Message Design Analysis of JavaScript Textbook
Project Description: The assignment was to select an instructional system and conduct an analysis of its instructional message design. The goal was to apply principles of IMD in the analysis and to present recommendations. I selected one module of one chapter in the CIW Javascript Fundamentals textbook: Lesson 2: Working with Variables and Data in Javascript, focusing only on the lesson introduction and the section on JavaScript variables.
Reflection: This project was, in a sense, “revenge” from having been subjected to the actual CIW course in basic JavaScript as part of my CIW Web Design certification in 2008. It was from having struggled through that course that I was introduced to the principles of Instructional Design by my instructor, Carlos Villalba. I would later explore the IDD&E MS program at SU and apply for admission.
This analysis gave a theoretical voice to the struggle I felt when I originally participated in the JavaScript course. I felt there was something “off” about it that could explain why I felt discouraged, frustrated, and at times depressed that I could not excel in the course. Of course, there were other students who may not have felt as I did about the instructional design of the course. Others may have succeeded without much stress, while I, perhaps, am simply not “wired” to comprehend programming languages.
But I could not accept this as an excuse for my experience in the course. There had to be other ways to communicate principles that made better sense than an avalanche of text and tables. My personal and professional history has always involved sound and visual modes of organizing ideas, and it seemed odd to me that a Web Design course would be devoid of any visualization of its principles. This analysis is an attempt to articulate how such an alternative might be developed.
The result of this analysis informed a subsequent IMD assignment where a wireframe of an online instructional product for this JavaScript section was produced (also in this portfolio).
