Lesson 1 - Overview of Design

So, what is "design"? Officially, one way to define design is: "To formulate a plan for." Thus, design could be thought of more simply as planning. As you probably know, the term design is not exclusive to instructional design. Design is used in many different fields, and even in our everyday lives. For example, architects design buildings, engineers design cars, football coaches design plays, scriptwriters design films, and instructional designers design instruction. In each of these cases the design process takes place before the actual creation, or development, of the product or process of interest. During the design stage the people involved (the designers) create functional specifications for the product or process. Architects create blueprints, engineers create technical drawings, and coaches create playbooks. In the same way, instructional designers create their own collection of design documents.

In all these cases the documents specify how the end product or process should function, and how the users should interact with the product or process. The specifications include all the factors that are relevant to what they are designing. In many instances (including instructional design), the designer is not even involved in the actual creation of the end product. For example, architects hand over their design documents (blueprints) to builders, who then implement them to the required specifications. Similarly, in many cases instructional designers do not actually develop what they design; they hand their design documents over to a team of creative folks who then develop the instruction according to the designer's specifications. What this means is that the design documents need to be very detailed and comprehensive.

Getting back to the term design as it relates to the process of instructional design, the "design" stage of instructional design generally refers to everything that is done leading up to the actual creation of the instructional materials - you could also call it the "planning" stages. Once you start creating materials you are in the "development" stage.

Over the years, Instructional Design has been viewed as a discipline of study, as well as a series of well-defined skills. As a discipline (field) of study, Instructional Design can be defined as the science of creating detailed specifications for the development, evaluation, and maintenance of situations which facilitate the learning of both large and small units of subject matter (Richey, 1986). When viewed as skills, Instructional Design can be defined as the systematic process of translating general principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials and learning. Alternatively, Instructional Design is the process of creating learning experiences and learning environments that promote instructional activities. Among these activities are directing students to appropriate learning activities; guiding students to appropriate knowledge; helping students rehearse, encode, and process information; monitoring student performance; and providing feedback as to the appropriateness of the student's learning activities and practice performance (Merrill, Drake, Lacy, Pratt, & the ID2 Research Group, 1996).

Throughout the history of our field, different folks have come up with different ways of approaching the instructional design process. In recent years this has been evidenced in the emergence of several instructional design models. Instructional design models are designed to provide a framework for you to follow when going through the process of creating instruction. There are many different models out there. While many of them are similar, they each take a slightly different approach to the design of instruction. Some are more systematic and/or prescriptive than others. Some are a step-by-step process, while others are more open-ended and allow one to take a looser path through the model. Most of them have some sort of graphical representation of the model to make following it easy. More importantly, each of them incorporates certain theories and principles that have been culled from the research that has been done in our field over the years. The basic instructional design model had come to be known as the ADDIE model. This stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. Most models today tend to be a variation of this basic model. Some leave out one or two of the steps, while others emphasize certain steps over others.

You will be exposed to a couple different ID models during your stay in the ITMA program. In Instructional Media you will use the ASSURE model, which was designed to help individual instructors quickly create instructional materials using some of the more common instructional design principles, but without going through an intensive design and development process. It focuses on the actual classroom use of media. Here's a review of the steps in the ASSURE model:

Another ID model that you may encounter as part of ITMA is a model developed by Robert Reiser and Walter Dick. Their model is a little more robust than the ASSURE model and yet is still geared towards teachers. Their goal is to have teachers use some of the techniques and principles that designers use to create effective instruction. Here's a review of the steps in their model:

You'll undoubtedly notice many similarities in the two previous models. However, both of those models leave out some important issues in the design process. This was done in order to tailor the models to the audiences they were designed for. Therefore, in this current course you will be introduced to a systematic process for designing instruction that was originally created by Walter Dick and Lou Carey. It has come to be known as the Dick and Carey model of instructional design. The graph below shows you the steps in their model:

The Dick and Carey model is one of the better-known ID models and is used by educators, trainers, and instructional designers. It is by no means the only model available, but it is a widely used model that is based on research that has been conducted over many years and principles that have been generally accepted by those in this field. This is not to say that the Dick and Carey model is the "best" model. In fact, there are probably those who feel that any model such as this is too structured and rigid. Others critics feel that it is too much in the "behaviorist" vein, and as such is not good to use for those who wish to take a constructivist approach to teaching or training. However, there is much to be gained from from developing an understanding of a a model such as this, even for constructivists.

Above we stated that the Dick and Carey model of instructional design is systematic, but what exactly does that mean? All of the models we have discussed are systematic in that they are methodical and carried out in a step-by-step manner. However, there is another definition of systematic that is of more interest to instructional designers, and that is the idea of a system being an interdependent group of items that form a unified whole.

Systems exist everywhere in the world around us. For example, think of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment. For example, this might be a rainforest containing all the various plants, animals, minerals, weather conditions, etc. that all work together to create and sustain that system. The "system" part is important because if one element of this system is changed then the entire system changes.

This has been evidenced numerous times in nature as humans have gradually encroached upon natural ecosystems. For example, if we overhunt one type of animal in a particular ecosystem, then that affects the animals that feed on that animal (they go hungry), as well as the plants and/or animals that that animal feeds on (they multiply). In addition, we have caused drastic changes in ecosystems by introducing non-native species into them. The strange and rapidly growing plant known as Kudzu was introduced into some southern states and quickly spread itself all over the place, causing problems for native flora and fauna. Another example is the European Starling, a songbird that was introduced into the US in the late 1800s and has become a threat to native songbird species. What this means is that if the resulting effect of the outside influence is too great, then the native ecosystem can be destroyed or changed drastically.

Ecosystems are just one type of system that can be seen in the everyday world. Dick and Carey give the example of a heating and cooling system, which contains many components working together to provide heat or air conditioning (hopefully the latter at the moment). But what does all this mean to you as an instructional designer? Well, a classroom or training situation is also a system. The things that teachers or trainers do in that system affect every other component. If we change the instructional materials (e.g. from books to computers), then the learning experience for the students will be completely different; if we change the learning environment (e.g. from classroom to the Internet), then the learning experience will also be changed. If the students in the class are changed then the experience is also changed. Many instructional design models were created with this in mind, and view the instructional process as a system in which all the components are crucial. And in this system the desired goal can best be achieved when all of the components are taken into account during the design process. Each individual component's unique contribution must be taken into account.

Consequently, the Dick and Carey model was developed as a systematic approach that addresses each of the components of the learning "ecosystem": instructors, learners, materials, and the remainder of the environment. The Dick and Carey model is also systematic in that all of the steps in the process are interrelated. Each step receives the input from preceding steps and provides the output for the succeeding steps. The components must work together to achieve the desired goal of producing effective instruction.

Your activities should be typed up in Microsoft Word. At the top of the paper include your name, email address, date, and the title of the lesson (Lesson 1 - Overview of Design). Name the file "design.doc". When you have completed your activities, upload the Word document to the "instrdes" folder in your Filebox. When you have finished uploading your file, proceed to the online student interface to officially submit your activities for grading.

Assignment: Design Activities
Points: 10

Grading Criteria:

Describes an object. (1)
Describes the need the object addresses - what it is intended to do. (1)
Describes the relevant characteristics and capabilities of the object. (1)
Describes how the user of the object interacts with it. (1)
Describes any deficiencies with the current design of the object, and how they would change it if they were to redesign it. Includes characteristics or capabilities they would like to see added to it or removed from it. (1)
Describes a system. (1)
Describes the goal of the system. (1)
Describes the important components of the chosen system. (1)
Describes how the various components in the system function to achieve the goal. (1)
Describes what they think would happen if one or more of those components were removed from the system. (1)