Summaries of Research Papers
Johnston, S. (2008). Developing Quality Virtual Courses: Selecting Instructional Models. In R. Cavanaugh, Cathy, Blomeyer (Ed.), What Works in K-12 Online Learning (pp. 21–31). Washington, DC: ISTE.
This book chapter discusses appropriate pedagogical theories and their application to online course design. Specifically, they mention Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Keller’s Motivation ARCS Model, Bloom’s Hierarchy of Thinking Skills (of course), and Wiggins and Mctighe’s Understanding by Design. It also delineates the elements of a quality online course and that designers need to consider these learning theories to properly offer instruction that is tailored to helping individual students.
With respect to my research in virtual reality, this holds my interest because VR can bring a unique element to online courses. Based on the list of elements of a quality online course, VR can satisfy many elements, including interaction, simulations for real-life skills, multiple modalities, and more. Not many online courses utilize VR so more research in this area would be welcomed.