| The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate the processes used by trained community college instructional designers as they located, selected, implemented, and evaluated free, pre-designed interactive learning objects for online course designs as well as the reasons these objects were not used by community college instructional designers. Eleven trained community college instructional designers who had been in the field of instructional design for at least one year were interviewed. Three participants were identified as users of free, pre-designed interactive learning objects while eight were identified as nonusers of the objects. The study's findings indicated five major issues identified by both users and nonusers regarding free, pre-designed interactive learning objects: (a) time, (b) faculty buy-in/acceptance, (c) budget, (d) quality, and (e) knowledge of what is available. In addition, the study's findings indicated that a lack of accessibility was the most common reason the objects were not being utilized. Two of the three users of the objects stated that they used a location process for searching and digging. Two of the three users of the objects referenced processes related to selecting objects based on content and grade level. Two of the three users of the objects referenced implementation processes that considered course objectives and the use of links directing students from the learning management system (LMS) to the objects. Two of the three users of the objects commented that they typically conduct summative evaluations, and one user commented that she also employed formative evaluations. In order for the potential of free, pre-designed interactive learning objects to be realized, it is vital that an effective systematic process for locating, selecting, implementing, and evaluating these objects is utilized. In addition, it is critical that the barriers to using the objects are minimized. |
