Ideas for Instructional Design Professional Development

I am writing this post on New Year's Eve, the time at which many begin thinking of New Year's Resolutions. I have been reviewing my personal goals and resolutions and thought it would be interesting to write about instructional design professional development goals.

Change Is Constant
No matter what we do, the world is constantly changing. Our roles as instructional design professionals is changing, and we must continually acquire and expand our knowledge and skills to improve ourselves and make ourselves valuable.


Professional Development Ideas
So, how can we develop ourselves as instructional designers? Here is a list of ideas for professional development in instructional design. If you are now an instructional designer or want to make a career change into the field of instructional design, this list will give you ides for developing your knowledge and skills in meaningful ways:

1. Earn the degree- if you haven't already earned a degree in instructional design, this is perhaps the most important. Earning the degree will improve your credibility, knowledge, and abilities in very important ways. There are dozens of program options. Franklin University where I am currently a faculty member has a good online program that provides excellent training in Instructional Design and Performance Technology.
2. If you are already working in instructional design, consider expanding your knowledge by developing yourself in a related and useful area. This could mean project management, technology management, human performance technology, human resource management, or any other related skill or discipline.
3. Refine and extend your expertise in instructional design. Consider doing one of the following:
1. Read 1 or more new books on instructional design.
2. Go to a new conference or workshop that you have not yet attended.
3. Learn and use one (or more!) new design or development technologies.
4. Get into academia - read the current literature on a given instructional design topic. Or write and submit an article to an instructional design journal or magazine.
5. If you want additional insights, ask a trustworthy coworker or associate for areas you could work on or improve in.

My Professional Development Plans
Here is my own plan for developing myself as an instructional designer (and as a scholar) for 2012:

• Attend the Principles and Practices of Human Performance Technology Workshop at the ISPI Conference, this year.
• Attend and present at the Annual Convention of the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT).
• Find and attend a workshop on Project Management.
• Publish at least 2 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
• Teach at least 2 courses in the  IDPT program at Franklin University.
• Post to this blog weekly.

This is my current list and I am sure I'll add more goals next year. I plan to continue to develop myself as an individual and a professional so that I am more valuable to my organization and can learn more about the things I am interested in and excited about. I am especially blessed to work in an organization that provides me with funding and support for professional development activities, and I am grateful to enjoy this benefit as a faculty member at Franklin University.

What about you?
So, what are your professional development goals? How do you want to improve yourself over the coming year? What have been your most positive past experiences improving your skills and knowledge in the field of instructional design?

Setting Professional Goals

As a freshman in college, I stumbled across a Zig Ziglar cassette tape at the college library. Listening to Zig explain the power of goals was one of my first exposures to the basic process of setting goals, and since then I have learned more and more about goal setting and have set and achieved many educational and career goals. The culmination of these career goals happened 10 years after my first Zig Ziglar experience: I took my position as a faculty member at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. After taking the position, my wife bought me tickets to hear Zig Ziglar speak- a truly excellent experience. I am now continuing the process of setting new career goals and am excited to achieve future success.

The Goal-setting Process.

Setting Goals is Crucial
One thing that I have learned over the last several years is this: For career success, it is absolutely crucial that we set goals. But what is the best way to set these goals?

The most effective process for setting goals is actually very similar to the process for systematically designing instruction. It is the systematic process for designing your life. You could interject career, health, relationships, or anything else for "life." This process has helped me and my beautiful wife develop a healthy, happy relationship; I have set and reached numerous educational goals. I have also gained several desired professional positions through this goal-setting process. Organizing your mind and your habits around this process can help you achieve your own goals as an instructional designer and as a human being.

Goal Setting Process

I will use the basic ADDIE Model (with modifications, of course) to show you you can systematically "design" your career (or any other part of your life) using this goal-setting process. To succeed at reaching your goals, answer the following questions:

Analysis- What are your goals?

What are your specific career goals? What position, job description, or title would you like to have?

Design- What must you do to reach this goal?

What education or credentials must you obtain to reach these goals?
What additional skills or knowledge must you obtain to reach these goals?
What real-world experience must you obtain to reach these goals?

Develop- What will you do this year to reach these goals?

What are the first action steps that you must take over the coming year to begin moving toward your career goals? Be sure to include the education, knowledge, skills, and experience necessary for reaching your goals.
What preparations must you make to begin working toward these goals?
What obstacles will get in the way of taking these action steps?

Implement- Do the plan!

Star doing your plan as identified in the previous steps.This is perhaps the most difficult part, but if your plan is sound, you will find yourself moving toward your goal.

Evaluate- How is it Working? What can I do to improve?

During the Implementation of your plan: 
How is your plan working? Are you moving toward your goals? Are you successfully completing your action steps? What is going well? What obstacles and problems are you seeing? How can you refine your plan so that it works more effectively and efficiently?

After the Implementation of your plan:
Did it work? Are you moving closer to your career goal? What else could you do to gain the education, knowledge, skills and experience required?

Repeat Your Goal-setting
Goals and action steps should be reviewed constantly to ensure you are on the right path. The goal-setting process should be done on a regular basis, perhaps every 3 to 6 months. I recommend setting long-term goals first (3-5+ year goals) and then mapping out what you can do on the short-term (1-2 years) and immediately (this year/month/week). This keeps the long-term goal in mind and at the same time helps you focus on what you must do now to reach your goals.

I review my goals regularly to see where I am and see where I need to go. It has helped me to achieve a lot over the last few years, and I plan to continue to set goals and achieve excellence through this process. When we think about our career and life goals systematically, the path becomes more clear and we can more easily change our actions and move forward successfully.

What do you think? Have you used this or a similar process? Is the goal setting process of value? Your thoughts and insights are welcome in the comment area below. In my next post, I will share my own professional development goals for the coming year and will also provide some ideas for setting new years resolutions for setting professional development goals this coming year.

the miracle of hearing (and instructional technology)

This post is a little more personal than many of my previous posts.

Today my daughter had ear surgery to correct a hearing loss that she has had since she was born. She has always worn hearing aids and struggled more than most to learn to hear and speak, but we recently learned of an innovative surgery that will correct her hearing. It has been an incredible experience and we are grateful for the blessing of having our little girl be able to hear again.

As an instructional technology geek, I couldn't help but get a little excited at the doctor's use of technology to teach us what he did during the surgery. Below is an image that he drew for us on his i-pad just after the surgery. He emailed the image to me and I have added the text to replicate what he said as he explained the simple image to us.

As a technology lover, I am just blown away by the powerful technologies that have blessed my life. Most important were the technologies that have given my beautiful 8-year old daughter an increased capacity to hear and live life with greater advantage. The incredible combination of skill, technology, and knowledge is miraculous to me. And (as an instructional tech geek) it was a pleasure to see technology used in an innovative way to teach us how our daughter's ears were improved.

The 5 Most Fundamental Strategies for Helping Your Students Learn

What do good teachers do? What strategies are most effective at helping students learn? This has been the subject of thousands of studies over many decades, and it can be hard to really focus in on what teaching strategies are most effective.

One instructional theory that has had a lot of influence on my own work as an instructional designer and a scholar is Merrill's First Principles of Instruction (2002, 2007, 2009). After spending many years researching and discovering effective teaching strategies, Merrill set out to identify the most fundamental principles of instruction. He reviewed many theories and based on this review, he identified what he calls the 5 most fundamental principles of instruction. When you apply these first principles in your teaching and instructional design, you will engage students in activities that will help them learn more. Here are the 5 principles:

1. Problem or Task-Centered - Students learn more when they see real-world examples and solve real-world problems or tasks.
2. Activation - Students learn more when they actively consider what they already know about a topic and relate what they learn to what they already know.
3. Demonstration - Students learn more when the learn relevant knowledge and skills in the context of a real-world task or problem.
4. Application - Students learn more when they apply what they have learned in a real-world context and receive feedback and guidance on how their performance.
5. Integration - Students learn more when they are directed reflect on, discuss, debate, present on, or plan how to use new knowledge and skills.

First Principles of Instruction (Merrill, 2002).

Personal Experience with First Principles

I've realized that the university courses and teachers that have had the greatest impact on me have used most or all of these principles. For example:

• My public speaking teacher, Karla Bassett, used these principles when she taught us how to speak. She provided us with a structure for giving speeches (activation). She showed many videos and personally demonstrated the principles and skills of public speaking (task-centered, demonstration) and also had each student perform multiple speeches (application) and gave us feedback on our speeches. This task-centered approach gave me a deep interest in communication and speaking and I went on to earn a bachelor's degree in communication.
• My Spanish teacher, Carolina Bond, used these principles in class by speaking Spanish throughout the class (task-centered, demonstration, application) and by having us build vocabulary and use sentence structures in real-world scenarios (application). These courses prepared me to later speak Spanish as an English teacher in Guatemala. 
• Later as a graduate student, my Qualitative Methods instructor Dr. Sherry Marx shared many real-world examples (task-centered, demonstration) of  how she and others had conducted research and directed me and my peers to conduct multiple full-scale studies on our own (application). This task-centered approach to learning gave me an incredible learning experience and I was able to later publish the results of that research.

For more detailed examples of how First Principles of Instruction have been used in educational settings, and how to use these principles, see my recent published articles:

• Applying Merrill's First Principles of Instruction
• How Award-winning Professors in Higher Education Use Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction.

These are just a few examples of how these principles can be used. I believe that if you reflect on the most meaningful formal learning experiences you had as a student, you would find that the instructor used some or all of these principles effectively .

Do You Agree?

So, the question is, do you agree that these truly are the First Principles of Instruction? Or are there other principles that are more foundational than these? Are there other principles that enhance learning more than these? What do you think?

References

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43-59. (Click for copy from mdavidmerrill.com)

Merrill, M. D. (2007). First principles of instruction: a synthesis. In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 2nd Edition (Vol. 2, pp. 62-71). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. (Click for copy from mdavidmerrill.com) 

Merrill, M. D. (2009). First Principles of Instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth & A. Carr (Eds.), Instructional Design Theories and Models: Building a Common Knowledge Base (Vol. III). New York: Routledge Publishers. (Click for copy from mdavidmerrill.com)

ADDIE Process of Instructional Design

ADDIE Phases

The ADDIE Process (sometimes called the ADDIE Model) is a tool that many instructional designers use when creating instructional materials. This process follows five distinct phases and is used to help ensure quality instruction is created. The idea is that a designer should progress systematically from one phase to another as the instruction is conceptualized and created.

In this post, I will provide a basic overview of the ADDIE Process. Click the title of each phase to learn more about each of them.

1. The Analysis Phase-The analysis phase is the foundation of the instructional design process. In the analysis phase, the designer (along with others) identifies the problem or need, clarifies who the target audience is for the instruction, establishes instructional objectives, and creates a list of the tasks, knowledge, and skills that will be taught.
2. The Design Phase- The design phase should build directly upon the results of the analysis phase. In this phase, the designer plans instructional activities to meet the instructional objectives and teach the tasks, knowledge, and skills being taught. Designers plan for acquisition activities in which students acquire new knowledge and skills and application activities in which students expand and solidify their knowledge through experience.
3. The Development Phase- In the development phase, the instructional designer gathers or creates all the materials that will be used as part of the student learning experience. This includes web-based materials, multimedia, worksheets, activity descriptions, and anything else that will be used as part of the instructional experience.
4. The Implementation Phase- In the implementation phase, the instruction is implemented in the setting it was designed for. The purpose is to teach the tasks, knowledge, and skills that were identified in the analysis.
5. The Evaluation Phase- In the evaluation phase, the instruction is evaluated according to its usefulness and effectiveness. There are typically two types of evaluation: (1) formative evaluation, which is typically used before the implementation phase and is used to improve the instruction, and (2) summative evaluation, which evaluates the effectiveness of the unit of instruction.

It is important to note that these steps are not totally linear. As I design instruction, I find that I often move fluidly between each of the phases depending on the situation. I follow the general sequence of the process, but move regularly between the phases. Here


There are many other instructional design processes that reflect some or all of these general phases or steps. These other processes include (among many more) the following:

• The Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model
• Rapid Prototyping.
• The Pebble-in-the-Pond (Merrill, 2002)
• The OAR Model 

There has been some critique of the ADDIE process in the recent past- people seem to think that this process is outdated, too slow, or useless in the "real world." And while I agree that the way this model is used may differ depending on the designer or the context, I believe that following each "phase" at least in part is essential to an effective unit of instruction.

What do you think? Does ADDIE seem useful to you in your work?  Or is the systematic design of instruction "dead?" I say no, but welcome additional views.

The Influence of Context on Instructional Design

In one of my first instructional design courses as a graduate student, the professor Dr. Mimi Recker would very often answer questions about instructional design best practices with, "it depends." As I've moved forward in my career as an instructional designer, I have realized how important it is to really understand many of the variables in my work. Truly, in instructional design, context is everything. It affects how we apply our tools, theories, processes, and technologies to design effective instruction.

In my experience, many things influence how the designer carries out his or her work. All instructional design activity takes place within an environment or context, which can have significant and direct influence on the activity of the designer and on the resulting instruction. The following list, taken from an article I wrote previously (Gardner, 2009), demonstrates some general influences that affect the work of the instructional designer:
 

• Designer Background – Every instructional designer has a different background that affects the use of instructional design tools. This background also affects how the designer perceives and responds to the other contextual influences below.
• Community – Instructional designers work within a community, and the norms, culture, communication style, and expectations of community members can strongly influence how a designer works and the instruction they design.
• Goals and Purposes – The goals and purposes of an organization directly influence many aspects of instructional design. For example, a fast-moving corporation (with goals of gaining profits, developing products and marketing to end-users) places different time and product demands on a designer than a large research university (with semester-long courses and goals of producing researchers).
• Design Technologies – The kinds of technologies available and used within a context also directly influence the work of a designer. For example, developing instruction with HTML has specific constraints and that an instructional designer must work in. In contrast, using a desktop capturing tool to develop instruction has another set of constraints. Limited or prescribed access to technology can heavily influence design activity and product.
• Rules and Policies – The rules and policies of an organization can also heavily influence design. For example, if there are design standards or structural requirements, the designer's work is immediately constrained.
• Division of Labor –the individuals a designer works with and shares design functions with also have a strong influence. In smaller organizations, the designer often takes on development and deployment functions, while a larger organization might have different teams who perform these functions.

Awareness of these factors gives a designer the ability to adapt to any context and even influence that context in meaningful ways. If context is everything, then knowing that context will provide designers with power to design instruction that makes sense.

What is Instructional Design? part 2

In my last post (What is Instructional Design? part 1), I explained my idea of what instructional design is. In this post, I want to explain a little further the kinds of tools an instructional designer uses to create worthwhile learning experiences. Instructional designers use 3 main types of tools in their work: (1) instructional theory, (2) instructional design processes, and (3) instructional technologies and tools.

This video explains how these are used. (You can also continue reading below for more details).

The Activity of the Instructional Designer

The picture below demonstrates the activity of an instructional designer as it relates to these tools. First, I want to clarify that the tools designers use are either abstract or physical. Abstract tools are those that instructional designers use to guide their thinking and actions. I categorize them as instructional theory and instructional design processes. Physical tools are those that are used to actually develop instructional materials, which I categorize as instructional technologies and tools.

So, in our picture, the instructional designer uses physical tools and technologies to manipulate content and create materials that the learners will interact and learn with. These physical tools can be a computer, software, a camera, a Learning Management System (LMS), etc. These tools are used to develop physical materials.

A good instructional designer also works with abstract tools as they design instructional materials. He or she considers what is known about good instruction, which should include awareness of current instructional theory. For example, Merrill's First Principles of Instruction is a set of research-based prescriptions for how to create effective instruction. Instructional Designers also think about specific instructional design processes as they develop the material. For example, the ADDIE process walks students through the basic steps of instructional design to help ensure that quality instruction is created. The abstract tools are used to guide the development of the physical materials and help ensure the materials adhere to abstract concepts of what works in instruction.


The important thing here is that instructional design is an activity that involves the use of tools to create instructional materials. If you have any additional thoughts on the activity of an instructional designer, I would love to read them. This view is based on my experience and thinking, and I am sure that others have additional insights to share.

What is Instructional Design? part 1

What is instructional design? A friend and colleague of mine, Rob Barton, asked (and answered) this question in a fairly recent blog post. His thoughts are interesting and have made me think of my own response to that question- what is instructional design? Here are my thoughts (which are fairly similar what Rob wrote).

What is Instructional Design?

This is an important question, and sometimes I have a hard time answering it. (This is probably because I get geeked out and start talking about all the "academic" details of the field and practice). It is easiest to describe it through what an instructional designer does. An instructional designer, at the most basic level is a person who creates materials that help people learn.

For the past several years, I have designed instruction for college professors. I help them organize and create course materials and assignments that will help the students learn what is being taught. I do my best to use strategies that are based on what works according to the research. Instructional designers work in many different settings, including public school (K-12), colleges and universities, corporations, and in the military. Most of my experience as an instructional designer has been in higher education.

So, here is where my thinking gets a little more geeky. Below is my more lengthy (and academic) description of what an instructional design is and what instructional designers do.

A More Detailed Explanation

First, instruction (as it relates to instructional design) is an imparted unit of knowledge. Instruction is given with the intent that the one receiving it will acquire or learn that knowledge. (I use the term knowledge broadly to include skill, information, attitude, etc.)

Second, design (as it relates to instructional design) is the deliberate planning and creation of instructional materials.

So, instructional design is the deliberate planning and creation of materials used to impart knowledge to learner.

The Tools of Instructional Designers

As instructional designers plan and create instructional materials, they use several tools and technologies to accomplish their design goals. In my opinion and experience, these include the following major types:

• Instructional Theory, which is a set of prescriptions describing what the instruction should be like when it is finished. Instructional theory "offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn and develop" (Reigeluth, 1999). There are many instructional theories, and the most useful and beneficial are those which are based on sound learning theory,  peer-reviewed research, and reflective practice. An example of an instructional theory is Merrill's First Principles of Instruction (Merrill, 2002, 2007, 2009), which I am partial to and have written about (see my publications page). 

• Instructional Design Processes, which provide guidance on specific steps or phases to follow to help ensure that the instruction is of high quality. Examples include the ADDIE Model and the Dick & Carey Model (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2006). Both of these are briefly described in Wikipedia's article here.
• Instructional Technologies and Tools,  which are physical objects* used to create, manipulate and represent the knowledge that is being taught or imparted. These technologies can be used by the instructional designer to create the instruction, by the learner to gain and expand knowledge, or by both. Examples include a Learning Management System such as Blackboard or Articulate, or classic teaching and learning tools such as a pen and a piece of paper.

The three Types of Instructional Design Tools.

Related Post: The Difference Between Instructional Design, Technology, and Science

Instructional designers use these tools as they design instruction. Of course, instructional design does not occur in a vacuum, and designers must be aware of and adapt to the context in which they design. This is actually very complex and I will attempt to treat this in a later post. I have written about this idea elsewhere (Gardner, 2011).

In my next post What is Instructional Design? part 2, I will expand on what I have written here and also share a video that explains what instructional designers do.

What Do You Think?

I am interested to read your thoughts. As a whole, instructional designers seem to have a hard time defining what they do and how we do it. Perhaps this is because every design context is different and the way design occurs is therefore different, but are there fundamental similarities? Do you agree with my assertions here?

* Note: I state here that instructional technologies are physical objects. One might remind me that a design process or a theory is also a technology or a tool, but I make the distinction between physical tools and abstract tools. An abstract tool can be represented physically. For example, an instructional design workbook (physical) might guide an instructional designer through the ADDIE process (abstract). Abstract objects can therefore both internal to the designer (something they know, perceive, and conceptualize) and external as a physical representation of that tool or technology.

References

Dick, W. O., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (2005). The systematic design of instruction (6 ed.): Pearson/Allyn &; Bacon.

Gardner, J., (2011). How Award-winning Professors in Higher Education Use Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 8(5), p. 3-16).

Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43-59.

 Merrill, M. D. (2007). First principles of instruction: a synthesis. In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 2nd Edition (Vol. 2, pp. 62-71). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Merrill, M. D. (2009). First Principles of Instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth & A. Carr (Eds.), Instructional Design Theories and Models: Building a Common Knowledge Base (Vol. III). New York: Routledge Publishers.

Reigeluth, C.M. (1999). What is instructional design theory? In C.M. Reigeluth (Ed.) Instructional design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory (Vol. 2, pp. 5-29). Manwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.