Mastering the Instructional Design Process

A Systematic Approach

William J. Rothwell, Bud Benscoter, Marsha King, Stephen B. King

• Publisher: Pfeiffer
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118947142
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

A comprehensive framework for effective real-world instructional design

Mastering the Instructional Design Process provides step-by-step guidance on the design and development of an engaging, effective training program. The focus on core competencies of instructional system design helps you develop your skills in a way that's immediately applicable to real-world settings, and this newly updated fifth edition has been revised to reflect the new IBSTPI Competencies and Standards for Instructional Design. With a solid foundation of researched and validated standards, this invaluable guide provides useful insight and a flexible framework for approaching instructional design from a practical perspective. Coverage includes the full range of design considerations concerning the learners, objectives, setting, and more, and ancillaries include design templates, PowerPoint slides, lecture notes, and a test bank help you bring these competencies to the classroom.

Instructional design is always evolving, and new trends are emerging to meet the ever-changing needs of learners and exploit the newest tools at our disposal. This book brings together the latest developments and the most effective best practices to give you a foolproof framework for successfully managing instructional design projects.

• Detect and solve human performance problems
• Analyze needs, learners, work settings, and work
• Establish performance objectives and measurements
• Deliver effective instruction in a variety of scenarios

Effective training programs don't just happen. Instructional design is a complex field, and practitioners must be skilled in very specific areas to deliver a training program that engages learners and makes the learning 'stick.' Mastering the Instructional Design Process is a comprehensive handbook for developing the skillset that facilitates positive training outcomes.

Part One
Overview

Chapter One
An Overview of Instructional Design

Instructional design means more than literally creating instruction. It is associated with the broader concept of analyzing human performance problems systematically, identifying the root causes of those problems, considering various solutions to address the root causes, leveraging organizational and individual strengths, and implementing the interventions in ways designed to minimize the unintended consequences of action. Instructional design encompasses the preparation of work-related instruction and other strategies intended to improve worker performance. It does not mean throwing training at all problems or mindlessly plugging content into virtual templates.

As we use the term, instructional design is (1) an emerging profession, (2) focused on establishing and maintaining efficient and effective human performance, (3) guided by a model of human performance, (4) carried out systematically, (5) based on open systems theory, and (6) oriented to finding and applying the most cost-effective solutions to human performance problems and discovering quantum leaps in productivity improvement through human innovation. We follow the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI) by making basic assumptions about instructional design and competencies associated with it. (See Exhibit 1.1.) In this chapter, we will explore each of the six characteristics identified above to lay the groundwork for the remainder of the book. We shall also address important critiques of traditional instructional design approaches.

---

Exhibit 1.1: Ten Key Assumptions about Instructional Design and Instructional Design Competencies

• Assumption 1: Instructional designers are those persons who demonstrate design competencies on the job regardless of their job title or training.
• Assumption 2: Instructional design (ID) competencies pertain to persons working in a wide range of settings.
• Assumption 3: Instructional design is a process most commonly guided by systematic design models and principles.
• Assumption 4: Instructional design is most commonly seen as resulting in transfer of training and organizational performance improvement.
• Assumption 5: Instructional design competence spans novice, experienced, and expert designers.
• Assumption 6: Few instructional designers, regardless of their levels of expertise, are able to successfully demonstrate all ID competencies.
• Assumption 7: ID competencies are generic and amenable to customization.
• Assumption 8: ID competencies define the manner in which design should be practiced.
• Assumption 9: ID competencies reflect societal and disciplinary values and ethics.
• Assumption 10: ID competencies should be meaningful and useful to designers worldwide.

Source: R. Richey, D. Fields, and M. Foxon, Instructional Design Competencies: The Standards, 3rd ed. (Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, 2001), 36–42. Copyright 1993 by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

---

Instructional Design: An Emerging Profession

Instructional design is an emerging profession. People can—and do—enter jobs as instructional designers and work in that capacity for their entire careers. That is especially true when many organizations are converting their training to online, blended, and e-learning-based approaches. Instructional designers are often tasked to lead or facilitate such projects.

Employment advertisements for instructional designers and closely aligned jobs frequently appear online and in print. (See, for instance, the job search websites run by the International Society for Performance Improvement at www.ispi.org and by the Association for Talent Development at www.astd.org.)

Many organizations across a broad spectrum of industries employ instructional designers. Jobs bearing this title are often positioned at the entry level. They often occupy the first rung on a career ladder leading to such higher-level jobs as instructor, project supervisor of instructional design, and Chief Learning Officer (CLO). But variations of this career ladder exist. Job titles also vary. Alternative job titles may include talent developer, performance technologist, performance consultant, human performance improvement specialist, human performance enhancement professional, instructional developer, education specialist, educational technologist, employee educator, trainer, staff development specialist, instructional technologist, or instructional systems specialist. Because variations exist in work duties, in modes of occupational entry, in educational preparation, and in career paths, instructional design is an emerging, rather than an established, profession. It is called a field of practice, though it has been researched (see Rothwell, Zaballero, Asino, Briskin, Swaggerty, and Bienert 2015).

However, the trend has been toward certification in the field. That trend suggests increasing professionalism. For instance, the International Society for Performance Improvement supports a program leading to the Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) designation (for a description, see www.certifiedpt.org/WhatisCPT.htm). That follows a growing trend for certification of many kinds, ranging from individual (such as the CPT) to product or process accreditation (see www.iacet.org). ATD also offers the Certified Performance and Learning Professional (CPLP) designation to certify practitioners in a broad range of areas of expertise in the field (see www.td.org/Certification).

Instructional Design: Focused on Establishing and Maintaining Efficient and Effective Human Performance

The chief aim of instructional design is to improve employee performance and to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Instructional designers should be able to define such important terms as performance, efficiency, and effectiveness.

What Is Performance?

Performance is perhaps best understood as the achievement of results, the outcomes (ends) to which purposeful activities (means) are directed (see Rothwell 2015; Rothwell, Benscoter, Park, Woocheol, and Zaballero 2014). It is not synonymous with behavior, the observable actions taken and the unobservable decisions made to achieve work results. However, behavior can contribute to results and is therefore important in considering those results.

There are several types of performance. Human performance results from human skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Machine performance results from machine activities. Capital performance is about financial results. Company performance results from organizational activities.

When asked to think about performance, most people in the United States think first of individual performance. There are at least two reasons why. First, people are sensitized to appraisals of individual performance because most organizations make evaluating performance an annual...