The Bates Model

Besides my individual projects on the IDE 632 page, below is my collaboration with fellow student Raenalyn Loomis on one of the accepted academic models we studied. This model was first envisioned by Dr. Tony Bates, a Canadian academic who created the model for packaging instruction for remote or online learning environments. As Bates pointed out, and continues to point out, retooling an instruction for a remote learning scenario is not just a matter of throwing the in-person learning materials up on a website and hoping they will work for remote learners. In the video, we especially liked and highlighted the SECTIONS approach to thinking about packing content for remote learning scenarios. As a representative model for both D’s in ADDIE, design and development, we think this model is a great road map to consider issues and solutions for distance learning.

As a learning community, we are fortunate to still have Dr. Bates with us. Apparently he is productive as ever, and in this day and age, his thoughts on distance learning are extremely relevant now in the post-COVID world, in which people worldwide are doing things, making things, and learning things wherever and whenever they want without regard for where those tasks may have needed to be done in the past.

As part of my reflection, I share a personal anecdote: the day before I created this page, I reached out to a recruiter for an online law school to inquire about their programs. In our conversation, she spontaneously brought up the Bates-like observation that institutions can’t just put “regular” learning materials on a website and hope they will be received by students the same way remotely as they are in a seated course. She gets it! I don’t know how she arrived at this conclusion (real-life experience? Meeting Dr. Bates at a lecture or seminar?), but we are in total agreement. This model will definitely help me in my future work as I return to developing learning products for remote, worldwide locations.