William Winn

After reading Winn's article titled "Current trends in educational technology research: The study of learning environments" published in 2002, the educational psychologist Richard Mayer (2003) criticized Winn's article for dismissing controlled experiments and in this way dismissing an approach that would produce substantial evidence and enable researchers to make claims on the learning development of students. In response to Mayer's criticism, Winn confirmed that experimental research is important, and he proposed that researchers use a system that connects evidence from both experimental and non-experimental research when conducting their studies since each method produces different information. Controlled experimental research is useful for obtaining details about student learning, and non-experimental research allows the researcher to see how learning occurs in real settings.

Winn made significant contributions to the field of educational technology as evident by his extensive research in this area. The following is a list of eight suggestions provided by Winn (2002) for those researchers who are also working in this field, or for future researchers. This list provides useful information on how practitioners can reduce factors that may disrupt research findings and thus assist in improving educational technology research.

As part of his response to Mayer's criticism, Winn articulates that a good non-experimental method for researchers to use is the “design experiment” which was described by Ann Brown in 1992. Winn prefers this type of experiment particularly because it conveys many features of open ended research methods. In a design experiment, the researcher tests his or her intervention in an educational setting such as a classroom, makes modifications depending on the data collected, and conducts the intervention until it produces good results. The data collected is in form of observations, results from tests, or any form of work that will show that the student has learned what is expected. Compared to a controlled experiment in which many variables are controlled, in the design experiment, modifications are made over time. Winn explained that a key difference between the two types of experiments is that “the controlled experiment adapts the setting to suit the intervention through experimental control, whereas the design experiment adapts the intervention to suit the setting through iteration”. Although Winn is in favor of design experiments he does note one of its weaknesses. This type of non-experimental research involves more time and skill than implementing experimental research. However, it can yield crucial evidence about the success of interventions and how students learn.

Specializing first in French and German languages and comparative literature, Winn earned a BA and MA from Oxford University and an MA from Indiana University. He earned a PhD from Indiana University (1972) in Instructional Systems Technology (minor educational psychology) for research on instructional message design. His doctoral dissertation was on the Similarity of Hierarchically Organized Pairs of Pictures and Words as Reported by Field-Dependent and Field-Independent High-School Seniors.

In 1972 Winn started his academic career as assistant professor in the Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, at the Université de Sherbrooke. From 1974 to 1985, he was the academic coordinator of the Learning Technology Unit at the University of Calgary. Eventually, Winn was appointed professor at the University of Washington College of Education where he held appointments in curriculum and instruction, and cognitive studies. He was also director of the Learning Center at the Human Interface Technology Lab (HITLab), and adjunct professor in the College of Engineering, and the Music department.

William David "Bill" Winn (1945–2006) was an American educational psychologist, and professor at the University of Washington College of Education, known for his work on how people learn from diagrams, and on how cognitive and constructivist theories of learning can help instructional designers select effective teaching strategies.