Glossary - Portfolio References

ADDIE is the acronym representing the general instructional systems design (ISD) model – Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate.

Audiovisual refers to the development of instructional materials using images (dynamic or static) and audio recording to facilitate learning.

Behavioral psychology is a branch of psychology dealing with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior in society.  Its focus in education is on the reinforcement of stimulus-response bonds.

Blog, short for web-log, is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.  Blogs are used for everything from news reporting to educational musings. 

Cognitive theories are theories of instruction that focus on the internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language.

Computer-based instruction refers to a delivery system in which learners utilize microprocessor technology for learning.

Connectivity is a term used to describe the transport of packets of information between the Internet and the user.

Constructivism is a school of psychology which holds that learning occurs because personal knowledge is constructed by an active and self-regulated learner who solves problems by deriving meaning from experience.

Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) are computer-based job aids that provide just-in-time, just-what-is-needed assistance to performers on the job.  They can include the use of databases, wizards, calculators, decision-support modules and embedded tutorials.

Folksonomy, also known as tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging, is the practice and method of creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content.  It is the result of personal free tagging of information and objects (anything with a URL) for one's own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (shared and open to others). Services such as del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Flickr are examples of folksonomies.

Formative evaluation involves gathering information on the adequacy of an instructional product or program, and then using this information as a basis for further development.

Front-end analysis is an over-reaching term used to describe the analytical processes of performance analysis, needs assessment, and job analysis.

Learning management system(LMS) refers to a local or web-based infrastructure platform through which learning content is delivered and managed.

Knowledge management system (KMS)  describes tools aimed at supporting the collection of ideas and activities that facilitate project problem solving processes.

Human performance technology refers to a systematic process of discovering and analyzing human performance improvement gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically-justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and nonfinancial results.

Intervention is used to describe a course of action used to improve performance.  Interventions are designed to respond to specific needs of an organization.

Peripheral is used as a broad term to describe any number of devices connected to a computer to provide input, output, or other functions. Printers, modems, switches, voice synthesizers, and internal memory cards are considered peripherals.

Prerequisite skills, or subordinate skills, is used to describe basic knowledge, skills or attitudes in a process that must be fulfilled before moving on to a more advanced step. 

Programmed instruction is based on Skinner’s behavioral theories and consists of self-teaching with the aid of a textbook or other system that presents material structured in a logical sequence.  Students are able to answer questions about a unit of study at their own rate, checking their own answers and advancing only after answering correctly. After each step, they are presented with a question to test their comprehension, then are immediately shown the correct answer or given additional information.

Self-instructional modules are similar to programmed instruction (self-teaching, self-paced), but do not necessarily utilize a behaviorist approach to learning.  Some self-instructional instructional modules utilize a cognitive or constructivist approach.

Social-networking sites are relatively recent Internet-based phenomena that are utilized by communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.  Sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Ning have become quite popular in the past decade.  Some sites, like LinkedIn and XING offer users the opportunity to develop business networks, but work in a similar fashion.

Virtual world  refers to a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars, digital characters that represent users.  SecondLife is currently the most popular and widely used virtual world.

Wiki is an Internet-based service that allows registered users or anyone to collaboratively create, edit, link, and organize the content of a website, usually for reference material. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

Glossary - Portfolio References