week 6: Merrills What Makes E3 Instruction?

The article is basically an outline of what one university, BYU Hawaii, is trying to do to reach more students by improving quality of instruction and more distance courses.  It also outlines e³ instruction as it relates to the first principles.  The university is trying to get the instruction to become more peer centered, interactive, and technology based/enhanced.  During some brain studies, the researchers developed 2 types of memory learning—associative memory and mental models.  Mental models help the learner remember the information better.  There are many charts in the article that helps to lay out the information in a succinct manner that is easy to understand.  That tends to be a trademark of Merrill in the articles I have read by him. 

There is a chart on page 2 that I think nicely links the first principles with the problem centered approach.  I like the mental models and understand that students learn better that way, as I have seen it take place in my classroom.  I also find it useful to have the problem-centered strategy on page 3, the technology enhanced interface graphics, and effective peer interaction.  It’s great to be able to see all those charts that will walk a novice through the steps to create effective, engaging, and efficient instruction.  There are many teachers (me included) that will find these graphics useful s we move more into technology based curriculum and away from textbook based.  The students I have had previously always tell me that the units they still remember are always the project based lessons, never a textbook lesson.