THEORY.md

Figure 0: 4C/ID theoretical design structure: online here: https://cmapscloud.ihmc.us/viewer/cmap/213124DWG-1ZZXL6-3JRD8M

Figure 0 illustrates the general 4C/ID structure that was replicated for each new task class (TC), alongside the educational content production and development. During this process, similar design maps were created with the critical 4C/ID concepts in mind in order to strengthen the corresponding educational mental model to be developed by the student. The structure in figure 0 is the result of the iteraction with the practice feedback (see examples of concrete learning designs in the Procedure section).

The design was divided into individual TC, each designed to help learners master a specific skill or educational goal. These TCs integrate real-world problems and are organized to progress from easy to difficult and from concrete to abstract.

Because a gaming strategy was integrated into the design as a minor component, a consistent reward level should be assigned to each TC. This requires that performance goals be defined as concretely as possible.

Additionally, learners have the optional opportunity to create a portfolio and give a short presentation to their peers, to encourage reflection and social interaction on what they have learned.

Within each Task Class (TC), the Learning Tasks (LTs) should progress with increasing complexity and high variability. For each TC, Supportive Information (SI) should always be available to the student, based on Reigeluth's elaboration theory (the "zoom lens metaphor") and Schank's learning-by-doing paradigm (Plass et al., 2010, p. 126).

For each Learning Task (LT), specific tasks, activities, or questions must be defined, along with procedural information that fades over time. Additionally, cognitive feedback should be provided as the learning tasks develop. For recurrent goals, Part-Tasks-Practice (PTP) should be selected to promote learning automation, with Just-In-Time (JIT) information provided as needed (Van Merriënboer, Clark, & Croock, 2002).

This is an iterative process that involves continuous feedback and interaction, sometimes stemming directly from practice implementation. After this process, it is necessary to define which LTs can be done simultaneously or repeated in separate Task Classes (TCs). It is also important to identify LTs that must be completed first before advancing to the next TC. Anchors are crucial LTs that must be mastered before the student can progress. Therefore, performance objectives should be used to assess student progress and determine whether they should move forward or need to master a specific objective before proceeding. In the latter case, the student may need to review previous content.

It is important to note that for PTP, overtraining is less effective than short periods of practice. Similarly, cognitive or corrective feedback should be provided promptly to promote compilation. Feedback should not only acknowledge an error but also provide a hint to help the student reach the goal. For cognitive feedback, which is related to non-recurrent goals, the objective is not to simply provide error feedback, but to stimulate the learner to reflect on their strategic problem-solving and mental model (Van Merriënboer & Kirschner, 2007, pp. 117, 159).

Note that if your educational system require summative assessments, which involve assigning a grade/category to a student to certify their mastery, so you need to take that in account while designing the LMS content.

During the process of producing activities activities for the LMS and the classroom environment, aside from the strategies, cognitive load effects were also integrated, namely, Element Interactivity, Expertise Reversal, Guidance-Fading, modality (dual channels), limited working memory capacity and learner active processing during learning, namely, selecting information, processing and integrating it in existing knowledge (Sweller in Plass el al., 2010, p.30). One very basic strategy considered in this work was the amount of information and cognitive load (Kalyuga in Plass el al., 2010, p.50) within each online and presential activity: the intrinsic and extraneous loads are concepts to be aware in the process of preparing and using the educational materials.

Added to this, but not refered in the literature, is also the strategy of gamification: defining levels of achievement and feedback that took the learner in a learning path that considerers the knowledge mastered align with the expertive reversal effect, (Plass et al., 2010, p.96). Worked-Out-examples, self-explanations and faded work-out steps where integrated in order to tackle with the memory work load and mental model strenghening (Renkl, Atkinson, in Plass et al., 2010, p.104).

Non of this was addapted to students prior knowledge nor germane load was considered. The first because each student was considered a novice to Science and Tech. Prior knowledge was considered only during the feedback process: students were allow to go further if they achieve some performance objectives. In the case of germane load, the concept was to dificult to put in place and to integrate in the process, even strategically.

The central idea, as previously mentioned, is the acquisition of a mental model, which is achieved through the Kalyuga schema acquisition procedure (Plass et al. 2010, p. 56). This is a challenging process for any student, regardless of the content. To facilitate schema acquisition, we addressed it through automation, variability of problems, and cognitive feedback to reduce cognitive load and achieve a higher level of expertise. Consequently, small chunks of activities with high variability and repeating steps were implemented over time.

Added to this principle was the variation of contexts of the problems proposed. Multimedia principles were not forgoten, not only in the video editing but also in the animation interactive films produced and simulations organized by PHET ¹ animations and LMS Lesson MOODLE activity ². In the last years there was same embeded H5P activities ³. This online interactive activities promote guided activity, feedback, reflection principle (Plass et all, p.166) and multimedia principle, already mentioned.

The lesson activities, conducted both in-class and online via the MOODLE LMS, were designed to significantly reduce extraneous cognitive load by applying Mayer and Moreno's multimedia principles. Specifically, the principles of coherence, redundancy, signaling, temporal contiguity, and spatial contiguity were extensively used (Plass et al., 2010, pp. 142-148). Similarly, to manage intrinsic cognitive load, the principles of segmenting, pre-training, and modality were also applied (Mayer, 2005, pp. 169-200).

It was also important to consider Merrill’s five prescriptive principles of learning (Merrill, 2002), which are organized in a very simple manner. These principles are common among several instructional design theories and are actually integrated into the 4C/ID instructional design model by Van Merriënboer and his colleagues, specifically::

(a) Learning is promoted when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems; (b) Learning is promoted when existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge; (c) Learning is promoted when new knowledge is demonstrated to the learner; (d) Learning is promoted when new knowledge is applied by the learner; (e) Learning is promoted when new knowledge is integrated into the learner's world.

It is crucial to note, as highlighted by Van Merriënboer, that his 4C/ID model, effectively integrates both instructivist and constructivist methodologies across its various stages combined with other theories, such has elaboration (van Merrienboer, Clark, Croock, 2002). Also important to highlight, is the fact that this model doesn't provide guidelines for the transition from the design phase to the posterior phases of production and development. He suggest some raw media classification as primary and secondary to distinguish from supportive information to interactive media, respectively, to be used in the LMS embedded learning activities:

Primary media	Secondary media	JIT (just-in-time) information	Part-task practice
Problem-based; simulation-based; scenario-based;	books; hypertext; lectures; video;	help; pop-up menus;ballons;	computer practice interactive media; worked-examples; completion problems

The concept of secondary learning ⁴ from Evolutionary Psychology Theory is also crucial, as it highlights that teachers are a primary source of instruction and information for students. The acquisition of new knowledge, regardless of its source, requires processing in working memory. This system has extreme limitations in both capacity and time scale, which is where Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) becomes critical.

For information to be valuable, it must be stored in long-term memory, which is vast compared to short-term memory. The act of storing information in long-term memory transforms us; therefore, learning is a transformative process. This transformation allows people to perform tasks that would be impossible without this stored knowledge, forming a broad schematic foundation. According to Sweller, learning is the transfer of information to long-term memory (Sweller, 2023).

Understanding the cognitive architecture, that is, how humans process information and how the mind works—is essential for designing effective learning activities.

I used CmapTools to create a visual overview. You can find the main components here: https://cmapscloud.ihmc.us:443/rid=2130Z3YYB-H8699Q-3JQLQZ. The links within this map, which lead to more specific theoretical structures, are not publicly available. If you create a CmapTools account at https://cmapcloud.ihmc.us/ and email me at fqantonio at yahoo.com, I can grant you access.

Footnotes

1. PHET, Interactive Simulations for Science and Math, https://phet.colorado.edu/ ↩

2. Lesson MOODLE activity, https://docs.moodle.org/405/en/Lesson_activity ↩

3. H5P, Create, share and reuse interactive HTML5 content in your browser, https://h5p.org/ ↩

4. In cognitive load theory, "secondary learning" refers to the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are not naturally acquired through evolution and require explicit instruction. This contrasts with "primary learning," which involves skills like language acquisition, learned effortlessly and without formal teaching (Sweeler, 2023). ↩