PSI and Audio Tutorials

The most striking similarity between the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and the Audio Tutorial approaches may be the ways both allow for self-paced learning and the teacher/instructor provides an environment and materials to support the learning. The differences may lie in what happens after the unit is completed. In the PSI model the student must demonstrate "mastery" or they may not move on - this sounds like a programming "if then" scenario and in the Audio Tutorial model the final step would be a sharing session followed by a quiz or test assessment. Neither scenario reflects the more traditional classroom model of teacher delivering content in a synchronous face-to-face session.

I think my reactions to each depend greatly on the kinds of courses or objectives these methods were being used to teach. While some courses or content would fit these methods nicely, I wonder about opportunities for social learning that take place in a course, and if the content can be put into blocks and interactions monitored by TA's or proctors, what value is the instructor bringing to the course?

However there are courses or units of instruction that could best be measured by these kinds of methods - units developed on rote learning that could be measured by a quiz. If learning objectives can be achieved by the tests at the end of units in the PSI or by the end of unit reviews, then I see no problem with either method. However if these methods were used in course that is designed to measure critical thinking skills, I imagine there might be issues in these approaches.

Finally both approaches are based on the learner being responsible for progressing through the material and unit blocks with a large amount of independence. There are some groups of learners that might not excel in this environment.

I don't think either of these options would be my primary approach for teaching. But there are many factors to consider, and I don't know that I would reject either outright. I do think elements of each could be used from these approaches. While reading on these models I thought a couple of times about the "flipped classroom" and all the sites that make tutorials available (like the Khan Academy) . And I know there are aspects of these theories still being used in my courses today. The elements I like about both involve the responsibility and autonomy given to the learner and the ways face-to-face time can change if content can be delivered in other learning spaces.

I think the Internet is the gamechanger in regards to the ways these tools and resources can carry these to an online environment. However I don't just mean the use of the Internet to provide content in an LMS. I'm referring to the Internet as the source of resources. Many subjects and resources have been created in iTunes, YouTube and in Open Educational Resources - so content which used to be very scarce and bound to a place is now very easy to access. Therefore the challenge again becomes if a student can access courses and knowledge from teachers around the world, how does an instructor add value to the course. I don't think it will be as a creator of more tutorials or content, but I think there will be a great need for a teacher as a guide, colearner and veter of information. And the need for that role is seen in both of these methods/theories.