Merging the Instructional Design Process with Learner-Centered Theory

The Holistic 4D Model

Charles M. Reigeluth, Yunjo An

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780815360797
• eBook ISBN: 9781351117524
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

Merging the Instructional Design Process with Learner-Centered Theory brings together the innovations of two previously divided processes — learning design strategies/theories and instructional systems development — into a new introductory textbook. Using a holistic rather than fragmented approach that includes top-level, mid-level, and lower-level design, this book provides guidance for major topics such as non-instructional interventions, just-in-time analysis, rapid-prototype approaches, and learner-centered, project-based, anytime-anywhere instruction. Informed by the authors' considerable experience and leadership throughout dramatic shifts in today's learning landscape, this book offers the next generation of instructional designers a fresh perspective that synthesizes and pushes beyond the basics of design and development.

1 Instructional Design

Overview

What Is Instructional Design?

Instructional design (ID) is a deliberate and orderly, but flexible, process for planning, analyzing, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating instruction in education or training settings, formal and informal.

Design and development are confusing terms because they have both a macro and a micro sense. As we just stated, the ID process involves activities that are called design and development, among others. But the ID process also needs a name, and unfortunately it is called the instructional development process by some people and the instructional design process by others. So, “design” and “development” are terms that can refer to the whole process (a macro meaning) or to one kind of activity within the process (a micro meaning). The context will (or should) indicate the correct meaning.

To further complicate matters, the whole process is referred to by some people as instructional design and by others as instructional development or, alternatively, instructional systems design or instructional systems development (ISD). Since the activity of design is what largely determines the nature of the instruction, we view it as the “key” activity of the ID process and therefore prefer to call the overall process the instructional design process, but from now on we just refer to it as the ID process.

In practice, design should always lead to development (unless the design process is just an intellectual exercise). Similarly, development of a product should always be preceded by design. And development (with subsequent evaluation) may often lead back to (re)design of some aspects of the original design. We must therefore expect design and development activities to interact, each influencing the other. But as you read through the later chapters, you will study the nature of these two activities separately: design in Chapters 5–8 and development in Chapter 9. Please keep in mind that in practice they are done interactively and recursively.

The “Why and How” of ID

A lot of knowledge has been developed about how people learn (learning science) and how best to help people learn (instructional science), as we discuss in Chapter 3. A lot has also been learned about the process for using that knowledge to create high-quality instruction – to help people learn more effectively, efficiently, and motivationally, as we discuss in Chapter 4. ID utilizes both these kinds of knowledge, and ID models and design theories offer them in the form of practical guidance for instructional designers.

Instructors often approach the design of instruction from a content perspective – that is, what to teach. In contrast, instructional designers approach the task from a problem-solving perspective that includes what to teach but pays considerable attention to how to teach it in a way that is effective, efficient, and motivational. Instruction – the process of helping others to learn something new – can sometimes be straightforward, such as demonstrating the steps of a simple procedure followed by supervised practice. But other times, when the topic is complex and the learners may be ill-prepared to understand it, deciding how best to teach it may be a complex, ill-structured problem that doesn’t have a single correct solution – there are usually many possibilities.

How can the designer find a good design from all the many possibilities? In general, there is no well-defined, or “algorithmic,” procedure that is guaranteed to lead to a good solution. Designers have to apply “heuristics” for solving their problems. A heuristic is a rule or general principle which, if applied, works most of the time, but it may sometimes fail and is often incomplete or imprecise (see Table 1.1 for examples). Therefore, heuristic problem-solving is an iterative process – it involves analysis, design, evaluation, and then (if necessary) further loops of analysis, design, and evaluation. ID is a method for solving such problems – a method for deciding how best to teach given content to given target learners under given sets of practical and contextual conditions.

Table 1.1 Examples of Heuristics

One heuristic used in solving problems with many possible solutions is to reduce the options by asking questions that may identify and eliminate inadequate or inappropriate solutions before beginning to investigate the remaining possibilities. Another heuristic often used by designers is to see if there is already a solution to a similar problem that can be adopted or adapted to the problem under analysis (with permission, as appropriate).

Instructional designers first define the problem; second determine what knowledge, skills, and attitudes need to be taught, focusing on what the learner needs to know and be able to do; and third determine the methods that will best help the learner to master that content. In training contexts, organizations often waste lots of resources by developing instruction that requires employees to spend extra hours away from the job to learn content that ends up having little or no impact on performance. Well-designed instruction makes learning more effective, efficient, and motivating, saves time and money, improves performance, and increases employee satisfaction. In education contexts, ID helps teachers better meet learners’ needs, motivate them, and accelerate their learning.

Design problems, in most contexts, usually have many possible solutions – and ID is no exception. This is what makes design exciting, challenging, and rewarding.

The “When and Where” of ID

ID can be applied in any context in which people engage in purposeful learning, formal or informal. Table 1.2 provides some general examples of ID projects in different contexts.

Table 1.2 Examples of ID Projects in Diverse Contexts

Context	Examples of ID Projects
P-12 Education	Help teachers design technology-enhanced lessons Des...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Instructional Design
• UNIT 1 Define
• UNIT 2 Design
• 4 Other Considerations for Design
• 5 Top-Level Analysis, Design, and Evaluation
• 6 Mid-Level Analysis, Design, and Evaluation
• UNIT 3 Develop
• UNIT 4 Deploy
• Afterword
• Appendix
• Index