Schema Theory-based Instructional Design of Asynchronous Web-based Language Courses

Instructional design (ID) provides a framework to facilitate both teaching and learning activities. ID also prescribes desirable learning outcomes. This paper introduces the implementation of an ID template in web-based language courses. The ID template incorporates several cognitive strategies based on schema theory. A schema-theory-based model provides a useful framework for knowledge organization and information processing. In a course that emphasizes reading comprehension, schema theory accounts for how learners construct meaning from texts based on the information they encounter, the prior knowledge they already have, and the way they interact with the new information. The ID template consists of four instructional sequences. The cognitive strategies, ID examples, and purposes for each sequence are illustrated. The sequences include warm-up activities, preparatory activities, core activities, and post activities. Each sequence is interconnected with the others and looped back to the beginning in each lesson unit. The preliminary evaluation results indicate the degree of student satisfaction for the ID template for various external and internal factors.