a desktop or laptop screen it should look the same when displayed on a smartphone or tablet. Adobe CaptivateA is a course-authoring tool with built-in capability for responsive design and as mentioned previously is currently used for course development at OSU.
Another consideration to keep in mind when developing mobile-friendly courses is all the different types of mobile devices that must be supported. Just to list a few, there is the Microsoft Surface tablet, Android Samsung smartphone, Apple iPhone, the Apple iPad, and a host of smartphones created by other manufacturers. Not only are their multiple variations of mobile devices but these devices also come in various screen sizes with different hardware configurations such as storage capabilities and processing speed.  CSS frameworks like SASS and Compass can be used to adjust to different screen sizes and also add pizzazz to an HTML page making a good first impression and engaging the student.
Audio interfaces are becoming more and more popular and should be a consideration for web and mobile page design. When including audio in the online course the issue of ADA compliance comes into play. It may be necessary to provide some type of text converter for the hearing impaired in order to remain compliant.
Security best practices should always be followed for mobile application development. Mobile malware is becoming more and more of a concern with the personal information being sent to smartphones such as student grades. Unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots used by smartphones are a concern because hackers can intercept communications between the smartphone and the network.  Lost phones are also a security risk for mobile content.
Finally, one of the most important things to keep in mind when developing course content for mobile development is that the design must be driven by pedagogical considerations and financial and technical reasons.  Student satisfaction is always a high priority for OSU instructional course developers.

The Impact on Instructional Design Practices at OSU due to Mobile Technology

In order to determine the impact that mobile technology has had on instructional design practices at OSU an interview was scheduled with practicing instructional designers at ODEE. The instructional designers participating in the interview have extensive experience with mobile technologies. The designers have mobile experience with other organizations in addition to their experience with OSU.  The attached audio segment contains the questions that were asked during the interview and the text below is a summary of what was learned about the impact of mobile technologies on instructional design practices at OSU.

For OSU one of the biggest investments for becoming more mobile friendly concerning course development was moving from Desire2Learn to Canvas as the university Learning Management System (LMS). The version of Desire2Learn that OSU was on did not do a very good job of supporting mobile capabilities or was actually considered to be mobile unfriendly. The transition from Desire2Learn to Canvas began as a pilot project during the summer and fall of 2015. The go-live implementation of Canvas occurred in the spring of 2016. At present, faculty members are expected to have ported their course material from Desire2Learn to the Canvas LMS system. One of the main reasons for going to Canvas was because of the mobile-friendliness of the application. Canvas supports both iOS and Android devices for the mobile course content development. Canvas includes a mobile app that can be downloaded to any smartphone and used for accessing course content. Whether or not the LMS in use by the organization has a mobile application that can be installed by the student is an important consideration. The number of applications supported by a typical smartphone user is constantly increasing and so is the functionality of these applications. People are using their phones more and more effectively for everyday life and this includes the ability to continue their education. These are just a few of the reasons that the downloadable application provided by Canvas is so important. In today’s society lifelong learning is becoming a phrase that is heard more and more often. I believe that lifelong learning is being partially driven by the rapid changes in technology. With the ever changing array of technological choices, it is necessary to keep learning in order to be productive in your chosen field whatever it might be and this is another driving factor for adapting design practices for mobile.

From the interview, it was easy to see the importance of having an LMS system that has built-in mobile friendliness. The built-in mobile capabilities of the LMS translate into an easier development effort for mobile friendly course content. Students need the ability to access course content from anywhere at any time in order to maintain a technological edge in today’s competitive workplace. Below is a timeline illustrating the move by Ohio State University from D2L to the mobile friendly Canvas LMS system.

Also discussed was that the instructional designers at OSU use a sort of backward design model where they start with a set of goals to accomplish or define an expected set of outcomes then work from back to front. The expected outcome would be what the student should learn while enrolled in a particular course. The use of both the ADDIE model and summative assessment were mentioned during the interview.

Another point of discussion involved the more technical considerations that go into course design for mobile friendliness at OSU. Aspect ratio is one thing that came up during the interview and must be taken into consideration when designing a course having content that might be accessed using a mobile device of some type. Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width to the height of an image being displayed on a screen. In order to easily understand aspect ratio think of a photograph that is 3 inches wide by 2 inches in height. The aspect ratio of the photo would be 3:2. If the photo were 6 inches wide by 4 inches in height the aspect ratio is still 3:2 because the number is always reduced. Having a good understanding of aspect ratio for screen size can assist the designer in maintaining responsiveness across multiple devices.

We discussed that the instructional designer must always keep in mind how the content will look when viewed on a mobile device or the aesthetics involved with the material to be displayed. Aesthetics are always an important part of any software development initiative whether for an online course or an application designed to meet some business need for the organization. We discussed aesthetics in some detail during the interview. Simplicity is something that should be kept in mind when developing the page layout. The page should look clean and neat and be as simple as possible but also display the content in an effective manner. Controls such as radio buttons, command buttons, and dropdowns should be appropriately placed to avoid unnecessary clutter. Designers should avoid clutter because it might make it difficult to locate certain information on the page. The elements of the page should make consistent use of font; background color, text style and color, and content layout of the page. Overall color schemes should be chosen wisely in order to enhance the content of the page.

Designing course in a manner that will help to keep the student engaged in the learning process came up during the interview. As an illustration of maintaining student engagement, one can think of games designed for learning content. More and more gaming concepts are being used as a training tool in order to keep learners engaged in learning.   Zunos is a company that provides game based solutions for eLearning. The company produces what they refer to as bite-size solutions for mobile technology that consist of eLearning courses targeted at company employees.

Adaptive technology or ADA compliance is also a major concern for instructional developers at OSU and the designers emphasized this point. Making mobile applications accessible to people with disabilities is also a legal requirement for the university. Once again color choices need to be considered due to the number of people with color blindness as well as enhancing the content as previously mentioned. The course content may also need to include a textual transcript of audio for people with hearing difficulties in order to stay ADA compliant.

Typically the users of mobile applications have high expectations for their applications and a low tolerance for error. In other words, they expect the apps to work flawlessly on the first try. These high expectations translate into the importance of the backend processes. Reliability and back end processes were talked about during the interview. Often mobile applications are storing data in some type of relational database on a server and accessing the data by the mobile application needs to be reliable as well as transparent to the user. The applications must have diagnostic logs and someone with the ability to monitor the logs for errors and know how to interpret the data when an error occurs. At OSU, mobile content is often stored in relational database systems utilizing technologies from external vendors like Oracle Corporation and Amazon.

We also discussed factors that are not necessarily controlled by the designer but can have an impact on design considerations. For example, total course enrollment and the load on the server due to the volume of users for a particular course. There may be a need for the application to scale to a larger audience at different times of the year such as fall semester versus summer semester. Also, as online courses and access through mobile are becoming more and more popular the enrollment in a particular course might experience an increase.  The increased enrollment causes a need for the application to scale in order to accommodate the increased student volume.

Another point of discussion was the necessity for providing a collaborative environment for online course development. There is a need for collaboration to exist between the students and between the student and the instructor that can be impacted by mobile needs.  This finalizes the topics that were discussed during the interview that might possibly impact design practices due to mobile technologies.

The overall purpose of the interview was to answer the defining question of “How has mobile technology influenced instructional design practices at OSU?” Following is a list of the items that had an impact on instructional design practices the most when involving mobile technology.

• Through the need to move to a new version of the university LMS that is mobile friendly and includes a mobile app
• Through the need to adjust font size to adapt to the smaller screen size
• Through the need to consider video aspect ratios to work across all media
• Through the need to maintain reliable backend processes for content management

Future Considerations for Instructional Design Practices Involving Mobile Technology at OSU and Beyond

As always, it is a challenge in any business environment keeping up with the rapid developments in new technology. Systems must be constantly patched, upgraded, and rewritten in order to accommodate the innovations in hardware and software design. Also, a huge consideration for the future is the unknowns or not knowing what will be coming in the future from these hardware and software innovations. An organization never knows what might lie ahead or what might be the next big technological change on the forefront. However, it is important that the organizations remain agile and ready to adapt to whatever changes that might occur.  OSU sponsors an agile conference called “The Path to Agility” in an effort to help keep instructional designers up to date on technology changes.

As an instructional designer is important to stay current with the latest technology and to stay versed in the available tools for course development. Continuing education is important, as well as, attending conferences and training sessions relevant to industry standards. Conferences typically offer exposer to a wide range of technologies related to the field of instructional design. Vendors want to display and market their latest and greatest accomplishments in instructional course design. The upcoming Innovate Conference at the Ohio Union is sponsored by OSU is another great example of educational opportunities for instructional designers. Constantly reading trade journals and publications related to instructional development is another way to stay abreast of the latest technology trends in course design material. Networking with peers through social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter is an important resource as well. Keeping up with the latest trends in LMS functionality and features will aid in future development. Continually updating templates used for development with the latest trends such as HTML 5, Bootstrap, and CSS frameworks also helps in staying current. Upgrading current systems to the latest releases of software is important for future development needs.

Being up to date with the latest trends in testing and development techniques such as agile development and test driven development is important.   Testing is a critical phase of any course development process and should be practiced throughout the development process. Not just at the end of the project.

Staying familiar with the needs of the target audience and paying attention to how the audience might be changing based on economic developments is important for design purposes related to mobile technology. One thing for certain is that the world we live in is becoming more and more mobile so the need for mobile-friendly learning environments will only continue to increase into the future.

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