What Informs Instructional Design?

This short video is 1:33 minutes in length.

8 Key Influences

• Target Audience Data
• Performance Data
• Enabling Knowledge/Skills Data
• Existing Content Data
• Learning Environments Data
• Available Digital Technology Data
• Management Support Availability
• Peer/ Coaching Availability

Target Audience Data

Being clear about the specific target audience(s) enables your focus on their terminal Performance Objectives, back on the job, and enables you to determine their probable prior knowledge from education and/or experience.

Performance Data

Being clear about the specific Tasks and Outputs of the Target Audience enables you to focus on what practice with feedback will be needed.

Enabling Knowledge/Skills Data

Being clear about the specific Knowledge and Skills required to enable Performance back-on-the-job allows you to minimize it and organized it for your learners in preparation for them applying it in authentic manners.

Existing Content Data

Being clear about the specific enables you to reuse content to save time and effort.

Learning Environments Data

Being clear about the specific Learning Environments available to the learners will enable you to design for that, and its affordances and constraints.

Available Digital Technology Data

Being clear about the specific technology available will enable you to better use that for the Instruction’s Pre-Events, Main Events, and Post-Events.

Management Support Availability

Being clear about Management’s willingness and availability to support the learner, before, during and after the learning, will help you take advantage of that by supporting it appropriately.

Peer/ Coaching Availability

Being clear about the availability and willingness of peers and coaches to support the learner, before, during and after the learning, will help you take advantage of that by supporting it appropriately.

The Potential Chain of Pre-Main-Post Events

When I facilitate Design efforts – with Master Performers – using the Analysis Data they helped generate – we discuss a possible chain of Instructional Events/Experiences – and then sort the Analysis Data into them.

Then we discuss and detail out the support we should provide for the Supervisors (or Peers and Coaches).

Pre and Post Events typically happen on the Job – as the Main Event might as well. Sometimes the Main Event happens in the WorkFlow, and sometimes it happens as a separate activity.

Of course what needs to be accounted for is what happens before and after this one Chain-of-Events.

I dislike Instructional One-Offs as they assume too much or too little about where the Learners typically are in their Formal and Informal journey on the road to Performance Competence.

What and How do you inform your Instructional Designs?

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