Zombies, Gagne and the Nine Events of Instruction

I was planning on writing something today about the Nine Events of Instruction by Robert M. Gagne as it relates to instructional design. I thought it might be useful to apply these events to how one goes about defeating a zombie in various films. I am basing my zombie characterisitics primarily on the George A. Romero zombie. Modern zombies tend to be defined by Romero’s characteristics beginning with “Night of the Living Dead” and culminating in his film “Land of the Dead.” There are certainly several different approaches to the living dead, but Romero’s seems to be the most timeless.

To begin, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction are listed below. According to Gagne, they are based upon “two sources – empirical observations of the procedures of instruction, and the information-processing model of human learning and memory

1. Gaining attention
2. Informing the learner of the objective
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning
4. Presenting the stimulus
5. Providing learning guidance
6. Eliciting the performance
7. Giving informative feedback
8. Assessing performance
9. Enhancing retention and transfer”

Gagne does point out the these events do not necessarily occur in the same order each time they are used, but some events must by definition be in this order.  Now that I have laid the groundwork for this theory, on to the zombies.

For this thought experiment, let us assume that we are trying to teach human learners how to avoid being bitten by a zombie, and when in proximity of zombies, how to defeat them. Using the Nine Events of Instruction, we can analyze how learners could be trained to survive a zombie outbreak.

1. Gaining attention – First, some device for showing the learners the value of this new knowledge might be appropriate. For example, showing learners the zombie hordes trying to break through the wooden boards of the house might be a good start to motivate them
2. Informing the learner of the objective – At this point, the instructor has the attention of the learners. A group discussion should occur outlining the objective which should be fairly direct and not convoluted. For example, a good objective in this case would be to not be bitten by a zombie. Ancillary events could occur in preventing that outcome, but the basic idea is to ensure the learner’s survival in a defined context.
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning – Each learner must have at least heard of zombies at some point. While not all learners will be familiar with zombie preventive measures, the current outbreak of zombies will no doubt have given the learners some experience or set of experiences that will support new learning.
4. Presenting the stimulus – This is the point at which it will be useful for an instructor experienced with zombie-human interaction should demonstrate some of the qualities zombies have when they attempting the ingestion of living human flesh. Several options could be implemented to show through trial and error what does NOT work in discouraging zombies from reaching their goal of biting humans. In some film evidence, zombies were chained up for experimentation. While this is a distasteful approach, it is helpful for learners to understand the realities of zombie interaction. Saying “No Zombie! No!” could be tried and thus eliminated as a successful approach. Shooting the zombie in the leg does not work, but some learners may be squeamish, so striking the zombie in some way with no result might be a better way to demonstrate. Another strategy could be the non-chained live-fire approach depending upon zombie numbers and the immediacy of the zombie incursion.
5. Providing learning guidance – Once demonstrations have reached completion, walking carefully in protected groups – preferably within an armored vehicle – would provide learners with a safe opportunity to practice the learning. Teaching weapons management and aiming strategies, such as “Aim for the head” would be useful in training learners to defeat zombies.
6. Eliciting the performance – Once demonstration and guidance have been completed, learners should be allowed to perform zombie preventive measures with supervision. This should be in a public forum so learners can receive group support and scaffolding (Vygotsky)
7. Giving informative feedback – While it is normally clear in this case whether the learner has or has not been successful, strategies have been communicated to learners. The instructor should review results and suggest changes in the learner’s approaches to zombie avoidance and/or elimination.
8. Assessing performance – After suggesting changes to the learner’s performance additional testing could be implemented. Alternatively, the prior performance could be evaluated here in terms of how effective the performance outcomes were.
9. Enhancing retention and transfer – Try to indicate to learners that they should feel free to try out these methods and pass on the information to ensure retention. Constant use of this knowledge can increase retention times and allow learners to adapt to new zombie methods.

While the Nine Events of Instruction are fairly thorough in describing learning experiences and do help with the design of instruction, the question remains whether zombie avoidance and prevention could be implemented in an Online Course environment. I would argue that the media available for instruction would indicate a positive answer, but more on that later.