Personal Reflection

This week’s assignment details the steps involved in the design phase of the ADDIE model.  The information created here isn’t the actual content.  It is just a description of what the course content will be.  For example, a design element might be to use a rubric for an assessment.  It is not the actual rubric itself.  The most surprising aspect of design is that it addresses visual appeal and aesthetics.  The design phase goes beyond the blueprint for the training.  Aesthetics is made up of “those elements of an interactive design that are carefully orchestrated to enhance and heighten the learner experience, as opposed to elements designed solely to satisfy the pedagogical or technical needs of the instructional objectives”, (Miller, 2011).  In his article Aesthetics and e-assessment, Miller illustrates the important role aesthetics has in learning and most importantly in distance learning. Visual appeal benefits not only learner satisfaction but also decreases the learner’s cognitive demands, promotes self-assessment, and increases motivation and higher task performance especially in distance education (Miller, 2011). 

As a distance learner, I didn’t realize that my motivation might be driven by how I like the look of the material being presented.   For my students, knowing that visual appeal can improve motivation and performance, I can rework the content to have a greater appeal factor.  The MRI course material is very technical where much of the information presented is in a graph or chart. Creating templates in Microsoft PowerPoint rather than using excel spreadsheets will allow me the flexibility to add graphic elements, color, and images to enhance the technical information.  I can also create and embellish images using Pixlr.   

Miller, C. (2011). Aesthetics and e-assessment: The interplay of emotional design and learner performance. Distance education, 32(3), 307-337. doi:10.1080/01587919.2011.610291