• Background
• CLASS Project
• CLASS Staff
• General Insights
• Questions & Considerations
• Content
• Development Teams
• Content Acquisition
• Assessment & Grading
• Design
• Introduction
• Modeling
• Presentation
• Interactivity
• Navigation
• Assessments
• National Standards
• Quality Assurance
• Courses
• Features
• Courses
• Copyrights
• Technology
• Building a Course
• See and Say
• There are Limits!
• Influence and Change
• CLASS Courses
• Content
• Extras Designed
• Extras Linked
• Class Assessments
• A Bit of Dreamweaver
• Proofing
• Graphics
• MOUs
• Detailing Treatment
• Course Credits
• CLASS Style
• Publications

Instructional Design Strategies

Founded in constructivist learning theory, the CLASS™ courses utilized interactive designs and student-centered learning activities to facilitate student exploration and discovery. The seamless design enabled ongoing self-checks, evaluation and assessment which empowered students to interact with the courses in sequences or patterns that match his or her learning styles.

Interactive design

Integral to the CLASS™ learning environment was wide use of audio and video. Original audio and video files, such as student testimonials about learning strategies in the Learning FUNdaMENTALs course and refugees discussing their experiences during the Bosnian conflict in the Bosnia: Global Perspectives course, produced an inclusive learning environment. Animated tutorials and interactive self-checks provide modal learning experiences. In Geometry in Our World, students interact with a tutorial on how to measure the area of a circle. In Bosnia: Global Perspectives, students study geography using drag and drop maps. In fact, each CLASS™ course illustrates yet another learning method enabled by the dynamic, multimedia capabilities of the Web. And each course is chocked full of World Wide Web links to enhance and reinforce learning.

Pedagogical Strategy

CLASS courses reached to utilize the Web to its fullest instructional advantage. Content was written specifically for the Web, scaffolded for broader and deeper experiences with the subject matter, and designed so the student has choices of direction and activity.

In addition to the Web-based instruction, learning in each CLASS™ course was supplemented by an ISHS or site-based teacher.

• Seamless environment. CLASS™ courses were designed in a seamless learning environment. All necessary software, as well as activities, assessments, content text, multimedia, an interactive electronic notebook, newsgroups, e-mail, and gradebook are all bundled into a single-source navigable site. This seamless environment minimizes distractions, helping the at-risk student focus on learning.
• Consistent routines. At-risk students have a heightened need for consistent routines and clear purposes for learning. In addition to utilizing authentic assessment activities, and providing clearly stated learning objectives, CLASS™ courses feature a modular design, which exposes the at-risk learner to repeated patterns of learning and assessment. Additionally, regular systems of feedback coupled with encouragement and reward for effort and improvement are provided via e-mail from an Independent Study High School teacher. When interacting with embedded objective learning activities, students receive immediate reinforcement and feedback through hypertext, audio and/or video responses. Computer graded objective assessments provide feedback to the student in just a few predictable seconds. And students have continuous access to their own online gradebook.
  
• High, but achievable expectations. With the Independent Study High School being fully accredited, all CLASS™ courses are designed around national standards and state frameworks. In addition, research by Elizabeth Georgiadou and Nick Higgett of DeMontfort University concluded that Web-based courses, compared to print-based courses, make the student feel more challenged. At-risk student research has shown that high, but achievable standards motivate the at-risk learner. High, achievable standards are a cornerstone of the Independent Study High School, and consequently, the CLASS™ Project.
  
• Authentic learning tasks. At-risk students need to learn via authentic learning tasks to make connections to their real world. Designed around constructivism, CLASS™ courses were scaffolded to activate prior knowledge and build the student's schemata. CLASS™ course learning environments gave the student metaphorical or contextual learning experiences from content presentation to highly modal activities, and projects with real world implications. Self-selected, dynamic learning processes, interaction with peers in newsgroups, and layered activities enable the at-risk student to learn in an environment that is appropriate to his or her learning preferences. Finally, the computer learning environment, itself, empowers the student to feel they have a better understanding of the content, according to Georgiadou and Higgett, whose studies show 82 percent of students would rather read a lecture on a computer screen than listen to it live. And CLASS™ takes Web-based instruction far beyond textual lectures.
  
• Regular conversations with a significant adult figure. The greatest common cause of at-risk student behavior is the absence of having a significant adult figure in one's life. Although distance education will never be able to place a significant adult in each at-risk student's life, CLASS™ Web-based education revolutionizes distance education by providing an inviting environment conducive to dialogue. Dialogue is the basis of all human communication, key to the teaching/learning process, and indivisible from the origins of thinking, according to Seppo Tella and Marja Mononen-Aaltonen of the University of Helsinki. CLASS™ courses featured discussions in newsgroups, and one-to-one conversations with teachers. Research by Kathy A. Barbieri and Susan H. Mehringer of the Cornell Theory Center concluded that e-mail from teachers within a 24 hour turnaround is currently the most effective way to provide dialogue for distance education students. Their research shows that Moo is not intuitive enough for students, and chat (synchronous) is only used by students who perceive it as the single source of important information.
  
• Virtual learning environments are best designed using a metaphor, as evidenced by Morten Wagner, Allan Meng Krebs, and Joergen Boegh of the DELTA Danish Electronics in Denmark. Metaphors provide a sense of place for the at-risk student. Further, multimedia, such as music, provides sensory connections that help activate prior learning, as well as enhancing the affective domain of learning.
  
• Dynamic text can help replace the lack of human touch in Web-based education, concluded Greg Parker, Daniel Fleet, and Colin Ware of the University of New Brunswick. CLASS™ courses utilized a variety of graphical learning cues, including a hypertext, searchable glossary, and moving text and graphics, which helps add the human touch to Web-based education.
  
• Low Literacy Adult Instructional Design Features. The world of the adult literacy learner, traditionally left out of mainstream educational innovation, was included in the CLASS™ Project.

One challenge of the CLASS™ Project was to successfully apply existing instructional design models to the new environment of the World Wide Web. Basic assumptions of adult learning hold that the low literacy adult learner prefers high interest materials, and instructional processes that honors his or her adult status, and provides educational experiences grounded in the real world. Adult learning theory, and design applied to the CLASS™ Project, engages adult students in meaningful learning experiences utilizing a mix of media and textual modalities. Instructional design models that have proven to be effective with adult literacy learners include Kolb’s active learning cycle, situated or contextual design, and integrated theme-based design. These designs encourage the adult learner to engage in personal meaning-making, also known as constructivist learning.

Rather than adhering to the traditional andragogy/pedagogy conversation, the CLASS™ courses made use of Cognitive Flexibility Theory. Taking into account the problems posed by the ill-structured nature of knowledge domains and well-studied patterns of learning failure, Cognitive Flexibility Theory, a “new constructivism,” enables the learner to make meaning on multiple levels through multiple filters. The low literacy adult comes to the learning environment with a great deal of life experience. CLASS™ courses engage the learner on a personal, experiential basis, promoting learning through the student’s prior knowledge.

To accomplish this task requires multiple approaches to content treatment. It is imperative that students are active learners in the process. Designed with Cognitive Flexibility Theory, CLASS™ courses enable the student to revisit material from different perspectives, and for different purposes.

An example of courses in which effective adult learning theory are showcased the Introduction to Technology course. It is targeted to the learner who desires to gain an overview of technology as used in business, education, and home. With a large list of instructional objectives, the course is not a tutorial, but a simulation of the process the learner follows when seeking a job. These experiences are “real-life.” The scenario is interesting to most, if not all, adult learners. While researching and applying for a “job,” the learner experiences scaffolded instructional sequences. Specific objectives are reinforced with in-depth activities that are personally and meaningfully engaging for the adult learner.

Student-centered learning

Self-pacing. It is imperative that at-risk students are given the opportunity to succeed at a pace that matches his or her student learning. The multi-media rich CLASS™ courses, units and activities were self-paced, enabling students to revisit text, multimedia, learning activities, and assessments.

Self-directed navigation

Enhancing motivation. Summative feedback from studies comparing Web-based and classroom-based instruction by Michael Collins of the Memorial University of Newfoundland illustrate substantially higher responses from the Web-based students. At-risk students prefer to experience learning in an individualized, personalized format. Web-based education is the learning process of choice by at-risk students.

Ongoing evaluation and assessment
Notebook. CLASS™ course include a Web-based “Notebook” where students can take computer-graded objective assessments, write essays and design multimedia portfolios. Students can add graphics to their assignments simply by dragging and dropping them into their notebooks, including audio and video files. The students’ notebooks are privilege access secured on a CLASS™ server, and the students may revisit their assignments before publishing them to their teachers.

A commitment to instructional design features using new, relevant technologies as they became available helped make CLASS™ courses possible for common operating PC or Macintosh systems on standard, multimedia capable, personal computers. And all major resources were cached on a CD-ROM, supplementing the advantages of Web-based delivery by ensuring expedient uploading.

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