In 7 Things You Should Know About Developments in Instructional Design – a white paper in a series put out by Educause’s Learning Initiative (ELI,) the role of the instructional designer is changing as the paradigm of learning and teaching continues to develop in higher education:  “the complexity of the learning environment is turning instructional design into a more dynamic activity, responding to changing educational models and expectations” (2015, p. 1).  The field of instructional design has recently begun to embrace a more ‘multi-theory’ approach – an integrated focus on learner needs and learning effectiveness – rather than holding fast to a single theory or methodology (Hillen & Landis, 2014).

Watch this video about what an instructional designer does and how they interact in more traditional environments with college faculty.

Common Processes in Instructional Design

There are several common processes of instructional design used in the field.  ADDIE, Understanding by Design (which generated the method of Backwards Design), Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction and others.  Many of these processes utilize Bloom’s Taxonomy as a basis for writing objectives and assessing learning.

The following pages will share some common processes and tools with you.

Next, you’ll learn about ADDIE.