Anchored in Instructional Design: An Educator's Point of View on Good Instructional Design

 Before I became intentional about creating instructional design experiences, I would have told you that good instructional design includes engagement, collaboration, and relevance. Although I believe those ideas still ring true, these are somewhat loaded terms when it comes to considering all that goes into an effective instructional design experience. In this blog post, I hope to share my own beliefs about good instructional design, as well as share my experience with designing instruction. 

What is "Good" Instructional Design?

(Devlin Peck, 2023)

In reading and practicing instructional design habits, I never considered what would actually be identified as "bad" instructional design. If you asked me to give examples of bad instructional design before learning about it in detail, I would have told you that bad design lacks engagement and relevance. In knowing what I know now about instructional design, I can confidently say that the cause goes much deeper. According to Lachheb and Boling (2024), design failure happens during the design process. While creating the instructional design, a flaw is present in one or more of the processes. Here are a few things I have considered when practicing good instructional design. 

Know Your Audience

Good instructional design is the "secret ingredient" that turns a regular lesson into an engaging and effective learning experience. At its heart, effective design is rooted in understanding how people think and learn. Instructional designers can craft lessons that align with our brain’s natural learning processes. According to Brown and Green (2024), instructional designers should be able to identify different types of learning to design effective learning experiences. Instructional design isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it involves a deep dive into the learners’ backgrounds, prior knowledge, and learning preferences. This approach ensures that instruction is relevant to the learners. 

Understand Goals vs. Objectives 

Good instructional designers can differentiate between goals and objectives. As Brown and Green (2024) note, goals set the intention of instruction while objectives set the outcome of instruction. When designing instruction, it's important to describe what learners are expected to do after instruction. This might involve applying new skills in real-world scenarios or demonstrating specific competencies. 

Be Organized 

Organizing content into a curriculum with a clear scope and sequence is important to good instructional design. This involves structuring material in a logical progression that builds on previous knowledge and gradually increases in complexity. Creating a learner-centered environment focused on knowledge, assessment, and community, fosters a positive learning experience. According to Brown and Green (2024), when instructional designers have good organization, they have a clear understanding of "organization, scope and sequence, instructional events, types of learning experiences, and methods of delivery" (p. 131).

Follow Up

Evaluation is an important instructional design practice because it’s where you find out if your carefully crafted lessons are actually working. Brown and Green (2024) discuss the importance of considering assessment and measurement during the evaluation process, emphasizing that it’s not just about checking if learners are passing tests. It’s about understanding how well the audience is grasping the material and whether the instruction is hitting its goals. By incorporating thoughtful assessments and measurements, you get valuable feedback that helps you revise and improve your approach, ensuring that learners get the best possible experience and outcomes.


My Instructional Design Experience



In an Instructional Design graduate course, I was tasked with designing a training for my current school or district. I jumped at the opportunity to craft a design experience around the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) since it is a hot topic in my school district. I designed a training focused on using an AI platform in the K-3 setting. What surprised me was the level of planning that it took to design the training. I was asked to consider my audience and their needs and define who would be involved in the development process. I also had to consider things such as budget, scheduling, and evaluation. Designing this training was not as simple as putting a slideshow together. I was encouraged to think deeply about how to use good instructional design practices when preparing for this training. In the coming months, I will implement the training at my school. Stay tuned to hear the outcome of the training. 


What Have I Learned?

Good instructional design involves crafting learning experiences based on an understanding of how people learn and should be structured to promote meaningful and measurable outcomes. When designed well, it can enhance the effectiveness of instructional experiences and make a difference in learner achievement. To avoid design failure, instructional designers must be able to "properly and completely treat modes of failure" (Lachheb and Boling, 2024) (p.690). This means taking every element of instructional design into consideration and incorporating each effectively.

References


Lachheb, A. & Boling, E. (2024). How do they define design failure? An investigation of design failure in instructional design practice from the practitioners’ perspective. Educational Technology Research and Development, 72(2), 687–725. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1007/s11423-023-10329-7


Brown, A., & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice. Fifth Edition. New York: Routledge.

Devlin Peck. (2023, 15, February). Instructional design best practices. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rl9HmAm8xgs


Comments

  1. Laura BrownAugust 1, 2024 at 4:37 PM

    Tanishia,

    I really enjoyed your synopsis of good instructional design. I especially agreed with your position on knowing your audience and letting good instructional design promote meaningful learning experiences. Boukhechba and Cherif (2023) stated, "Instructional design theories assure the probability of attaining objectives by aligning the appropriate methods with situations." (p. 264). This goes along with your point about knowing your audience. You have to tailor your instructional design to the specific learners you are trying to reach. Brown and Green (2024) go further by saying, "Despite the challenges inherent in understanding thinking and the thinking process, having knowledge about how people process, store, and retrieve information - in other words, think - is crucial for an instructional designer." (p. 27). A teacher must understand how the students in their class learn and think in order to create instructional design that will benefit them and motivate them to learn.

    References

    Boukhechba, H. & Cherif, D. (2023). Adapting instructional design principles to integrate technology into EFL classrooms: Third year middle school class as a case study. Afak for Sciences Journal 8(2). 262-280. https://www.asjp.cerist.dz/en/article/216422

    Brown, A. & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (5th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003404835

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Digital EducatorAugust 2, 2024 at 12:38 PM

    Tanishia,

    Great job summarizing the components of good instructional design. You’re right–I had never really thought about what makes bad instructional design “bad.” When I think about professional development training that wasn't enjoyable, the two things that come to mind are the trainer not being prepared and the presentation being boring. The first reason could be a lack of practice or experience, but the second is definitely due to a lack of instructional design. Creativity is a big component when it comes to choosing the right activities, etc. for a training session (Thornhill-Miller, et al., 2023), and as Brown and Green remind us, “it is the instructional designer’s job to identify those activities that will work best based on the learners’ needs and instruction’s goals and objectives.” (2024, p. 143)

    References

    Brown, A., & Green, T. (2024). The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice. Fifth Edition. New York: Routledge.

    Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F., Finesse, C., Sundquist, D., & Lubart, T. (2023). Creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration: Assessment, certification, and promotion of 21st century skills for the future of work and education. Journal of Intelligence 11(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meredith BarkerAugust 2, 2024 at 1:18 PM

    I agree with you; knowing your audience when planning and teaching is essential. Researcher Ayutthaya et al. (2023) state, "scaffolding and progressing learner autonomy are linked to developing learner capabilities and enhancing their perceived value in attaining greater autonomy" (para. 1). He goes on to conclude that as a student's autonomy increases, their capabilities for accomplishing challenging tasks increase (Ayutthaya et al., 2023, para. 1). To be able to scaffold student learning, we must know our students. Brown and Green (2024) state, "to appropriately prepare instruction requires consideration of the learners' prior knowledge, abilities, point of view, and perceived needs" (p. 84). I am excited to start getting to know my students next week and designing instruction with scaffolds to meet all students' needs.


    References:

    Ayutthaya, D. H. N., Koomsap, P., & De Paor, C. (2023). Knowing your learners to scaffolding their autonomy: the perspective of learner capability and perception. In Advances in transdisciplinary engineering. https://doi.org/10.3233/atde230667\

    Brown, A. & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (5th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003404835

    ReplyDelete

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