Instructional Design

Instructional design refers to the process of identifying, implementing, and evaluating teaching and learning activities that will best achieve specified learning goals and objectives for particular learners in specific settings. Instructional design can be thought of as educational problem solving that involves five steps:

• Step 1: Defining the educational problem (instructional goal, educational setting, learner characteristics, learning objectives, and assessment methods).
• Step 2: Generating alternative solutions, including in-class and out-of-class teaching and learning activities.
• Step 3: Examining the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative solutions.
• Step 4: Selecting and implementing the best mix of teaching and learning activity solutions.
• Step 5: Evaluating the solution.

This process is graphically depicted in a pdf document. Questions associated with these five steps are available in either a MSWord or pdf document.

A more comprehensive instructional design process is provided by Dee Fink at the following linked website.

A variety of resources, including slides and a pdf version of self-directed guide to significant learning, and helpful worksheets can be found at this site.