Teacher Trainees as Learning Object Designers: Problems and Issues in Learning Object Development Process

Learning objects (LOs) can be defined as resources that are reusable, digital with the aim of fulfilling learning objectives (or expectations). Educators, both at the individual and institutional levels, are cautioned about the fact that LOs are to be processed through a proper development process. Who should be involved in the LO development process and how should we train them to become proficient LO designers are one of the major challenges for instructional designers. Addressing to this challenge, this study aims to identify problems and issues teacher trainees experience when designing LOs. A course was re-designed for prospective teachers (n=49) to experience LO design process for 14 weeks. From a qualitative paradigm, this paper reports the findings of qualitative data derived from the first cycle of a two-cycle design based research study. The findings indicated that teacher trainees experienced content development related issues (such as, understanding LO paradigm, development software and environments, content packaging and repository) the most. In addition, project management and copyright related issues were emerged, as well. As Becker (2000) puts it well, teachers’ beliefs and philosophies impact their use of resources. Therefore, starting the process with prospective teachers and integrating LO design as part of their training curricula, where these issues and problems are addressed, would be beneficial in the long term.