47440514 Instructional Systems Design

International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore

N.J. Rao/September 2010 1

INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEM DESIGN

N.J. Rao

1. Introduction

Learning is part of everyday life. Typically the process of acquiring knowledge in an educational

context involves two key elements: one (teacher) who actively imparts knowledge and two

(student or the learner) who actively gains knowledge. Each of these elements is equally essential

for learning to be successful. The success is earned mutually for both the teacher giving the

knowledge and the student gaining the knowledge. In teaching students we hope to engage their

minds and passions. The teacher must consider what he has to give and how he hopes to increase

the student’s knowledge. The student not only gains new information but also he/she weaves this

information into his/her life. For the student, the key is how he/she acquires information and what

he/she might do to make this information part of his/her experience.

Teaching and learning are two different processes that take place in the context of an educational

system that is determined by the economic and social forces. This note presents basics of some of

the education, teaching and learning theories that could be used by the designers of curricula and

learning material, and methods of systematic design of courses, especially in engineering

programs.

2. Education, Teaching, Learning and Development

2.1 Education

Theories of education deal with the goals and values that educational systems embrace and

propagate. Their primary concern is with ends rather than with means, and their importance lies

in keeping us aware of the alternate goals of all our educational efforts. In a democratic society

the electorate determines the values of the schools and the goals toward which they work.

Philosophies of education influence theories of teaching. While many may cherish the belief that

theories of learning and teaching can develop in a climate of philosophical and ethical neutrality,

we know that such absolute neutrality is not possible, especially when the teachers have the dual

and overlapping roles of educators and citizens. There may be considerable folly in professional

educators’ fiercely pursuing goals and values that are seriously at odds with those of the lay

public, which provides both the students and the money we need to run the educational

institutions.

Four major theories of education of Twentieth Century (George F. Kneller in chapter three of

Introduction to the Philosophy of Education)

Progressivism (John Dewey, William H. Kilpatrick, John Childs)

1. Education should be life itself, not a preparation for living.

2. Learning should be directly related to the interests of the child.



3. Learning through problem solving should take precedence over the inculcating of subject

matter.

4. The teacher's role is not to direct but to advice.

5. The school should encourage cooperation rather than competition.

6. Only democracy permits - indeed encourages - the free interplay of ideas and personalities

that is a necessary condition of true growth.

Perennialism (Robert Hutchins, Mortimer Adler)

1. Despite differing environments, human nature remains the same everywhere; hence,

education should be the same for everyone.

2. Since rationality is man's highest attribute, he must use it to direct his instinctual nature in

accordance with deliberately chosen ends.

3. It is education's task to import knowledge of eternal truth.

4. Education is not an imitation of life but a preparation for it.

5. The student should be taught certain basic subjects that will acquaint him with the world's

permanencies.

6. Students should study the great works of literature, philosophy, history, and science in which

men through the ages have revealed their greatest aspirations and achievements.

Essentialism (William Bagley, Herman Horne)

1. Learning, of its very nature, involves hard work and often unwilling application.

2. The initiative in education should lie with the teacher rather than with the pupil.

3. The heart of the educational process is the assimilation of prescribed subject matter.

4. The school should retain traditional methods of mental discipline.

Reconstructionism (George Counts, Theodore Brameld)

1. Education must commit itself here and now to the creation of a new social order that will fulfill

the basic values of our culture and at the same time harmonize with the underlying social and

economic forces of the modern world.

2. The new society must be a genuine democracy, whose major institutions and resources are

controlled by the people themselves.

3. The child, the school, and education itself are conditioned inexorably by social and cultural

forces.

4. The teacher must convince his pupils of the validity and urgency of the reconstructionist

solution, but he must do so with scrupulous regard for democratic procedures.

5. The means and ends of education must be completely re-fashioned to meet the demands of

the present cultural crisis and to accord with the findings of the behavioral sciences.

These theories provide a framework for planning education in schools. The theories of higher

education cannot be so universal, and they are stated as outcomes of programmes in some broad

disciplines like Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Engineering and Technology,

Management etc.

2.2 Teaching



Any theory of teaching should answer three questions: how do teachers behave; why do they

behave as they do; and what are the effects? It should be a general concept which applies to all

teachers, to all students, to all subject matter, and to all situations, both in and out of school, in

which teaching may occur. It should consider the behavior of teachers, the cause, and the

learning of students, the effect. Further, it should explain, predict, and control ways in which the

behavior of the teacher affects the learning of the students. There is no single conception of

teaching. Teaching embraces far too many kinds of processes, of behavior, and of activity to be

the proper subject of a single theory. We must not be misled by one word, ‘teaching’ into

searching for one theory to explain it. Teaching theory and alternative views of teaching derive

from many sources. Some of these are (1) the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget, (2)

different social and political views of the organization and role of the school, (3) alternative

systems of values and social priorities, (4) aspirations for various types of utopias, and (5) favored

choices of new life styles.

2.3 Learning

Theories of learning describe and explain the conditions under which learning does and does not

occur. A theory of learning is a general concept which applies to all organisms, to all learning

tasks, and to all situations where learning occurs. It considers the conditions which give rise to

learning as the cause, and the learning itself as the effect. It explains, predicts, and controls the

way in which environmental conditions affect the learning of the organism.

A theory of learning is much broader and more basic than a theory of teaching. In fact, theories of

teaching must be based on theories of learning. The behavior of teachers is only one special

category of environmental conditions under which learning occurs. Learning also occurs without

teachers. Learning is a more ubiquitous experience than teaching. Theories of learning are much

more highly developed than theories of teaching. We have no single theory of learning, and it is

unlikely that one such would evolve in near future.

2.4 Development

Theories of development describe the biological and psychological changes that occur in people

during various stages of their lives. Theories of development apply to all people with similar

biological capabilities and similar physical and social background. These theories assume that

people experience about the same stages or steps of development approximately in the same

sequence and at the same time in their lives. Theories of development are much broader than

theories of learning and theories of teaching. Theories of development link behavioral change both

to biological inheritance and growth, and to environmental change.

3. Teaching Models

Basic Teaching Model of Robert Glaser divides the teaching process into four components or parts.

It provides an uncomplicated, yet fairly adequate, conceptualization of the teaching process. It

helps you organize the great body of facts, concepts and principles which makes up the field of



educational psychology, and helps you understand other more complicated teaching models. This

model is pictorially presented in the figure 1.

FIG. 1: Glaser’s Model of teaching

Instructional objectives are those the student should attain upon completion of a segment of

instruction. Entering behavior describes the student’s level before instruction begins. It refers to

what the student has previously learned, his intellectual ability and development, his motivational

state, and certain social and cultural determinants of his learning ability. Instructional procedures

describe the teaching process; most decisions a teacher makes are on those procedures. Proper

management of this component results in those changes in student behavior which we call learning

or achievement. Procedures must vary with the instructional objectives. Performance assessment

consists of the tests and observations used to determine how well the student has achieved the

instructional objectives. If performance assessment indicates that the student has fallen short of

mastery or some lesser standard of achievement, one or all of the preceding components of the

basic teaching model may require adjustment. The feedback loops show how the information

provided by performance assessment feeds back to each component.

Ned Flanders (1960) developed a psychological model called social-interaction model. Flanders

classifies the statements of students and teachers into ten categories; they include seven assigned

to teacher talk, two to student talk, and one to silence or confusion. Flanders states the three

principles of teacher influence to which the interaction model applies.

� Restricting student freedom of participation early in the cycle of classroom learning activities

increases dependence and decreases achievement.

� Restricting student freedom of participation later in the cycle of classroom learning activities

does not increase dependence but does increase achievement.

� Expanding student freedom of participation early in the cycle of classroom learning activities

decreases dependence and increases achievement.

The teacher restricts student freedom of participation when he exercises direct influence through

lecturing, giving directions, and criticizing or justifying authority. In these behavior categories the

teacher talks more and therefore plays a dominant role in the classroom. Expansion of student

participation occurs when the teacher accepts feeling, praises or encourages, accepts or uses

student ideas, and asks questions. The directness or indirectness of the teacher’s influence in

each part of the cycle affects two aspects of learning: the student’s dependence and his

achievement. Dependence is defined in terms of the degree of concern the student has for

Instructional Objectives

Entering

Behavior Instructional Procedures

PerformanceAssessment



pleasing the teacher. A dependent student is more concerned about which method the teacher

wants him to use than about which method will solve the problem. According to Flanders,

sustained direct influence by the teacher results in increased dependency. Achievement is the

difference in pretest and posttest scores.

There are three other historical models: the lecture-recitation model, the Montessori model, and

the human relations model.

4. Behaviorist approach to Learning

The father of behaviorism was John B. Watson, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the

1910s, who argued that environmental pressures not genetic blueprints, could explain adult

human behaviors from criminality to genius. Adherents to behavioral perspective believe that

psychology should focus only on observable behaviors and their relationship to events that can be

objectively measured. By the extreme behavioral definition a psychologist should be concerned

with neither the biochemical actions of genes, nor the invisible stream of an individual’s conscious

memories. According to this perspective, inner events have no place in a scientific psychology.

Since a psychologist cannot see what is going on inside a person’s head, behaviorists argue that

your personal memories are not admissible scientific data.

Skinner argued that psychology should focus instead on the prediction of our behaviors - head

nods, hand shakes, and showing up for work - and the environments in which those behaviors take

place. In particular, behaviorists have been interested in the relationship of learning history to

behavior: how you eat today is influenced by earlier rewards and punishments from your parents

and teachers, for instance. This perspective has been quite useful to predict and control

problematic behaviors. However, some psychologists believe that psychology without inner events

is more appropriate to the study of animals like rats and dogs than to the study of humans.

According to the opponents of behaviorism, humans are different from other animals precisely

because we can describe our inner experiences.

Robert Gagne’s theory of learning is based on behaviorist view. According to his theory, the

learner must first be instructed on component skills. These were combined to create the final skill.

Each seemingly simple action could be broken down into sub-skills. These sub-skills were

identified by asking “what must the learner know to do this?” This method was called task

analysis. If a task analysis were performed on the act of typing, recognizing letters, knowing the

position of letters on the keyboard and pressing the key corresponding to the letter read were

prerequisite skills. Some skills must be achieved before other skills could be developed. Gagne

called this theory “learning hierarchy”. There are both internal and external conditions of learning.

Internal states include things that are intrinsic in the learner and prerequisites. Essential skills

were described as those without which learning was not able to occur. Supportive skills were

those that assist learning, but are not essential. The training had to provide a proper sequencing

of component skills. The proper sequencing was essential to ensure transfer to the final skill.

Gagne viewed learning as cumulative, and the prerequisite skills were the foundation on which



new skills could be built. The analysis of skills, sub-skills and prerequisite skills was considered

imperative to the design of effective instruction.

Gagne identified five categories of material that is learned, and called them varieties of learning.

These are: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes.

They reflect the distinct types of skills that individuals acquire as a result of learning. Different

methods of instruction need to be applied to each type of learning. Verbal information included

names of object, or labels, facts and memorization of passages. In order for learning of verbal

information to occur, the content must be meaningful to the learner. Teaching verbal information

included relating new information to previous knowledge. Intellectual skills included use of

symbols, making decisions, applying rules or knowing how to do something. Intellectual skills were

built by presenting a variety of examples and rules that would guide the learner to the correct

answer. Intellectual skills were evaluated by asking the student to give examples or solve a

problem. Motor skills were described as learning to do something. For example, tie a shoelace or

shoot a basketball. A novice was clumsy and performed the task tediously, while an expert

performed swiftly and efficiently. A teaching method that promoted development of motor skills

was drill and practice. Attitudes were internal states that influenced behavior and decision-

making. Teaching attitudes was primarily by example, or modeling. Observing behavior or

decision-making was used to evaluate change in attitudes. Reinforcement was given when the

desired behavior was exhibited. Cognitive strategies involved problem-solving abilities.

Development of cognitive strategies was taught by describing or demonstrating the strategy and

allowing for learner practice. Presentation of new problems for solving was a method of assessing

cognitive ability.

Gagne described nine essential and sequential steps, which he called phases of learning. These

nine steps can be divided into three categories: preparation, performance, and transfer. In

planning instruction it was imperative to relate the phase of learning to the instructional events in

order to design effective instruction. Preparation included the phases of attending, expectancy

and retrieval. Attention was gained by asking a question, showing a picture of making an

intriguing statement. Expectancy was defined as alerting the learner to the objective of the

lesson. This was important so that the learner could process information presented, in light of the

goal. Retrieval was described as the recall of prerequisite skills or knowledge. This was

accomplished by use of questions or placing the learning in a problem-solving situation that

required them to recall information that was learned previously. Questions included “does anyone

recall why . . .” or “what was our lesson about yesterday?”

Performance includes the phases of selective perception, semantic encoding retrieval and

responding, and reinforcement. Selective perception was described as the presentation of the

content in such a way that the learner could process it into short-term memory. Encoding is the

processing of the content and examples into long-term memory. Retrieval and responding was the

phase where encoding was evaluated by the ability or inability of the learner to meet the objective.



The teacher and the environment give feedback on the quality of the learner’s response in

reinforcement phase.

Transfer of learning included cueing retrieval and generalization. Cueing retrieval is an

extended evaluation of the student’s ability to perform the new skill or apply the new knowledge in

a variety of situations. Generalization refers to relating the learnt skill or the knowledge to similar

things.

5. Cognitive approach to Learning

Cognition, or mental activity, involves the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of knowledge.

The cognitive approach is a theoretical orientation that proposes theories based on mental

structures and processes. Cognitive psychology began to emerge in the mid-1950s, encouraged

by disenchantment with behaviorism as well as a growth of interest in linguistics, human memory,

Piagetian psychology, and the information-processing approach. According to the information-

processing approach, mental processes can be understood by comparison with a computer, and a

mental process can be represented by information flowing through a series of stages. Cognitive

psychology is part of broader field known as cognitive science. Cognitive science is a

contemporary field of study that tries to answer questions about the nature of knowledge, its

components, its development, and its use. Cognitive science is interdisciplinary, including within

its scope the field of psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, artificial intelligence,

neuroscience, sociology and economics. Theorists within the broad field of cognitive science agree

that thinking involves the manipulation of internal representations of external world. Because

cognitive scientists focus on these internal representations - also called mental models - one can

see that this perspective clearly differs from the behaviorist approach. An extremely influential

new framework, called the parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach, argues that cognitive

scientist should abandon the serial computer as the basic model, instead provides the ideal model

of human brain. The PDP approach emphasizes that cognitive processes operate in parallel, neural

activity is distributed across broad regions of the brain, cognitive processes can be executed even

when the information is incomplete or faulty, and some are more effective than others in locating

information in memory.

According to Edward Tolman, a cognitive map is an internal representation of outside world that an

animal or human being stores in its/his memory. This map can be used to guide the future

behavior. Everyday learning often occurs vicariously. We watch other people and observe

whether they are reinforced or punished. Observational learning is defined as the learning of

environmental contingencies by observing the actions of other. The ability to learn by observation

enables us to profit from the successes and failures of others without engaging in time-consuming

trial and error learning. Animals and people also form expectancies in the process of forming

connections between behaviors and consequences. Research on the cognitive aspects of learning

demonstrates that learning is not a mechanical “stamping-in” process. Animals and people

evaluate their environment. They respond on the basis of what they perceive as likely outcomes.



Instead of viewing learning as the result of the environment acting upon passive learners, many

psychologists now believe that learners actively respond to their environmental experiences.

Ausubel's theory of learning is based on the cognitivist view: His theory supports the following

ideas:

� Inputs to learning are important.

� Learning materials should be well organized.

� New ideas and concepts must be "potentially meaningful" to the learner.

� Anchoring new concepts into the learner's already existing cognitive structure will make the

new concepts recallable.

6. Constructivist view of Learning

In the Constructivist theory the emphasis is placed on the learner or the student rather than the

teacher or the instructor. It is the learner who interacts with objects and events and thereby gains

an understanding of the features held by such objects or events. The learner, therefore,

constructs his/her own conceptualizations and solutions to problems. Learner autonomy and

initiative is accepted and encouraged.

Constructivists view learning as the result of mental construction. Students learn by fitting new

information together with what they already know. People learn best when they actively construct

their own understanding. In constructivist thinking, learning is also affected by the context and

the beliefs and attitudes of the learner. Learners are encouraged to invent their own solutions and

to try out ideas and hypotheses. They are given the opportunity to build on prior knowledge.

Today constructivist teaching is based on recent research about the human brain and what is

known about how learning occurs. Constructivism

� emphasizes learning and not teaching

� encourages and accepts learner autonomy and initiative

� sees learners as creatures of will and purpose

� thinks of learning as a process

� encourages learner inquiry

� acknowledges the critical role of experience in learning

� nurtures learners natural curiosity

� takes the learner's mental model into account

� emphasizes performance and understanding when assessing learning

� bases itself on the principles of the cognitive theory

� makes extensive use of cognitive terminology such as predict, create and analyze

� considers how the student learns

� encourages learners to engage in dialogue with other students and the teacher

� supports cooperative learning

� involves learners in real world situations

� emphasizes the context in which learning takes place



� considers the beliefs and attitudes of the learner

� provides learners the opportunity to construct new knowledge and understanding from

authentic experience

Key words and phrases of constructivist theory are:

� Meta learning

� Meaningful learning

� Discovery learning

� Situated learning

� Cognitive learning and thinking

� Thinking about thinking

� Learner initiated inquiry and exploration

• Holistic approach

• Problem-solving

• Prediction

• Case-based

• Simulations

• Conceptual

• Intrinsic

• Reflection

• Learner control

• Teacher facilitation, and much more...

In constructivism, knowledge is seen as relativistic (nothing is absolute, but varies according to

time and space) and fallibilist (nothing can be taken for granted). For our purpose there is an

important distinction within the constructivist school of learning. There are many different schools

of thought within this theory, all of which fall within the same basic assumption about learning.

Basically we have "Cognitive oriented constructivist theories" and "Socially oriented constructivist

theories".

Cognitive oriented constructivist theories emphasize the exploration and discovery on the part of

each learner as explaining the learning process. In this view knowledge is still very much a

symbolic, mental representation in the mind of the individual. However, and this is very

important since it is the basis of much of CSCL, the socially oriented constructivist theories stress

the collaboratory efforts of groups of learners as sources of learning. Pea states; "...the focus in

thinking about distributed intelligence is not on intelligence as an abstract property or quantity

residing in minds, organizations or objects. In its primary sense here, intelligence is manifested in

activity that connects means and ends through achievements".



7. Approaches to Learning: A Comparison

While the behaviorists viewed knowledge as nothing more than passive, largely automatic

responses to external factors in the environment, and the cognitivists viewed knowledge as

abstract symbolic representations in the head of individuals, the constructivistic school views

knowledge as a constructed entity made by each and every learner through a learning process.

Knowledge can thus not be transmitted from one person to the other person and it will have to be

(re)constructed by each person. This means that the view of knowledge differs from the

"knowledge as given and absolute" views of behaviorism and cognitivism.

Many educational psychologists found the behavioral approach unsatisfying. In the areas of

problem solving and learning strategies they became more concerned with what was unobservable

- what was going on inside the brain. These theories are based on the work of educational

philosopher John Dewey, and educational psychologists Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner

among others. They propose that children actively construct knowledge and this construction of

knowledge happens in a social context. Vygotsky proposed that all learning takes place in the

'zone of proximal development'. This 'zone' is the difference between what a child can do alone

and what he/she can do with assistance. By building on the child's experiences and providing

moderately challenging tasks teachers can provide the 'intellectual scaffolding' to help children

learn and progress through the different stages of development.

The methods of constructivism emphasize students' ability to solve real-life, practical problems.

Students typically work in cooperative groups rather than individually; they tend to focus on

projects that require solutions to problems rather than on instructional sequences that require

learning of certain content skills. The job of the teacher in constructivist models is to arrange for

required resources and act as a guide to students while they set their own goals and 'teach

themselves'.

8. Instruction

The purpose of instruction is to help people learn and develop. The kinds of learning and

development may include cognitive, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual. Learning can

certainly occur without instruction. We are continuously encountering and interpreting our

environment and the events in it. Learning is a natural process that leads to changes in what we

know, what we can do, and how we behave. However, one function of an educational system is to

facilitate intentional learning, in order to accomplish many goals that would take much longer

without instruction. Educational institutions teach knowledge and skills that the community feels

are desirable, even if they are not of immediate personal interest to the student, and even if they

would not be encountered naturally in non-school environments. The government and commercial

industries provide both skills and training and continuing refresher training to help employees

acquire the skills and learning needed to succeed in a changing workplace (Gagne et. al. 2005).

We define instruction as a set of events embedded in purposeful activities that facilitate learning.

These events can be external to the learner, for example, events embodied in printed pages, an



instructor’s lecture, or the activities of a group of students. There are also internal mental events,

such as directing attention, rehearsing, reflecting, and monitoring progress. Educational

psychologists hypothesize about the nature of these internal events, and from that research derive

principles about the learning process. Instructional designers apply these principles to the design

of external events we call instruction. For example, it is generally accepted that the working

memory has limited capacity. With this principle in mind, organizing information into clusters or

categories has been found to facilitate learning.

Is teaching different from instruction? Teaching is only one part of instruction. The word “teach”

infers that a person is lecturing or demonstrating something to the learner. However, the teacher

or trainer’s role includes many different tasks, such as selecting materials, gauging student

readiness to learn, managing class time, monitoring instructional activities, and finally serving as a

content resource and a learning facilitator. “Instruction” puts emphasis on a whole range of

activities the teacher uses to engage the students. An instructor who has knowledge of the

principles of instruction design has a broader vision of what it takes to help students learn: when it

would benefit students to be put into groups, when practice and feedback will be most effective,

and the pre-requisites for problem-solving and higher-order learning skills, for example.

Application of principles of instructional design would benefit a number of persons connected with

education, including those who are in the business of producing instructional materials, such as

textbook writers, curriculum material developers, web-based course designers, and knowledge

management system designers.

Instruction is more likely to be effective if it is planned to engage students in those events and

activities that facilitate learning. Using principles of instruction design, the teacher can select, or

plan and develop activities to best help students learn.

9. Instructional-Design Theories (Reigeluth 1999)

An instructional-design theory is a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people

learn and develop. For example, an instructional-design theory called “Theory One” (Perkins

1992) offers the following guidance for what the instruction should provide:

• Clear information. Descriptions and examples of goals, knowledge needed, and the

performances expected.

• Thoughtful practice. Opportunity for learners to engage actively and reflectively whatever is to

be learned.

• Informative feedback. Clear, thorough counsel to learners about their performance, helping

them to proceed more effectively.

• Strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Activities that are amply rewarded, either because

they are very interesting and engaging in themselves, or because they feed into other

achievements that concern the learner.

Instructional-design theory is a design-oriented (focusing on means to attain given goals of

learning or development), rather than description oriented (focusing on the results of given



events). Secondly, instructional design theory identifies methods of instruction (ways to support

and facilitate learning) and the situations in which those methods should and should not be used.

Third, in all instructional-design theories, the methods of instruction can be broken into more

detailed component methods. Fourth, the methods are probabilistic rather than deterministic,

which means they increase the chances of attaining the goals rather than ensuring attainment of

goals.

Theories can be thought of as dealing with cause-and-effect relationships or with flows of events in

natural processes, keeping in mind that those effects or events are almost always probabilistic.

Most people think of theories as descriptive in nature, meaning that the theory describes the

effects that occur when a given class of causal events occurs, or meaning that it describes the

sequence in which certain events occur. Descriptive theories can be used for prediction or for

explanation. Design–oriented theories are very different from descriptive theories. Design theories

are prescriptive in nature, in the sense that they offer guidelines as to what method(s) to use to

best attain a given goal. Simon (1969) referred to the distinction between descriptive theories and

design theories as “the natural sciences” and “and the sciences of the artificial”, respectively.

Design theories are intended to provide direct guidance to practitioners about what methods to

use to attain different goals, whereas descriptive theories attempt to provide a deeper

understanding of effects that result from phenomena. Descriptive theories, therefore, are also

useful to practitioners, because they provide an understanding of why a design theory works and

because they can help practitioners to generate their own theories for those many situations for

which no adequate ones exist. The major concern for people developing and testing descriptive

theories is validity, whereas for design theories it is preferability.

Instruction design theory requires at least two components: methods for facilitating human

learning and development (which are also called instructional methods), and indications as to

when and when not use those methods (which may be called situations). An essential feature of

instructional-design theories is that the methods they offer are situational rather than universal.

There are two major aspects of any instructional situation: the conditions under which the

instruction will take place and the desired outcomes of the instruction. Instructional conditions

include:

• The nature of what is to be learned (e.g., understandings are learned differently from the way

skills are learned)

• The nature of the learner (e.g., prior knowledge, learning strategies, and motivation)

• The nature of learning environment (e.g., independently at home, in a group, in a classroom, a

team in business)

• The nature of the instructional development constraints (e.g., resources available for planning

and developing instruction)

The second major aspect of any instructional situation is the desired instructional outcomes, which

are different from learning goals. They do not include the specific learnings that are desired.

Instead, desired instructional outcomes include the levels of effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal



you want or need from the instruction. Some trade-offs are necessary, among the desired

outcomes.

Instructional methods are also componential, meaning that each can be done in different ways and

therefore made up of different components (or features). For example, group discussion can be

viewed as a method of instruction. But group discussion is made up of many smaller methods,

such as forming groups, presenting an issue for discussion, rules to be followed for discussions,

and evaluating group’s as well as individuals’ efforts and so forth. In addition, there are usually

many different ways in which a method can be performed. The discussion topic can be presented

in many ways; the rules for discussions can be made differently, and so forth. More details can be

provided for a method by offering criteria that the method should meet. An instructional-design

theory is easier to apply if it describes methods on a relatively detailed level.

Another characteristic of methods of instruction is that they are probabilistic. This means that

methods do not guarantee the desired instructional and learning outcomes. They only increase

the probability that the desired results will occur. This is because there are so many factors that

influence how well a method of instruction works.

So, instructional-design theories can vary greatly in terms of the level of guidance they provide,

ranging from very general theories to highly dedicated theories. Instructional-design theories differ

in important ways from learning theories, curriculum theories, and instruction-design processes.

Learning theories are often confused with instruction-design theories. Learning theories are

descriptive. They describe how learning occurs. For example, one kind of theory, called schema

theory, proposes that new knowledge is acquired by accretion into an existing schema, by tuning

that schema when minor inconsistencies emerge, and restructuring that schema when major

inconsistencies arise. If I am able to successfully identify useful methods for a particular situation,

I have created an instructional-design theory. In contrast to learning theories, instructional-design

theories are more directly and easily applied to education problems, for they describe specific

events outside of the learner that facilitate learning (i.e., methods of instruction), rather than

describing what goes on inside a learner’s head when learning occurs. The same kind of analysis

applies to theories of human development.

Curriculum theories are concerned with what to teach, whereas decisions about how to teach

constitute the province of instruction-design theories. However, the interrelationships between

these two kinds of decisions are so strong that it often makes sense to combine the two.

Regarding what to teach (goals), the Instructional System Design (ISD) process has traditionally

looked at only what works, through the process of needs analysis. But many curriculum theories

are based on a philosophy (a set of values). In fact both empirics (data about what is needed)

and values (opinions about what is important) are relevant and should be addressed in the ISD

process for deciding what to teach, perhaps with different degrees of emphasis for different

situations. Decisions regarding how to teach need also to take into consideration how one

situation differs from another, because people differ in their values about what outcomes are



important. Thus, both values and empirics are important for making decisions about how to teach

as well as what to teach, so elements of curriculum theory and the ISD process should be

combined.

Instructional-Design Process or Instructional System Development (ISD) is the process a

teacher or instructional designer should use to plan and prepare for instruction, while instructional-

design theory concerns what the instruction should be like (i.e., what methods of instruction

should be used). However, instructional-design theories and instructional-design processes are

closely related. Different theories require differences in the process used to apply those theories

to particular situations.

Instructional practice is a subsystem that is part of different kinds of systems, such as public

education system, higher education systems, corporate training systems, health agencies, the

armed forces, museums, informal learning systems, and many others. Systems thinkers know

that, when a human-activity system (or societal system) changes in significant ways, its

subsystems must change in equally significant ways to survive. This is because each subsystem

must meet one or more needs of its supersystem in order for the supersystem to continue to

support it.

The supersystem of instruction, consisting of all public, private and nonprofit organizations, has

been changing significantly as the world is fast moving from industrial age to information age.

Some of the markers that characterize these two ages are shown in following table.

INDUSTRIAL AGE INOFRMATION AGE

Standardization Customization

Bureaucratic organization Team-based organization

Centralized control Autonomy with accountability

Adversarial relationship Cooperative relationships

Autocratic decision making Share decision making

Compliance Initiative

Conformity Diversity

One-way communications Networking

Compartmentalization Holism

Parts oriented Process oriented

Planned obsolescence Total quality

CEO or boss as “king” Customer as “king



These fundamental changes in instruction’s supersystems have important implications for

instruction. Employees need to be able to think about and solve problems, work in teams,

communicate, take initiative, and bring diverse perspectives to their work. Also, people need to

learn more, yet they have less time to learn it, and they need to demonstrate an impact on the

organization’s strategic objectives.

Our current paradigm in education and training is based on standardization. We know that

different learners learn at different rates and have different learning needs. Yet our current

paradigm of education and training entails teaching a large group of learners the same content in

the same amount of time. One reason is that group-based learning represents logistical and

economic efficiencies, even though it does not do a good job of learner’s needs. Even the student

assessment has typically been norm based to see who the really bright ones are. Standardized

instruction allows valid comparisons of student with each other, which was an important need in

the industrial age. So our current paradigm was never designed for learning; it was designed for

sorting.

Current paradigm of training and education is also based on conformity and compliance. Students’

training is directed by the trainer or teacher. But employers now want people who will take

initiative to solve problems and who will bring in diversity – especially diverse perspectives – to

the work place.

We have seen that the current paradigm of education and training needs from one focused on

sorting to one focused on learning – from the Darwinian notion of “advancement of the fittest” to

the more spiritual and humanistically defensible one of “advancement of all” – and on helping

everyone to reach their potential. This means that the paradigm of instruction has to change from

standardization to customization, from a focus on presenting material to a focus on making sure

that learners’ needs are met. This, in turn, requires a shift from passive to active learning and

from teacher-directed to student-directed (or jointly directed) learning. It requires a shift from

teacher initiative, control, and responsibility to shared initiative, control, and responsibility. It

requires a shift from decontextualized learning to authentic, meaningful tasks. And, most

importantly, it requires a shift from holding time constant and allowing achievements to vary, to

allowing each learner the time needed to reach the desired attainments.

But to change the paradigm of instruction in this way, the teacher can’t teach the same thing to a

whole “class” at the same time. This means the teacher has to be more of a “guide on the side”

rather than a “sage on the stage”. So, if the teacher is facilitator rather than the agent of most of

the learning, what other agents are there? Well-designed resources are one, and instructional-

design theory and instructional technology can play particularly large roles in developing these.

But others include fellow learners, local real-world resources (e.g., practitioners), and remote

resources (available on the Internet). Instructional-design theories are needed to offer guidance

for the use of all these kinds of resources for the learning-focused paradigm off instruction.



Instructional System Development is explored, particularly with reference to courses in formal

engineering programs, in the following sections.

10. Instructional System Design Model

10.1 Introduction

Instructional Systems Design (ISD) Models are the systematic guidelines instructional designers

follow in order to create a workshop, a course, a curriculum, an instructional program, a training

session, or the instructional materials and products for educational programs. ISD is a process to

ensure learning does not occur in a haphazard manner, but is developed using a process with

specific measurable outcomes. The responsibility of the instructional designer is to create

instructional experiences, which ensure that the learners will achieve the goals of instruction.

ADDIE is generic model for instruction system design. All other ISD models can be treated as

particularizations of this model for specific purposes. For example, the very popular Dick and

Carey model can be seen as particularization of ADDIE model for training programs, though the

authors did not refer to ADDIE. One particularization of ADDIE model to courses in formal

engineering programs is presented in the following.

10.2 ADDIE Model

The “ADDIE Model” is a colloquial term used, since 1980s, to describe a systematic approach to

instructional development. The term is virtually synonymous with instructional systems

development. The label seems not to have a single author, but rather to have evolved informally

through oral tradition. It is not a specific, fully elaborated model in its own right, but rather an

umbrella term that refers to a family of models that share a common underlying structure. ADDIE

is an acronym referring to the major processes that comprise the generic ISD: Analysis, Design,

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. These processes are sequential and iterative,

as depicted in figure 2.

The basic engine of ISD models (Molenda 2003) is the systems approach: viewing human

organizations and activities as systems in which inputs, outputs, processes (throughputs), and

feedback and control elements are the salient features. Advocates of this model claim that the

process of designing instruction can be carried out more efficiently and effectively if the steps are

followed in a logical order so that the output of each step provides the input to the next. For

example, the outputs of the Analysis phase are a set of instructional objectives prepared based

on a selected set of competencies, a concept map that arranges the concepts to be mastered to

achieve instructional objectives, and course contents arranged as modules and units. In the

Design phase instructional objectives at the level of modules and units are prepared, media in

which learning material would be presented is selected, and instructional methods are chosen for

different learning units/modules. The blueprint created in the Design phase is converted into

instructional materials and procedures in the Development phase. The materials and procedures

are used by actual learners in the Implementation phase. The learners and the instructional



system are probed, in the Evaluation phase to decide whether revisions are necessary, in which

case the process would be repeated with the next version of instruction.

FIG. 2: ADDIE model of ISD

The iterative aspect of the model is represented vertically down the model by the arrows in both

directions between each phase, as depicted in figure 2. Each major phase of the process is

accompanied by some sort of formative evaluation, as depicted on the left side of the model, to

test the adequacy of the decisions made during that phase. After Analysis, for example, the

accuracy of descriptions of the audience and the learning needs are evaluated by a group of

experts. After Design, the concept map and instructional methods are judged by experts. After

Development, the efficacy of prototype work in a small-scale tryout is evaluated and

improvements to the learning materials are worked out. Did the entire intervention achieve its

goal, or what remains to be done after Implementation? This summative evaluation is what is

symbolized by the final Evaluation phase. At each of these phases, the results of the evaluative

activity could lead the developers to revisit earlier steps, hence the arrows between phases in both

the directions.

The single most important feature of ADDIE model is the identification, during the

analysis phase, of instructional objectives of the course.

The activities under all these four phases will greatly depend on the nature of what is being

created and the context in which it is being created. The context is defined by the audience and

their background, environment in which the instruction takes place, and the technologies

accessible.

ANALYSIS

DESIGN

DEVELOPMENT

EVALUATION

IMPLEMENTATION

EVALUATION



10.3 Analysis Phase

Analysis is the first stage of ADDIE model. The first task in this phase is identification of audience

and determination of their entry behavior. As engineering programs are formal, elaborate

mechanisms exist for selection of students to these programs, and the curriculum identifies the

course structure and prerequisites of each course, the analysis of audience and entry behaviors

need not be undertaken for each course. The time and budget constraints also do not change

from one course to the other very much. All courses are of one semester duration and have well

defined credit load. The instructor has limited choices with regard to assessment depending on the

nature of the subject, his/her personal preferences, number of students registered, and the

technologies available. Therefore, the major task of the analysis phase is identification of

instructional goals. An engineering program has well defined program outcomes (ABET 3a-3k or

Washington Accord traits of graduating engineers), which are generic in nature. Each course

attempts to meet a subset of these outcomes. The selected outcomes need to be translated into a

set of technical and non-technical competencies related to the subject matter of the course.

Instructional objectives are written for the identified list of competencies.

The stages of analysis phase for an engineering course may be listed as

1. State the Vision and Mission of the College, Program Educational Objectives, and the

Curriculum of the program.

2. Select a subset of Program Outcomes proposed to be addressed by the course.

3. Write the Course Overview indicating the assumptions made and approach taken by the

instructor, its relationship to other courses in the Curriculum.

4. Identify factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge elements of the subject matter of the

course and Tools proposed to be used.

5. Identify the competencies that the student should achieve at the end of the course that also

achieve the selected program outcomes, draw the competency map, and prepare competency-

program outcome matrix

6. Elaborate each competency in terms of instructional objectives that can be test items, reports,

and projects. Test items are to be at the highest cognitive level as identified by the

competencies. Solutions to test items are to be given. Test items and their solutions should

reflect instructor’s way of integrating competencies and program outcomes.

7. Have the outputs of analysis phase peer reviewed

Instructional methods refer to the activities in which the instructor and learner will be involved

during the lesson. These are used to create learning environments considered to be effective by

the instructor in achieving the instructional objectives. Some examples of instructional methods

are direct teaching, structured overview, case studies, conducting experiments, field studies,

projects, and group discussions.

10.4 Design Phase



The design phase represents activities that enable the instruction designer to generate a plan

according to which the instructional material would be identified and/or developed. The stages of

design phase for an engineering course may be listed as

1. Prepare the concept map, and identify Modules and Units from the concept map

2. Select an instructional strategy (a collection of instructional methods) and assessment pattern

for the course

3. Select delivery technologies

4. Design all the Modules (overview, competencies, its instructional objectives in 2-tier or 3-tier

format as per Gronlund, the instructional methods proposed to be used, and reference

materials and relevant internet links, plan for non-lecture oriented sessions (assignments,

laboratory experiments, field trips, reports, group projects, discussion sessions etc.) and the

associated assessment instruments)

5. Have the outputs of design phase peer reviewed.

10.5 Development Phase

The development phase represents activities that convert the blueprints created in the design

phase into instructional materials, learning materials, and materials and procedures for planned

activities. The stages in the development phase of an engineering course consist of

1. Prepare instructional materials (slides, lecture plans, discussion topics/questions, problems to

be worked out in the class etc.) for all Units as per the selected instructional methods and

educational technologies.

2. Select and/or prepare learning materials for all Units of the course.

3. Have the outputs of development phase peer reviewed.

11. Summary

Instruction design of a course is done in five stages as per ADDIE model. The Implementation and

Evaluation phase were not considered in this note. The analysis and design phase activities

require an in depth understanding of the present day context and an awareness of different

technologies available. The instructor needs to appreciate availability of a large number of

instructional methods and learning resources. He has now an opportunity to facilitate students to

learn as per his beliefs.

References

1. Gagne, R.M., Wager, W.W., Golas K.C., and Keller, J.M., Principles of Instruction Design, 5th

Edn., Thomson-Wadsworth, 2005

2. Glaser, R., Psychology and Instructional Technology. Training Research and Education. Edited

by Glaser, R. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1962

3. Kneller G.F., Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, 2nd Edn., John Wiley & Sons Inc;

1971



4. Molenda M: The ADDIE Model, in, Educational Technology: An Encyclopedia (Eds. A. Kovalchick

& K. Dawson) ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, CA, 2003. (Draft at

http://www.indiana.edu/~molpage/The%20ADDIE%20Model_Encyclo.pdf )

5. Perkins, D.N., Smart schools: Better thinking and learning for every child, New York, The Free

Press, 1992

6. Reigeluth, C. M., What Are Instructional Strategies and Theories? [online] Available:

http://php.indiana.edu/~reigelut/3.1inst.html , 2001

7. Reigeluth, C. M., (Ed.) Instructional-design theories and Models: A new paradigm of

instructional theory, Volume II, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.

8. Simon, H., Sciences of the artificial, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1969

9. Teaching Models: http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/models/index.html;

http://www.emu.edu/education/model.html; http://www.jefflindsay.com/EducData.shtml;

http://specialneedseducation.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_cooperative_teaching_model

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