INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN TOPIC
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
Overview
Ethical Considerations in instructional design are principles and responsibilities that focus on creating educational experiences that are fair, inclusive, respectful, and beneficial to learners. In instructional design, ethics are practices that guide designers on how to deal with situations in professional practice, providing guidance and protection for learners (Lachheb, Abramenka et al., 2023). An example of ethical consideration in instructional design is the integration of Artificial Intelligence, which poses challenges for instructional designers when incorporating AI into their design process while following design ethical standards.
The key learnings of the ethical considerations in instructional design include the following:
Equity and Inclusion- The goal of equity and inclusion is to ensure universal learning design principles are applied to the design process, ensuring learners' diversity and fair accessibility opportunities.
Privacy and Data Protection- Designing instructions relies heavily on online technology; therefore, transparency, learners' privacy, and data protection are crucial elements to consider in designing instructions.
Instructors' Responsibilities- Designers need to take responsibility for the success or failure of a design outcome. Instructional designers are also responsible for advocating for ethical practices when challenges arise, and for balancing organizational/ institutional goals with learners' being to design with a long-term learning impact in mind.
Technology Use- Designers have the requirement of applying technology responsibly in their design process to ensure transparency, reliability, and evaluation of tools.
Continuous practice- Instructional designers are required to view ethics as an ongoing or continuous practice in designing, reflection, feedback, and willingness to revise designs.
It is required of instructional designers to incorporate inclusion into their design development and not be regarded as an add-on, which consists of the application of Universal Design for learning and utilization of multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression. This enables learning to be fairer and inclusive to all learners.
In a learning environment, learners engage fully due to their trust in the learning system; however, learners' data collected should be used responsibly and stored to protect learners' privacy and confidentiality.
Additionally, assessment is an integral part of learning, which explains if learning has occurred and identifies where revisions are required. When assessing learners, designers need to incorporate fair and transparent assessment practices.
This article explores instructional designers' ethical considerations and challenges in integrating Artificial Intelligence into the instructional design process.
Ethical Use of Technology In Digital Learning Environment: Graduate Student Perspective.
This article highlights the safe and ethical use of technology in a digital environment.
Lachheb, A., Abramenka, L. V., Moore, S., & Gray, C. (2023). The role of design ethics in maintaining students’ privacy: A call to action to learning designers in higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 54(6), 1653–1670. https://doi- org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1111/bjet.13382
Rothwell, William J. (2016). Mastering the instructional design process : a systematic approach (Fifth edition.). Wiley.