When this course started, I had no idea what Instructional Design (ID) was. I had never heard of ADDIE and wouldn’t have been able to name even one part of the design thinking process.
What I learned during this course is that ID is all about making effective learning experiences. I further realized that I already do this as a teacher and an athletics coach, I just didn’t know it. This course has exposed me to many tips, tricks and approaches to be better at those jobs, and I will highlight my favorites throughout; but given that I perform ID in many different environments, I’ve further been able to identify some of the principles that transcend them all and I’ve borrowed from ADDIE to rewrite what that acronym means for me.
A – Know your audience and meet them at their level. All the theoretical models contain some form of final evaluation, but they don’t all start with an analysis of the problem. Empathetically understanding the current state of the audience helps to identify the hurdles to overcome through learning objectives en route to the desired outcome.
DD- Don’t Default to Digital, use tech as a tool rather than a guiding principle. Often, there are endless ways to get from point A to point B. While tech has provided countless solutions, sometimes it’s not always required to get the job done. Include the use of live demonstrations, role playing, and simulations. When appropriate, facilitate group discussions, or allow opportunities for questions, clarifications, and deeper understanding. Perhaps even gamify some lessons by keeping scores and acknowledging winners. Get their feedback to find out what made them successful.
I – Keep it iterative, because people, audiences and/or needs change over time and are not a static entity. It’s a shame when instructors are teaching the exact same unit, in the exact same way, for decades on end without questioning if there’s a better way to do it.
E – Engagement. Engagement is key to any successful learning experience, but it’s not the only condition required for learning. Gagne’s 9 Events (1965) are the most prolific at addressing the mental state, and identifies all the processes required for knowledge transfer and retention. Even when the problem is content, if there’s a reason why students aren’t “getting it” the solution can likely be found within one of these events.
When it comes to digital presentations, Mayer’s Principles for Multimedia (2001) are invaluable for creating media. These 12 principles emerge from Cognitive Load theory (1988) to emphasize the importance of coherence, signaling, and redundancy to optimize learning. My personal favorites are the segmenting principle, which fueled my curiosity to dive deeper into microlearning, and the personalization principle because I tend to dislike things that are overly formal.
Finally, the pecha kucha deliverable helped me realize that consistency with fonts, graphics, and imaging within a presentation are important to me. That can extend to themes, colors and all design choices too; but it also helped me realize that it’s silly to put arbitrary restrictions on design. At the end of the day, in the ID context, the learning objective should rule, and every choice made should be in service to optimizing it.
References:
Gagné, R. M. (1965). The conditions of learning (1st ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139164603
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4
Great post Matt and excellent work on theoretical frameworks. As you consider which one to use as the TF keep…