An Introduction to
Instructional Design
Patterns
Michael Bush (BYU)
Thor Anderson (UVSC)
Jeff Dunster (BYU)
ARCLITE Lab Efforts/Goals
Expand concept of separation of elements
of instructional design and delivery
Implement standards (Unicode, SCORM)
Maintain access to components of interest
Represent content using standard markup
schemes


Video (MPEG-7)
Text (QTI Specification and DocBook)
Challenges for Development
Interactive materials development is
expensive.
Systems change.
We need to find better ways
to reuse, share, and recycle
our instructional products
Or at least many
components thereof!
Wanted!
For instructional content:

General and extendable content data model
For sequencing of units of content:

A generalized approach for combining
elements into some meaningful order
Techniques to Address the
Problem
Approach the problem differently
Identify elements of design
Separate content, presentation, strategy,
and sequencing
Develop the best tools for each task of the
development process
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<ACTIVITY TYPE="content_with_questions">
<QUESTION TYPE="random_blanks">
AK1.TXT
‫أنا اسمي مها محمد أبو‬
‫ أسكن‬،‫ أنا مصرية‬،‫العال‬
‫في مدينة نيو يورك في‬
‫ والدي‬.‫منطقة بروكلين‬
‫مصري يعمل في األمم‬
‫المتحدة ووالدتي فلسطينية‬
‫تعمل سكرتيرة في جامعة‬
‫ أنا طالبة في‬.‫نيو يورك‬
‫نفس الجامعة وأدرس فيها‬
‫األدب االنجليزي‬.
<CONTENT TYPE="referenced_text"
LANG="ar">
../media/text/AK1.txt
</CONTENT>
</QUESTION>
<CONTENT TYPE="video" LANG="ar"
HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="320">
../media/sounds/AK1_text.mov
</CONTENT>
</ACTIVITY>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="xslt/qti/qti.xslt"?>
<questestinterop>
<item ident="ea1_ra_a">
<presentation label="‫ "اهال وسهال‬lang = 'ar'>
<flow class="instructions">
<material>
<mattext>Watch the movie clip several times.
</mattext>
</material>
</flow>
<flow lang="ar">
<material>
<matvideo uri="media/video/ahlan_wisahlan.mov">
</matvideo>
</material>
</flow>
</presentation>
</item>
</questestinterop>
<questestinterop>
<item ident = "ea2_ln_1">
<presentation label = "EA2 Language Notes">
<flow class = 'bullet'>
<material>
<mattext>1. More Equational Sentences</mattext>
</material>
</flow>
<flow>
<material>
<mattext>Equational sentences have two parts: the subject
and the predicate. The subject will be a noun, pronoun, or
demonstrative. It is what the sentence is talking about. The
predicate can be another noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a
prepositional phrase. If it is an adjective, it will agree in gender with
the subject. For example:
</mattext>
</material>
</flow>
…
</questestinterop>
Implementation
Subdivide content and design.
Determine the appropriate level of
granularity for content and design
elements.
Use the best tool for every design and
development task.
Design Structure
Within elements: This can be audiovisual
design (Presentation: look & feel and/or
skins).
Between elements: Some call this
sequencing. With appropriate level of
granularity of content object, this can be
branching.
Designing an Interaction
Design within
Elements
Designing Instructional Sequence
Rule
Example
Practice
Courtesy TICCIT: Merrill, Bunderson, et al.
Adaptive Processes
No help needed!
Help
needed!
Design between
Elements
Instructional Design Pattern
Origins and Definitions
Thor Anderson
Utah Valley State College
I’m thinking we go with
the Façade pattern on
the server side and
maybe use a Mediator
on the client.
Huh?
Yeah, or
maybe we just
use multiple
Observers.
Observer
Observer
Facade
Server
Client
Software Developer 1
Software Developer 2
Say what?
Let’s start out with 12
bar blues in F major.
Ok, and then we can
trade fours after the
second bridge.
.
.
Jazz Musician 1
Jazz Musician 2
Say what?
Let’s start out with 12
bar blues in F major.
Ok, and then we can
trade fours after the
second bridge.
.
.
Jazz Musician 1
Jazz Musician 2
What is a Design Pattern?
“A design pattern is an effective means to
convey/communicate what has been
learned about high-quality designs”. –
Kuchana, 2004
To make this happen you need:
Shared language for communicating
Common vocabulary of design elements
What are these two talking about?
I’m thinking we start with a tutorial followed by some projectbased learning and then a skills assessment.
Uh, sounds good.
Instructional Designer 1
Instructional Designer 2
We want design patterns!
If a design pattern is about effective
communication of high-quality designs,
then it seems instructional designers
would want patterns of their own.
Patterns are not limited to software design

Originally from field of architecture
There are, however, some limitations as
not everything can be considered a design
pattern.
Design Patterns are not…
Inventions

They are discovered and documented from
observation and study
Theoretical constructs

They are applied, reusable solutions to
common, recurring design problems.
Solutions to every problem

They are meant to be elegant, reusable
solutions in a particular context
How to discover ID patterns?
Do such general terms as “tutorial”,
“lecture”, and “simulation” qualify as
instructional design patterns?
Is it possible ID patterns are merely the
application of software design patterns
and are therefore only found in
instructional software?
Language Learning Templates
Authoring Tool
Jeffrey Dunster - Master’s Student
Information Systems
Brigham Young University
Authoring Language Learning
Templates - Demo
Built on the Eclipse development
framework
Modularized plugins
Java codebase
XML driven content architecture
SCORM capable
Extendable
Open source
<comprehension>
<title>Main Title</title>
<instructions>
Describe the school logo for
someone who can’t see.
</instructions>
<media>
<image height="200" width="300"
src="byu.gif">
<title>The BYU Logo</title>
</image>
</media>
<questions>
<shortanswer>Describe the logo.
<feedback>Thanks for your input in this
shortanswer quiery.</feedback>
</shortanswer>
<fillIntheblank>The dominant color is
<blank><correctanswer>blue
<feedback>Correct!
<audio src=“correct.mp3“ />
</feedback>
</correctanswer>
<feedback>blue is the correct
answer.</feedback></blank>
</fillIntheblank>
</questions>
</comprehension>
<questestinterop>
<item ident = "ea2_ln_1">
<presentation label = "EA2 Language
Notes">
<flow class = 'bullet'>
<material>
<mattext>1. More Equational
Sentences</mattext>
</material>
</flow>
<flow>
<material>
<mattext>Equational sentences have
two parts: the subject and the predicate. The
subject will be a noun, pronoun, or
demonstrative. It is what the sentence is
talking about. The predicate can be another
noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a
prepositional phrase. If it is an adjective, it
will agree in gender with the subject. For
example:
</mattext>
</material>
</flow>
…
</questestinterop>
Programmatic Design Patterns In
Use
Model/View/Controller
Façade
Many more…
Instructional Design Patterns In
Use
Evaluation



Multiple choice
Fill-in-the-blank
Short answer
Instructional



Anticipation
Comprehension
Listen/watch & write
Patterns For the Future?
Lecture
Essay evaluation