The effect of instructional design based on minimalism theory on learning and retention of students in higher education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the minimalism theory on learning and retention of learners in IT courses. Minimalist Theory consists of a basic framework that combines self-directed learning activities with technology, which emphasizes the importance of the real activities and experiences of learning. This theory supports the rapid achievement of real and practical goals at the beginning of education and emphasizes the importance of designing for identifying and correcting learning errors as a training principle. The research method was quasi-experimental with the control group. The participants included 40 undergraduate students in psychology who studied at the Allameh Tabataba'i University School of Psychology and Education in the academic year of 2017-18. Experimental and control group was selected from among the students in psychology. The experimental group trained on the basis of the minimalism theory, and the control group was trained in a traditional way. The pre-test and post-test was designed by the researcher. The reliability of each test was 0.90 and 0.88 respectively, which is greater than 0.05. The results showed that the scores of the experimental group, which were trained by the method based on the minimalism theory, were higher than the scores in the control group that were trained in the traditional way. Therefore, a method based on a minimalism theory in computer software training leads to increased learning and retention of learners.