Instructional Design

History

Instructional design emerged within education as a response to the need for massive training needs during World War II. Following World War II, instructional design became a prominent force in business and industry training more so than in public education. Early instructional design was based upon B. F. Skinner's work, and training programs focused on observable behaviors. It was also influenced by the work of Ralph Tyler regarding instructional objectives to guide learning and by the work of Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of intellectual behaviors. During the 1960s, Robert Gagne's work regarding task analysis also influenced the nature of instructional design. Elements of instructional design have been sustained over time—largely in the language of behavioral objectives. Design became more prominent in the 1980s as computer programs were designed as an alternative form of instruction. Instructional design has become more prominent since 2000 as universities and other programs have moved to more online learning.

Theoretical Influences

Instructional design is largely influence by four theoretical foundations. First, most models of instructional design are influenced by systems theory. Products of instructional design are most often presented in instructional systems that are part of larger systems, and they support an ongoing cycle of development that includes planning, implementing, assessing, and revising. Thus, the products involve an integrated systemic plan to solve an instructional problem.

Second, instructional design is also influenced by communication theory—particularly in recent iterations heavily influenced by online learning. Instructional design models address how messages are given and received and addresses how those instructional messages may be distorted by various forms of noise within the context. Accordingly, instructional design models often focus on the need to understand the learners' prior experiences when developing instructional products.

Third, learning theory has significantly influenced instructional design models. Two learning theories in particular have made their mark in instructional design: behaviorism and cognitive [Page 481]learning theory. Behavioral learning theories focus on the environment and design learning according to observable behaviors. In contrast, cognitive learning theories focus on the learner and design learning as an active, cumulative, and complex event in which the learner constructs meaning.

Fourth, instructional design is influenced by instructional theory. As such, many instructional design models attempt to prescribe specific characteristics of instruction to achieve specific aims. Examples of how instructional theory has influenced instructional design include Bloom's model of mastery learning, Gagne's theory on conditions of learning, and Keller's ARCs model of motivation.

Difference in Scale

Instructional design is implemented according to a variety of scales. For example, a team of designers may construct a packaged reform model that can be used with a range of grade levels to teach reading. This type of model may be very prescriptive, and assessment of students and the evaluation of the program may be focused upon the explicit fidelity at which teachers implement the program. Further, universities may use instructional design as a means to develop online programs. Although the outcomes of this scale of design are not as prescriptive as the packaged reform models, the programs often maintain some degree of prescriptive nature to support disciplinary standards and other possible accreditation expectations. On a smaller scale, individual teachers or a team of teachers engage in instructional design when they deliberately plan instructional units specifically designed for their classes. In the case of the smaller scale, the planning and implementation of the designed instruction is less focused on fidelity of implementation and provides opportunities for more flexibility and interpretation.

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