Instructional design is the systematic approach to designing, developing, and delivering education. Education is best when delivered through a repeatable systematic approach that can be analyzed, tested and can go through a continuous improvement process.
Steps in an Instructional Design Approach
- Perform a Needs Analysis
- Determine who will be the audience for this training
- Determine the students current KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities)
- Break down into Goals
- Determine the type of training that will be required for each goal; will it be Stand up training, CBT, etc.
- Determine what knowledge the user will need to meet each goal.
- What material or devices will be required for each goal.
- How will you determine if each goal is met? Will it be test questions, perform something physically, etc.
- Create pre and post test questions
- Draw the flow of the lesson so you can visually see all the links in your program and where they will take you.
- Create a Storyboard
- Develop course content (text, visual aids, CBT, etc)
Material will need to be aimed at the age of the users (young children learn better by using graphics that have little detail in them).
- Provide feedback.
- Review, analyze and then make any adjustments and improvements.
This step is a continuous process.
Academic Learning Time
Academic Learning Time is one variable that most determines success over which the teacher has control. Academic Learning Time is the amount of time a student spends attending to relevant academic tasks while performing those taks with a high rate of success. This does not mean expanding classroom time. Time taken in class to take attendance, handing back papers, discussions that are not related to the task, and time spent where students are not understanding at a high rate (for example students are missing half of the
questions being asked) can't be considered as Academic Learning Time.