A reflection based upon an article by Danielle Hart on the 11 Sticking Points of Instructional Design:
Personally, the ADDIE phase that I would consider to potentially be the “most important” and that I would emphasize the most would be point 7, or “Worrying About Learning Retention”. I believe that this point in particular is important because as an online learner, the courses that have honed in on the importance of retention have been the ones that have been the most impactful for me as an online student. An intervention that I would design and implement to address the challenge as an instructional designer would be building learning into the workflow and micro-learning as well as learning artifacts. As this article discusses, these types of “built in” assessment and review allow for engaging content to be conveyed and remembered by the students. I believe that the best way that I could do this as an instructional designer would be by incorporating review within the online modules. I could do so by crafting built in pop-up review modules and extra practice activities to incorporate autonomous review that does not feel forced. I would craft a team of instructional designers that have experience in online courses and include designers who have graduated post-pandemic on my team so that they can bring their firsthand experience to the table working in a fully online learning environment. I would also incorporate designers who have been working within the field for quite a while so that they can provide their valuable experience. I would incorporate an Instructional Technologist, Content Writer, eLearning Specialists, and a Graphic Designer within my team. I would want my learners to be able to incorporate and explain information and concepts that they have learned rather than simply recite it at the end of each module. I would deal with learners that are reluctant to participate in the intervention by building the learning into the modules and allowing the intervention to feel very gradual and automatic within the lessons. By avoiding second source learning, I will be able to incorporate, review and engage learners without them feeling like they are being drawn away from material at hand.
Reference:
Hart, Danielle. “2019 Instructional Design Trends and Learning Trends: The Ecosystem Evolves.” eLearning Industry, 12 May 2021, elearningindustry.com/2019-instructional-design-trends-learning-trends-ecosystem-evolves.