Seven Teaching Strategies for Instructional Design in Education

Instructional design models that take learning and education to the next level

As education has become more fluid than ever, with students who learn in person, online synchronously, and online asynchronously, it’s more important than ever for instructional design professionals to focus on engagement. Teachers must keep students engaged no matter how they are coming to their lessons. The concept of edutainment, or educational entertainment, is how Dr. Morris Thomas is solving this challenge at Howard University, one of the nation’s top HBCUs (Historically Black College/University). As the cornerstone of his ENHANCE philosophy, edutainment is made easier with Echo360’s features. Continue reading to learn more about the instructional design process through Dr. Thomas’ interview with Echo360’s Jeff Peterson.

Jeff Peterson: Welcome to EchoCast and welcome, Dr. Morris Thomas, Assistant Provost and Director at the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Howard University. Dr. Thomas’ dedication to and range of experience in the field of education dates over 20 years ago, starting at The Ohio State University as a graduate student and weaving through traditional and non-traditional education roles at Sylvan Learning, Hudson Community College, the University of the District of Columbia, and now most recently, at Howard University, where among several roles, Dr. Thomas is the Assistant Provost for Digital and Online Learning. Ergo EchoCast here and ergo Echo360. In fact, Dr. Thomas has been a great advocate for learning engagement and the use of technology to do so and he was a recently featured speaker at Echo360’s Echo Experience 22 Global Virtual Conference earlier this summer, at which he shared his own ENHANCE learning model. ENHANCE is an acronym that we’ll get into in a little bit here, and how Echo360 fits into it to create a space where, in his words, a learning framework and technology meet. So let’s hear more from the man himself. Dr. Morris Thomas, welcome to EchoCast.

Dr. Thomas: Thank you so much.

Jeff: It’s great to have you here. And for those that didn’t get a chance to catch your presentation at Echo Experience 22, if it’s okay, let’s just jump right to the punch line and let’s start with ENHANCE. Give us a little summary. You don’t have to do the whole presentation again. Just maybe a little bit of the summary of what it stands for and what was the inspiration for it.

Dr. Thomas: Sure. Thanks so much, Jeff. I’m fine if you wanted to say Morris for this interview. That’s fine. It’s a pleasure to be here. As far as the ENHANCE learning model, it is a framework that informs intentional course design and delivery. It’s an acronym as you mentioned. The term ENHANCE represents seven instructional strategies. They are E for engage, N for navigate, H for highlight, A for assess, N for network, C for connect, and the last E is for entertain. These are seven strategies that draw from a number of different learning theories and models. So in the instructional design landscape and teaching and learning, there are so many different theories. You have theories such as some of our big, what they call the Big 4, so connectivism, cognitivism, constructivism, and behaviorism. So I’m a teaching and learning scientist. That’s my area of expertise. But when you have other subject matter experts across the disciplines, they may not have studied these other teaching and learning frameworks. Then you have such teaching and learning frameworks that deal with such things and universities ask of learning. You have other things that deal with matters of student development theories and theories about separate or connective knowing. So all of these different models and theories are represented in a more easy-to-use, more accessible fashion where there is language that, if I don’t have a teaching and learned background, I’m a subject matter expert in whatever the discipline may be, I can look at some of these more accessible terms and glean from all of these different theories in a more easy-to-access manner and employ them immediately to enhance the learning in my learning environment.

Jeff: I love it and I’m going to dive into that last E by the way in just a second here. But it’s such a robust framework. How long was this cooking for you? As you say, you’re kind of in this field, but is this something that had gestated over a course of years, or how did it actually get born?

Dr. Thomas: I would say, you mentioned my start as a graduate student. So as a graduate student, I started looking at different learning. So looking at more student development theories because I was in an Educational and Policy Leadership Master’s program that focused on student in theory so there was the student development theories. You had theorists such as Chickering and the 7 vectors on how students develop and those things to go into like William Perry was thinking about the multiplicity of how students learn and look at different ways of navigating through, whether it be more things or dualism. So looking at all this again, looking at these theories and models as a student and as a researcher, I realized when I got into more of the topic of development plans, a lot of these models, a lot of this language, would be considered kind of specific jargon was very nuanced and not as clear for people who did not have the theoretical backgrounds for instructional design. Then you get into instructional design and you start to connect things like andragogy or the science of how adults learn. You can’t necessarily expect someone who is not from these disciplines, and I’m purposely not naming other disciplines because I want to keep it general, but not from these disciplines who haven’t had this background and these theories and this practice, to understand it and yet they have to teach. So it was cooking, so to speak, for a while. And it was still cooking, because changing and transforming the learning environment because our students continue to various social issues, continue to vary that impact both to design and delivery of the learning experience that you want to have something that again, I feel like it’s more attainable, more accessible, more applicable, with language that is more easily transferrable to a broader group of educators. So that’s how the ENHANCE learning model came about. So it’s been cooking for a long time and it continues to cook and in my setup, continues improvement. I don’t believe that if you are shaping or facilitating learning and enhance learning—that’s why it’s called the ENHANCE learning model, not the ENHANCE teaching model or the ENHANCE instructor model. It’s about enhancing the learning, so it’s all about and focused on the learner’s experience and the learner’s environment. It’s not necessarily just for instructors to think about what they’re doing, but it’s to think about the overall experience for everyone.

Jeff: Walking right into my next question, because as I mentioned, I love that last E of ENHANCE around edutainment, and when you talk about making this very accessible for both faculty and for learners, I have to imagine that that notion, and we’ve had friends of Echo360 like Joe Pine talk a lot about the experience economy and how people are really, not only valuing but really expecting to be sort of animated by more than just traditional, whether it’s teaching models or if you look at commerce, kind of the traditional value exchange for services and goods. So how have you found that last E, edutainment, or edutain, how has that been received? Because I can imagine with some faculty, maybe it was a little bit of a, hey, wait a minute, I’m not a performer here. I’m an academic. But I would imagine for learners, that’s been a really great way to get them engaged with the material.

Dr. Thomas: Typically when I present this to colleagues and faculty members and those who are in the facilitation of the learning sphere, whether they be professors, instructors, TAs, I first try to get them to think about their experiences as a learner. Because again, we’re thinking about focusing on the learner. Typically, most of us when we think about our most impactful learning experiences, whether it be more academic or a non-academic environment, typically it was the overall experience, not just the subject matter, that helped us to take from not knowing something or to take some part of knowledge to transform to the point where we actually learned the material or transferred the knowledge and were able to embody or apply the material where there was something about it in addition to the education or the learning piece, but something that also captured our attention. So it is not to make someone, I won’t necessarily try to argue the point as to whether educators are performers or not. I think that could be something that we look at in semantics. I think if you’re up in front of people and you have a captive audience, one could argue that there’s a level of performance to that. There’s a preparation, there’s a script, so to speak. So edutainment strategy is not to try to make someone be a performer or try to make someone be an entertainer. It is to understand the psychology and the psychosocial aspects of learning that you take things that are educational and entertaining to help enhance the learning. Could learning take place without something that is both educational and entertaining? Absolutely. But this is the ENHANCE learning model. So to enhance it and to keep it and to make something be more memorable, something to be more easily applicable, something that someone can take and utilize more easily and then re-access again and it stays within their memory so it stays within their recall, like these different cognitive domains and their affective domains, that’s when you have something like edutainment that takes place. Because it only enhances learning. Could the learning take place without that aspect? Absolutely. But learning would be more enhanced when there is something that really does strike a chord with not only the cognitive but also the affective domain for the learner.

Jeff: When we think of technology, kind of a similar question, can the ENHANCE model, is the ENHANCE model amplified by technology or is it contingent on it?

Dr. Thomas: I think the ENHANCE model can work without technology. So it is not a tech model. But I think oftentimes, and if I don’t answer your question, bring me back around to it, but I want to say this. But I think oftentimes, technology is looked at as something to do without theory, without any research or evidence-based practices informing it. So it’s like, let’s bring some technology into it because we have technology available. It was like technology for technology’s sake. Whereas the ENHANCE learning model, when it meets with technology and you say, okay, this technology has these different functions. Let’s use these functions intentionally to make sure that we are meeting these particular needs of the learners or that we are impacting the learners’ experience. So it’s leveraging the technology to enhance the learning. It’s not about just being entertaining. It’s not about technology for technology’s sake or for gamification only. It’s saying that this technology has these different features, these different capabilities. These can be used to help with different aspects. For instance, of edutainment, so to speak. Or assessment. You think about Echo360. Echo360 has polling features. So the polling features provide a visual. It provides interaction. It provides a way to immediately see how many people are actually taking in or understanding the content that’s being covered and being reviewed. So this is where the technology being leveraged with the ENHANCE learning model, the A being assess, where you’re getting the bigger or the greater impact.

Jeff: It makes all the sense in the world. And when you do have the technology, when one has the technology at their fingertips, and we’ve got so much technology. Sometimes it’s like an arms race of technology. You have so much to choose from. You have great pedagogy and andragogy theory. You’ve got access to technology like Echo360 and others. What, if any, what obstacles, because you’re kind of the unique bird. You wear a couple of different hats at Howard. You’re both an instructor, but you’re also an admin. So you’ve got a foot in both worlds. What kinds of obstacles, if any, do you run into with the adoption of a model like this?

Dr. Thomas: I think the obstacle that one might run into is if they have an all-or-nothing mindset or if you have a deficit mindset. I try not to lead our Teaching and Learning Center with a mindset—we have brilliant faculty here and brilliant students here, so I don’t try to lead it from an aspect of a deficit. I try to lead it more so of a mindset of, here’s another possibility. Look at what you’re already doing, what you want to do. How can you build upon that? So one thing about the ENHANCE learning model, it’s not hierarchal or sequential. So you can pick up maybe one of the strategies that you really want to hone in on. You can use several simultaneously. So for instance, you mentioned entertain. Maybe you just really wanted to add that feature to your class. Maybe you already feel like the other things are great and you want to add a little more edutainment. Maybe you just want to learn on that. That takes away from someone feeling like, I must master this entire model or I must then do every single or engage in every single type of technology that is out there. No. I would say, look at what do you want to strengthen. What strength do you want to build upon? What do you want to engage in? And maybe for that semester, you just get into that element and then you build upon that. See if it worked well. See if it met the requirements that you were looking for. See if there were outcomes that happened for your learners. And if not, there’s a saying that says, eat the meat off the bones. So if not, if it doesn’t work for you, don’t try to stick with that. See how it goes. And I think when we’re not so rigid, when we’re more open, we have the ability to enhance the learning and keep that.

Jeff: I love that. It’s very modular and yet it does tie all together. But the parts are just as impactful as the whole. You know one thing I mentioned in your intro, I love your background for both the diversity of experiences but the consistency. You can almost visibly see this thread of educational integrity and commitment throughout all of these different stops along the way. So now here you’re at Howard University, a very well-known, prominent, historically Black college with a rich tradition and really a legacy for leveling the playing field and really fighting for educational equity, which is something that we espouse here at Echo360 here as well. Making sure that all learners have the opportunity to equal access and opportunities to thrive. How has your own direction and mission been amplified since taking on this role at Howard where, from an outsider’s perspective, it seems like you have such a great platform now to take all of these years, these 20-plus years of experience. And again, it’s not new, because you’re exacting it no matter what stop you were along the way, but do you feel a sense of opportunity, maybe even responsibility now, to take advantage and really leverage the stage that you have here? The platform that you have here to continue to advance these aspects of educational equity?

Dr. Thomas: That’s a great question and has many ways I could answer it. But I would say in brief, yes. There is both an opportunity, an amazing opportunity. Howard University is a great historically Black university and it’s just a great university in general. It’s a nationally ranked national institution, highly ranked in many of its programs, an alumni second to none regardless of HBCU, private, public. I cannot think of an institution that has a much more star-studded, prominent, impactful—our sitting Vice President of the United States is a Howard alum. The first Black Supreme Court Justice is a Howard alum. I could just go down the line of these aspects of Howard, of what Howard has contributed. So when one such as myself has an opportunity to become a part of the legacy, as you mentioned, and of this platform, it’s absolutely a responsibility. It’s absolutely an opportunity. But what I find it to be as opposed to being caught up in all of those aspects of it, I focus on more so the responsibility aspect of it and it becomes more sobering to me to understand that when I make impact, when I make decisions, when I do the work here at Howard, it automatically has a global reach. So I’m very sober and careful in whatever I’m doing because I understand that I could be impacting the next president, the next whomever. So I want to make sure that I am offering work and contributing with an element of excellence, with an element of being forward-thinking, with looking down the line, and with making sure that I am providing the best for this particular environment. But it’s absolutely an opportunity and a responsibility at the same time, that I find more sobering than the opposite. 

Jeff: We’re very grateful that you are in this role and sobering or exciting, either side of the coin, you’re the right guy for the right job, so it’s great to have you there. So I want to thank you, Dr. Thomas, Morris, for joining us here on EchoCast and for everything you’re doing in sharing the ENHANCE model. For those that did miss it, you can go to Echo360.com and check out Dr. Thomas’ presentation on Echo360.com there. And we’re going to let Morris go now. But everybody else stick around for just a quick demonstration of some of the applications referenced here in this EchoCast. And like I said, you can always go to Echo360.com to check out more of these episodes and to check out more resources to create your own inspired learning experiences. 

Announcer: Here’s a quick demonstration of an Echo360 solution related to this episode of EchoCast. Reach out to us at Echo360.com to learn more. 

Announcer: The Transcript Editor can be accessed either from the media tiles menu in the content library or from the media details page. Depending on your course settings, you may also be able to access this from the class list page by clicking on the video icon. When the Transcript Editor opens, it provides a playback panel on the left and the text of the transcript is broken out into timed cues on the right. The currently applied transcript is shown by default. In most cases, this will be the original, automated transcript generated through the Amazon ASR service. In some cases, it may be the edited version or a later uploaded version. To edit the text with cues, or to change the speaker tags for any of the cues, click on Edit or Transcript. This will take you into edit mode. Once in edit mode, the right panel changes and allows you to click into any of the text cues to activate it. Once activated, you can move your cursor around within the cues or make changes to selected portions of the text or type—

Below the video, you’ll notice a toggle that pauses while typing. This is a helpful tool to keep the video in sync with where you are when editing your cues so the video doesn’t get ahead of you. Once you’re happy with your edits, go ahead and click outside the cues to go to a different one. Keep in mind that you can use the find and replace to find certain words in bulk and apply edits to them in bulk. If necessary you can use the undo and redo buttons to restore your edits. Once you’re happy with all of your edits, you can save your changes by clicking Save as New Version. This version will be applied to the media that is shown in the transcript panel inside the classroom. Now that you have your transcript where you would like it, please note that you are able to apply this transcription to a closed caption drive. This would be activated when a user clicks the CC button inside the player. If another user is also editing the transcript at the same time and has already saved their work, you may be asked to compare differing cues where differing cues are found. You’ll have the chance to approve or reject your changes for each differing cue, then save the version as the next version. Don’t panic. The other user’s changes, even if you reject them, are still there, but will be in the version previous to yours. 

Announcer: Thanks for tuning into EchoCast. For more information on these and other inspired learning solutions, visit us at Echo360.com.

Instructional designers are making online school more entertaining

Dr. Thomas is experiencing the kind of success with Echo360 which is just one example of what the Echosystem does for organizations around the globe. Whether it’s bringing entertainment into the in-person and online classroom or perfecting transcripts so all students can join in, Echo360 solutions take the ideas your instructional designers have to the next level. Check with us to set up a demo so you can find out more.