Instructional Design: What is the Research Saying?

As with all educational technology research, Instructional Design research is constantly evolving. Best practices in Instructional Design is really about keeping up with the research and evaluating the work that you are doing. Below I have listed some key themes that are present in Instructional Design Research.

The following information is extracted from L. Dee Fink's paper Intergrated Course Design: A Model for Creating Significant Learning Experiences. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003 as well as from MRC's Instructional Design Team, 2005.

The key to designing a signficant learning experience is to follow the key components of Integrated Course Design, as shown in the diagram below.
Ensuring that your learning goals, teaching & learning activities, and feedback & assessment goals are aligned will enable you to create an effective and significant learning experience for the student.

Key Questions to ask When Designing Learning Experiences

• What situational factors play an important role, when designing courses and curricula?
• What should our full set of learning goals be?
• What kinds of feedback and assessment should we provide?
• What kinds of teaching and learning activities will suffice, in terms of achieving the full set of learning goals we set?
• Are all the components connected and integrated, i.e. are they consistent with and supportive of each other?
  

Course Structure

Key to excellent teaching in an online course is course structure. Take a look at the following article entitled Course Structure: Most Important Factor in Student Satisfaction.