Measuring Instructional Results, Or, Got a Match?: How to Find Out If Your Instructional Objectives Have Been Achieved

There is nothing that is more devastating to good instruction than a failure to achieve the performance you expected from your learner. No matter how carefully you craft an objective or present the material to support the instruction to meet that objective, there is no guarantee that the learner has mastered the objective unless you accurately measure the learner performance. Mager opens the book with his famous unicycle example. If someone has an objective to learn to ride a unicycle a set distance without falling, you should not test the learner on their ability to identify the parts of a unicycle. It is especially important in this age of technology-based instruction (TBT) that you carefully consider how you are testing the objectives stated in your instruction. Most computers cannot simulate riding a unicycle so you may be tempted to ask questions about the parts or the history of the unicycle. In this programmed text, Mager will help you refine your design skills so that you always know whether your test item is actually measuring your objective. Dr. Mager uses a programmed text approach, so there will be pages for everyone to read and pages that offer additional practice and assessment to help you master the skills taught. The real reason to adopt the skills Mager presents is not so you can be a better designer, it is to make sure that you are dealing fairly with the learner. Learners do not trust instruction that promises one thing and delivers another. Successful completion of this book, will better equip you to design and measure valid and successful instruction every time.