What Is Instructional Design?

(EDU)

If you have been in education for any amount of time, you probably have an idea of what instructional design (ID) is and how it can be helpful for educators. However, if you are not traditionally trained as an educator, you might not understand what instructional designers do. Many researchers have defined and described instructional design (for example, look here). Still, I will do my best to give you a brief overview in my own words of what IDs provide to education.

Instructional designers are involved with the systematic analysis, development, and eventual implementation of teaching and curricular strategies associated with a course. They look at the course from the learner’s perspective and help the faculty member adjust the class for optimal reception by the student. I like to tell people that instructional designers take what is in the head of the content expert and make it more palatable for the students. As a result, IDs are becoming more popular in education, governmental agencies, and even the private sector.

It is important to note that instructional designers do not need to be content experts. I know this seems counter-intuitive, but they just need to know the best way to help the content expert deliver their presentations. Don’t get me wrong, it drastically helps if they are teachers or have teaching experience, but they do not need to be an expert in the area they help design. For example, only one other person on my team at OSU-CHS (besides me) has a background in science (biology); the rest have non-science degrees. Yet, they know the best way to flip the classroom and can help design the integration of formative assessments into lectures using polling software like Poll Everywhere. My team has been instrumental in helping the faculty transition their classes to remote presentations using Zoom. They help with syllabus design and standardization. We go over prior courses assessments and evaluations to identify weaknesses in content delivery so we can design better approaches in future classes. My team and I work alongside faculty and staff to create a learning environment conducive to positive students outcomes.

Instructional designers do a lot and bring a lot to education. In addition, the transition to remote learning because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for instructional designers more necessary than ever. If you know anyone taking classes right now, you have most likely heard how bad Zoom classes are or how they hate taking classes online. It’s not that online classes are terrible; the teacher for that course designed it poorly. Instructional designers will be crucial in the coming educational landscape as we maneuver not only through this pandemic but any future catastrophes that require an adjustment to teaching and learning. They will also be instrumental in changing our educational system to meet the needs of modern students.

-JZ