Theories of Learning and Instruction

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: IST 520
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This affordable learning resource is being utilized in an Instructional Science and Technology course for graduate students in the MIST program by Dr. Laura Otero at California State University Monterey Bay. The affordable resource chosen for this course provides interactive micro-learning readings and quizzes on various learning theories, instructional strategies, and cognitive design theories. The main motivation to adopt an affordable resource was to save students money and encourage them to learn in more interactive ways. Most students access the resource in their Canvas course as a SCORM file.

Theories of Learning and Instruction  IST 520
Brief Description of course highlights:  Learning Theories: Introduce learning theory as the foundation for the design and implementation of instruction and training. Students learn to evaluate and select appropriate applied learning theories, apply behavioral, cognitive and constructivist learning theories. Discuss how to select appropriate pedagogy according to a specific delivery model and learner. Explore cultural sensitivities in teaching and learning in a highly connected world.   View the course catalog description

Student population:  Students who take IST 520 include graduate-level students in the master of science in instructional science and technology program at CSU Monterey Bay. Several of these students are taking this as one of their first courses in the program. All have baccalaureate degrees, and many come from teaching backgrounds (K-12, higher ed, corporate training). Several are experienced professionals seeking to advance in their careers, and many are working at the same time they are in school. Several are parents with competing priorities at home.

Learning or student outcomes:  List student learning outcomes for the course.
1. Articulate the relationships between theory, research, instructional and learning strategies and practice, consider the impact of technology on those relationships, and examine the relevance of newer and older approaches to training and learning.
2. Be introduced to new discoveries in neuroscience and cognitive science and examine the relevance of major learning theories in light of these discoveries.
3. Through individual and group effort, identify, compare and contrast, major learning theories and evaluate related instructional and learning strategies.
4. Through individual and group effort, students will analyze a learning object such as a course, tutorial or program, with respect to increasing the probability that the learning objectives will be met.
5. Groups and individuals will evaluate various learning theories and instructional and learning strategies related to learning situations.
6. Demonstrate an awareness of social and cultural influences on learning.
7. Examine emerging theories and strategies and their potential to advance learning, training and education through application of existing and future technological innovations.
8. Each individual will complete required human subjects research (CITI) training.
9. Using a provided rubric, each individual doing a Capstone project will develop an initial draft Capstone proposal.

Syllabus and/or Sample assignment from the course or the adoption - Weekly learning resources will be provided, including instructional videos, handouts, studies, journal articles, and interactive micro-learning resources in lieu of a textbook.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title:  Micro-learning quizzes (weekly) have various titles based on their content. For example, Week 4 contained a micro-learning about Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism which described these three learning theories and quizzed students on the key points, and provided guidance on selecting one of these theories as a theoretical framework for a Capstone (thesis) project.

Brief Description: As discussed earlier, Laura Otero generated this learning resource on the LearningStudioAI platform. As a co-taught course, Dr. Laura Otero and Dr. Sarah Evanick each generated weekly content to work collaboratively towards the goal of eliminating the textbook. The LearningStudioAI platform leverages generative artificial intelligence technology to create SCORM files that can be incorporated in any learning management system that supports SCORM packages. The sample file was generated based on the learning outcome associated with the content for Week 4, and heavily edited for clarity, simplicity, and relevance. All quiz questions were revised from the original generative AI content to be more meaningful as well, and reviewed to ensure WCAG compliance (heading structure, etc.) These micro-learning activities were incorporated weekly based on the learning outcomes and tasks assigned that week. The main idea was to reinforce the content discussed in the lecture and to simplify the harder concepts to grasp in the reading (recently published article readings, not textbook readings).

Authors:  LearningStudioAI (Laura Otero heavily edited the output file).

Student access:  Students access the micro-learnings in Canvas.
Week 4: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism Micro-Learning Activity

Supplemental resources: The weekly learning content included recorded lectures (instructor-narrated, Google slides, recorded and posted in Panopto with captions), recent and relevant peer-reviewed articles on the content, videos, and the micro-learnings. 

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  $200

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. We chose to adopt these resources because we needed more up-to-date content, and we wanted to save our students money and time.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? We used our library database to find current, scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, and relied on our expertise to evaluate and heavily edit the AI-generated micro-learning SCORM files from LearningStudioAI.

Sharing Best Practices: Work on a course map so that you are clear about your lesson learning objectives and how you will assess student achievement of those objectives. Once you have your curriculum clearly defined, you can identify the appropriate free/low-cost resources that will help your students meet the same outcomes while removing the need for a costly textbook.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. It definitely takes a LOT of time to source, evaluate, and edit those supplemental resources. Once the work is done though, it makes your life easier!  When we first started looking at adopting an OER, it was intimidating to be able to accurately evaluate and select a single resource that would be an equivalent free item. Instead, we elected to incorporate a variety of supplemental resources, leaning heavily on micro-learning interactive quizzes and various written articles to support our student’s achievement of the learning objectives.

Instructor Name - Laura Otero
I am an Instructional Science and Technology professor at California State University Monterey Bay. I teach IST 522: Instructional Design and IST 595: Introduction to AI Tools for Teaching and Learning, and have previously co-taught IST 520: Theories of Learning and Instruction, IST 524: Instructional Technology, and CST 300L: Proseminar Writing Lab (Communication Design).

View Instructor homepage:  https://csumb.edu/scd/lotero/

Please describe the courses you teach.
IST 520: Graduate students learn about learning, design theories and apply their knowledge in assignments that guide them in the development of pedagogical practices and their culminating capstone project.

IST 524: This is a foundation course in the Instructional Science and Technology (MIST) program. It provides an introduction to the field and profession of Instructional Technology (IT). Specifically, this course provides beginners a sense of history, current issues, future trends, and an overview of how the components of the field work together.

IST 595: This is an elective course in the MIST program. This provides an overview of artificial intelligence technologies as well as how they can be leveraged in a variety of teaching and learning contexts. We also cover equity challenges and limitations of these technologies and how to be an ethical adopter of generative AI tools.

IST 522: This is one of the foundational courses in the MIST program. It provides an introduction to instructional design (ID) theories, approaches, and how to manage ID projects. 

CST 300L: This is another foundational course, but this is for upper-division undergraduate students who are studying communication design. The writing lab for this course focuses on the skills students need to perform academic research and synthesize their findings in writing. Students also are introduced to the field of communication design and the various sub-industries they might be interested in exploring in their future careers.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching. I am particularly interested in generative artificial intelligence technologies and how they can support learning. I believe that students benefit from a humanized approach to teaching, particularly in a fully-online environment. I coach my students to succeed and do my best to help them understand why they are learning about each topic, and how it will support their goals beyond the classroom. This helps motivate them to participate fully in the learning experience and keeps them engaged, even when they have to navigate competing priorities.