7 things you should know about developments in Instructional Design — from educause.edu
Excerpt:
What is it?
In recent years, instructional design has been undergoing significant changes resulting from developments in areas including pedagogy, learning science, and technology. Whereas instructional design had often been somewhat circumscribed, almost templatized, the complexity of the learning environment is turning instructional design into a more dynamic activity, responding to changing educational models and expectations. The science of learning is showing us how people learn, leading to new educational activities, such as active learning and peer learning. Flipped classrooms, makerspaces, and competency-based learning are changing how instructors work with students, how students work with course content, and how mastery is verified. Mobile computing, cloud computing, and data-rich repositories have altered ideas about where and how learning takes place. Now anyone with a mobile device can photograph a leaf, submit the image to a database for matching, and receive prompt plant identification. In this complex climate, instructional designers face unfamiliar challenges and explore new opportunities.
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What are the implications for teaching and learning?
Developments in the role of the instructional designer in higher education have the potential to benefit both teachers and learners in important ways. By helping align educational activities with a growing understanding of the conditions, tools, and techniques that enable better learning, instructional designers can help higher education take full advantage of new and emerging models of education. Instructional designers bring a cross-disciplinary approach to their work, showing faculty how learning activities used in particular subject areas might be effective in others. In this way, instructional designers can cultivate a measure of consistency across courses and disciplines in how educational strategies and techniques are incorporated. Designers can also facilitate the creation of inclusive learning environments that offer choices to students with varying strengths and preferences. In these and other ways, instructional designers are becoming an important part of face-to-face as well as online and blended learning environments.
Developments in the role of the instructional designer in higher education have the potential to benefit both teachers and learners in important ways. By helping align educational activities with a growing understanding of the conditions, tools, and techniques that enable better learning, instructional designers can help higher education take full advantage of new and emerging models of education. Instructional designers bring a cross-disciplinary approach to their work, showing faculty how learning activities used in particular subject areas might be effective in others. In this way, instructional designers can cultivate a measure of consistency across courses and disciplines in how educational strategies and techniques are incorporated. Designers can also facilitate the creation of inclusive learning environments that offer choices to students with varying strengths and preferences. In these and other ways, instructional designers are becoming an important part of face-to-face as well as online and blended learning environments.
This is truth that Instructional Design is constantly changing (or rather developing) so as the technology is changing and these two go hand in hand. It’s role will be growing as eLearning methods are more and more often commonly used in education, especially at the universities. So maybe one day Instructional Designer will be a highly prestigious and influential role?
Thanks John for the comment here. Good call on how ID changes as the technologies involved — and accompanying affordances — changes. I’m writing an article for EvoLLLution.com (where LLL stands for lifelong learning) and I can see how IDs will be helpful in building out a menu of future options for people to use to learn with. Thanks again John for taking the time to comment here!
Peace,
Daniel