Instructional Design & Learning Theory

Brenda Mergel asks, Why does it seem so difficult to differentiate between three basic theories of learning? Why do the names of theorists appear connected to more than one theory? Why do the terms and strategies of each theory overlap? Her need for answers to these questions sparked her investigation into the available literature on learning theories and their implications for instructional design.

Designing a Web-Based Learning Ecology

This is the second in a series of three articles related to ASTD's upcoming workshop on Learning with Blogs, Wikis, and Web 2.0. Read more on:
Informal learning, it is more democratic. It's responsive to learners and often ad hoc. It's not the opposite of formal learning so much as a different range on the spectrum of all learning. Most learning incorporates a bit of formal along with some of the informal kind.

Learning Wisdom

Clark Quinn, "Some of that is smart ‘in the moment’ through performance support, and some of that is ‘smart over time’ via elearning. It is broader, with a whole process about moving up the ‘value chain’ of elearning strategy..."

breve: a 3d Simulation Environment for Multi-Agent Simulations and Artificial Life

Breve is a free, open-source software package which makes it easy to build 3D simulations of multi-agent systems and artificial life.

The Trainer's Application of Vygotsky's "Zone of Proximal Development" to Asynchronous Online Training of Faculty Facilitators

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and educator who researched that children improve their learning when they were in the company of those who were more skilled or knowledgeable about the topic, known as "Zone of Proximal Development"(ZDP). This paper by Dorette Sugg Welk, PhD, RN, identify factors that influence the ZPD relationship and strategies that the online trainer can use to mediate this relationship in an asynchronous online environment consistent with Vygotsky's basic tenets.

Development of an E-Education Framework

By “John” Jin H. Im.Internet technologies blur the distinction between distance learning and traditional learning by enabling the convergence of these two, thus causing confusion in widely-accepted definitions, terminologies, concepts, and theories on distance learning. This paper introduces an e-education framework with three reference models in order to reduce the confusion.