Instructional design is relatively new to me, and what comes to mind when I think about the concept include: authoring tools, skills, curriculum, multimedia, and research. The organization and interactions among these components constitute my imagination of instructional design for the purpose of teaching and learning.
I have come to realize as a learner, that there are models, principles and best practices which ought to be considered while engaging in instructional design. I was privileged to register for the Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Program (GSTEP) in UNT, which I hope to complete this semester. Part of the components of the program reflect the key elements which informs instructional design. These include: creating engaging discussions, interacting with students, making learning relevant and fostering group activities and collaborative learning among others. Putting these components together in a design involves a systematic process where proper analysis of the instructional goal and learner needs are done. In addition, it is also important to identify a learning theory which will be used as a basis for the instructional design to be developed and implemented on a particular group of individuals. Although I have not actively engaged in instructional design, but I have had the privilege to implement a predesigned curriculum as a teacher, and also reviewed the feedback and evaluation on the design. This gives me an idea of instructional design from an instructor perspective as well as learner perspective. I would love to develop more skills, and possibly engage in a certification course in instructional design in the course of my PhD. research, and become a certified instructional designer. It is therefore difficult to talk about Learning Technologies without talking about instructional design, and particularly, technology enhanced instructional design. There has been a lot of research in recent times on this subject matter, and I would like to use this opportunity to delve deep into the best practices and processes required to effectively design and implement a curriculum.
In my opinion, distinguishing between basic and advanced instructional design depends on the complexity of the instructional needs, goals, or problem situation. According to Jonassen (1997), the solution of a problem represents the goal of the problem solver” (p. 67). As a result, the goal or problem situation is critical to the designer, and thus, influences the approach and models adopted to solve the problem. Therefore, advanced instructional design takes into consideration the initial analysis of the problem situation, which requires a robust system of problem solving. This may require developing a customized model for peculiar situations, based on the initial analysis. More important in advanced instructional design is implementing the principles of the instructional design in a real world situation, which is followed by evaluation and fidelity of implementation studies (Spector & Alan, 2015).
On the other hand, basic instructional design requires already established models and approaches for relatively similar problem situations. A popular design approach is the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model.
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Jonassen, D. H. (1997). Instructional design models for well-structured and III-structured problem-solving learning outcomes. Educational Technology Research and Development, 45(1), 65-94.
Spector J. M & Allan, H. K (2016). Educational Technology Program and Project Evaluation. Routledge.