Guiding Learners Through Technology-Based Instruction: The Effects of Adaptive Guidance Design and Individual Differences on Learning Over Time

Adaptive guidance is an instructional intervention that helps learners to make use of the control inherent in technology-based instruction. The present research investigated the interactive effects of guidance design (i.e., framing of guidance information) and individual differences (i.e., pretraining motivation and ability) on learning basic and strategic task skills over time. One hundred thirty participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 types of adaptive guidance (autonomy supportive, controlling) or a no-guidance condition while learning to perform a complex simulation task over 9 consecutive trials. Results indicated that participants receiving controlling guidance acquired strategic task skills at a faster rate than participants receiving autonomy-supportive guidance or no guidance. The design of adaptive guidance also moderated the effects of pretraining motivation and cognitive ability on learners' acquisition of basic and strategic task skills. Specifically, autonomy-supportive guidance enhanced the positive effects of pretraining motivation on the acquisition of basic task skills, and controlling guidance enhanced the positive effects of cognitive ability on the acquisition of strategic task skills. Implications for research and practice are discussed.