Revising instructional materials : uniformity among four revisers and their attention to learner data

Abstract

Despite the emphasis that is placed on collecting learner data in formative evaluation, there has been little research to support its use in the revision of instructional materials. In addition, although the literature suggests that different revisers making changes to the same instructional materials will yield different revisions, little research has been conducted to confirm this. The present study addressed these two issues by having four instructional designers, acting as revisers, make revisions to a draft version of an instructional presentation while thinking aloud. A coding scheme was applied to the think-aloud protocols. Revisions were sorted using a product attribute categorization system consisting of three main categories central to evaluating instructional materials. The results suggest that revisers do give a considerable amount of attention to learner data when revising materials. In addition, there was a great deal of uniformity among the revisions that were generated by the different revisers.