Instructional Design

Have you ever been in a professional development session and hated the experience? Except for you not feeling well that day, it could have been the instructor's fault, not yours. It is not always a given that explaining a process or going over a process with pictures reaches the instructor's learning goals for those in attendance. So, how do we make sure that doesn't happen to us when we are the instructor? Take a step back, and begin by paying careful attention to designing your instructional plan. "The first step in designing effective instruction is to think about exactly what type of learning needs to occur" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Design, Determine a Purpose, para. 1). There is no need to spend thirty minutes describing how many ways individuals can do the same thing; we must streamline the process. We must supply our information using instructional design.

We need to decide what type of learning is required and how in-depth the knowledge should become. Does a person need to know where a gear fits in a car if their position requires them to place metal in a form to create a gear? No. In the preceding example, the degree of knowledge needed does not require knowledge about where the gear goes in the car. Simplified, direct your instructional design toward well-defined objectives for learning. "Creating specific objectives is an important step to make sure the curricular material will help the learners achieve the goals defined in the goals analysis, as these objectives will specifically describe the final goals" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Design, Writing Objectives, para.1). The way you are reading this might lead you to believe I am an instructional design guru. Regrettably, this is not so, but I'm always learning by reflecting on my instructional designs' successes and failures.

I have trained teaching staff from many schools in my district, and I can recall issues that I could have prevented and those that were a complete success. In truth, the more time you spend designing your learning objectives, the more solid ground you will have on how to develop your plan. I can not stress enough, that an "instructional designer must examine the learner's current knowledge and base the course of instruction to guide the learner from his or her current state" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Design, The Posner and Strike Sequencing Schemes, para.1). In my experience, teaching educator's how to use Google classroom seemed a simple prospect. I came from a district where every student had a Chromebook, and educators used technology. My new school district primarily used textbooks and paper for assignments, and therefore some teachers were far more knowledgable than others using technology. Imagine having teachers ranging from expert to novice, and teaching a beginners course in Google classroom. Yes, this is differentiated instruction, but if more time would have been spent in the design phase learning about the staff needs, maybe those teachers at the expert level could have been excused from the training. It's all about the engagement of those in attendance. Well, it turns out none could escape the Google classroom training regardless of experience level. This beginner's training was two years before COVID 19, and I now realize the importance of this training for distance learning. I used two informational strategies to aid me through my process toward success: advanced organizers and multimedia instruction. 

Always be conscious of time!

There are many things to consider when designing your instructional plans, and the guiding factor for me was time. How do I get enough information to those in attendance in one thirty minute session to best ensure positive outcomes? Through reflection and evaluation, I see the value of advanced organizers and multimedia instruction to my presentations. When we design our strategy for instruction, we must "focus on the specific messages being sent to the learner" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Design, Instructional Strategy Evaluation, para.1) The advanced organizers provided a guide to how the presentation would proceed and the organizer had examples of the content as well. Using advanced organizers allowed me to target the exact knowledge and behaviors needed for success. Multimedia instruction allowed me to keep the engagement of those in attendance. The best description of how to accomplish a sound multimedia strategy is to ensure both images and sound intertwine with instruction. When "an image is used to support verbal explanation, the mind makes sense of them by creating and then integrating two representations of the content" (Hughes et al., 2019, p. 58). Educators must use verbal and nonverbal information and "provide learners with information that activates both channels instead of one" (Rithzaupt et al., 2017, Design, Multimedia Learning, para.2). Scientifically speaking, the use of multimedia relates to "an increase in students' ability to process information from audio and visual stimuli through their working memory substations and into their long-term memory via schema will ultimately lead to its increased transfer and retention" (Hughes et al., 2019, p. 69). Translation, incorporate multimedia into your instructional design plans to increase retention of information. My design used both visual and verbal information displayed at the same time to enhance learning.  The example below is from one of my presentations, and the title is hyperlinked if you would like to view more. 

Google Classroom Presentation

    My father always told me when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Do yourself a favor and plan for success right from the beginning.

References

"1940s Stop Watch" by stevepaustin is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Denney, D. (2020). Google Classroom Presentation [Google Slides]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rdJtLwWOYWD48xGIzR9HJDGFTc-t2uJG722bUx2EAkE/edit?usp=sharing 

Hughes, C., Costley, J., & Lange, C. (2019). The effects of multimedia video lectures on extraneous load. Distance Education, 40(1), 54–75. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1080/01587919.2018.1553559

Rithzaupt, A., Lee, B., Eichler., Calhoun, C., Salama, C., Nichols, J., Wilson, M., Hafizah, N., Davis, A., Beatty, O., Yaylaci, S., Sahau, S. & Wildberger, W. (2017, December 12). Design. ADDIE Explained [text]. Retrieved from http://www.aritzhaupt.com/addie_explained/# CC BY license 4.0.