Opportunities and challenges of formal instructional modeling for web-based learning

Abstract

In digital repositories around the globe there is an abundance of available resources like learning objects, learning designs, teaching methods, and assessments. Building web-based learning opportunities by exploiting these resources is a complex endeavor with controversial motivational underpinnings. It requires provision of support for accessing, using and packaging the resources with interoperable, usable and user-friendly tools and within a trustworthy environment. In this paper, we address the interoperability issue by implementing tool support for the process of designing learning opportunities based on existing educational resources in a tool called OpenGLM. We conducted a qualitative end-user evaluation based on an instructional design task. Addressing the motivational underpinnings, we identify a number of challenges and opportunities to adoption of formal instructional modeling: on the individual level the main challenge is the lack of motivation to share good-practice examples; on the institutional level the key to harness the opportunities lies in the provision of support measures and quality control. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.