Instructional Design
What is Instructional Technology?
Instructional Technology (IT) is a field concerned with improving the
efficiency and effectiveness of instruction. IT involves:
- Designing instruction (including all the phases of activity from needs assessment to evaluation)
- Applying learning theory to instructional design
- Selecting delivery systems and designing techniques for a given delivery system
- Assessing human characteristics
- Conducting process and product evaluation
- Managing change and adopting innovations
- Building teams and managing projects
- Integrating instruction with other factors that influence human performance
- Implementing delivery to reach learners when they need it
- Using technology in support of the development and delivery of instruction
Ways to Define Instructional Technology
- Instructional Design seeks to teach how to plan, develop, evaluate and manage the instructional process effectively to ensure improved performance by learners.
- Instructional Technology's goal is to understand how people learn and how to best design instructional systems and instructional materials to facilitate that learning. We also use appropriate technology to aid us in the design and delivery of the instruction.
- Instructional Technologists are today's problem solvers. They look to understand performance problems and design solutions to those problems. Sometimes the solution is instructional; other times the situation requires a non-instructional solution.
Getting Started
Things to think about before you begin to develop...
Email & Announcements
Effective means of communication- how to make the most of email and announcements
Discussion Boards
Creating online community
Chat
Pros and cons of chat
Groups
More community- the effective use of groups
Online Testing
To test or not to test... some things to consider about online testing
Evaluation
Ways to evaluate your online course
Multimedia
Some things to consider when deciding on multimedia (such as images, audio,
video, animations) for your course.
Select this link to learn more about how to design an effective online course.
