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What is individualized instruction?
Sometimes it can be difficult to pin down exactly what we mean by individualized instruction, not least because it is associated with a variety of other terms. Computer assisted instruction (CAI), tutorials, and self-paced instruction are a few of the ideas often associated with individualized learning. We like the term "individualized" because it helps us keep our focus on learners' needs and expectations, which is never a bad thing. But we'll be using some of those other terms as well.
It can be tricky to distinguish individualized instruction from other approaches to teaching and learning, partly because they are often inextricably mixed. Group instruction usually has some individualized instructional elements to it, and vice versa. Nevertheless, in this module, we'll focus on designing instructional products intended primarily for individual learners to use by themselves, for themselves.
What is it used for?
All kinds of learners—from elementary school students to corporate managers—use individualized instruction to acquire new knowledge and skills. Third graders use it to learn rules for long division; workers use it for learning the names of ideas and things associated with their jobs (in the military they call that "nomenclature"); personnel managers use it for improving their hiring processes; you're using it right now to learn some principles of individualized learning itself.
It is particularly useful in the context of e-learning. Individualized instruction is an important element of any e-learning system—corporate, military, or educational.
With care in their design, individualized instructional modules can be appropriate to all types of learning outcomes—facts, concepts, procedures, processes, and principles—and on both the remember and apply levels.
| Facts | Concepts | Procedures | Processes | Principles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remember | |||||
| Apply |
What does it look like?
You'll find designers using a range of instructional strategies for individualized instruction—or individualized learning as we'll often refer to it. Most individualized instruction appears as some form of a tutorial, but you will also find individualized educational simulations and other instructional methods. What they all have in common is:
- Self-paced presentation
- Individual practice and feedback
Instructional modules may be linear—you follow a single path from start to finish—or branching. Branching instruction lets learners skip things they already know, delve more deeply where their interests lie, or remediate difficult content. Intelligent tutoring systems take branching a step further by attempting to track learners' progress through the module and dynamically adjusting instructional parameters such as the number and types of examples and practice items.
Tutorials and other forms of individualized instruction are often presented as a sequence of chunks called instructional "frames." Frames are usually realized as separate computer screens (in CAI) or pages (in a printed book or workbook).
Individualized instruction can wear a variety of guises:
- It can be a print tutorial, such as the Stikky Book series, or Bob Mager's instructional design "six-pack" series including Goal Analysis.
- It often appears as computer assisted instruction, such as the Animation Tutor series including Dimensional Thinking [requires free Adobe Shockwave player].
- It may also be presented in video or audio recordings. My 9-year-old daughter learned to draw horses from one of the "extras" on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, a favorite DVD movie. I learned faux painting from a series of DVD tutorials.
- For "apply" type outcomes, you might consider to what extent you can simulate the actual scenario, as described the SlideShare How to save the world with e-learning scenarios by Cathy Moore.
Frequently, individualized learning employs a mix of media, appropriate to the needs of the student and the learning outcomes. It can take place in your kitchen or office, on the Internet or even in a classroom.
Individualized instruction can be part of a formal course—core learning activities or prerequisite, ancillary, or enrichment material—or even be a course all by itself. Sometimes individualized learning is entirely informal, that is, initiated and carried through by an individual outside a formal administrative system. For example, you might use a tutorial to refresh your abilities with Adobe Flash.
What will my final project for this unit look like?
In this unit you'll create a frame-based tutorial in either CAI or print form. Ordering numbers: Fractions is a sample of a computer assisted instructional tutorial designed and developed by Amy Goldberg as her project for this course.
Amy worked with a content expert, Dr. Janet Bowers, a math professor here at San Diego State University. Janet administers a test for students entering the math major here at SDSU. Many students taking the test were missing items related to ordering fractions, but there was no remediation available to help them learn the correct methods before re-taking the exam. Amy's tutorial is designed to help.
Amy originally created this tutorial for the Web using the Adobe Dreamweaver Coursebuilder extension. The Coursebuilder extension proved a little problematic in more than one browser, however, so I moved it over to Adobe Flash using the Flash Learning Interactions. In the process, I made a few minor revisions in the instruction, but this is 95% Amy's student project.
After you've perused the sample tutorial, check the evaluation rubric for the tutorial project.
Many organizations are using Adobe Flash Learning Interactions, Adobe Captivate, or an authoring system like Udutu to implement computer assisted instruction. If you are interested, you may develop your project using these or another development platform of your choice. Another 671 student, Bob Smith, developed some simple HTML with Javascript that you can modify to create your learning object. More on these choices later.
Some additional examples
- Doing research: An introduction to the concepts of online searching by the University of Illinois Library.
- Imagining the tenth dimension by Rob Bryanton. Wonderful use of visuals to aid understanding of very abstract topic.