Week 1 - Prescriptive Principles of Instructional Design

Merrill’s first principles of instruction are five basic concepts that can be found in almost every instructional model, although not always all at once. These principles are listed as:

• “Task-centered approach”
• “Activation principle”
• “Demonstration principle”
• “Application principle”
• “Integration principle”

Merril concludes that each of these principles must be included in instruction in order for learning to be successful. The article goes on to compare these principles to existing frameworks, and also, how they apply to e-learning and media-based instruction. 

In essence, these principles are using repetition of a task or concept by aligning the objectives to a pre-assessment, a ‘tell, show, do’ outline, and then helping the learner apply these new skills to a real-world situation. By using this type of repetition in different ways, it cements the objectives and makes them more relevant and memorable to the learner.  

If applied successfully, these principles should work in both face-to-face instruction as well as media-based instruction or e-learning. Personally, I feel the biggest difference to keep in mind when designing self-directed e-learning versus face-to-face instruction, is that learners will not have the opportunity to ask questions.  The instruction has to be very clear and self-sufficient. The “Principles for Multimedia Learning”, and “Principles of e-Learning” seem to do a good job of using the Merrill’s First Principles” and applying them to the self-learner.  However, according to table 14.1, it appears that Clark & Meyer’s e-Learning Principles do not include an “activation” aspect. This is where a pre-assessment would come into play. However, in Table 14.2, Allen’s e-learning principles seem to include all of Merril’s 5 principles.

It must be remembered that no model is perfect in every situation, but Merril’s First Principles seem to serve as a constant of what a model should include.