This course will provide a foundational overview of instructional design activities. It will provide an introduction to the essential elements of instructional design, and provide an overview of the fundamental principles, processes, and practices that currently shape and define the field. Throughout this course, students will be introduced to the essential principles of instructional design. Students will learn the processes used to put these principles into practice in a variety of learning environments. Upon completion, students will understand the practical application of instructional design that transcends any single ID model or approach.
- Explore the purpose and parts of instructional design.
- Identify the ways in which people think and learn.
- Determine how to conduct a basic needs analysis for training.
- Identify evaluation methods that can be used to assess effectiveness.
- Write learning objectives to best meet the needs of the learner.
- Select and implement appropriate learning strategies based on the identified learning objectives.
- Identify the required elements for a course/training outline.
Lesson 1: Before You Begin Designing Instruction
This lesson will provide background information that you will find useful as you begin your study of instructional design. You will begin with an overview of the history, traditions, and current state of the discipline of instructional design. Then you will explore how people think and learn. This part of the lesson will introduce and review cognition and the basic cognitive functions as well as the most popular description of what learning is and how it occurs.
Lesson 2: Examining the Situation – Needs, Task, and Learner Analysis
Before you can begin to create an instructional intervention for any group of learners, you need to first thoroughly analyze the situation in order to determine the best course of action. This lesson will explore the instructional design processes that help to answer the question, What type of intervention is needed? You will be introduced to the principles, processes, and practices of needs analysis, which helps determine what kind of change the instruction should help to bring about. You will also learn how to conduct a task analysis, which is a way of understanding the content and/or tasks that will form the basis for the instruction being developed. Finally, you will be introduced to the learner analysis, which is a way of getting to know the people the instruction is for.
Lesson 3: Creating Instruction – Planning, Designing, and Implementing the Intervention
This lesson focuses on how instructional designers create instructional goals and objectives, which determine what students will actually do during the instruction. Students will be introduced to the principles, processes, and practices of organizing instruction, which helps the designer determine the scope and sequence of the activities that the learner will engage in. In addition, students will learn about the variety of learning environments and instructional activities that may be incorporated into an instructional design.
Lesson 4: Evaluation – Determining the Effect of the Intervention
This lesson will cover the principles, processes, and practices of assessment and evaluation that instructional designers use to determine learner success and the success of the instructional design process. First, students will learn about the principles, processes, and practices of evaluating learner achievement. Then, students will learn how to evaluate the success of the instructional design product and process.
Lesson 5: Media Production – Managing the Media Development Process
This lesson will provide information about media production management and visual design. This information will be useful to you for completing the production portion of an instructional design project. Students will learn the concepts of instructional media production management as well as the basic principles of visual design for instructional media.