M. David Merrill, PhD

“Information Is Not Instruction”

If a learner fails to attain learning goals…

Your instruction is a waste of time!

Does our Instruction really teach, or

does it merely entertain?

Education

B.A., Brigham Young University 1961M.A., University of Illinois 1964Ph.D., University of Illinois 1964

Professional Experience

George Peabody College for Teachers, 1964-1966Brigham Young University, 1966-1967,1968-1979Courseware, Inc. (Vice Pres., Director), 1972-1980University of Southern California, 1979-1988Micro teacher, Inc. (President), 1981-1985Utah State University, 1987-Present

Other Teaching AssignmentsBucknell University, Summer 1970University of Indonesia, TKPK, Summers 1980,82Twente University, The Netherlands, Summer 1988Anchorage Alaska, March 1980Twente University, The Netherlands, Spring 1999

Administrative Experience

Founder and director of the Instructional Science Department at Brigham Young UniversityFounder and director of the Division of Instructional Research, Development and Evaluation at Brigham Young Universityfounder, director and Vice President for Research, Courseware Inc., San Diego, California (From 1972 until 1980) Anderson Consulting- Courseware Inc. is still a major instructional development firm

Administrative Experience Continued

Founder, director and President of Micro teacher, Inc., San Diego, California (From 1981 until 1985). This company developed educational courseware for schools. The firm is no longer active Founder, member. and General Manager of River Park Instructional Technologies L.L.C., Logan, Utah (1996-1997)Director, ID2 Research Group, Utah State University, Logan, Utah (1987 -1998)

Publications

Listed among the most productive Educational Psychologists (Gordon, et al, Educational Researcher , Aug/Sep1984)Among the most frequently cited authors in the computer-based instruction literature (Wedman, Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, Summer 1987)Ranked among the most influential people in the field of Instructional Technology (Moore & Braden, Performance & Instruction, March 1988.)

Publications Include

12 books16 chapters in edited books65 journal articles18 instructional computer products 5 expert system prototypes3 other instructional products 123 Technical reports2 book reviews, 2 columns

Selected Recent PublicationsMerrill, M. David and the ID2 Research Group. (1996). Instructional Transaction Theory: instructional design based on knowledge objects. Educational Technology, 36(3), 30-37. Merrill, M. David (1997). Learning-oriented instructional development tools. Performance Improvement 36(3), 51-55. Merrill, M. David (1997). Instructional strategies that teach. CBT Solutions, Nov./Dec. 1-11. Merrill, M. David (1998). Knowledge objects. CBT Solutions, March/April, 1-11. Merrill, M. David & ID2 Research Group (1998). ID Expert: a second generation instructional development system. Instructional Science, 26(3,4), 234-262. Merrill, M. D., & Thompson, B. (1999). Decelerator: learning-centered instructional design. In J. v. d. Akker, R. M. Branch, K. Gustafson, N. Nieveen & T. Plomp (Eds.), Design Methodology and Development Research in Education and Training (pp. 265-277). Dordrecht / Boston / London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Merrill, M. D. (1999). Instructional transaction theory (ITT): instructional design based on knowledge objects. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional Design Theory and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory Vol. II. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Anderson, T. A., & Merrill, M. D. (2000). A design for standards-based knowledge components. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 11(2), 3-29

Selected Recent Publications Continued

Mills, R. J., Lawless, K. A., & Merrill, M. D. (2001). Designing instructional templates for web-based training. In B. H. Khan (Ed.), Web-Based Training (pp. 99-105). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Merrill, M. D. (2001). First principles of instruction. Journal of Structural Learning and Intelligent Systems, 14(4), 459-466. Merrill, M. D. (2001). A knowledge object and mental model approach to a physics lesson. Educational Technology, 41(1), 36-47. Merrill, M. D. (2001). Toward a theoretical tool for instructional design. Instructional Science, 29(4-5), 291-310. Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43-59. Merrill, M. D. (2002). Instructional strategies and learning styles: which takes precedence? In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology. (pp. 99-106). Columbus, OH: Prentice Hall. Merrill, M. D. (2002). Knowledge objects and mental models. In D. A. Wiley (Ed.), The Instructional Use of Learning Objects (pp. 261-280). Washington DC: Agency for Instructional Technology & Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Merrill, M. D. (2002). A pebble-in-the-pond model for instructional design. Performance Improvement, 41(7), 39-44.

Professional Associations

More than 100 presentations at meetings of professional associations in which he holds membership:

American Educational Research Association (AERA)Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)American Psychological Association (APA)Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems (ADCIS)National Society for Performance and Instruction (NSPI) More than 25 key note addresses at the national meetings of other professional associations

Workshops and Seminars

More than 40 workshops and seminars primarily on instructional design, authoring systems and the use of computers in instruction. Including seminars in Italy, England (several occasions), Belgium, Indonesia (2 occasions), The Netherlands (several occasions), The People's Republic of China, Spain, Germany (several occasions) , Finland, Brazil (2 occasions), Norway, and Singapore

Honors

Cited as Outstanding Educator 1973 Received the LDS Church Education Commissioner's Fellowship for 1977 Fellow American Psychological Association Fellow Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems Commended for chapter in AECT/DID 1985 book of the year. Commended for chapter in AECT/DID 1988 book of the year. Selected as Person of the year in Educational Technology for 1989 by Educucational Technology Magazine. AECT/DID 1991 award for outstanding journal article. Al Avner Award for Scholarship and Research by the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems 1992 Instructional Technology Ronald H. Anderson Memorial Award by the American Society for Training and Development 1992. Utah State University College of Education Outstanding College Scholar/Researcher of the Year 1992-1993.

Key Beliefs

To guarantee the effectiveness of any training program, remember that while technology will always change, the way adults learn will not. Remember Merrill’s admonishment and his keys to learning:

Provide structured knowledgeProvide practiceProvide guidance