What does an Instructional Designer do

The Discipline of Instructional Design

People have been instructing each other since people have existed. Showing an infant how to speak; explaining to an apprentice how an axe head is forged; guiding a daughter’s hands as she attempts to make a clay pot—humans have been teaching each other for a long time.

Instruction can be a casual event. It can be as simple as answering a question such as, “How did you do that?” Instruction can also be carefully planned. It can encompass a course of study that concludes with students receiving a diploma or certificate marking the achievement. It is the history and current state of instruction brought about through careful planning— the discipline of instructional design—that we will examine in this chapter.

Guiding Questions

What is an instructional designer? How did the discipline of instructional design develop? What is an instructional design/development model? How has general systems theory affected instructional design? How does the historical and philosophical postmodern approach affect instructional design?

Key Terms ADDIE model (page 8)

behavioristic (page 15) educational psychology (page 5) general systems theory (page 4) positivistic (page 17) postmodernism (page 17) rapid prototyping (page 19)

Chapter Overview Taking a logical and structured approach to the process of developing, delivering, and evaluating instruction and instructional materials has been popular among scholars and practitioners for over a century. Several models have been developed to help explain the processes of instruction as well as the process of designing and developing materials for instruction. This chapter provides an overview of instructional design from its beginnings in the late 19th century, through its blossoming in conjunction with the development of general systems theory, up to a present-day postmodern look at how instructional design (ID) continues to develop. This chapter also describes the essential processes of instructional design as they are articulated through traditional ID models and examines the potential of nontraditional models, describing rapid prototyping in particular as an innovative ID approach.

A Historian’s View of Instructional Design

No particular event or date marks the beginning of a modern science and technology of instruction. Yet it is clear that at the beginning of the 20th century there occurred a series of related events that together might be interpreted as the beginning of a science of instruction.

William James (1842–1910), for example, in his book, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, makes one of the first distinctions between the art and the science of teaching, calling for a scientific approach to instruction. Similarly, also in 1901, John Dewey (1859–1952) interpreted a method of empirical science in educational terms, viewing the classroom as an experimental laboratory. In 1902, Edward Thorndike (1874–1949) offered the first course in educational measurements at Columbia University and became the first to apply the methods of quantitative research to instructional problems. G. Stanley Hall (1846–1924) published his Adolescence (1904), a landmark in the scientific study of the child. The French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and Théodore Simon, his collaborator, published A Method of Measuring the Intelligence of Young Children (1905). Moreover, a true science of behavior, and especially of learning theory, began to emerge, no longer based primarily on metaphysical or philosophical speculation. This new science and learning theory would eventually be applied to a technology of instruction.

Paul Saettler The Evolution of American Educational Technology (1990, p. 53)

What is Instructional Design? The ritual dance around the fire at the front of the cave depicting the hunting and killing of a large animal may be one of mankind’s earliest forms of designed instruction. The hunters of the group had to find ways to teach other potential hunters the process of stalking and bringing down a large animal. Creating a dramatic display that described the procedures for the hunt in a ritualized fashion captured the group’s attention and provided them with a stylized presentation of how hunting worked. This type of instructional design—based on inspiration and creativity—remained prevalent for millennia. However, the science of instructional design is relatively new.

Throughout history, a number of individuals gave careful thought to the design of instruction. For example, the scholar Comenius (1592–1671) was among the first to plan for the use of visual aids in teaching. Comenius’s Orbis sensualum pictus (The Visible World Pictured) was the first illustrated textbook designed for children’s use in an instructional setting (Heinich, Molenda, Russell, & Smaldino, 1996). Until the late 1800s, however, there was no organization that gathered this kind of work together, offered like-minded individuals a forum for discussion on the topic, or sought to continue its development.

At the beginning of the 20th century, John Dewey—one of our most influential educators—called for a linking science between what is known about how people learn and the practice of delivering instruction (Dewey, 1900). At the time, this was a radical thought. Before the mid-1800s, there was no educational science with which to link.

There had been no organization devoted to the study of how people learn or how to study methods of delivering instruction. Although there had been scattered attempts to improve instruction throughout history, no specific discipline had emerged to guide these efforts. Education-oriented organizations existed to protect and direct the curriculum and content of the instruction, but very little attention was paid to how instruction might be made more effective. The psychology of education—how the

learner learned—was a school of thought in search of an organizing body. With the formation of the American Psychological Association in 1892, the discipline of educational psychology began.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, education was still very much the province of those with religious backgrounds and training (Berliner, 1993). It is important to keep in mind that teachers were originally members of the clergy and that, prior to World War I, one of the main purposes of education in the United States was to ensure that people could read passages from the Bible. It was not easy to convince those who believed education to be a moral and philosophical endeavor that scientific methods might be employed to improve educational processes. With the establishment of the discipline of educational psychology, however, educators interested in improving instructional practice through scientific means found both a home organization and like-minded fellows to report to and hear from.

With the formation of the land-grant universities in the late 1800s (each state was entitled by the federal government to form its own university within the state’s borders) and the subsequent need to determine what constituted college readiness on the part of an individual, educational psychologists were called on to develop valid and reliable tests and measures of academic achievement. For example, the Scholastic Achievement Test (or SAT, now known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test) was first offered in 1901 and is to some extent an indicator of a trend toward the scientific testing of the learner to determine the appropriate next course of action in his or her education.

By 1915, the application of scientific methods to the solution of educational problems had won out among the leaders in American education, setting the stage for the development of Dewey’s linking science, which scholars such as Snellbecker (1974) suggest is the discipline of instructional design. Educators began to develop an experimental view of instruction. Along with testing students to see what they knew, the newly organized discipline of educational psychology devised tests for the purpose of discovering whether the instruction worked. The traditional approach had been for an educator to focus completely on the information that should be included in the lesson; instructional design demanded that the educator add to that some consideration for how the information was to be organized and presented based on what is known about the learners and their abilities.

As the century progressed and more scholars focused their attention on the science of designing instruction, educational psychology blossomed into university departments and international organizations that reported and discussed research in the field. The discipline of instructional design is directly descended from educational psychology. In the 1950s, the discipline was more completely articulated as part of a concerted effort to professionalize the audiovisual field. At this time the scholar Jim Finn described the modern instructional design profession as something separate from both educational psychology and audiovisual specialists (Sugar, 2014). Although some scholars argue that it is not actually a field of its own but rather a sub- activity within educational psychology, instructional design can point to its own university departments and international organizations as indicators that it is now indeed a separate and distinct discipline.

As a linking science, instructional design is a discipline that constantly looks to the findings of other disciplines (e.g., cognitive psychology, communication) to study and improve methods of developing, delivering, and evaluating instruction and instructional practices.

According to Smith and Ragan (2005, p. 4), instructional design may be currently defined as “the systematic and reflective process of translating principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials, activities, information resources, and evaluation.”

The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State University is attributed with developing a four-part definition of instructional design (University of Michigan, 2003).

Instructional Design as a Process Instructional design is the systematic development of instructional specifications using learning and instructional theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It is the entire process of analysis of learning needs and goals and the development of a delivery system to meet those needs. It includes development of instructional materials and activities, and tryout and evaluation of all instruction and learner activities.

Instructional Design as a Discipline Instructional design is that branch of knowledge concerned with research and theory about instructional strategies and the process for developing and implementing those strategies.

Instructional Design as a Science Instructional design is the science of creating detailed specifications for the development, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of situations that facilitate the learning of both large and small units of subject matter at all levels of complexity.

Instructional Design as Reality Instructional design can start at any point in the design process. Often a glimmer of an idea is developed to give the core of an instruction situation. By the time the entire process is done the designer looks back and she or he checks to see that all

parts of the “science” have been taken into account. Then the entire process is written up as if it occurred in a systematic fashion.

An instructional designer’s job is to create something that enables a person or group of people to learn about a particular topic or develop or improve a set of skills, or to encourage the learner to conduct further study. The “something” created can take many forms: a lecture, a multimedia presentation, the curriculum for a year’s study, a piece of computer software, an in- person demonstration, or a test-preparation booklet. The list is almost endless. However, everything an instructional designer creates has something in common with all other instructional designs: the designer has identified a need for instruction and decided on a method for delivering that instruction. Most instructional designs (the best ones, we would argue, and the ones that follow the precepts of the discipline as it is currently defined by its governing organizations) also have a strategy for evaluating whether the instruction produced and delivered achieved the desired effect as well as how the design might be improved.

Instructional design advocates making use of the available research on how people think, how people learn, the technologies available for communication (information technologies), and methods of analysis. An instructional design is the practical application of this knowledge to create a situation where learning is most likely to effectively occur.

As scholars and practitioners have examined the process of developing, delivering, and evaluating instruction, they have devised several models to explain the process; these models are intended to help instructional designers perform their job better. It is important to be aware of the more popular models and to be cognizant of special cases that are currently a topic of discussion within the instructional design community. It is perhaps even more important to understand the big picture of designing instruction for a particular situation in terms that go beyond the application of any one instructional design model or adherence to any one instructional design theory. Hokanson and Gibbons (2014) observe, “Design involves dealing with uncertainties, and designers must not only learn to deal with uncertainty but embrace and use uncertainty as a tool to propel optimal design solutions” (p. 11). To become a well-rounded instructional designer today, one must be able to take a broad view of the ideas and practices that define the field.

Probably the most popular approach to designing instruction is to follow some variation of what is essentially a three-step process.

1. Analyze the situation to determine what instruction is necessary and what steps need to be taken to deliver that instruction.

2. Produce and implement the instructional design. 3. Evaluate the results of implementing the instructional design.

One of the most popular descriptions of this process is ADDIE, an acronym that divides the three steps described above into five actions: analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. ADDIE is not really a specific instructional design/development model but an illustration of the conceptual components of many instructional design/development models. (See “A Special Case: ADDIE,” later in this chapter.)

Another view of the instructional design process in general is described in David Merrill’s “first principles of instruction” (2002, 2013). Merrill (2002, pp. 44–45) suggests there are five basic principles that hold true for the design of any instruction. The first principles of instruction state that learning is promoted when:

learners are engaged in solving real-world problems; existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge; new knowledge is demonstrated to the learner; new knowledge is applied by the learner; new knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world.

As practitioners of a linking science, instructional designers have become adept at examining and making use of ideas developed by a wide variety of specializations. Students of instructional design learn from other disciplines, sometimes borrowing development models created for activities that are similar to designing instruction (for example, software development, which shares the common purpose of creating something of use and usable to people). There is a tradition within the discipline of instructional design of taking a systematic approach and following accepted protocols for development. However, at this point in time (what many refer to as the postmodern world), the instructional designer may also take an eclectic approach, borrowing ideas and strategies from a variety of unconventional sources.

Models of Instructional Design/Development

Models by definition are reflections of reality—temporary stand-ins for something more specific and real. Models are helpful in explaining things that may be difficult to describe. However, it must be remembered that any model is just a shadow or

reflection of the real thing. A model may describe commonalities among a number of similar items; a model may illustrate a process; a model may be a representation of something.

A “model home” in a new housing development will not be exactly like every home, but the model serves to give the potential buyer a pretty good idea of what is available for sale. Participation in “model Congress” and “model United Nations” activities give students an opportunity to better understand how the real organizations work, even though they are not the same as participating in the actual UN or congressional meetings. Hobbyists build model trains, automobiles, and planes. These models are usually significantly smaller and do not operate in exactly the same way as the original item.

In a professional setting, good models can be helpful tools. They offer guidelines and can ensure a level of quality and uniformity by providing a means of comparison. Well-considered models of instructional design and development can perform this task, helping to explain in general the instructional design process in a way that can be applied to a number of specific situations.

Several well-established and respected models for instructional design/development provide guidelines and procedures that can be applied to a wide variety of specific situations. Using these models to design and develop instruction can help to significantly reduce costs in training and education (Nixon & Lee, 2001).

We have selected—and next describe—two of the most famous models of instructional design/development with which every instructional designer should become familiar: Dick and Carey’s systems approach model and Kemp, Morrison, and Ross’s plan. These models are intended to guide the instructional designer through the ADDIE process—analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation—which is discussed after the two models.

The Systems Approach Model for Designing Instruction

Dick and Carey’s systems approach model (see Figure 1.1) is a classic example of performing an instructional design task systematically. At the time it was developed, taking into consideration components of the instructional context—such as the learners and the environment in which the instruction was to be offered—was a significant departure from the more traditional approach of presenting information through some combination of lecture, textbook reading, review, and testing. With the traditional approach, the burden is placed squarely on the learners to do the best they can with the content, and little thought is given to adjusting or improving the instruction itself. Dick and Carey’s model was designed to emphasize the importance of examining and refining the instruction and provides guidance for making improvements. (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2015.)

Figure 1.1 Dick and Carey’s Instructional Systems Design Model

Source: Dick, Alter, Carey, Lou, Cary, James O, Systematic Design of Instruction, the loose-leaf version, 8th ed. © (2015). Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc. New York, New York.

Kemp, Morrison, and Ross’s Instructional Design Plan

The Kemp, Morrison, and Ross plan (se

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