What is Instructional Design?
Instructional design is a systematic and ongoing process of analyzing, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating learning or instructional experiences so they effectively help learners increase their potential to better understand and retain what they are being taught. Instructional design is like the secret sauce to designing courses that contain effective learning or instructional experiences rather than dumps! Instructional design can be applied to face-to-face or online courses, workshops, training sessions, learning materials and learning activities. Instructional design intentionally considers how learners acquire knowledge, what topics are essential, what methods, strategies, techniques, tools and activities will help make the learning stick, and how to continuously improve the experience to most effectively help learners learn.
Commonly interchangeable with terms like learning experience (LX) design, curriculum design, and instructional systems design (ISD), a University of San Diego webpage summarizes the term instructional design well by stating, “Simply put, instructional design is creating learning or instructional experiences that facilitate the (effective) acquisition of new knowledge.” As important as it is to point out all the things instructional design "is", there is one important "what it is not" to point out. Instructional design is not a one and done application. Faculty applying instructional design principles to their course design will benefit from embracing the mindset that instructional design is an ongoing journey. Along the way, this journey can benefit from building a robust tool chest filled with frameworks, concepts, methods, strategies, techniques, tools, and activities to empower faculty to continually enhance the effectiveness and engagement of their teaching practices.
What is an instructional designer?
An instructional designer is someone who organizes learning to improve its impact. Think of developing a course much like Hollywood develops a movie (but on a much lower budget). Hollywood starts with a screen play which you can liken to a subject matter (course) that is of interest to our learners. The actors in the movie are like professors and instructors that deliver the content to learners. In the movies, the person who stays on top of the movie development is the director. In course development, this falls to an instructional designer. - Blair Cook, Instructional Designer at the Finance Learning Academy.
Supplemental resources
Instructional Design Central (IDC) Website. IDC is a privately owned and operated company that provides design and learning design professionals access to resources, tools, content, a community, and blog to enhance success in their career and education. The instructional design history webpage within this website offers a timeline of key events that influenced the field of instructional design and instructional technology.
References
What is instructional design?. Instructional Design Central. (n.d.). https://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/
What is instructional design? [5 Examples + Overview]. University of San Diego Online. (n.d.). https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/what-is-instructional-design-examples/
The written information and resources are developed or curated by the
Faculty Development and Innovation Center
Contact the FDIC:
Phone Number: (217) 581-7051
Email: fdic@eiu.edu
Website: eiu.edu/fdic
The FDIC can be contacted for instructional design related questions or to schedule a consultation appointment. The FDIC staff can recommend instructional design strategies for your online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses.
Last updated: December 12, 2024