Instructional Technology/Design

Design is the process by which the Analysis of your instructional project is designed prior to the development phase. Simply, it is the "blueprint" of your instructional construction project. The Design phase utilizes the Analysis phase objectives in order to plan a course outline that includes and instructional strategy and course flow of the learning intervention (the actual instructional training).

Before the Design phase begins, the Instructional designer should know, from the analysis phase (Learner Analysis), what the students/learners already know in order to gauge the level of learning that the instruction will take.

The following design phase steps compose the categories of the Design phase process:

1. Evaluate and Sequence Learning objectives

2. Develop an Instructional Strategy

3. Determine Assessment Strategy

4. Instructional Strategy

5. The Design Document

Step 1: Evaluate and Sequence Learning Objectives

From the analysis phase of the ADDIE process, you determined the objectives required for the student/learner to complete the training required. These objectives may have similar topics, such as "Define the Wikipedia document”, Analyze the Wikipedia document" and so on. All of the objectives that involve the topic "Wikipedia" could, in most cases, be grouped together to form, depending on the complexity and structure of your project, a hierarchy of learning. For instance, a typical hierarchy may start (from High to low):

Block

Module

Lesson

Activity

Note: various names and hierarchies do exist and can be substituted.

Step 2: Develop an Instructional Strategy

There are many different ways to organize and structure your topics. Linear learning is a popular method of grouping your objectives from General to specific in complexity. You don’t want to show the student how to drive a car without first teaching them the controls and difficulties involved in driving. Other methods, depending on the type of instruction, especially technical training, involve a step-by-step approach, be where the student is taught the steps of a process, procedure or activity and then assessed on their ability to perform that task.

There are many methods for instructors/trainers to deliver the training to the student/learners. Typical methods include, lecture, group discussions, scenarios and practice. This all depends on the type of training required. The Instructional designers collaborate with the subject matter experts and instructors to find the best methods for presenting and assessing the objectives.

Step 3: Determine Assessment Strategy

The Assessment strategy is simply how the student will be assessed on the training they have been required to accomplish. This will involve either knowledge-based exams (paper or online testing), Online adaptive testing methods whereby the assessment process evaluates the difficulty of the next question based on the answer of the current question., or a practical exam whereby a student will perform a task and be evaluated based on a structured performance-based test or checklist.

Step 4: Instructional Strategy

The instructional delivery interface is most of the instructional strategy. In today's world on computer technology, there are endless means of instructional delivery options. Simple briefings using PowerPoint slides, Web-based instruction using browser interfaces, distributed learning, to virtual world environments where discovery is the training tool; are all options of the instructional designer for instructional delivery.

The important factor to consider is the cost effectiveness and keeping the learner's needs in mind when developing material. An extreme case would be utilizing hundreds of hours of development for a small briefing on how to change the oil in your car, when a simple briefing, some graphics and a performance test would suffice in adequate training.

Step 5: The Design Document

As a contractor requires a blueprint in order to acquire labor and materials for construction of a house, the Instructional designer utilizes the Design document to "blueprint the instructional projects that they develop. This document is important for many reasons:

1. It outlines the aforementioned specifics listed above

2. It outlines the way or, approach that the project will take to the development. This is important as the approach may take different directions from project to project, or even within a project, depending on resource allocations during the project, or unforeseen contingencies that occur during the development phase.

3. A Quality Assurance mechanism. This document serves as the policy for the project. Anytime during the project development, the Instructional designer can reflect on the design document to ensure that the development of the project is staying with the original design parameters.

4. This document also serves as proposal to the customer to present a valid design plan that will assure them that their requirements will come to fruition based on the sound design processes. It also provides them a vehicle for feedback and gives another set of eyes to the overall project design.

5. This document provides a blueprint for other teammembers to work from. As construction workers work from the same set of plans, Instructional development teams work off the same project design document.