DESIGN
What is Instructional Design?
Instructional design is the systematic approach to designing, developing and delivering instructional materials. It is a set of procedures used to create a lesson or a training in order to build knowledge and/or skills. The instructional design process can be used to create a training in any field. For myself, as a high school teacher that means creating lesson plans, modules, curriculum, professional development trainings and so on.
Instructional Design Models
ADDIE
Analysis: Before development, a quality analysis needs to be conducted to find gaps and needs into the situation the instructional design is aimed for. The analysis phase identifies learning goals and objectives of the development.
Design: With the results of your analysis, the design phase narrows the focus of the learning experience to specific essentials such as objectives, structure, technology necessary, knowledge and skills of participants and so on. This phase is often the most time intensive.
Development: Content now decided in the design phase, development is when you begin creating your end product. This means creating anything that has to do with that end product such as tech development, training materials, development of activities, etc. Testing and review are a major part of the development phase.
Implementation: This phase takes the developed training and delivers it to the targeted audience. Beta testing to iron out wrinkles can occur in this phase.
Evaluate: The evaluation phase requires gathering feedback and results from the training to determine the effectiveness throughout the training. With ADDIE being a cyclical model, you can take the results of the evaluation phase back to the analysis phase to revise and refine your product.
SAM - Successive Approximation Model
Preparation Phase
The preparation phase of involves the swift collection of information and learning goals for the development at hand. This phase involves all of the stakeholders and is meant to be a very quick phase as all proposals will be re-checked through the SAM process.
Iterative Design Phase
This phase begins with a brainstorming event called the Savvy Start where key stakeholders create the foundation of their end product and work for consensus on the overall approach. Throughout the Savvy Start and Iterative Phase, there is a cycle through designing, prototyping and reviewing where each time you refine your end product. For smaller projects, the design and development phase can be combined here.
Iterative Development Phase
For larger and more in depth projects, the iterative design can continue into the development phase. Here the design proof goes through a cycle of developing, implementing and evaluating through Alpha and Beta versions. When the final prototype has no problems found, it becomes the Gold prototype and is ready for rollout.
ARCS
Developed by John M. Keller, ARCS is a model of instructional design that breaks down learner motivation to four components.
Attention: Educators should first capture the learners attention by relating the material to something they connect to.
Relevance: Here then, the lesson needs to be made applicable and valuable to the learner. Learners get motivated the more they see content is applicable to their lives.
Confidence: Next, educators need to build a likelihood of success in learners. By providing expectations and allowing small steps in growth, learners can gain this confidence.
Satisfaction: Whether through achievement, praise, entertainment...the learner must feel the learning is rewarding. By providing feedback and reinforcement learners can appreciate their results and continue to be motivated to learn.
ETEC 541: E-Learning Design and Development
What I Learned
Spring of 2020 was when I was enrolled in E-Learning Design and Development. That was when the COVID pandemic began and all schools in the area were shut down. My own high school did not begin its own distance learning for almost a month after we shut down on Friday, March 13th. Everything that I was learning in 541 was immediately relevant and applicable in my planning and teaching then and now.
The focus of this course was on developing instructional materials for online learning. One of the first things I learned was the difference between distance learning and online learning. Online learning, which is using electronic technologies to create learning experiences, can happen in the physical space where the educator can facilitate and the students can collaborate. When distance learning, students are learning and working away from campus while the educator assigns work and checks in digitally.
With online learning, three learner interactions need to be present to have an effective learning environment. They are, 1) learner-content, 2) learner-educator, and 3) learner-learner interactions. Students have to interact with online materials and resources. The teacher has to interact with the students by providing feedback, motivation and support through the application of new learning. Finally, students need to interact with each other to create community and a feeling of belonging as well as being able to adjust their understanding through the sharing of ideas on the learning. I realized that my learner-learner interactions were quite lacking in my distance learning and was quickly working to try to remedy that.
For our course project we used the 11 step online design process that is outlined in our project analysis linked below. It was an all encompassing design strategy that developed an effective module that included all three learner interactions.
Application
For our course project, my partner and I designed an online unit of study focusing on the surface area and volume of solids for my Geometry class. A big focus for us was making sure we included all three learner interactions, specifically for me, learner-learner interactions. Technology that I used to deliver my content included Google Classroom, YouTube, EdPuzzle, an online textbook, and others. Technology that I used to have my students interact with me as well as each other included Flipgrid, Zoom (and it's breakout rooms), and the discussion thread in Classroom.
ETEC 544: Design and Development of Instructional Materials I
What I Learned
ETEC 544 was my first deep dive into using the ADDIE model for instructional design detailed at the top of this page. In fact, it was my first experience with any formal instructional design. I found out just how all encompassing and detailed the ADDIE model is and how it can be used to great effect in the proper learning environment. I also did learn how time consuming the process could be and how it might not be the most viable instructional design model for the majority of my work during the high school year. I would definitely consider the ADDIE model, though, if I was charged with developing a professional development opportunity for my colleagues or planning a brand new curriculum to our school.
Although the major focus of the course was developing instructional materials using the ADDIE model, the ARCS model was presented during this course. It was here that I found out what I have been trying to do in my own classroom...to motivate the learning in my students, had a systematic approach. Also the long thought to be true notion of "learning styles" turns out to be a myth through much study and many articles written about the topic. In doing the reading, it makes sense. We do not learn in a specific way. Humans acquire and process knowledge in a variety of ways. We might have a preference in how information is received...whether visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic…learning can and will happen despite your preference.
Application
For our course project, my partner and I designed and developed an instructional module teaching high school students basic trigonometric ratios. I actually began implementing this module, initially designed as online learning in the classroom with collaborative structures in place, on March 10 of 2020. Due to the COVID pandemic, schools were closed after that Friday the 13th. I had to rework the module through the ADDIE process to be implemented on April 2nd through strictly distance learning.
ETEC 644: Design and Development of Instructional Materials II
What I Learned
ETEC 644 delved into the Dick and Carey model for instructional design. The Dick and Carey model is somewhat similar to the ADDIE model of instructional design, but while the ADDIE model is linear in execution, the components of the Dick and Carey are executed both iteratively and in tandem with each other. This iterative process was key to my course project as I explain below.
I was exposed to Merrill's First Principles of Instruction in ETEC 644. Dr. Merrill states, "A learner's experience should center around solving problems and should involve four phases." Those four phases are, 1) Activation, 2) Demonstration, 3) Application and, 4) Integration. It is similar to the ARCS model I described above in that it is a design to promote learning and motivation. I also learned about Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory which refers to the used amount of working resources in your memory. I applied the theory when I designed and recorded my instructional videos for my course project. Instead of producing one large 20 to 25 minutes instructional video, I broke it up into three smaller videos of 7 minutes in length or less.
Application
For this course project, I designed a complete distance learning module focusing on the volumes of prisms and cylinders for my high school Geometry classes. At the start of the course, the focus of my design was to incorporate all three learner interactions heavily within the module. My professor recommended that I narrow my focus on perhaps just one of the interactions and excel within it. I took her advice for a short time then felt it would not be enough material for a proper grade on my project. So I reverted back to incorporating all three learner interactions heavily in my module. Here is where the iterative process of the Dick and Carey model showed it's advantages when it came to this project. In hindsight though, I should have stuck with her advice as the amount of work I put on myself was overwhelming to the point I didn't think I could finish in time.