As a Technical Writer and a teacher, I've observed the important role of content sequencing in designing effective instruction. Effective sequencing (combined with chunking) helps to simplify complex content, by presenting the content in incremental steps. And effective sequencing helps the content designer achieve "instructional flow", where one block of content transitions seemlessly to the next. Effective sequencing is an important contributor to quality instruction.
Over time, I developed my own thoughts on how to sequence content effectively. At the same time, I wanted to see what existing bodies of knowledge could offer on this topic. What better place to look than the field of Instructional Design? This is broad field that encompasses the entire lifecycle of the design process, from determining the need for instruction to evaluating the instruction after it has been delivered. The field is informed by many theories and models.
Doing an online search of "Instructional Design sequencing" (and related terms) returned some websites that discuss the different types of sequencing. Beyond that, there wasn't much more coverage of the topic. Maybe there isn't much more to say about sequencing that non-academics would be interested in? (I'm excluding the academic literature).
There is more to talk about. What's missing is an explanation of how to apply the sequencing methods in practice. It's similar to learning how to play a game where understanding the rules is easy, but applying the rules to win the game is not. (Think about chess). OOI provides case studies, which are examples of how multiple sequencing methods are applied at once.
The OOI website is dedicated to instructional sequencing and targeted to non-academics. In addition to the case studies, it contains a catalog of sequencing methods I found elsewhere (links to those sources are included), and additional sequencing methods I have identified. Most notably, I created problem solving sequences that can be used as an alternative to other Instructional Design theories/models (links to those included) relating to problem solving.
Enjoy! If you have comments/feedback, email me at [email protected].