What is instructional design?

Instructional design is the practice of arranging media and content to help learners and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively. The process consists of broadly determining the current state of the learner understanding, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some media-based "intervention" to assist in the transition.

History of Instructional Design

As a field instructional design is historically rooted in cognitive and behavioral psychology. Much of the foundation of instructional design was laid in World War II, when the United States military faced the need to train large numbers of people to perform complex technical tasks such as navigating across the ocean or constructing a bomber. Drawing on the research and theories of B.F. Skinner on conditioning, and training, tasks were broken into subtasks and each subtask treated as a separate learning goal. Training was designed to reward correct performance and remediate incorrect performance. Mastery was assumed to be possible for every learner, given enough repetition and feedback. After the war, the success of the wartime training model was replicated in business, industrial training and to a lesser extent in the primary and secondary classroom.

In 1955 Benjamin Bloom published influential research of what he termed the three domains of learning: cognitive (what we know or think), psychomotor (what we do, physically), and affective (what we feel, or attitudes we have). During the latter half of the 20th century, learning theories began to be influenced by the growth of computers. In the 1970s, many instructional design theorists began to adopt an "information-processing" approach to the design of instruction. Later in the 1980's and 1990's cognitive load theory began to find empirical support for a variety of presentation techniques.

Cognitive load theory developed out several studies of learners as they interacted with instructional materials. Sweller and his associates began to measure the effects of working memory load and found that the format of instructional materials has a direct effect on the performance of the learners using those materials. In the past decade, cognitive load theory has begun to be internationally accepted and revolutionize how instructional designers view instruction.

Criticism

A criticism of instructional design is that learning is an outcome. Instructional design focuses on outcomes, while properly accounting for a multi-variable context that can be predictive, researchers acknowledge that given the variabilities of human capacities a guarantee of reliable learning outcomes is improbable. For example automobile engineers may design an automobile that under specific conditions may achieve 50 miles per gallon. The engineers cannot guarantee that the drivers of the automobile they designed will operate these vehicles according to the specific conditions prescribed.

youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-GpKSN36Eg

Phases in designing an instructional design project

Usability Testing

Different methods of usability testing (adapted from "Usability Assessment Methods beyond Testing"

Instructional Design Models

ADDIE Model

 

Perhaps the most common model for creating instructional material is the ADDIE model. This acronym stands for the 5 phases contained in the model

 

A - Analyze - analyze learner characteristics, tasks to be learned

D - Design - develop learning objectives, choose an instructional approach

D - Develop - create instructional or training materials

I - Implement - deliver or distribute the instructional materials

**E - ****Evaluate - make sure the materials achieved the desired goals 4C-ID Model (Jeroen van Merriënboer) Algo-Heuristic Theory (Lev Landa) ADDIE ModelARCS (John Keller) Criterion Referenced Instruction (Robert Mager) Dick and CareyInstructional Systems Design ISDOrganizational Elements Model (OEM) (Roger Kaufman) Objective TaxonomiesCognitive Domain (Benjamin Bloom) Affective Domain (David Krathwohl) Psycho-motor Domain (Elizabeth Jane Simpson)

 

 

Modern Models (Behaviorist, Cognitivist, Prescriptive Models)

 

 

 

 

Behaviorism

 

• Ivan Pavlov

 

• Edward Thorndike

 

• John Watson

 

• B. F. Skinner

 

 

Cognitivism

 

• Advanced Organizers (David Ausubel)

 

• Cone of Experience (Edgar Dale)

 

• Information Processing

 

• Dual Coding Theory (Allan Paivio)

 

• Concept Mapping (Joseph Novak)

 

 

Web-Based Instructional Design Model (WBI)