Instructional Design and Management Research Lab at Western Michigan University

Welcome to the Instructional Design and Management Research Lab at WMU. This website contains information on our lab members, past and future research directions, publications of our members, professional presentations, and links of interest.

The lab is dedicated to both instructional design techniques and organizational behavior management techniques. In regards to instructional design, this lab focuses behavior-based training and teaching methods, with an explicit recognition that training or teaching means changing the behavior of the learner. An important part of this methodology involves the best ways of presenting prompts, instructions, and examples (antecedents to behavior) to ensure efficient and effective learning outcomes. This also involves how to analyze and judge observed behavior in an instructional context. In addition, these techniques specify how trainers/teachers/instructors should react to behavioral observations (consequences for behavior). The underlying key concept is how the relationship between these three variables (antecedents, behavior, consequences) impact learning over time.

In regards to organizational behavior management, this lab focuses on how to use evidence-based methods to maintain employee performance on a daily basis outside of a training context. No matter how well-designed training is, gains in performance will not be maintained if they are not supported by on-the-job workplace relationships. As such, even though a good training program is an important and critical part of an organization, it is not sufficient by itself to generate valued organizational outcomes. Quite often, improving on-the-job performance translates to altering the interactions between employees and supervisors. This can be accomplished by enhancing feedback delivery, building incentive and reward systems, clarifying work expectations, analyzing how organizational departments are aligned, developing new measurement and assessment tools, and teaching leadership behaviors. Unlike many approaches to the performance of employees, this lab focuses on situational determinants of behavior (i.e., how to engineer motivating work environments), rather than the dispositional characteristics of the workers (i.e., personality assessments, selection and placement).

Laboratory Director Dr. Douglas A. Johnson is a faculty specialist at Western Michigan University. He has taught college courses on introductory psychology, social psychology, behavioral training/teaching strategies, statistics, applied behavior analysis, instructional design, educational psychology, and industrial/organizational psychology. He has also worked as an international consultant with expertise in instructional design, training, computer-based instruction, performance management, behavioral systems analysis, fluency training, incentives, feedback, and employee motivation. He has been studying and applying behavioral science since 1997. E-mail: djohnson@operant-tech.com or douglas.johnson@wmich.edu See Dr. Johnson's curriculum vitae (updated October 2011)

Dr. Doug Johnson

The lab can be found on the second floor of Wood Hall at Western Michigan University. It is located in room 2521, down the research lab hallway 2505. Mail correspondence should be addressed to:

Douglas A. Johnson
P.O. Box 20415
Kalamazoo, MI 49019

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