Reflections on Individualized Instruction & Multimedia

Exploring the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and Audio-Tutorial (A-T) Approach

What are key similarities or striking differences between the theories/models in a given unit? Do the theories/models in a unit share any common foundations or principles?

Underlying both the PSI and A-T is the fundamental notion that instruction should focus on the needs of the student rather than the teacher. Students must learn rather than simply be taught, and so the role of the teacher is "to provide a situation conducive to learning by providing the direction, facilities and motivation to the learner" (Kozma, Belle, & Williams, 1978, p.1). In both cases, lectures are limited and teachers/teaching assistants serve as facilitators and tutors as needed.

Both aim for student mastery of course content.  And recognizing students naturally attain mastery at different speeds, with varying degrees of difficulty, and with differing amounts of prior, related knowledge, PSI and A-T approaches enable students to progress through lessons at both a pace and schedule that best suit their individual needs.

While both the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and Audio-Tutorial Approach (A-T) date back to the 1960's and 1970's, respectively, both models remain highly relevant to a 21st century education in which technology-enabled learning plays an increasingly important role.

What most obviously separates these two instructional medels is their emphasis on different formats for delivery. Whereas PSI is historically text-based, A-T primarily utilizes audio-based instruction. Additionally, they differ in the level of student collaboration traditionally associated with each approach. A-T has more frequent student interaction, usually in the form of weekly small-group review sessions led by a TA. Instead of relying on teacher-student or proctor-student feedback, the students in their small cohort assist one another in mastering the material each studied on his/her own that week.

What are your initial reactions to these learning theories/models? What are barriers to their use? What benefits might be expected for those who overcome the barriers?

My initial reaction to these learning theories/models is mixed. On the one hand, I see tremendous value in individualized instruction, and the focus it places on learning as opposed to teaching. As a student-centered model, it does not overlook the diversity that naturally exists among a group of learners, and it affords students the convenience and flexibility to work at their own pace and schedule.  Furthermore, by producing the instructional materials ahead of time, more time can (ideally) be spent attending to students' progress.

On the other hand, I see how individualized instruction can be very costly as compared to other models if content production tools are not chosen wisely or if the approach is not well matched to the course's subject matter (ex: using A-T for a course with content that must be updated each semester or for a course that teaches skills in the psychomotor domain).

Individualized instruction necessitates significant up-front development (whether the materials are text-based, as in PSI, or audio-based, as in A-T) and may require considerable 1:1 help for students who struggle to get 100% correct on an assessment of a lesson, since they cannot move on to the next lesson until they demonstrate mastery of the one before. I also find it disconcerting that although there is some evidence that students who receive individualized attention and tutoring learn "more" than students who are merely lectured (Oliver, n.d.), there is also a seeming lack of evidence that individualized instruction narrows the gap between advanced learners and students trying to catch up from behind (Kozma, et. al, 1978).

Yet, with the proliferation of consumer technology tools for producing multimedia and the widespread adoption and use of instructional technologies and Web 2.0 tools, content development and socially mediated cognition are becoming more practical and affordable.

I also suspect that as virtual reality, three-dimensional digital modeling and haptics technologies become increasingly sophisticated, the barriers that prevent A-T from being utilized will diminish.  We have already begun to witness some of the compelling possibilities that these new technologies offer.

Would you attempt to use any of these theories/models with the students you are currently teaching or hope to teach in the future? Why or why not? Could elements of the theories/ models be modified so that they would work with your current/future students?

I do indeed find the PSI and A-T models of individualized instruction to have utility for the distance education courses I currently TA (as well as those I hope to teach in the future).

The students in the courses that I TA are post-baccalaureate adults, and thus the Audio-Tutorial approach is a more suitable model for my classes than it would be for classes taught to students in K-12.  Given the need for students in A-T-based classes to be highly self-directed, motivated, and disciplined, such an approach is more likely to prove effective with an adult student population than with a younger, less mature group of learners.

However, I would not use it for material in the course that will become outdated in the near future, since it could require a considerable amount of time to update and re-record content on a regular basis.

And while audio lends an extra dimension to instruction, it would still be necessary to provide text-based alternatives in order to comply with national and University accessibility standards. This is not necessarily a problem, however, since I would normally write a script before creating an audio recording anyway.

Since we're taking learning theories/models that were not necessarily created with the Web in mind and turning them into Web modules, what Web-based tools or resources could
be leveraged to carry out these learning theories/models online? Please spend some time identifying tools and resources for this last point, as this background research should help you complete your projects more efficiently.

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