Month: December 2022

Microcore was the first playable case study developed by the research team I work with. I hadn’t actually joined the team when it was finished, but it is still being used and has been experienced by more students than possibly all our other simulations put together. This particular study grew out of a student project, and I joined the writing to help get things cleaned up and out the door.

Abstract:
This case study explores a type of educational simulation, an alternative reality game we call a playable case study (PCS), and how its use influenced student engagement in an online writing classroom. The goal of the simulation was to help students create professional communication artifacts and experience real-world professional communication situations. This article reports the effectiveness of the playable case study as a tool specifically for online writing instruction (OWI). The context of our research was a PCS called Microcore. Acting as interns for a company, students are asked to investigate a serious problem that occurs and present a solution to ensure similar problems do not occur again. Forty-seven students in two sections of an online professional writing classroom responded to pre- and post-survey questions and prompts that gathered their perceptions about writing, understanding of workplace communication, and levels of engagement. Responses were coded and analyzed for thematic trends. Results suggest that playable case studies like the one reported here may be effective in countering primary OWI difficulties, including disengagement; lack of social presence; faltering self-efficacy; and unclear, unproductive perceptions about writing assignments. Students responded positively to the simulation and appeared to develop more realistic views about workplace communication.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Reference:

Balzotti, J., Haws, K., Rogers, A. A., McDonald, J. K., & Baker, M. J. (2022). Microcore: Using online playable case studies to increase student engagement in online writing environments. Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 11(3). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/_microcore_using_onl

This paper originally started as a two-page, mini case study on how design can’t be understood in process oriented terms. It was combined with the data that ended up in the paper Objectivation in Design Team Conversation (also originally meant to be a two-page case). It quickly became clear each case deserved to be its own paper, since while they could be used in service of the broad point I was trying to make they were also interesting contributions in their own right that deserved to be built out completely. I’m glad I took the road I did, both for the other paper and for this one. They make much better contributions on their own.

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study what university faculty valued when working with instructional designers and instructional design teams to develop educational simulations. We did this through a case study of three faculty, where we analyzed what they discussed among themselves or communicated to other team members about what mattered to them about their team relationships or the design processes they employed. We structured our case report around three thematic issues that expressed how our participants depicted good relationships and processes. Our report concludes with a discussion of how instructional designers could use our findings in their practice.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Reference:

McDonald, J. K., Elsayed-Ali, S., Bowman, K., & Rogers, A. A. (2022). Considering what faculty value when working with instructional designers and instructional design teams. Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 11(3). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/_considering_what_fa

The other faculty author on the paper, Scott Howell, does a great job recruiting students into research projects. The first two authors are students from one of his instructional design classes, reporting on an experiential learning trip his class (along with one of mine) participated in. Both students were undergraduates when they started the paper. Now they’re both Master’s students in our program at BYU. My contribution to the paper was to organize the trip under discussion. Other than that, all credit for this paper goes to the other authors.

Abstract:

This case study describes a combined graduate and undergraduate instructional design studio that introduced undergraduate students to instructional design in a multifaceted, holistic, and applied way. Reviewing the experience of the undergraduates in the course, this design case describes four learning interventions used to create this applied experience: (1) instructional design team projects—one non-profit and the other in higher education, (2) weekly seminars and biweekly training sessions from field experts, (3) an experiential out-of-state trip, and (4) weekly reflection journals. These studio-based learning interventions are presented within the context of the Experiential Learning Theory and Model-Centered Instruction. Overall, the course introduced the undergraduate students to the field of instructional design in an applied and experiential format.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Reference:

Zundell, R. S., Sowards, W., Howell, S. L., & McDonald, J. K. (2022). Introducing undergraduates to instructional design in a graduate studio: An experiential model-centered approach. Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 11(3). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/introducing_undergra