The process of organizing, producing, and distributing information to address a particular learning need is known as instructional design. The learning objective forms the central component of the instructional design process, and we must ensure that the learner’s desired outcome aligns with this learning objective. It is the responsibility of the instructional designer to develop and present instructional materials and programs that successfully aid the learner in achieving the said objective.
Let us say you are about to start a new training project. You hire a company offering instructional design for the same, and they begin designing with the limited knowledge of your project. Do not be fooled by a disguise of expertise. You might end up paying a heavy amount of money for poor design. It’s essential, therefore, to know what an instructional designer is supposed to do and what the process will entail if you hire one for a project.
Each organization has its unique method for creating online training programs. Some businesses prefer an iterative process, while others follow a linear one. While some organizations prefer to identify specific small training segments and develop them concurrently through collaboration, others prefer to work on the complete training at once. But there are a few steps that must always be included in every Instructional Design process, regardless of the organization’s chosen strategy.
This article will discuss the instructional design process and how you can ensure you receive what you paid for.
Models of Instructional Design
An instructional design model defines the flow for developing your eLearning course. It establishes the framework to influence and guide your eLearning project’s strategies. You can find multiple instructional design models, but there are four main ones:
- Gagne’s Nine Events of Learning: This model is based on the behaviorist learning theory. The nine events adhere to an organized flow of activities that is simple to modify for various learning scenarios.
- ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation): The results from each stage are a preparation for the next. In the end, the evaluation opens the scope for taking actions for improvement.
- Merrill’s Principles of Instruction: This model works in a way that allows learners to extract the most out of the course. Different principles of learning support the design.
- Bloom’s Taxonomy: It consists of a system that organizes various levels of cognitive learning into measurable verbs like remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.
Principles Of Instructional Design
While one can work with any instructional design model that suits their needs, the principles underlying all these models are the same.
If you have hired a reliable vendor offering instructional design services, they will ensure they meet these principles and offer an effective learning experience:
- They catch learners’ attention and motivate them to learn.
- They clarify the objective of the course to the learners.
- They help recall previously learned information to facilitate further learning.
- They support learners with strategies and resources for learning.
- They help them apply the new information in performance.
- They provide timely feedback to identify and fix gaps in learning.
- They facilitate retention and transfer of knowledge through sections like FAQs.
Components of Instructional Design
The following steps are what your instructional design process will primarily consist of, irrespective of your instructional designer’s approach. Each component is mandatory and will help you get closer to your desired output.
Step 1: Need Analysis And Learning Objectives
The most crucial phase in the instructional design process is ‘need analysis.’ Always continue your analysis after gaining a grasp of the training requirements. Extend your analysis to cover the essential topics:
- Branding: Your text and graphics should be consistent with your brand’s image. Give references and samples to your designer so they can create better.
- Audience: Know what roles your learners hold and what knowledge they can use. Also, consider their backgrounds and educational qualifications. Create content based on that.
- Content: The content in your course must be appropriate and detailed. Get an SME in the loop for clarifications on the course content.
- Technology: Use technology and tools that your learners are familiar with, or that would be beneficial to your learners.
Once this is done, you can jot down the learning objectives, which will help you differentiate the more critical content from the less important ones.
Step 2: Design Development
Design development involves dividing the topic into manageable chunks, arranging them logically, and choosing an instructional strategy (story-based approach, problem-based approach, gamification, etc.) as per the scope identified during the needs analysis. By including attention-grabbing activities, inspiring films, reflective questions, case studies, and examples, you may add engagement points to your instructional design. The design must pass through you for approval before implementation to sustain the consistency and relevance of content.
Step 3: Storyboard
Decide what kind of content you will be working with and how to deliver it. A storyboard is a document that enables you to visually organize your content and present a flow of the content. You can use text, images, characters, icons, other graphics, and so on to explain the content. Your instructional designer can choose to work on all these aids simultaneously and then present them with the storyboard.
Step 4: Prototype
An instructional designer will develop four to five pages of various types based on the branding guidelines and the approved design strategy. It is a mandatory step and should be followed without fail. It is beneficial to try a working prototype before beginning the full development of your course. It will help you understand the gaps and bugs in the prototype that can be taken care of for any changes, faults, deviations, and suggestions.
Step 5: Delivery of the final product
Upon the approval of the prototype and storyboard, the final course will be created and uploaded to an LMS. Make sure your course is compatible with the LMS that will host the training. Additionally, during creation, your designer should be familiar with the tools in your LMS, like progress tracking and assessment results, generation of course completion reports, and addition of pre and post-training resources.
Let this stage be a check for the course’s functionality, quality, and effectiveness.
Step 6: Evaluation
Once everything is done, you want to know how impactful your efforts have been. You can typically evaluate training on two levels.
First is at the level of the learner to determine whether the learners found the training interesting and valuable. Second is at the level of the organization to determine whether the training has positively impacted the business and met the organizational needs.
As per the results from the evaluation, you can always bring changes to your course.
Conclusion
Instructional design is one of the most critical elements in an eLearning course, and this guide can help you ensure that you are being delivered what you have asked for. You must know the flow of your course to direct it, mold it, and customize it as per the organizational goals.