Introduction to Instructional Design

This chapter contains a brief overview of what instructional designers do. At this point in time, you may be unfamiliar with some of the terminology used. Take a moment to write down any terms you do not understand. As you work through the process of learning instructional design, you can check off the unfamiliar terms as you learn more about them.

Learning objectives

In this module, you will learn about:

  • How instructional designers describe instructional design
  • The instructional design model ADDIE
  • The purpose of Instructional Design Documents
  • Other instructional design models
  • What instructional designers do

How do you describe instructional design?

One of the questions I often ask on the podcast Demystifying Instructional Design is, how do you describe instructional design? Those interviewed responded:

The way I’ve described what instructional design to neighbors is that it’s really working with a subject matter expert or a faculty member to achieve their teaching goals that using the backgrounds that I have in learning and in design of learning, I want to help them achieve what they’re trying to do. ~ Karin Bellnier

I try to describe it as simply as possible and say I create training products, training or training experiences for people at the airport for all airport employees to help improve their performance or for compliance purposes and all kinds of stuff. ~ Darlesa Cahoon

You talk with professors and faculty who are often new to online learning, and you convince them that yes, you can do it and it will work out great for you. Some of them are often not used to teaching online, so they’re very frightened of it. ~ Matt Crosslin

I describe my role almost always as I work with faculty to think about teaching and learning, typically through the use of tools and those tools include everything from pen and pad up to virtual reality and my goal is to find the right balance between the pedagogy, the technology and the students. ~ Lance Eaton

What I do is I work with faculty. I coach them in a university to help them produce effective, measurable and engaging learning experiences for their students. ~ Caroline Frankel

We would partner to engineer the space, build the space, the learning experiences and set things up for good, enjoyable, engaging human learning experience. ~Terry Greene

I would describe an instructional designer as someone who solves problems using training. It’s also the design, the development and the delivery of training. ~ Arthur Harrington

I work in learning and development, help people just learn how to do their jobs and be successful in the work that they do. ~ Julie Havill

The best way I describe what instructional design is to people who have never heard of it before is to give examples of the work that I do. ~ Rob Pearson

I help faculty build online courses and use the technology to be as effective and efficient as possible. ~ Paula Thorsland

ADDIE

The acronym ADDIE with the description: Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate.

One term you will hear a lot within instructional design is ADDIE, which stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate. ADDIE is a conceptual framework that is used to help instructional designers organize their process. This book is structured around ADDIE. Although ADDIE is talked about as a linear process, in many instructional design models it is not linear, rather the design involves cycles, with each instructional design model adapting ADDIE to its specific context.

ADDIE is often referred to as an instructional design model, but it isn’t specifically a model, rather it is a generic term that is used when referring to traditional instructional systems design (ISD). From my experience, I find that all instructional design models contain each of the five elements. The models just describe the different ways in which these elements apply.

ADDIE is not linear in practice, rather it is more of an iterative process. You start with one part, but as you learn more you end up going back and updating what you did previously. This is a normal part of the process.For example, when you start to design your learning objectives, you may realize that you missed something in your analysis. You would then go back to your analysis and update it to align with your learning objectives. 

 
One thing to remember is that we teach ADDIE in a linear way because it gives us a structure or framework in order to teach the foundational concepts and skills involved in instructional design. When you get into the real world, you either follow existing processes or modify your processes to make them work for the specific project. 
 

The Instructional Design Document (IDD)

The primary purpose of an instructional design document (IDD) is to help you build out and create effective learning experiences. A good instructional design document contains enough information that a knowledgeable other (e.g. someone with similar knowledge of the topic and instructional design skills) can build the learning experience. The exact format of an IDD will depend on your organization. IDDs might contain different sections and levels of information based upon the length of the training experience and the delivery format.

As we explore the different phases of the ADDIE instructional design model, we will provide examples of what an instructional design document may include for each of the phases. 

And IDD might contain the following sections:

Instructional design models

Instructional design models describe different approaches to designing and developing instruction. There are many different models, and most of what is done in practice is a hybrid of several models, depending on the needs of the organization. The instructional design models provide the designer with a clear process in how to approach designing instruction. The models are based on research and help designers ensure they are solving the right problems and that the training they create is efficient and effective.

Here is a list of different models you can explore. Notice how they each contain the ADDIE components.

What does an instructional designer do?

Stefanie Erika does an excellent job of describing the basics of what an instructional designer does in the following YouTube video:

Watch on YouTube

Explore - What do instructional designers do?

Go to your favourite job search engine and explore job descriptions for instructional designers. 

  1. What skills do instructional designers need?
  2. What job titles require instructional designers?
  3. What terms to you not understand?
  4. What questions do you have about instructional design jobs?

Rebecca J. Hogue

University of Massachusetts-Boston

I (Rebecca J. Hogue) have a professional background in instructional design and software quality assurance. I hold a Master of Arts Degree in Distributed Learning (Distance Education), and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science. I am passionate about teaching instructional designers. I teach (online) instructional design at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. I host a podcast called Demystifying Instructional Design where I interview instructional designers about what they do. I recently self-published a memoir called "Never knew I wanted to be a breast cancer survivor", which is available on Amazon.

This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

Access it online or download it at https://edtechbooks.org/demystifyingID/intro_to_ID.