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Constructivist Design and Blended Instruction: Rethinking Course Design for the Engineering Classroom

Abstract

The engineering classroom is changing1: the student body is ethnically, linguistically, and culturally more diverse2 than ever before and the infusion of technology is redefining work skills and society's expectations. Web-based technology has grown to become a critical instrument in education3 and its integration is often seen as a significant force driving change4. It is now causing educators to re-think the very nature of teaching and learning. But where do you start? How can instructors design powerful, innovative, and effective web-based environments that can be successfully integrated in a face-to-face class or stand alone to support a distance course?

In this paper, we answer the question from the perspective of a four-year long project that led an instructor from using an institutional, unimaginative, web-based template to designing a fully customized, award-winning course that truly reflected his teaching style and philosophy, supported the institution’s mission statement and the course objectives, and supported the students’ learning styles.

After a general introduction to instructional design, we provide a historical perspective illustrated by the four dramatically different designs that evolved over the years. We then propose a constructivist design approach to designing blended courses and guide the readers though its main stages.

Introduction

In this phenomenological case study we followed the collaboration between an instructor and an instructional designer over a period of four years. During that time, the instructor went from using an institutional, unimaginative, web-based template to designing a fully customized, award-winning course that truly reflected his teaching style and philosophy, supported the institution’s mission statement and the course objectives, and supported the students’ learning styles. Over the same period of time, the instructional designer went from following a behaviorist approach to a constructivist approach to instructional design.

Instructional Design – A Powerful Tool Over 100 different instructional design (ID) models try to capture or represent the ID process5. Most ID models consist of five critical activities or stages6 that are often referred to as ADDIE7 an acronym created from the name of each of the five phases: analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate8. Although there is no such thing as an ADDIE model9, the acronym has become an umbrella term often used to refer to the key processes followed by all instructional design models10. Regardless of which instructional model instructors and instructional designers might choose to design a blended environment, they go through each of the ADDIE phases.

The Analysis phase is the foundation for all other phases of instructional design11. Its main focus is to identify what is needed or what needs to be done differently. The instructional designer

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Huguet, M., & Wright, F. (2009, June), Constructivist Design And Blended Instruction: Rethinking Course Design For The Engineering Classroom Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5545