There are several methodologies for instructional content development. Among them are the following:

• Tutorials
• Drills and Tests
• Simulations

Tutorials tend to be used for knowledge-related learning outcomes. Within tutorials the content is taken apart and sequenced back together to follow an organized structure. Much of the time, the content structure follows this order: presenting information > guiding the learner > enabling practice > and assessing.

Take a look at the following resource to explore interactive health tutorials: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorial.html This resource is provided as a service from the U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health.

Drills and Tests tend to be used when the learning outcomes involve deep recall. Drills and tests are designed to enable learners to get to a level of recall of the needed knowledge that one no longer requires to engage in active cognitive processing to remember the information. The knowledge is internalized and becomes part of one’s knowledge base enabling one to build on that base.

Check out the following Anatomy Drill and Practice from Wiley - http://www.wiley.com/college/apcentral/anatomydrill/

Simulations tend to be used for situations where the outcomes relate to knowledge and skills transfer. There are two key simulation categories: those that deal with How-tos and those that deal with About. How-to simulations can be designed as procedural or situational. Simulations that are About something tend to be physical or iterative.

Take a look at an example of what a patient simulator may offer - http://www.gcrme.miami.edu/harvey_features.php

In the next few weeks we will explore each one of these methods in more detail.