Introduction
Online education for adult learners has been widespread since the establishment of online universities in the early 2000s. The introduction of the Korean Massive Online Open Course (K-MOOC) in 2015 proportionately increased online courses in the field of lifelong education of various learners. In particular, general courses, which had been held in person, have also been converted to online in response to COVID-19. This sweeping expansion of online education has raised questions regarding lecture quality and educational effectiveness. The growth of online content open to the general population heightened concerns over factors that affect various educational effects, such as the lecture material production fidelity, appropriate difficulty of the educational lectures, and attracting learners’ interests.
To improve the effectiveness of online educational programs, the field of educational technology aimed at designing an instructional system based on the systems theory. This approach guides the systematic application of learning principles that affect the instructional design ab initio.1–3) The Instructional Systems Development Model (ISD Model) is a procedural model that schematizes the development process and procedures around the key elements involved and the relationship between them to develop an efficient and effective teaching system.4–5) In this study, educational content was developed according to the ISD Model, which presents a series of procedural models necessary to devise educational content and programs and provides detailed specifications of the tasks essential for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. This study presents cases of developing and converting face-to-face general education programs designed to increase the interest in and understanding of Korean medicine for the general public into online programs within a short timeframe, utilizing Rapid Prototyping Instructional Systems Design (RPISD), a systematic instructional design methodology.6–7,9) Although various online education is being developed for the domestic and international public and expert groups in the field of Korean medicine, efforts to design and develop online education by introducing the ideas of system approach are insufficient. Korean medicine physicians and researchers can understand the specialized medical terms written in many Chinese characters; however, the general public has difficulty understanding several parts while reading. Therefore, an easy interpretation of Korean medicine terms to a level that the general public can understand and avail the knowledge is crucial.8 It is likely that instructional designers and content developers have difficulties in the e-learning content development process due to their unfamiliarity with the use of terminology and knowledge in Korean medicine. Mostly, the role of instructional designers is to absorb the educational content from subject-matter experts and develop the e-learning content through instructional design interventions and prescriptions. However, subject-matter experts efficiently develop curriculums through collaboration with instructional designers having instructional design perspectives in cases when the teaching content expertise deepens, when the content development and operation proceed rapidly, or when several instructors must conduct a single training together (i.e., team teaching).
In this study, subject-matter experts were continuously provided with instructional design ideas and feedback. In addition, the seamless interactions between subject-matter experts, instructional designers, content developers, and clients were facilitated to ensure efficient instructional design. The educational content on Korean medicine that best reflects the client’s needs and conveys specialized knowledge to the public was expeditiously developed, and detailed procedures and step-by-step development tasks and outputs were arranged based on the RPISD model. The RPISD model has been developed and improved by researchers in the field of educational technology since 2006 in Korea that designs a prototype early in the development stage and quickly reflects the feedback of stakeholders, including clients, subject-matter experts, and learners.6–7,10–13) Unlike the linearity of the existing instructional systems design in the development of curriculums or teaching and learning manuals, advantages of RPISD, like superposed analyses, design development, and test processes, efficiently reflect the opinions of clients, learners, and subject-matter experts rapidly, thereby improving education. After meticulous analysis of the learners’ needs, all lesson components are placed, and the intended learning outcomes are pursued. In particular, the RPISD model quickly derives prototypes early in the instructional design process and conducts several usability tests with stakeholders so that clients and learners can view the results at the final stages to supplement the shortcomings of the existing instructional system design that are difficult to modify.17) Through this study, the effectiveness of using the RPIDS Model is confirmed in developing online public education content in the field of Korean medicine and in designing educational programs.
Methods
1. Study design
This study is a design and development research for online educational content for public education on Korean medicine. Design and development research is the systematic study of the design, development, and evaluation processes aimed at establishing an empirical foundation for creating instructional and non-instructional outputs and tools, as well as improved developmental models.14–15) This qualitative case study develops and improves the educational program model; it analyzes all environmental resources related to educational content development for guiding teaching and learning activities in this context and generates tools necessary for the process. Therefore, the RPISD model was used in the present study to analyze the available resources utilized in the rapid development of public educational content and propose systematization and optimization measures by analyzing the needs of clients, learners, and the environment.
In this study, the RPISD model was applied for effective course development, and the <Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Open Course> was developed according to the model procedure. Unlike the existing linear instructional systems design model in curriculum development, the RPISD performs simultaneous and super-positional analysis, design, and evaluation. Additionally, the quick designing of the prototype in the early stages and then confirming the stakeholders’ opinions are critical. The RPISD model can be modified and supplemented to reflect the client’s needs immediately. Ensuring that the client’s needs are reflected in the curriculum development, designing the curriculum by considering the educational environment and context that the instructional designer may miss as well as the characteristics and levels of the learners are possible. The RPISD model presents stages of educational program development and allows instructional designers to design educational programs by accommodating the opinions of clients, learners, instructors, and subject-matter experts at each stage. As such, the RPISD model, which allows for rapid modification and supplementation by reflecting the field circumstances, learners’ levels, and clients’ needs, can play a significant role in effectively developing the curriculum. The RPISD model used in the current study is shown below in Figure 1.
2. Procedure
This study was conducted specifically through the procedure shown in Table 1. The <Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Open Course> was developed through the key stages of curriculum development initiation, analysis, design, development, usability test, implementation, and general evaluation according to the RPISD model.
During the curriculum development initiation stage, the overall scope of the study was determined, and the roles of the clients, as well as participating instructors, designers, and developers, were established.
A needs analysis was conducted to understand the needs of the stakeholders at this stage. In particular, to actively reflect the needs and trends of the institutions, in-depth interviews with the Cultural Heritage Administration, Gyeongsangnam Province, and the local government of municipality A were conducted. Simultaneously, to construct online content as part of the initial task analysis, an expert advisory group of Korean medicine experts was formed, and in-depth interviews were conducted with professors and doctors of Korean medicine and other medicine-related personnel. Based on the above, a literature review on Korean medicine-related publications and the main contents of the “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG) Online Course” were conducted.
In the design stage, the composition of the classes and the subject and main contents of each class were formulated based on the needs identified in the analysis stage. Course materials and manuscripts were developed based on refined content and collaboration with subject-matter experts in the development stage. Based on the manuscripts and materials, storyboards for each class were created, and filming and editing were performed accordingly. Usability tests were conducted at all stages, and the opinions of clients, instructors, experts, and instructional designers were accommodated and reflected at each stage(Figure 2).
Results
1. Curriculum development initiation
An operation organization system consisting of a project management team (client), a instructional development team, and an advisory panel, was established for the actual operation of the present study to enable cooperatively efficient instructional design and development within a short time. The instructional development team included a management team from University B, video recording and editing developers, and a researcher who is also a professor and designer from the Center for Innovation and Future Education of University A.
2. Analysis
The analysis stage comprised the needs and initial task analysis phases. Needs analysis actively reflected the needs and trends of Korean medicine-related institutions by conducting in-depth interviews with clients. The results of the needs analysis were as follows: First, various learning elements and interfaces to enhance the learners’ interest and increase the general public’s access to Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG)and Korean medicine are necessary. Second, the classes should be developed into small units to reflect the characteristics of the public admiring short-form content in recent years. Third, the course quality must be improved by constructing a content review system and establishing an accurate developmental direction and evaluation. Fourth, suggestions for post-project utilization and various promotional measures are required. Adding subtitles in three languages, English, Chinese, and Japanese, was requested to develop products for foreigners visiting municipality A. For the initial task analysis, a group of Korean medicine experts constructed online content by gathering input from the experts through interviews with professors, physicians of Korean medicine, and other Korean medicine-related experts. Lastly, five core topics were derived, and the main contents were selected to promote the value of 「Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG)」 to the general public.
Municipality A requested educational content development that promotes the region and the subject matter, as well as concrete alternatives to the content utilization plan. In particular, educational content consumers have gained clarity of their requirements through the needs analysis process. Moreover, the municipality wanted educational content development that could be used not only for the general public but also for foreigners visiting region A. Accordingly, additional content with subtitles for tourists and overseas Koreans was produced. Due to the limitations relating to development cost and period, Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese versions were produced by applying SRT subtitle files, while the screen composition was in Korean. All scripts were presented as subtitles because playing the video without sound in a large, open space visited by tourists was imperative.
Additional suggestions included using a local policy expert as an instructor and timely addressing the COVID-19-related topics or topics that highlight the region’s characteristics because Korean medicine is a specialized field, and its understanding and access may be challenging for the general public.
Consequently, the topics were organized into content that inform about the value of Korean medicine and Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)to the public to increase access. An interface was planned to construct by applying various learning elements, Chroma Key recordings, and computer-generated effects to enhance learners’ interest. The course was organized around the Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)table of contents and divided into short classes of around 20 minutes each to reflect the profound familiarity of the modern population with short videos.
A precise direction of development by constructing a course content review system and improving the course quality through a usability test of video quality was established. Furthermore, a post-project utilization plan and various promotion measures in the form of a report were proposed and delivered with the product. Concurrently, storyboards and videos were created for each class by reflecting the needs of five instructors.
3. Design
Based on the analysis results, the “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Open Course” was organized into five classes, and the core topics of each class were determined, as shown in Table 6. All five classes of the “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Open Course” were of 20 minutes each. Each class was developed in Korean and included English, Chinese, and Japanese subtitles in addition to Korean.
The name of each lesson is as follows. Lecture 1 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicin e(DUBG), Being Listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register,” lecture 2 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG), Soaring Through the 2013 World Traditional Medicine Expo in Municipality A,” lecture 3 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Internal Bodily Elements, Soothing the Mind with Mind-healing Methods,” lecture 4 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)External bodily elements, Looking at Digestive Disorders from Outside the Body,” and lecture 5 is “Miscellaneous Disorders, a Convergent Approach to Strokes.” (Table 2)
Each class started with 1) the introduction of the “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG)Online Open Course,” then 2) greetings, the introduction of instructors and the topic, learner motivation, and delivered 3) the educational contents related to the core topic of the class. Further, there were 4) quizzes on learned materials as a learning assessment and finished with 5) a summary of the lecture contents and an outro video.
4. Development
Five instructors wrote the manuscript based on the above procedures, and the instructional design team developed the storyboards based on the manuscript. Figures 3 and Table 3 below show the manuscript and screenshots of storyboards.
Filming and editing took place according to the designed storyboards. Filming was completed over two sessions, and Chroma Key techniques were used.
The main content was derived for developing storyboards, and the instruction topic was selected through meetings with experts in each field. Additional meetings were held to determine the editorial direction. After conducting the initial meeting for the curriculum composition, the overall lecture arrangement and related materials were obtained from the instructors. The instructional design team analyzed the instructors’ data to provide feedback on the course structure, based on which the instructors wrote the lecture manuscripts. Storyboards suitable for online courses were constructed based on the lecture manuscripts and final lecture materials (PowerPoint slides).
Five storyboards were created using Microsoft PowerPoint for a lecture each. After producing the first version of the storyboards, the instructors’ opinions on the developed storyboards were sought, and the second version of the storyboards was produced, reflecting their opinions. The instructors provided final feedback on the revised second version of the storyboards, and five final versions were developed that reflected their feedback.
The storyboards were organized in the order of intro, motivation, instructor introduction, main lecture, quiz, and wrap-up. For the intro, the photographic materials centered on Korean Medicine, Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG), and municipality A were obtained, the intro video was determined through the advisory committee consultation, and the final storyboard approval of the general management team was confirmed.
The quiz comprised five yes or no questions for each lecture. Questions were presented, and three to four seconds were provided for the viewer to think. Subsequently, a correct answer and feedback were shown.
For lecture 1, data was collected to effectively publicize Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG)as the world’s documentary heritage and select its core contents. Quiz-like content was embedded at the beginning of the lecture to attract viewers’ interest and motivation. Lecture 2 contained abundant visual appeals using rich photographic materials. For lecture 3, the storyboard was created around guiding a detailed “sample meditation” that the viewers could actually follow and adding elements of entertainment. It also provided additional explanations and data regarding the portion of the main text of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)to be visible on the screen. Lectures 4 and 5 provided sufficient photographic data for the learners to familiarize themselves with the external appearance of the body and various diseases presented in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG). Specialized medical terms were emphasized, and textual form with added explanations was used to enhance understanding.
The <Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG)Open Course> was developed into five video classes based on paper-based storyboards. In addition to five classes with Korean subtitles, 20 videos were made, including English, Chinese, and Japanese subtitles, to promote the value of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)and Korean medicine both domestically and internationally. After developing a prototype according to the RPISD model, the final video course was developed upon several revisions and supplements based on feedback from instructional designers, instructors, cinematographers, and editors. An example of the development output of the <Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (DUBG)Open Course> is given below. (Figure 5)
5. Usability Test
The present study emphasizes the usability test of clients, instructors (subject matter experts; SMEs), and online education experts based on the RPISD model. What is important in the RPISD model is that the design is not completed in a single process, but iterative modifications can be made through usability evaluation. Usability test is a process of exploring the practical effects and applicability of educational programs for clients, subject matter experts (SMEs), and learners for the initial prototype. It is generally conducted 2–3 times when developing online educational contents. In particular, this is evaluated as the most suitable method to fully reflect the needs of the client in a short period of time. When developing educational content according to the RPISD model, a paper-based prototype is rapidly developed at an early stage and confirmed by stakeholders. Although this is slightly different from the term used in the field of system development, it is common to call it usability test in the design & development research area. The first usability test was conducted on the first draft of the storyboards, the second test was on the revised storyboards, and the third test was on the videos developed based on the storyboards. The details of each usability test are shown in Table 4.
Usability tests aimed to improve the course quality through iterative development and modification of prototypes and to develop the course as quickly as possible.
6. Final Product
Based on the analysis results, the “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Open Course” was organized into five classes, and the core topics of each class were determined. All five classes of the “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Open Course” were of 20 minutes each. Each class was developed in Korean and included English, Chinese, and Japanese subtitles in addition to Korean. The name of each lesson is as follows. Lecture 1 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG), Being Listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register,” lecture 2 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG), Soaring Through the 2013 World Traditional Medicine Expo in Municipality A,” lecture 3 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)Internal Bodily Elements, Soothing the Mind with Mind-healing Methods,” lecture 4 is “Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG)External bodily elements, Looking at Digestive Disorders from Outside the Body,” and lecture 5 is “Miscellaneous Disorders, a Convergent Approach to Strokes.”
The original educational videos developed were provided at the request of the clients, and they were installed on the website of cultural facilities to show to domestic and foreign tourists visiting the area(http://donguibogam-village.sancheong.go.kr).
Conclusions
This study presents a series of procedures necessary for developing educational content as a model. Educational content was developed according to the RPISD model, which specifically prescribes tasks necessary for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. A case of efficient development of a face-to-face general education program designed to enhance the interest and understanding of Korean medicine for the general public into online programs in a short period of time was reported.
The instructional systems development model that has been prevalent since the mid-1969s plans and manages projects for developing real-world educational programs and organizing educational content and activities in collaboration with subject matter experts and related groups. The systematic instructional design thus shows a series of logical and rational processes of analyzing problems based on clients’ requests to run educational programs, setting goals for problem-solving, and selecting, executing, evaluating, and modifying alternative solutions and strategies. In other words, this systematic method reviews the relationships of all the elements of the educational environment, deconstructs the goals, performs tasks, and finally assesses whether they align with the goals initially set and corrects any insufficient elements. The systemic approach highly values holistic and organic relationships and establishes an efficient educational environment by analyzing the relationships between the elements.
The present design and development study confirmed the necessity of developing a program that meets the client’s needs by applying design and development methodologies based on the systems theory, the RPISD model. Further, the efficiency of applying the RPISD methodology to online educational content development was confirmed due to an increase in the satisfaction of subject-matter experts, instructional designers, and clients who teach specialized Korean medicine knowledge in a short period of time. For instructional designers to promote the spread of educational content by proposing utilization methods is also important. A resource statement investigation revealed that utilization could be increased by actively guiding the education and utilization methods.
The produced content on Korean medicine is online open educational content that can be posted on open video platforms such as YouTube and Naver TV to enable people to acquire knowledge and information about Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine(DUBG). In addition, it can be used as lifelong education content for various institutions, as it was developed as a course suitable for the needs of the era of lifelong education in topic, scope, and level.
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