Peer Review

Implications Of Learning Theories On Instructional Design - eLearning Industry

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Apr 29, 2026 by Faculty Development

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This is a website on learning theories and resource links to technologies with recommendations for their use. It contains a brief review of the learning theories that frame the collection, mostly blog style posts on technology applications, resource lists that can be filtered by categories, webinar and events listings with a clear corporate angle. It is most suitable for educational technology practitionors, maybe instructional designers and instructors willing to tinker with and invest in new technologies. The website has a fairly straightforward navigation system, though it is not openly licensed and its accessibility structure is likely not aligned with current ADA requirements.

Type of Material:

Reference Material

Recommended Uses:

The website offers a variety of resource categories: basic learning theory application articles, clear and straighforward technology applications in the context of using technology to support educational design described in blog-style articles, links to webinars related to technology use and application, and links to the technology vendor sites that are connected to the platform. The blog-style articles tackle a variety of topics that can be filtered and it's unclear what sorting is used to display the titles on the home page. It is likely that visitors will stumble upon a very useful technology or idea, but there is no structured system that would indicate progression in any specific direction, so instructional designers with a clear idea and lots of self-direction would benefit most.

Technical Requirements:

Accessible through most browsers: Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Chrome.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Visitors to the website will:

1. Learn about the basics of the 3 learning theories.

2. Explore events, technology and other resources that may be applicable to professional development.

Target Student Population:

The content is best suited for professional instructional designers and educational technologists working in corporate fields, but many also have relevance to academic fields.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic understanding of educational theories and instructional design principles.

The structure of the website makes it most useful to visitors with prior functional knowledge in education design and technology applications. Newcomers to the field may benefit, but they will have to develop their own training program through lots of trial and error approaches.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The content of the website appears current and relevant, with the work including AI-powered resource options and their applications in the context of educational design.

The information is clear and concise fo those with already functional knowledge of the field.

The information is organized as a content collection, not as a teaching resource, so individual articles may be used without knowledge from extended contexts.

The site provides a comprehensive overview of key learning theories and effectively connects them to instructional design practices.

Concerns:

The website is not openly licensed, or at least, there in no visible indication of licensing available.

The target audience appears to be more corporate-leaning than academic.

Newcomers may need more time to orient themselves on the website.

This resource is not for students and is not meant for implementation with students. Instead it provides ideas and resources for how to use existing tools to design student-facing instruction.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The material provides a solid foundation for understanding learning theories in instructional design.

It has useful extensions, especially related to AI-technology and its applications for someone already familiar with the field of education design and learning technology.

The individual articles allow for entrance only into the areas that appear most interesting to the visitor and lend themselves to relatively easy-to-follow implementations.

Concerns:

It doesn't seem to fit into curriculum assignments as learning outcomes aligned tasks. It may be beneficial as additional resource regarding the format of some assignments or on using tools that may be compatible with some tasks. Those implementations will require the instructor to adjust the level prior to integration.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The copyright is at the bottom of the page which is really hard to get to because scrolling just lengthens the page. Absent clear displays of open licensing symbols or copyright notices on the website, users may be confused about the potential usability of these resources. This could be done at the article level or globally on the site.

The navigation of the site is intuitive and the labels are accurate and logical. The visuals and content organization are functional and engaging. There is a sense of finding something useful when navigating the pages.

The resources are structured and there are filters that improve ease of navigation.

It works well on all 3 attempted browsers.

The webinar layout with the registration option is smart and efficient.

Concerns:

There is some variety in the format of the lists that breaks the seamless effect.

The target audience seems to vary between sections. This should be better communicated. Maybe consider a section that is more corporate-type application of resources and technology, and another that explores learning with its related models and impact studies.

Inclusion of new/ current multimedia elements or interactive components could enhance engagement and accessibility.

Other Issues and Comments:

The website is copyrighted, so doesn't meet the requirement for inclusion in an open collection. If individual elements are openly licensed, those should be clearly marked.

The actual target audience and the purpose of the website are unclear. What is the goal here? There are some solid resources, but it's unclear what it is. Are the articles snippets of content to get visitors to consider buying something or subscribing to a platform, or are the articles mini-instruction and the links are the supporting resources that just happen to require a subscription?

Creative Commons: