We’ll look at some methods or instructional strategies that distance educators can use to allow learners to master  instructional objectives in each lesson. As you create these instructional distance education environments, you want to provide students with different ways to learn the content. If you only use one way to present materials, learners that have other preferred learning styles and strengths might not be successful in mastering the objectives. 

An important element to remember is that many of these strategies are used in conjunction with other instructional strategies. For example, when you have students work in group projects, they are participating in collaborative learning, using small groups, and using a project instructional strategy -- methods shown on the next page. It is also important for you to realize that instructional strategies aren’t an “all or nothing” venture.

A second element to note when creating instructional materials is that you want to “humanize” the learning environment. University of Florida associate professor Colleen Swain (College of Education's School of Teaching and Learning) explains what "humanizing" education means:

Swain on humanizing education (:59)

Click here for a text-only version.

A third element is that when you connect learning to the interests and prior experiences of learners, they become more motivated, interested, and involved in the context.  This is refered to as anchored instruction.

One important instructional strategy in a distance education course is to build communities of learners. Why bother building a community? Without this, students aren’t willing to really share their thoughts and ideas about the content with others. You must create a warm, safe, and enjoyable environment in which students can learn. You can use silly icebreaker activities – such as the ones from parties you’ve attended – to let students get to know each other and the instructor. You can create a Web page about yourself to share professional and personal touches with the students. Here are some specific examples to create communities:

Ice-breaker games
Have students create personal Web pages
Virtual break room using a bulletin board

In addition to creating instructional distance education environments, you need to consider some specific generative instructional strategies. Generative strategies are learning strategies that help the student “make the content his or her own.” We will examine the following generative strategies:

Recall strategy
Organizational strategy
Integration strategy
Elaboration strategy

We start with recall strategies that help the student remember the information. You might have learned one like this. “In 1492 (fourteen-hundred-ninety-two), Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” That’s an example of a recall strategy.

Organizational strategies help you understand how a concept is organized. Students could make a concept map of the concept being studied. (The graphic on the right side of this page is an example of a concept map.) When you try to assist the student in adding the knowledge to his or her existing schema, you are providing students with an integration strategy. For example, when students are learning about whales, they could describe the characteristics of a whale that make it a mammal. Finally, elaboration strategies allow a student to add his or her own ideas to the knowledge base. For example, having learners list examples and non-examples of a concept or trait could be beneficial. Concept maps, where the learner displays complex relationships and transfers from one concept to another, would be an example of an elaboration strategy.

Now, you are provided with a list of specific instructional methods used in the development of meaningful and engaging learning environments.

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