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Instructional design - this word can sound quite intimidating. After all, instructional design is only for educators, isn't it? They know everything about this, don't they? Educators certainly know all about this, but through this blog, we also want to introduce you to the basic principles and benefits of instructional design, so that you too can apply them when developing your e-course.
“Instructional design (ID), also known as instructional systems design (ISD), involves: systematically designing, developing and delivering educational products and experiences, both digital and physical, in a consistent and reliable manner towards efficient, effective, engaging, engaging, and inspiring knowledge acquisition. Broadly speaking, the process consists of determining the student's condition and needs, defining the end goal of the instruction, and creating an “intervention” to help with the transition. ” *
1. Instructional design makes learning efficient
We can all Google. Reading an article or watching a movie is a piece of cake. But do you also remember that knowledge? Can you also apply the knowledge?
Probably not or hardly at all. Instructional design helps to streamline and structure information in a way that makes it easy to actually absorb the information and apply it to daily life.
2. Instructional design increases engagement
Transferring information unilaterally is generally not effective and does not lead to the desired learning outcome if you do not actually provide your student with the material involved.
Instructional design focuses on the student's learning experience and how it can be made stimulating, memorable and true-to-life.
This increases the chance that the student feels involved in the learning process and actually applies what has been learned in his or her daily work practice.
3. Instructional design increases interaction
We've all taken an e-course where you simply read an article or watched a video and then clicked “next lesson”. That was it. No practice, no feedback, no link to practice. I'm sure you got tired of this soon!
Instructional design implements elements in your e-learning that significantly increase students' interaction with the course material. Consider, for example, offering teaching materials in various formats, gamification, different forms of assessment, social learning, etc.
Without going too deep into educational research or complicated technology, there are indeed a number of instructional design principles that you too can easily apply while developing your e-learning so that your student also learns efficiently and is and remains involved.
No matter how enthusiastic you are about the course you are about to develop, it's ultimately about your student.
The closer you stay to answering these questions, the greater the chance that the student will feel (and will continue to feel) involved in your course and actually completes the course.
Don't overload your student with information, but keep it simple. Make sure you present the information in different ways so that there is something for every student (for example, some people prefer to watch a video, others prefer a podcast).
Define the subject clearly and don't elaborate too much. Provide a clear structure where the steps that the student must take to lead him/her to the end result are clearly distinguishable and easy to follow.
It may sound very “formal” to test your students, but this is important for both your student and you. This is because this allows your student to see how far he/she has come, how much they have already learned and where there is still room for improvement.
And you can see how your students pick up the course material.
Are there certain points where they score lower or even drop out? Then you still have some instructional design work to do here ;-)
When we think of assessment, we often still think of boring tests in large gymnasiums, but the possibilities are endless these days. For example, students can collaborate online in groups, give a virtual presentation, demonstrate their skills in a virtual reality environment, record a podcast or video, or make a photo collage.
Ask your students regularly for feedback so that you can adapt your course accordingly. You can do this by means of a short survey, analyzing the statistics of your e-learning, or a (group) interview. Your student is your main source of information and inspiration.
If you can improve your e-learning in the meantime so that it is even better suited to what your student wants to learn, your student is more likely to complete the training (and recommend it to others!).
We hope that we have made instructional design a little more insightful through this blog. You too can apply these principles directly to develop a high-quality e-course!
*Reference
Merrill, M.D.; Drake, L.; Lacy, M.J.; Pratt, J. (1996). “Reclaiming instructional design”(PDF). Educational Technology. 36 (5): 5—7.
As an educational expert specialising in online learning, I have been writing blogs for Pluvo for 5 years. My focus is on powerful learning solutions for organisations. Universal Design for Learning and inclusive learning are my passion; I believe that education should be accessible and fun for everyone.
I've been combining my 35 years of HR experience with copywriting for over 15 years. And even then, I learn new things over and over again. That's what makes writing blogs for Pluvo so incredibly interesting!
