Instructional design (ID) has evolved significantly. Once perceived as a passive organizational function, it has now become a cornerstone of corporate culture, with a strong emphasis on learning and talent development.
An ATD Research, titled ‘Instructional Design Now’, which is based on a survey of 1120 instructional designers provides a current snapshot of ID in organizations and the challenges they face. “The field of instructional design (ID) incorporates a rapidly growing and changing array of learning strategies, tools, and approaches into training experiences that appeal to today’s workers while meeting their complex learning needs.”
Like everything else, this drastic change in approach—from passive to active function, hasn’t been fast. It has been a slow process of evolution dating back to World War II – from where ID finds its roots. Here is a brief history of how ID has changed over the years to take its present shape.
Due to its immense scale and magnitude, World War II required an enormous number of trained military personnel. Consequently, experts began developing training programs based on the principles of learning, instruction, and human behavior. Numerous psychologists and educational researchers created training material and applied their evaluation knowledge to assess trainees’ skills.
In 1954, B.F. Skinner, through his article “The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching”, pioneered the concept of programmed instructional materials – materials that include small steps, require overt responses to frequent questions, give immediate feedback and allow learners to self-pace their learning.
In the early 1960s, Robert F. Mager emphasized the importance of learning objectives to include desired behavior, learning condition, and assessment. Writing objectives, even today, are influenced by these 3 elements.
Behavioral objectives got another boost when in 1956, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues developed the “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives”. He identified three principal domains of learning: Cognitive (what one knows or thinks), Psychomotor (what one does, physically) and Affective (what one feels, or what attitudes one has).
Until 1962, norm-referenced tests were used, which compared an individual’s performance to a group performance. In 1962, Robert Glaser coined the term “criterion-referenced measures”, which examines the entry-level behavior of students before they take up a course. Finally the extent to which students have acquired the behaviors after the instructional program is over, is determined.
In 1965, Robert Gagne identified the nine events of instruction, which remain foundational principles guiding instructional design today. Gagne highlighted some very important areas in learning hierarchies and hierarchical analysis which formed an important concept in instruction – that instruction should be designed so as to ensure that learners acquire basic skills before they attempt to acquire more advanced ones. Shortly after this, in 1967 Michael Scriven emphasized the need of formative assessment, i.e. to try out the drafts of instructional material with learners before putting them in their final form.
By the 1970s, the topic of ID had started to ripen. Numerous models were developed across military, academia and organizations. These models were based on an information-processing approach and used media and ID procedures to improve the quality of instruction.
The 1980s saw the integration of personal computers into the design process. Methods were being evaluated as to how the PC could be used in an academic and interactive context. Computers began to be used as tools to automate some instructional design tasks. PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operation), the first generalized computer assisted instruction system, allowed computers to be integrated into instruction. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing such as forums, email, chat rooms, message boards, online testing, picture languages, remote screen sharing, multiplayer games, and instant messaging were developed on PLATO.
Concurrently, interest grew in applying cognitive psychology principles to the instructional design process, and the cognitive load theory demonstrated its relevance.
In the 1990s, attitudes toward learning shifted notably. Before this, learning had focused mainly on theoretical and traditional forms of instructional design. The constructivist theory emphasized the importance of 'authentic' learning tasks that could replicate the actual complexity of real-world environments where learners would apply their skills. As the emphasis on performance improvement grew, performance support systems were developed.
Deeper internet penetration and better bandwidths made it a very popular tool for online learning. eLearning gained further importance as educational institutions and organizations began to unearth ways to deliver courses online coupled with social media tools in the late 2000s.
Now is the age of learning technology in all its forms – social, mobile, and personalized. Big data and analytics are already shaping the way how learning is tailored to the needs and preferences of each learner. The principles of instruction are no doubt rooted in years of research in ID, but learning is now designed to be more contextual, fluid, and learner-friendly. Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) technologies are at the heart of this era of learning.
Instructional design is the cornerstone for superior learning outcomes and learning effectiveness. Whether you need instructional designers to join your in-house L&D team or need instructional design expertise, ELB Learning can help you at every step.
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