Review of The Psychologist as Detective: An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology (6th Edition)

For the IDT 510 course, Research Practices in Instructional Design and Technology, the second of the four required texts was Smith, S., and Davis, S. (2013). The Psychologist as Detective: An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology (6th Edition) by Randolph A. Smith and Stephen F. Davis.
This book is not a lightweight, coming in at 456 pages, but it is well-organized and it really does go through the entire research process, albeit with a psychology emphasis. The authors use the cute device of approaching research like a crime drama, showing the different ways that evidence can be interpreted and how solutions can be determined.
Everyday language is used for the most part, making it a fairly easy read. At times it can be difficult to take notes from it, as it jumps around a bit and the language needs to translated from the fictional anecdotes that are woven throughout. But still, kudos goes out to the authors for trying to make a fairly dull subject into something more interesting.
The real downsides to this book are its lack of usefulness as a reference after the course is completed and its jaw-dropping price: this book costs $166.23 for a new copy and $105.26 for a used one. I went the rental route, which was about $33, but I forgot to return it and ended up paying full price. Ugh! Anyway, I recommend renting it if possible, because if you study it properly during the course, you probably will not need it again.
Thanks for reading my blog today in, and next we will be taking a look at the other two texts that were used for the IDT 510 course.
Smith, S., and Davis, S. (2013). The psychologist as detective: An introduction to conducting research in psychology (6th Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Review of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

For the IDT 510 course, Research Practices in Instructional Design and Technology, one of the four required texts was the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition). This book is required for every class in the MSIDT program.
This course was my first experience with the American Psychological Association (APA) writing style, and it was an adjustment for me. When I was in college 25 years ago, we were told to buy the Random House Handbook, and format our papers according to its conventions. Well, APA is one of the common format styles now, and this book is its bible.
Why do instructors want papers in this format? Well, it makes gives all of their students’ papers a consistent construction and look so they are not difficult to read or sort through. Students can be creative, and can you image sifting through dozens of papers with goof fonts (Comic Sans MS), weird colors, or optimized margins and line spacing so that only half as many words need to be written? In a more cynical view, it also makes an easy grading point for them because they can see right away if a paper is not in the right format.
This 272 page manual is easy to use, with plenty of examples and clear-cut rules for how papers should be written (apparently there is only supposed to be one space after a period now, so that is one thing I had to fix). Unfortunately, the American Psychological Association is always changing the rules, so this book was outdated as soon as I bought it. There were errors or changes on 80 of its pages, so on their website there are seven pages of updates to this book.
Compounding this problem is that some instructors will refer students to other websites for APA standards, and they sometimes conflict with what the APA manual says – one notable area is in how running headers are formatted. That being said, one of the really good sites is Purdue University’s Purdue OWL Online Writing Lab, which might actually give enough information on APA formatting that buying this book might not be necessary. It can be found at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
But, the book is not terribly expensive either, with new copies selling on Amazon for around $28. Either way, program students had better study up on APA style, as they will be writing a lot of papers, and there is no reason to give away easy points for screwing up formatting.
Thanks for checking out the blog today, and we will be taking a look at other IDT 510 texts in upcoming posts.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the american psychological association (6th ed.). Washington, DC.

MSIDT 510: Research Practices in Instructional Design and Technology

Hello!
The other course in my first semester of my CSUF MSIDT program (Fall 2014) was MSIDT 510, Research Practices in Instructional Design and Technology. The university website describes this course as: “Survey course on terms and accepted procedures in qualitative and quantitative inquiry as they apply to instructional design and technology. Students conduct controlled portions of IDT research and prepare preliminary proposals for larger projects.”
Perhaps it would be better to go to the syllabus to see what the real course objectives were:
Upon completion of IDT510, students will be able to:
- Develop an understanding of the foundations of research in Instructional Design and Technology.
- Familiarize themselves with sources of research literature in Instructional Design and Technology.
- Acquire skills in research as it applies to the development and implementation of an instructional product or system.
- Utilize statistical and qualitative analytical methods to Instructional Design Technology applications.
- Develop skill in using current writing and editorial style accepted in Instructional Design and Technology.
That is more like it! Pretty much, I feel that the course met these objectives. Students in our cohort were expected to produce a research project proposal, complete with a literature review and many of the actual parameters to complete the study (without actually completing the study). There were also a number of weekly homework assignments, graded discussion forums, six quizzes and four “problem sets” (also quizzes, really) from the statistics text.
It was a bit of a stretch to relate some of this material to the instructional design process, but the Reiser and Dempsey readings were on topic and were pretty valuable. Also, this course provided a good refresher on what proper research methods are supposed to be.
Supporting the course were three (or four) main texts (reviews of these will be provided soon, I promise):
-- American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the american psychological association (6th ed.). Washington, DC.
-- Smith, S., and Davis, S. (2013). The psychologist as detective:(6th Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.
-- Reiser, R. and Dempsey, J. (2011). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd edition). New Jersey: AB Longman.
And a surprise text that the instructor forgot to tell us about until he gave us an assignment from it:
-- Pyrczak, F. (2010 or 2014). Making sense of statistics: A conceptual overview (6th edition). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing
The coursework was a bit harder than IDT 505, as there were many more assignments to keep track of, but it still went ok. I already had a firm foundation in statistics (three semesters of undergraduate work), but the most important things I took away from this class were the overview of the research process, and the ability to present a paper in APA format, which would be essential for the rest of the IDT program.
As with IDT 505, if I had this course to do over again, I would have only changed one thing in the way that I approached it. I already had my final project for the program picked out at the time, and now I wish that I had tailored my research topic and literature review to be work that I could integrate into that project, so there will be a little less research and work to be done at the end.
Thanks for checking out my IDT blog, and next we will take a look at the texts we used for this course. Mahalo!

Review of Kevin Siegel’s Adobe Captivate 8 The Essentials "Skills and Drills" Learning

For the IDT 505 course, Foundations of Instructional Design and Web Authoring Environments, the last of the three required texts was Adobe Captivate 8 The Essentials “Skills and Drills” Learning by Kevin A. Siegel.
Adobe’s Captivate 8 was the primary authoring software used for the first three semesters of the CSUF MSIDT program. On the surface it appears to have many of the same features of Microsoft’s PowerPoint, but it has a lot more functionality, and the ability to publish in web-ready formats. Adobe software has completely different interfaces than what you are used to with Microsoft products, and even if you have used their other products, there is a really steep learning curve for Captivate. This is where Siegel’s book comes in handy.
This 2014 text is will do a good job of getting you started with the program. It is not a manual, but rather sets of self-paced drills that walk the user through commonly used functions of the program. It might seem repetitive at times, but it is really a good way to learn the program. Using different set-up screens and changing attributes of text or objects quickly becomes second nature. The author even walks goes through the cumbersome process of preparing the project for publishing into a SWF, HTML5, or clickable .pdf formats.
Siegel’s writing style is clear and easy to follow, and it is obvious that he knows what he is talking about. There are many great shortcuts provided, as well as hints for setting up templates so the same actions do not have to be repeated endlessly during production. Though it is not a manual, I find myself going back and using it as a reference when I cannot figure something out (or if I have forgotten what to do next). It is spiral bound, so it lays flat when opened and it should hold up for a while. It has been rattling around in my car for a year and it has not fallen apart yet!
This book was worth every penny I paid for it, with the Amazon Prime cost coming in at just $35, and I plan to keep it around as long as I am using Captivate 8. If you are new to the program you definitely need to pick up a copy.
Siegel, K. (2014). Adobe captivate 8 the essentials “skills and drills” learning. Riva, MD: IconLogic, Inc.

Review of Jennifer Tidwell’s Designing Interfaces, 2nd Edition

For the IDT 505 course, Foundations of Instructional Design and Web Authoring Environments, one of the three required texts was Designing Interfaces: A Primer by Jennifer Tidwell.
This second edition of the text is a tremendous resource for anyone that needs to put together interactive media learning products. There is a multitude of different ways to interact with learners, and the author broke them down into specific methods to address 14 different human development patterns. These patterns assume that people behave in predictable ways.
By following the directions provided in this book, it should be possible to remedy (or avoid) common multimedia design problems. This book includes detailed information on information architecture, navigation, layout, working with lists, commands, information graphics, form design, user controls, and style. Included throughout is information about designing for mobile applications, web applications, and social media, making this edition relatively up-to-date even though it is five years old. Within each of these categories, there are a number of different detailed solutions that are presented. Also, for each of the different patterns and methodologies, the author provides sound reasoning for the basics that the designer will need to know, or might need to explain to a client someday: “what,” “when,” “why,” and “how.”
There are more than enough full-color examples from real world media to bring home all of the points that were made in the book. This text will prove to be useful for instructional designers that are developing multimedia projects using methods or tasks that they have not tried before when. It can also be used as a reference in instances where justification or clarification is needed for the design choices that were made.
This book was a bargain, relatively speaking, coming in at under 30 bucks on Amazon, and it is one of the books from the program that I plan to keep after graduation.
Tidwell, J. (2010). Designing interfaces: A primer 2nd edition. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

Review of Ledford and Sleemans’ Instructional Design: A Primer

For the IDT 505 course, Foundations of Instructional Design and Web Authoring Environments, one of the three required texts was Instructional Design: A Primer by Bruce R. Ledford and Phillip J. Sleem.
This text provides a general reference of the overall instructional design process, and like a primer it simplifies the entire process and essentially provides the readers with a singular viewpoint. Though the book is written from the standpoint of a generally constructivist approach, the authors do not exactly follow any specific established learning theory or strategy. Instead, they developed their own “paradigm” which follows a repeatable process that most instructors and educators should be able to follow.
Their process is perhaps too simplistic, as it assumes a lot about the learners, the learning process, and instructional design, but overall it is basically sound and rooted in legitimate research. A positive point is the authors’ insistence that the learning loop can be closed and that the learners’ performance can and should be evaluated. Though this is a lofty goal, it is a good starting point when developing a new course.
Ledford and Sleeman’s paradigm includes the following steps: 1) educational goals, 2) operational objectives, 3) pre-test, 4) motivation, 5) media, 6) appropriate practice, and 7) validation. Includes in the book are: a brief overview of instructional theory, writing goals and objectives, activities, media selection, instructional design (including very dated processes), and a section on validation (or assessment).
This text is a good reference as it provides a basic overview at an instructor level, and it might be helpful for those who are not pursuing a formal education in instructional design, but still have to know how to develop coursework.
Ledford, B. Sleeman, P. (2000) Instructional design: A primer. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing

MSIDT 505: Foundations of Instructional Design and Web Authoring Environments

Hello!
The first semester of my CSUF MSIDT program (Fall 2014) included MSIDT 505, Foundations of Instructional Design and Web Authoring Environments. The course objectives were (from the university website): “The ability to describe and manipulate the basic levels of an authoring environment. The use hardware and software to apply basic animation, sound, and other multimedia properties to an authoring environment. The analysis and assessment of basic media and authoring programming elements as they apply to hardware/networking environments.”
I feel that the course met these objectives. Students in Cohort 13 were expected to produce two original multimedia learning objects using Captivate 8, complete weekly assignments on the web forum (including peer reviews of others’ learning objects), and write a final research paper. There were also a few quizzes thrown in for good measure.
There is no mention of instructional design theory in the main course objectives, but there were readings and assignments on the subject, and there was enough information provided to give an overview of the instructional design process. There was also good information provided on the design process as it relates to human behavioral characteristics. The instructor for the course was a working instructional design professional, and he gave good insight and feedback throughout the course.
Supporting the course were three main texts (reviews of these will be provided at a later date):
-- Instructional Design: A Primer, by Bruce Ledford and Phillip Sleeman
-- Designing Interfaces, by Jennifer Tidwell
-- Adobe Captivate 8 The Essentials “Skills and Drills" Learning, by Kevin Siegel
The coursework was not terribly onerous, but it was hard to readjust to the world of academia, which I probably did not do right the first time around. Learning Moodle, the learning management system, took a few weeks but soon became second nature. And publishing Captivate projects was exceedingly exasperating at times, and the Cohort could have benefitted from some instruction and guidance in this area.
If I had this course to do over again, I would have only changed one thing in the way that I approached it. I already had my final project for the program picked out at the time, and now I wish that I had tailored my learning objects and final paper to be work that I could integrate into that project, so there will be a little les research and work to be done at the end.
Thanks for checking out the blog, and next we will take a look at the texts we used for this course.
Mahalo!