A prescription favored in this article calls for the joint use of "learning maps" and "instructional maps." Why then the "Vs." in the title? Simply put, it is a rhetorical device. It calls attention to a key difference between the two. This article explicates the difference. It also informs how alone and in…

Education cannot adopt the linear model of scaling used by the medical sciences. "Gold standards" cannot be replicated without considering process-in-learning, diversity, and student-variedness in classrooms. This article proposes a nuanced model of educational scaling-and-diffusion, describing the scaling (top-down supports) and…

Psychological testing can serve as a prototype on which to base a data-generated approach to instructional design. In "testing batteries" tests are used to predict achievement. In the proposed approach batteries of prescriptions would be used to produce achievement. In creating "test batteries" tests are selected for their…

What would it take for instructional design to qualify as a bona fide applied discipline? First and foremost, a fundamental requirement is a testable and tested theoretical base. Untested rationales until verified remain in limbo. Secondly, the discipline's applied prescriptions must be demonstrably traceable to the theoretical base once it is…

This article aims at clarifying and conceptualizing game-based learning (GBL) in order to pinpoint directions for practices and research. The authors maintain that GBL should be conceptualized toward the transformation of a textbook-learning culture. The authors emphasize the importance of a paradigm shift in learning and a reorientation in…

Proliferation of prescriptive models in an "engineering" field is not a sign of its maturity. Quite the opposite. Materials engineering, for example, meets the criterion of parsimony. Sadly, the very large number of models in "instructional design," putatively an engineering field, raises questions about its status. Can the…

The field of instructional design does not collect and share actual completed instructional designs and designers' reflections on the creation of those designs as an integral, widespread aspect of its practice. This article defines the instructional design case as a means of knowledge building. It lays out the components of instructional design…

This article takes a contrarian position: an "instructional design" or "teacher training" model, because of the sheer number of its interconnected parameters, is too complex to assess or to compare with other models. Models may not be the way to go just yet. This article recommends instead prior experimental research on limited…

Despite the fact that the practice of instructional design (ID) began in the U. S. military (Branson et al., 1975; Jeffrey & Bratton-Jeffrey, 2004; Reiser, 2102), there is little known regarding which design and development heuristics military instructional designers deem important to the ID process. The study reported in this article was…

In order to design learning solutions that effectively embed face-to-face and online dimensions, it is crucial to identify the key components underpinning hybrid solutions. Furthermore, once these components have been identified, there is the need to clarify how to recombine them to meet a specific learning objective. This article aims to…

This article describes an approach to identifying, capturing, and implementing the active ingredients that account for the differences found when instructional and motivational research interventions are compared in empirical research. The goal of the article is to describe a research-to-practice model and questions that support the effective…

Instructional design can be more effective if it is as fixedly dedicated to the accommodation of individual differences as it currently is to the accommodation of subject matters. That is the hypothesis. A menu of accommodation options is provided that is applicable at each of three stages of instructional development or administration: before,…

Given that there is no universal way to measure implementation fidelity, instructional designers developing instructional innovations may find themselves faced with the challenge of determining the extent to which teachers' implementation of an instructional model is faithful. This article contends that a faithful implementation is one in…

A recent literature review by Smith and Boling (2009) critically examines the received view of instructional design in educational technology. Smith and Boling conclude that the foundational literature characterizes design in a way that leads to a constrained understanding of design, especially by novices. They suggest that as a field we move…

The author presents his views on the teaching of information design. The starting point includes some general aspects of teaching and learning. The multidisciplinary structure and content of information design as well as the combined practical and theoretical components influence studies of the discipline. Experiences from working with a model for…