[ARCHIVED] Instructional design theories

[Stef_retired]

Let's say you are at the very start of a new course design project.

• What instructional design theories and resources would you draw upon to guide your overarching approach to the structure of the course?
• Once you've decided upon a design approach or amalgamation of design theories, which theory or theories would you then use to support your module design? Your page design? Your quiz design?

In your response, specify whether you are building a face-to-face, blended/hybrid, or fully online (distance) course.

This open-ended discussion is intended to be a shared space replete with links to your favorite resources (blogs, papers, presentations, videos, and so forth). Please provide those links freely and liberally!

[jbhill]

Stefanie,

This is a good question, and you will probably get varied answers on what theory is the best or most applicable and why. To me, the theories are just guidelines - ideas/concepts created by scientists/researchers/people interested in an area of learning and development that were designed, implemented and tested showing "positive" results over time. I found this link that goes over the different THEORIES, which may be useful to gloss over for instructional/course/cirriculum designers.

To me, it is less about the theory and more about the content and the intended audience. Now, we all know that people learn differently (at different levels, speeds, etc), so I think the first question to answer is: who are my intended learners.

The second question to ask is: What do we want them to learn? (Depending on the subject matter, the design will be altered accordingly.)

Followed by: How will we get them there? (This is where design and implementation comes in -- i.e., will you use videos, Powerpoints, Adobe Captivate/Articulate to make modules, quizzes, etc.)

Finally: How can we measure that they have learned or how do we measure that they have reached "the goal" (whatever that may be). (In other words, how do you know the students have learned? To me, this is always the hardest one. For example, many people use multiple choice quizzes because they are easy to grade - and automatically graded, they are simple to develop and don't really need personalized grading... But, in the grand scheme of things they don't really get at deeper levels of learning -- unless you know how to word them, which is a whole thing of its own )

I know this doesn't answer the question directly, but I just thought I would throw my 2 cents in on it. What I am trying to say is even before you think about the design, you should think about your learners, what level they are at, and design from there. So, to me, the learners is the first thing to think about and then the design.

However, as an example I will use my Capstone project I did during my Master's program at the University of Utah in the Educational Psychology department with an emphasis in Instructional Design and Educational Technology (phew -- that was long winded).

We were working with a Law professor that wanted to take an Legal Archeology class and put it fully online with minimal effort in grading and moderation.

We didn't really use a theory or certain way to do things, instead we tried to take ALL the information she provided us with and set up a mock module where they learned about a specific law called NAGPRA. Now, we focused on our learners at first: graduate level law students and archeology students. (This last part was hard because the course wanted to be extended to all individuals (professionals out in the field, and continuing education individuals), but we just stuck with the graduate law students and archeology students.

We separated it into different sections:

Refresher of law texts and understanding the law:

This is where we refreshed on how to read law texts and things like that (for our archeology students and law students that wanted a quick refresher).

Introduction to NAGPRA:

This is where we provided them with an overview of this specific law and tested them on certain things (using Adobe Articulate for one thing in particular - a Drag and Drop type of deal, with feedback on getting it correct or not - yay)

Application of the Law:

This is where we had them read a document, which we uploaded into a Creativist document - basically an online document that you can insert files into, links and make it more interactive than just reading a document - where we put in an article by the original teacher of how this law was implemented in real life.

Then we had a discussion post where they would either agree with the actual ruling or disagree and provide evidence and support on their stance.

Hypothetical:

We gave them a hypothetical situation where they would apply the law on their own and make a ruling in a hypothetical situation.

Along the way as they move through these modules, we would provide readings, discussions, videos, and little assignments (like drag and drops) to keep them engaged and help with their learning.

Okay, I will stop now, cause I feel like I have written a lot, hopefully it wasn't all over the place or too "up in the clouds"

-Justin Hill

L1 Support Engineer

Support@instructure.com

[jmorris1]

Hey Justin!

I was skimming down this page and the acronym NAGPRA caught my eye. I knew it was you when I saw that!

Hope all is well!

James

[seanmichaelmorr]

I absolutely adore breaking the "rules" of instructional design when I teach. The majority of my experience is in teaching fully online courses, though I've done a fair bit of face-to-face and hybrid as well. And each time I approach the LMS, I try to think about how I can hack it to create a better learning experience, and support greater student agency for learners. I ask questions like: "How can I get students to self-organize?" and "How can I get students to think and produce metacognitively?"

These sorts of questions led me and my colleague Jesse Stommel to design MOOC MOOC, a mini-, meta-MOOC about MOOCs (and, incidentally, the first MOOC offered on Canvas). We essentially threw out everything we both knew about "best practices' with online learning and opened the course up to a variety of different experiences, most of which were largely determined by the participants. Similarly, I created Digital Writing Month, which in its earliest iteration was very focused not on the content I could create or curate, but on what participants created.

The philosophy I work with is an emergent one based on Paulo Freire's work: Critical Digital Pedagogy. Through that lens, I approach the digital as an environment in which students/participants/learners can discover their own agency, their ability to create content for their learning, etc. In some ways, this is a very student-centered learning approach, and there are some similarities between Critical Digital Pedagogy, personalized learning, and problem-based learning. But it is not a technique at all, and more of an approach, a guiding philosophy. For every assignment I set up in a course, for every "lecture", for every discussion, I ask myself whether what I am doing is helping participants learn to trust themselves, and feel empowered to explore the digital world in which all online, hybrid, and on-ground courses take place.

I wrote once that "the core of digital pedagogy [is] an acknowledgement that the space of learning is more fluid and adaptable than we might have planned on." So, when I go to plan a course, I go into it with the full knowledge that my theories and practices must not as much try to contain learning as to free it.

[kona]

Love this, "...my theories and practices must not as much try to contain learning as to free it."

[myanalunas]

Thank you for this unique approach to designing for learning and also for the Critical Digital Pedagogy link - very intriguing!

~Meg

[myanalunas]

This is a wonderful post: we all learn so differently that the challenge is to create the invitation to learn and engage students on many levels. Thank you for including links - I plan to investigate 🙂

Meg

[Cindy_Masek]

It really depends what aspect of a course you are looking at when talking about a course.

• We adopted as a theory of student learning in distance courses the Community of Inquiry model for the college.  We use it in a very general sense with a heavy focus on the collaborative nature of the model.
• As to individual course design models, it depends on the content and the ID and faculty preferences.
• For assessment of quality of individual courses (not really a theory but rather, a tool), we created our own quality rubric, heavily based on the Quality Matters Rubric of a few years ago.
• Finally, for overall assessment of distance overall we use the OLC Scorecard (also a tool and not a theory).

Even though some of these aren't theories, I believe this is what you are asking.

This is working well for us, but how we use these is always evolving and adapting.

[kmeeusen]

Stephanie:

Sometimes we get hung up on theories (I am as guilty as anyone) and forget our principles, practices and good old common sense. Here are some of my thoughts..........

• I strongly subscribe to the K.I.S.S. principle - keep it simple, or as simple as it can be based on the purpose of the course. Our students need to focus on the course content and achieving the objectives, not focused on our wonderful ability to create a complex course structure.
• Navigation should be logical and consistent. Student need to know what to do, when to do it, and most importantly where to find it.
• Build to the lowest common denominator, and make no assumptions of the previous knowledge or experience of your students.
• As for theories, design for everybody - Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This is incredibly important and encompasses the accessibility needs of an online classroom and more. You can learn more about UDL at the National Center for Universal Design for Learning 
• Consistency is key. Modules should be consistently named, consistently structured (everything in the same order in each module as much as possible), and the content in modules should be consistently named and organized.
• Echo module names in the module content. i.e., module one introduction, module one assignment, module on discussion, etc. This is very important for students using screen reader technology.
• Keep instructional content close to their related instructional activities - in other words, if you have instructions on how to build a better widget, and an assignment for building one, then have the assignment immediately follow the instructions
• All instructional materials and activities for a module should be in that module. Do not create  a Week Two module with just the instructional materials, then house the assignments in a different module, the quizzes in another module, and additional references in another module. One-stop shopping rules!
• I also subscribe to the ADDIE model for Instructional design

That's a nice start, and if you want a list of the supporting theories and research for these suggestions, I have them. Here is a great web resource: Instructional Design.

I hope all of this helps, and that my smart-alec approach did not create insult or injury.

[kdickso]

Kelley,

This post is so full of useful information and I really can NOT thank you enough. Of particular interest to me is the UDL site because one of my primary beliefs/goals as a teacher is to always try to make what I am trying to teach accessible to all of my students no matter how they are "wired."

In an intro Latin class last week one student said, "shouldn't we just memorize the pattern and plug the information into it as we go" and I responded, "that may work for you and it may work for me, but it doesn't work for everyone in the class." He could not see the heads nodding, but I could.

While I am teaching these days in an actual classroom and primarily using Canvas as an adjunct to the "live" classroom, I'm always thinking about how I would translate everything into the "virtual" classroom as well because that is obviously an increasing part of our future.

The resources and thoughts that you (and others, thanks) have shared in this discussion will be incredibly helpful to me.

Many thanks.

KD

[kmeeusen]

I wanted to add one more thing that I forgot - the Quality Matters Rubric for Online Course Design.

This is a very valuable instructional design tool structured as 8 general standards and 43 sub-standards.

[rorjuela]

Hi Stefanie:

When I build a course, first, I check how my students learn?, for this I check the inventory as Felder and Silverman to answer the following questions:

• What kind of information preferably students perceive? Dimension of the type of information: sensitive - Intuitive
• What through which sensory modality is actually received cognitive information?
• Dimension of the type of preferential stimuli: visual - verbal
• What kind of organization of information is more convenient when student work?
• Dimension on how to organize information: inductive - deductive
• How student`s progress in their learning? Dimension on how to process and understand information: sequential - Global
• What kind of organization of information is more convenient when student work? Dimension on how to work with information: active - reflective.

And to make the instructional design I check the cognitive processes that support the course (highest score), this determines the activities that must take the course.

this determines the activities that encourage my students.

Any error in translation is google :smileyconfused:

[kmeeusen]

Rodolfo:

Your points/process are rock solid! Not only do we need to design for what students need to learn, but we also need to design for the students - this is what the "A" in the ADDIE model is all about. Thank you for fleshing that out, and providing more detail!

[rorjuela]

This image represents the ADDIE model used to create online courses.

[rorjuela]

On this site you could be found ADDIE model steps for the creation of an instructional design ¿Cómo se elabora un Objeto de Aprendizaje?

[stephanie_pope]

This has become a wonderful resource for instructional designers. I'm still new to this arena but couldn't agree more with the links and documents here. For the question:

Your page design?

My colleague and I have started the process to learn more about how accessibility plays into instructional design. Many items needs to be considered before designing or developing content. It's a lot to take in. I built a chart to map out the various levels to consider: A, AA, and AAA. The bear minimum would incorporate level A into all online courses/content. I'm still working on the formatting of the document, but I hope you find it useful. I took it directly from the W3C.

[Stef_retired]

Thank you for sharing this,  @stephanie_pope ​, and for the reminder of the need to keep accessibility at the forefront of our approach to instructional design. I hope you'll share the future iterations of this document as well.

[Stef_retired]

Also,  @stephanie_pope , would you be willing to share your insights on accessibility and page design in the course home page blog: Creating an inviting course home page​ ? Although the blog refers specifically to the design of a course home page or initial landing page, many of the ideas presented there are relevant for any content page, and accessibility considerations must come into play in the design process.

[kmeeusen]

Also  @stephanie_pope ​ & stefaniesanders​ that we also have an Accessibility group that would be happy to hear from anybody with suggestions and questions Accessibility​.

[stephanie_pope]

Hey Stefanie,

Of course! I'm happy to add this content to Creating an inviting course home page​. Great idea! I also plan to add it to the accessibility thread. Thanks for starting the conversation on this topic!

Stephanie

[susan_cornish]

Lovely meaty topic. Than you Stephanie!

I work in the adult vocational sector in Australia with fully online courses (TAFE Online)

We have an approach that draws on different theories. It may be useful to others in the vocational field.

Out approach involves

• understanding the needs of students
• establishing learning outcomes and how they will be assessed
• designing a pattern of activities that will help the student achieve those outcomes.

Features of our approach to learning design:

Work focussed	Vocational courses that build successful performance of workplace tasks. Aligned with nationally registered Training Packages and Accredited qualifications.
Aligned to outcomes	The work context drives the development of learning outcomes and how they will be assessed. Clear and meaningful assessment tasks are explained at the beginning of each unit of study. Learning activities prepare students for the assessment tasks. Resources and support services help students successfully complete the learning activities and assessment tasks.
Uses effective learning activity sequences	Scaffolded- gradually build up skills building towards independent performance of the task. Problem based learning- challenges Emphasis on active and social learning - Virtual collaboration spaces, group projects
Provides a supported student experience	Facilitated by qualified teacher – webinars, feedback Individual access to the teacher Free tutoring services Recognition of prior learning Library services Welfare services
Connected and engaging	Access on mobile devices Integrated apps and tools Uses a variety of resources, including rich media Uses live sessions where appropriate Universal design for learning principles featuring accessible content
Support for course developers	Production cycle milestones and reporting Learning design consultants Learning design guidelines Course shell and supporting templates Online forum/community Sharing of good examples

[kmeeusen]

Very sound approach, Susan, and thank you for sharing it with us.

I am impressed that your approach also includes support for course developers!

[jmorris1]

I think it’s important we are very mindful of learning theory when designing curricula. In my opinion, working in an academic environment, it can be difficult to use a rigid framework for course development, simply because most of our faculty bring in their own prior knowledge, attitudes, perspectives, etc…

Having said that, I usually always try to take a systematic approach, and also recommend faculty to do the same. If I were to describe an entire process it would take me some time, but today, I’ll just list a few items I keep in mind when designing or developing a course.

Framework

There are so many frameworks to choose from. Dick & Carey, ADDIE, Agile, Mager approach, and my most recent interest, the Interactive Course Design Model. Most of these are designed to be rigid, and they all share a common denominator: Iterative design. One of the most important concepts to understand when designing curriculum, IMO, is building mechanisms to improve the process. Also, like others have mentioned here, having a strong understanding of the students prior knowledge and entry-skills is huge, and a whole conversation on its own.

In addition to iterative design, which runs not only after the produced course, but also concurrently throughout the design process, these frameworks share another common denominator. The writing of objectives. We need objectives. A well written objective should be written using action verbs (See bloom’s taxonomy action verbs), that are able to be measured.  At the end of the day, it’s only fair for both the learner and the teacher to have a real benchmark. Each objective should be directly tied to an assessment method. It doesn’t have to be multiple choice, either. Assessments could be a demonstration, a paper, an exam, or anything else. Sometime should be spent looking at each objective, and breaking it down into what it means to reach that objective. What are the subordinate skills? If we were to break down each objective into subordinate skills, where will these skills meet with our learner’s prior knowledge?

Objectives, assessments, and content have an interesting relationship. I feel that if you modify one of these variables, then the others will be affected. It’s important to be very mindful of the relationship between these three elements.

Design and Development

In addition to trying to keep to a systematic design, I always try to follow best practice for the actual development of content. For example, when designing PowerPoints, websites, videos, or other multimedia, I try to adhere to Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Principles. It’s simply a set of short principles that promote stronger engagement and learning. For example, do we use voice narration with captions? How close should captions be to figures? Do we learn better with audio and visual? Or just visual? Can we take some working load off the visual sensors and put it into the audio? I keep a handout of these principles available that I provide to faculty who are developing their own courses.  I also like to keep a handout of Gagnes Nine Conditions of learning available and on hand.

Cognitive Load Theory is also very important to be mindful of. The last thing we want to do is spend 2 or 3 hours teaching and have our learners not remember 70% of the material. Hopefully, if you did encounter this, you’d go back and reevaluate the curriculum. I’d rather use teaching time to reinforce specific topics so students have a deeper level of understanding, rather than rote memorization. We want to use our time wisely. How much is too much? Some people throw out numbers like “5 – 7” topics at any given time, but in reality, I think there are too many variables to have static ranges like that. We just need to make sure the material we provide our students will not only enter their working memory, but also their long-term memory.

Deeper Learning

Many of our instructional goals, and institutional goals, is to create a meaningful and authentic learning environments. In order to have these authentic learning experience, we need to promote a deeper level of learning. This can be successfully implemented using learning strategies that promote metacognition. I’m a fan of handouts, so I also have another handout of questions that were developed by Joe Cuseo, a Professor of Psychology at Marymount College. These are questions that faculty members can use to promote critical thinking. The structure of the questions allows faculty to “fill-in” words, concepts, etc. For example, some of the questions looks like this:

“In X environment, what is the relationship between Y and Z?”

Or,

“When introducing X to Y, what happens to Z? If so, why?”

In additional to structuring your questions in ways that promote critical thinking, metacognition and reflection is important. Asking students how these concepts or questions affect their gaps in knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, or general sense of being, will promote metacognition and reflection. Having them write out these thoughts may promote deeper reflection. This is why I feel like the discussion postings in Canvas is so important. Some people frown at discussions and feel they are deprecated or too traditional and boring, but if you use discussions wisely, they can be very effective.

Relationship and Environment

My office is in the library, and our Director is a proponent of the Community of Inquiry Framework. It defines the relationship between 3 elements that affect the overall educational experience: Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, and Teaching Presence. I highly recommend reading about this framework. I have become a huge fan of it. Some of the key elements of it are creating a safe learning environment, settings goals and scope, and supporting discourse. Safe discourse, that is.

I hope that helps. In reality, there is so much in instructional design to be mindful of, and this is not even scratching the surface. It’s an entire discipline.

Educational psychologists have spent countless years researching how we learn, and what can we do to facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Designers should take into consideration all of the research that is out there.

I started just wanting to write a few sentences, but as you can see that didn’t happen!

[amanda_taintor]

This is wonderful! Any chance you can share the handouts mentioned? As a new ID for our campus I am slowly building up resources for our faculty. Anything I can steal instead of recreate is appreciated!

[Stef_retired]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to building this resource! Let's keep it going!

I just came across this new series in the Canvas Engagement Strategies​ space. It's a video guide that aligns Canvas with Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR Model of Technology Integration. Follow and enjoy: Canvas FastTrack Series

[myanalunas]

Thanks for sharing – I enjoyed the first few posts on the Canvas FastTrack Series!

Meg

[johnmartin]

James Paul Gee shares how 13 Principles of Good Learning are manifested in good video games here: bit.ly/GeeGames​.

I've started to figure out how they could be manifested in good course design (especially in Canvas). Would love any ideas others have to the doc I'm assembling.

This is for a blended class "Effective Teaching with Technology" for grad students.

I'd also love to connect with Universal Design principles.

[Stef_retired]

 @johnmartin ​, thanks for posting the link to the James Paul Gee video (I always get a kick out of the cool line drawings). I wonder if you've seen  @kmeeusen ​'s excellent blog post Share UDL Course Design Tips, Tricks, and Techniques .

And for everyone who's been participating in this discussion, I hope you have allotted time to attend snufer​'s upcoming Instructional Design Toolkit meet-up.

[johnmartin]

stefaniesanders Thanks! That post was part of the inspiration for my comment on this one! I especially love the UDL in Canvas graphic shared there.

[escapita]

Hi Stefanie,

First of all, thank you for the Instructional design theories post. Even though it has been a few years since the initial post, it is still relevant today. For our hybrid and online courses, we use the well-known ADDIE and Backwards design models. Still, I’m more interested in the Iterative design since it allows us to improve the course using feedback and evaluation.  Have you seen one theory being used more than the other from your experience with Canvas and Instructional design theories?

Here is a link with some information about the Iterative design: https://elearningindustry.com/5-benefits-of-iterative-design-in-elearning

Thank you once again for creating this discussion.

Marco