This review paper reflects upon instructional design research in Educational Technology in Japanese context, and to suggest what roles ID research should play as foundation for educational innovation. It was observed that a desrepancy existed between primary-secondary education and corporate training for sometimes, then ID concepts were introduced in higher eduation with faculty development requirements. The roles that ID research should take include, co-creating innovative practice as a "designer," contributing to expantion of ID research findings through Design-based Research, re-interpreting and elaborating ID using findings of brain research, taking part in creating universities in next generation, realizing education without teaching, and participating in ID specialist training at the highest level.

This paper introduces recent research trends in IDs in ETR&D, a journal published by AECT, with the aim of obtaining suggestions for ID research in Japan. From 2016 to 2018, the research content was investigated by focusing on ID-related papers published in ETR&D. As a result of organizing the goals and methods, 67 papers were found, and there was an increasing trend in papers for descriptive / interpretive, design / development, and mixed-method research. The research of the content of the paper showed the characteristics of these studies by clearly indicating the research methodology, research questions, and analysis methods employed. The use of theories and models not seen in Japan, meta-research, and human resources in the ID field research on development trends was also reported. It was suggested that that the scope of ID research approaches in Japan and the quality of results may change due to the position being regarded as basic and fundamental.

Educational technology is a complex research domain consisted of pedagogy, psychology, technology and educational practices. Research in Educational technology has the unique aspects as following: it is free of content and domain where educational practice is being done, focusing on educational methods and use of technology, and constrained by social contexts and physical environments. In order to carry out the research in educational technology, it is suggested useful to focus on (1) creating educational method and techniques, (2) setting up the research question on designing intervention, (3) carrying out the design-based research rather than strict experimental design research, (4) choosing data analysis method fitted to the stage of research, (5) interpreting data practically and clinically, and (6) reviewing the theories supporting the practice.

This study aims to examine the effects of the designed course of lectures on internalization of autonomous motivation. The lectures consisted of four steps. Step1: students conceived evaluation items and evaluation criteria of the rubric that will be used in OSCE (i.e., practical skill test for simulated patients); Step2: students did the self-learning using the rubric; Step3: students performed self-evaluation of the recorded OSCE; Step4: students received the teacher’s evaluation instructions. In Study1, the autonomous motivation of 37 students was measured before and after the lectures; the results were analyzed quantitatively. For lower self-determination students, the RAI (i.e., index of autonomous motivation) increased marginally, and identified regulation increased significantly. Thus, the lectures facilitated internalization of autonomous motivation marginally and identified regulation significantly. In Study2, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 4 students; the results were analyzed qualitatively using SCAT (i.e., qualitative analyses for small-scale data). Three factors were identified as having an effect on the facilitation of identified regulation: (1) presenting the easy-to-read rubric conceived by students; (2) self-evaluation observing own skills video; and (3) the teacher’s evaluation instruction after self-evaluation.

In self-directed language learning, it could be considered more effective for learners to design and carry out a learning plan that matches their individual needs. This study was conducted in a course at a Japanese college, aimed at examining the impact of instruction of learning design and its effects on learners’ planning and learning performance. The results showed that (1) the instruction of learning design helped learners create learning plans matching their needs, and their vocabulary sizes increased between the pre- and post-tests accordingly, and (2) learning plans matching learners’ preferences and learning environment raised the completion percentage of the plans while plans matching learners’ preferences promoted learners’ self-evaluation of their performance and achievement. The results suggested significance of instruction of learning design focusing on individual learners’ needs, especially learners’ preferences.

Night high school is a place for learning for different students, especially those who struggle in basic mathematics. For the purpose of using active learning for night high school students, we employed Flipped Classroom in mathematics at night high school. Initially, many students did not watch the videos before class, and those who did, did not understand them. In other words, it did not solve the problem. However, students facing difficulty in learning due to transformation of the learning style found it easier to study and used the videos to learn interactively; also, students who would not revise began to use the videos for revision. Therefore, the analysis of our test revealed that students scoring poorly in basic mathematics tests increased their scores, and Flipped Classroom made it easier for them to study. They acquired the same level of learning as from a lecture-type class; all this also shows that achieving a successful effect depends on the student.

We analyzed the research trend of Instructional Design (ID) in Japan. We identified 72 papers in the field of educational technology for the past 16 years, and the number of papers has changed very little over the last 10 years. As many as 85% of papers were concerning educational practice, and particularly the improvement of educational practice and the creation of the learning environment. Our findings suggest that connections between fundamental researches and practical researches are tenuous, and ID implementations in a phase of design were infrequent.

Recently, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have gained global attention and have spread rapidly as a new format for delivering global online education. However, previous research has indicated that more appropriate support for learners is required to sustain motivation and learning retention. In this article, the researchers reviewed previous studies and synthesized the findings regarding the fundamental models and theoretical frameworks for introducing gamification components into their MOOC course design. Although there are studies that incorporate gamification on a trial basis as part of their course design, as well as efforts to organize the actual design framework, we identified that the implementation of gamification elements are limited to those that are relatively easy to incorporate in educational settings such as points and badges.