33.2 Learner Control In Instruction

In general, "learner-controlled instruction," regardless of the instructional delivery system employed, refers to those instructional designs where learners make their own decisions regarding some aspect of the "path," "flow," or "events" of instruction. Such an instructional process is not in any way new or novel; in fact, when examined closely, most instructional designs are seen to consist of a mixture of learner-controlled and instructor-prescribed events.

Designers may wish to base their decisions about the provision of learner control around any of several instructional models or theories commonly used to guide the selection of instructional methods. These models or theories (e.g., Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1988; Merrill, 1983) usually consist of very small elements or component activities (see 18.4) (e.g., motivating activities, informing students of the objective, presenting information, providing feedback to learners on their performance) to be drawn upon or assembled into an instructional design. These models, too, coincidentally function very handily as practical menus of instructional components about which the designer may decide whether, when, and how to place under the learner's control.

Possibilities for learner control of these types of learner-controlled activities would apply to any format of instructional delivery system. However, because the literature base focusing specifically on learner control in computer-based instructional environments is a fairly well-defined subset of studies within the larger domain of general learner control (including, e.g., correspondence courses and independent study), the remainder of this paper will focus specifically on those issues of learner control that are related to technology-based instructional delivery systems.

(For additional discussions of issues related to learner control, see also 7.4.5, 12.2.3, 13.3.1, 14.6.2, 22.3.9, 22.5.5., 23.7.2, and 25.9.4.)