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Good Instructional Design
Instructional design should be an important tool in your teaching arsenal. So often teachers focus on what they’re teaching, instead of how they are teaching it. You can create an absolutely amazing lesson that hits on every important standard and objective, but if you don’t grab the learner’s attention and make it interesting for them, it will have been a wasted lesson.
Brown and Green (2024) describe instructional design by laying out what an instructional designer’s job is. They state, “An instructional designer’s job is to create something that enables a person or group of people to learn about a particular topic or develop or improve a set of skills, or to encourage the learner to conduct further study.” (p. 7). It is our job as educators to make students want to learn, not just that they have to. Mallillin et al. (2023) state, “Instructional design provides meaningful effective instructions that makes learning and teaching easy. It analyzes the positive and improvement of learning styles and advantages of instructional design and focus.” (p. 42). As an educator you have to make meaningful connections with the learners, using multiple learning strategies to ensure that all students have the chance to engage and learn equally.
Video courtesy of Devlin Peck, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n-ea5gIEMk
Good instructional design should be tailored to each learner. This can be through focusing on the multiple intelligences of visually appealing, auditory instruction, kinesthetic learning, etc. I discovered while reading the book, The Essentials of Instructional Design, that most learning experiences fall into three categories: enactive, iconic, and symbolic experiences. Brown and Green (2024) state, "It is generally considered a good idea to make use of a wide range of enactive, iconic, and symbolic activities in order to provide students with a variety of learning opportunities.” (p. 124). I think as teachers we are already catering to this idea, just subconsciously. We all know that you can’t always teach with enactive design as the student is left to synthesize too much information on their own, while symbolic instruction forces students to listen to rote memorization as opposed to exploring what they are learning. “Instructional strategy and activity of learning must go hand in hand since it covers a set of objectives and often requires instructional strategy and accomplishment of learning.” (Mallillin, 2023, p. 42). Good instructional design uses all three to reach every learner.
After completing a course on good instructional design, I realized that I have a tendency to focus on the visually appealing aspect of teaching. I love to create presentations and lessons that are colorful, fun, and engaging to look at. While this is certainly an important aspect of instructional design, it shouldn’t be the only one. Sometimes I worry too much about making something look pretty, and forget that it shouldn’t be too complicated or visually cluttered so that the learner can no longer remember what they’re actually learning. In other words, I need to tone it down!
Recently I created a training on utilizing the platform Seesaw in the classroom. Teachers, parents, and students can use this program to connect with each other, collaborate on projects, and share ideas. When creating this training, I had to focus on the principles of good instructional design to ensure that I was reaching all learners. Below you will find a link to access the Seesaw training that I created.
I focused on creating a training that was visually appealing, and also straightforward in getting the information across. I incorporated the concept of ‘think, pair, share’ with the students to help create a dialogue among the learners on how they can use Seesaw in their own classroom. I also wanted to make sure that students had the opportunity to listen and see how seesaw can be used in their classrooms with videos on teachers actually using the platform, and examples of activities that can be used as well. Finally I provided a checklist survey on Google Forms for learners to quickly complete on how much they have learned about the topic and how comfortable they feel using the platform.
Everything I created for this training can be accessed through a Google Site that I published. Feel free to click on it for all of the materials for this Seesaw training.
References
Brown, A. & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (5th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003404835
Camtasia (2021, September 29). Why you should keep designs simple to avoid cognitive overload [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oxidFwYCTI
Peck, Devlin (2022, August 23). What is instructional design? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n-ea5gIEMk
Mallillin, L. et al. (2023). Instructional design for effective classroom pedagogy of
teaching. Eureka Journal of Educational Research 1(2). 41-52. doi:10.56773/ejer.v1i2.6
I loved reading your blog. I learned some great information about instructional design.It’s great that you’re reflecting on your own practices. Instructional design is a way of thinking and acting to design quality instruction (Groshell, 2020
ReplyDelete). I think it's important to streamline visual elements to avoid overwhelming students. Simplicity can sometimes be more effective than the complicated designs. Thank you for sharing your experience and resources!
References:
Groshell, Z. (2020, March 26). What is instructional design and does it matter for K-12 education?. Education Rickshaw. https://educationrickshaw.com/2019/10/21/what-is-instructional-design-and-does-it-matter-for-k-12-education/
Laura,
ReplyDeleteYour first paragraph is spot-on. I think a lot of times teachers feel under pressure to get all of their standards covered, and that sometimes hinders the creative process of instructional design! We need to connect with our learners, as you mentioned in your second paragraph. Brown and Green simplify this thought even more, mentioning how basic human needs have to be met before we can attempt to teach our students (2024, p. 85). You always seem to be very creative and thoughtful about your instructional design materials, which I admire. Thornhill-Miller wrote about the importance of creativity (as well as other 21st-century skills) for our students (2023), but I think it’s important for us to have those skills to demonstrate, as well!
References
Brown, A., & Green, T. (2024). The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice. Fifth Edition. New York: Routledge.
Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F., Finesse, C., Sundquist, D., & Lubart, T. (2023). Creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration: Assessment, certification, and promotion of 21st century skills for the future of work and education. Journal of Intelligence 11(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054
Instructional design is crucial when creating lessons. Brown and Green (2024) state, "instructional design is conducted for a purpose—to produce a desired change" (p. 51). Without instructional design, students can miss the whole point of our lessons. Researcher Spatioti et al. (2022) observe "that good practices of teaching are the multimedia presentation, feedback, variety of interactive exercises or activities, combined learning strategy (individualized and collaborative), and role of educators" (para. 1). Their observations align completely with having good instructional design when presenting information to students.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Brown, A. & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (5th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003404835
Spatioti AG, Kazanidis I, Pange J. A Comparative Study of the ADDIE Instructional Design Model in Distance Education. Information. 2022; 13(9):402. https://doi.org/10.3390/info13090402
Laura,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the importance of focusing on how we teach, not just what we teach. I also agree that even the most well-planned lesson won't be effective if it doesn't capture the students' interest. Careful consideration of the target audience ensures that the instructional design is both engaging and effective (Brown & Green, 2024). Alamri et al. (2020) note that creating personalized learning experiences includes crafting educational content to fit individual students' needs, interests, goals, and previous experiences. This provides them with various learning options. I also love using visuals in my lessons, but I’ve realized it's important to balance that with other approaches to avoid overwhelming students.
I also am a huge fan of Seesaw and have used it with my students over the years. I know your audience will greatly benefit from your training.
-Tanishia Smith-Sims
References:
Alamri, H., Lowell, V., Watson, W., & Watson, S. L. (2020). Using personalized learning as an instructional approach to motivate learners in online higher education: Learner self-determination and intrinsic motivation. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 52(3), 322–352. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1080/15391523.2020.1728449
Brown, A., & Green, T. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice. Fifth Edition. New York: Routledge.