Publish at January 13 2014 Updated October 12 2022
First article in a series of five.
The question has long been how to integrate digital into an existing course or training. Today, pedagogues have moved beyond this approach, where the contribution of digital technology was limited to knowledge tests after a course or training module or observations made beforehand. Digital technology is now at the heart of learning. If teachers are faced with a difficult choice among the variety of tools and digital media available, they also struggle to develop a pedagogical scenario that combines knowledge, skills and coherent tools. Isn't the major difficulty to know how to script a training course?
Digital scripting at the heart of the pedagogical device
Scripting tools exist: there are many software programs and companies present on this market are trying to position themselves. However, the teacher or pedagogue remains the only one able to design the training device. How can this be done? By always keeping in mind an essential question: what is my educational objective?
The question of the educational objective, the basis of the educational construction
The question of the educational objective is very often forgotten or put aside in favor of digital supports and ever more powerful tools. But what good is a blog, a flash animation, a wiki if they do not correspond to the pedagogical objective, nor to the target audience?
It is therefore necessary to conduct a thorough reflection around the following questions:
What is the target audience? Professional or academic? Initial or continuing education? Why is this training module being proposed? Is it necessary for the coherence of the whole training? What knowledge, skills and competencies are to be mobilized? What knowledge, skills and competencies will be developed? Is field practice or observation required?
The answers to these questions are the starting point for scripting. It is only at a later stage that questions concerning the scripting of sequences and the digital tools to be used will be considered.
The definition of the pedagogical objective, a global process of reflection
Here are the steps for defining the pedagogical objective:
1. Determine the target audience and the context
The age, level, profile of the learners, the training framework (initial or continuing education, academic or professional), the geographical location (and access to technologies) condition the pedagogical choices. A fairly fine-grained analysis of the target audience(s) will therefore make it possible to verify the coherence of the proposed materials and the digital tools mobilized.
For example, a student profile may turn out to be too broad: is it a first-year or master's student for whom the training is intended? Is it open to the general public? Is the student a native speaker? Does he or she have the necessary prerequisites?
Let's take an example: a training course on the "practice of communication tools". The objective in the context of a professional training could be "to use professional communication tools". Is this objective the same in a school setting? No, because the audience, the setting and the context are not identical. In the school context, the training could be built around the following objective: "Using collaborative tools in high school".
If the use and practice of communication tools differ according to the target audience, then the objective should be differentiated.
2. Define the general objectives of the training
The instructional designer sets the objectives targeted by the training by answering a simple question: "What will the learner be able to be, do or know, at the end of this training?" The answer makes it possible to precisely circumscribe the objective.
Defining this objective is sometimes very easy when there are official frames of reference or programs because these texts often have the merit of clearly identifying it.
Let's take a look, for example, at a training course dealing with "the motivation of project groups by the manager". The training is aimed at a specific audience: managers of project groups in companies. What is the general objective? The manager is able to mobilize his teams around the projects that are entrusted to him.
3. Check the consistency of the objective with the goal
Thinking about the objective must be completed by identifying the goal.
Thus, from the previous example, the objective is that the learner is able to mobilize his teams around the projects entrusted to him. But for what purpose? So that the company gains in performance.
If the teacher has followed the 3 steps, he or she is be able to complete the following wording:
"At the end of the training........., the learner is able to.......... in order to............".
4. Determine sub-goals
The educator establishes the different areas and modules to provide a complete training. This is often the most difficult because for some training courses it requires a good dose of creativity and anticipation.
It is also the most exciting because to each of these modules corresponds a sub-objective that goes hand in hand with the content developed. It is therefore at this stage that the different modules of the training are determined, their usefulness and coherence are examined and the scenario of the training is outlined. It is also the opportunity to map the knowledge and abilities/skills mobilized and developed through the different modules.
The pedagogical objective, cornerstone of training design? Yes, because the definition of the pedagogical objective enters into a global process of reflection and lays the foundations of the training device. In order to formalize this reflection, the teacher or instructional designer can use "mindmapping" tools. The interest of mindmap software such as MindView (compatible with Microsoft Office) is that it can be completed, thus allowing a global vision of the training and its coherence.
References
E-learning: pedagogy above all - Sylvain VACARESSE - in The Digital School
https://www.reseau-canope.fr/results-of-research.html?L=0&id=43&tx_solr%5Bq%5D=%C3%89cole+num%C3%A9rique&tx_solr%5Bfilter%5D%5B0%5D=type%3AnoticiaNotice
Constructing training for e-learning - Olivier Legrand - Mind Map - http://www.mindmeister.com/fr/180976718/construire-une-formation-pour-le-elearning.
Find the other articles in the series devoted to pedagogical scripting:
Part Three: scenario development
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