Dr. David Merrill is one of the true founding fathers and visionaries of effective instructional technology design with over 40 years in academia, research and consulting in the field of instructional technology and a true “e-learning rebel.” He is the true evangelist for well designed instruction, both instructor led and e-learning. I have met Dr. Merrill and heard his lectures on several occasions and consider him to be a mentor from afar. I remember watching Dr. Merrill in the mid-90s at one of first ASTD technology conferences in Orlando. I was hooked on his message and have been an follower of Dr. Merrill’s message ever since. I am also an alumni of Dr. Merrill’s summer instructional technology institute at USU. I remember being a bit star struck as I stood at the sign-in booth at the conference and started to meet the experts and theorists in the field who were signing in. We were even invited to Dr. Merrill’s home to see his incredible train set and enjoy some ice cream and lemonade which is about the strongest drink you will get in Dr. Merrill’s home.
The problem is that our instruction in the training industry is still very information centric after all these years. Drucker pointed out that knowledge that does not improve productivity simply becomes information (Drucker, 1993). If we create new knowledge and then simply drop it into a searchable database, we have lost the productive yield of that information.
Please watch this video and make it your goal and mission to develop effective instruction and not just “good looking fancy” instruction. We also need to focus on designing instruction so that it leverages knowledge in such a way that it will improve performance and productivity in the workplace.
Motivation alone is not sufficient. Students can get excited about going to a course or taking an online course but if the instruction has been poorly designed, all the motivation in the world is not going to improve the instruction. Listen to Dr. David Merrill’s frustration with the current state of instructional effectiveness.
References
Drucker, P. F. (1993). Post capitalist society. New York: HarperBusiness.