Fundamentals of Instructional Design

Full overview

This lesson will provide background information that you will find useful as you begin your study of instructional design. You will begin with an overview of the history, traditions, and current state of the discipline of instructional design. Then, you will explore models of instructional design and professional instructional design practices and approaches.

How do people think? What is learning? Why is it important for instructional designers to understand how people learn? In this lesson, you will explore these questions and more. You will also examine historical and modern views of thinking, cognitive functions, and types of learning.

What is a needs analysis, and why is it important to conduct one? In this lesson, you will learn about the importance of needs analyses and needs assessments, as well as popular approaches to conducting and evaluating them.

What is task analysis? How do you conduct one, and why does it matter? This lesson will cover the critical nature of the task analysis in the instructional design process and will offer procedures and instructions on how to conduct one.

In addition to task analysis, it is also important to conduct a learner analysis. This lesson will provide instruction on analyzing learners, user-centered design, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and more!

Instructional goals and learning objectives—what is the difference? This lesson will cover this topic, as well as popular approaches to setting goals and objectives.

Why is it important to organize content and learning activities? How does this help an instructional designer? This lesson will cover this, as well as the events of instruction, the continuum of learning experiences, methods of delivery, and more.

In this lesson, you will explore the development of instructional interactions and events, learning environments, instructional activities, and research support for instructional practices.

In this lesson, you will explore questions like "What is evaluation?" and "How do evaluation and assessment differ?" You will also learn about learner evaluations, developing objective test items, and formative and summative assessments.

In this lesson, you will explore ways to determine the success of the instructional design product and process. You will also explore instructional media production management and answer questions such as, "How does one manage a production project?" and "Why is it important to include various types of evaluation in the instructional design process?"

In this lesson, you will learn about visual design for instructional media, as well as exploration, innovation, and evolution in instructional design. You will explore questions like, "Why is it important for an instructional designer to have some knowledge of visual design?" and "What is design thinking?" In doing so, you will discover basic principles of visual design and a different view of the design process.

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