Introduction: The purpose of this study was to design and develop e-learning content for medical microbiology course based on Gagne’s model of instructional design and assess its impact on motivation and academic achievement among students of Aja University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental research with a pretest-posttest control group design. The population consisted of all male students of Aja University of Medical Sciences in 2015-16 academic years, of whom 60 students were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into control and experimental groups. Data were collected using a researcher-made academic achievement test and Harter’s standard questionnaire. The experimental group received e-Learning content for six 60-minute sessions and the control group received lectures. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and ANCOVA.
Results: The results of ANCOVA demonstrates that the use of Gagne's model of instructional design in designing and producing electronic and educational content based on this method is effective on academic achievement of students (p <0.01). Furthermore, the univariate analysis of variance for analyzing motivation showed an increase in academic motivation of the experimental group following the intervention (p<0.01).
Conclusion: A pivotal issue in e-learning is paying attention to structure and quality in developing educational contents according to principles of instructional design. Given the improvement of motivation and academic achievement through implementation of e-content based on Gagne’s model of instructional design, it is suggested that organizations and universities administering e-learning pay due attention to instructional design and application of scientific approaches.