Foundations of Instructional Design and Technology

× Discontinuance of ITMA Program:

Please be aware that the ITMA program will be phased out over the next two academic years while the School of Education engages in curricular restructuring. I understand this may be disappointing news; please know we remain committed to ensuring you successfully complete your degree in a timely manner.

We have reached out to the faculty in the ITMA program to help plan for the phase-out of the current curriculum. To support students currently enrolled, we will be preparing a plan of study for each student enrolled in the ITMA program to allow students to finish their program within two academic years.

Please check your email for additional communication regarding the phase-out process and course offerings. Should you have any questions, please reach out to Dr. Nancy Bradley, Associate Director of the Office of Academic Programs at nbradley@vt.edu.

We look forward to assisting you in the successful completion of your degree!

Course Description

Welcome to the ITMA program! This will be the first course you will take in the program and will provide you with an overview of the field of Instructional Design and Technology. You will learn about the history of the field, current debates, and future trends. You will be introduced to major theories about how people learn and how you can help people learn better. You will also be introduced to the historical founders, current leaders and available career paths in the field of IDT.

Course Objectives

After you have taken this course, you will be able to:

Trace the historical evolution of the field of IDT over time and its impact on current perspectives.
Characterize the contributions of theories of learning and instruction to the development of IDT.
Differentiate between important concepts and terminology used in the field of IDT.
Discuss ethical issues and challenges that IDT professionals may encounter.
Examine current practices, trends and future directions of the field of IDT.
Distinguish the variety of available career paths and the major professional organizations and publications in the field of IDT.

Required Materials

The following book is required. It will be used in the majority of lessons and is therefore required to purchase.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

You will also be required to read many other articles and book chapters for this course. Most of them can be accessed through the library. It is also recommended that you purchase the following book:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American psychological association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Lessons and Readings

Lessons	Readings	Objectives
Lesson 1: Introduction to instructional design and technology	No required readings	3
Lesson 2: Ethical issues and challenges of IDT professionals	Required: Smaldino, S. E., Donaldson, J. A., & Herring, M. (2018). Chapter 36: Professional Ethics: Rules Applied to Practice. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 303-308). New York, NY: Pearson. Required: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American psychological association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Recommended: Moore, S. L., & Ellsworth, J. B. (2014). Ethics of educational technology. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 113-127). Springer New York.	3
Lesson 3: Avoiding Plagiarism	Review PowerPoint presentation	4
Lesson 4: Historical evolution of the field	Required: Reiser, R. A. (2018). Chapter 2: A history of instructional design and technology. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 8-22). New York, NY: Pearson. Recommended: De Vaney, A., & Butler, R. P. (1996). Voices of the founders: Early discourses in educational technology. Handbook of research for educational communications and technology, 3-45.	1, 3
Lesson 5: Contribution of learning theories	Required: Driscoll, M. P. (2018). Chapter 6: Psychological foundations of instructional design. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 52-60). New York, NY: Pearson. Required: Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71. Recommended: Lowyck, J. (2014). Bridging learning theories and technology-enhanced environments: A critical appraisal of its history. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 3-20). Springer New York.	1, 2, 3
Lesson 6: Contribution of instructional design theory and models	Required: Branch, R. M., & Merrill, M. D. (2018). Chapter 3: Characteristics of foundational instructional design models. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th edition., pp. 23-30). New York, NY: Pearson. Required: Branch, R. M., & Merrill, M. D. (2018). Chapter 4: SAM and pebble-in-the-pond: two alternatives to the ADDIE model. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th edition., pp. 31-41). New York, NY: Pearson. Recommended: Chapter 5: Early instructional Theory from Richey, R., Klein, J. D., & Tracey, M. W. (2011). The instructional design knowledge base: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Routledge. Recommended: Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). What is instructional-design theory and how is it changing? In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Vol. 2 (pp. 5-29). Routledge.	1, 2, 3
Lesson 7: Defining the field: Current/best practices of the field	Required: Reiser, R. A. (2018). What field did you say you were in? Defining and naming our field. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 1-7). Saddlebrook, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall.	1,2,5
Lesson 8: Contemporary Issues in IDT	Required: Clark, R. E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. ETR&D, 42(2), 21-29. Required: Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning? ETR&D, 42(2), 7-19. Required: Gordon, J., & Zemke, R. (2000). The attack on ISD. Training, 37(4), 42-53. Required: Clark, R. C. (2002). Applying cognitive strategies to instructional design. Performance Improvement, 41(7), 10-16. doi:10.1002/pfi.4140410704 Required: Boling, E., & Smith, K. M. (2018). Chapter 39: Changing conceptions of design. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 323-330). New York, NY: Pearson.	5
Lesson 9: Trends and future directions of the field	Choose one of the following: Dempsey, J. V., & Van Eck, R. N. (2018). Chapter 27: E-learning and instructional design. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 229-236). New York, NY: Pearson. Dennen, V. P. (2018). Chapter 28: Social media and instructional design. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 237-243). New York, NY: Pearson. Quinn, C. (2018). Chapter 29: Mobile learning. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 244-249). New York, NY: Pearson. Bonk, C. J., Lee, M. M., Reeves, T. C., & Reynolds, T. H. (2018). Chapter 30: The emergence and design of massive open online courses. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 250-258). New York, NY: Pearson. Shute, V. J., Rieber, L. P., & Van Eck, R. (2018). Chapter 33: Leveling up: Game design research and practice for instructional designers. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 277-285). New York, NY: Pearson. Ertmer, P. A., & Glazewski, K. D. (2018). Chapter 34: Problem-based learning: Essential design characteristics. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 286-295). New York, NY: Pearson.	5
Lesson 10: Available career paths and professional organizations	No required readings Recommended: Reiser, R.A. (2018). Chapter 24: Getting an instructional design position: Lessons from a personal history. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 207-212). New York, NY: Pearson. Recommended: Klein, J. D., & Rushby, N. (2018). Chapter 26: Getting involved in instructional design and technology: Recommendations for professional development. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 220-228). New York, NY: Pearson.	6

Course Assignments and Tests

Lessons	Assignments	Points
Lesson 1: Introduction to instructional design and technology	Assignment 1.1: Listserv Introduction Assignment 1.2: Preliminary Views of IDT	5 15
Lesson 2: Ethical issues and challenges of IDT professionals	Assignment 2.1: Completion of Ethics Module Assignment 2.2: Ethical Dilemmas in IDT	20
Lesson 3: Avoiding Plagiarism	Assignment 3: Getting your “Avoiding Plagiarism Certificate”	10
Lesson 4: Historical evolution of the field	Assignment 4.1: Initial Timeline Assignment 4.2: Founder of the field interview	15 20
Lesson 5: Contribution of learning theories	Assignment 5: Learning theory	10
Lesson 6: Contribution of instructional design theory and models	Assignment 6: Instructional Theory Questions	10
Lesson 7: Defining the field: Current/best practices of the field	Assignment 7.1: Letter to a friend Assignment 7.2: Revised timeline	20 20
Lesson 8: Contemporary Issues in IDT	Assignment 8: Big Debates Questions	25
Lesson 9: Trends and future directions of the field	Assignment 9: Explore a trend in IDT	30
Lesson 10: Available career paths and professional organizations	Assignment 10.1: Job Search Assignment 10.2: Interview an IDT professional	20 30
Total Points		250

Submitting Assignments

We have created an online student interface that allows you to submit assignments, check grades, and review the assignment rubrics. This will allow the graders to organize and grade your activities in a timely manner, and provide useful feedback. When an assignment has been graded you will then be able to log back into this interface to view your score and any feedback that was given. The student interface will also allow you to review the grading rubrics for each assignment. Please bookmark this direct link to the SASI (online student interface).

Course Deadlines

Some lessons are more intense than others when it comes to the work load. In general, the assignments of lessons 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 will likely take you longest to complete. You will therefore have more than one week to complete each of these lessons. It is therefore recommended to start working on these lessons early to avoid having to do a lot of work right before the deadlines.

Course Grading

The following scale will be used in determining final grades:

Percentage	Grade
93 - 100%	A
90 - 92%	A-
87 - 89%	B+
83 - 86%	B
80 - 82%	B-
77 - 79%	C+
73 - 76%	C
70 - 72%	C-
67 - 69%	D+
63 - 66%	D
60 - 62%	D-

Honor Code

As part of an intellectual and ethical community, you must practice complete honesty in the preparation and submission of all work. Cheating, dishonesty and plagiarism of any kind, including the misuse of internet sources, are not tolerated. Any instances of academic dishonesty will be reported and may result in a “Fail” for the course. For information about the Undergraduate Honor System, refer to https://graduateschool.vt.edu/academics/expectations/graduate-honor-system/ghs-constitution.html Please read carefully Section 3 under Article I Purpose and Description.

The tenets of the Virginia Tech Graduate Honor Code will be strictly enforced in this course, and all assignments shall be subject to the stipulations of the Graduate Honor Code. For more information on the Graduate Honor Code, please refer to the GHS Constitution at https://graduateschool.vt.edu/academics/expectations/graduate-honor-system/ghs-constitution.html/

Support

If you have any questions about this module, please contact us at itma@vt.edu