INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN RATIONALE

Instructional Design Rationale:

A Professional Development Program for Google Apps for Education Training
Reflection and Plan for Improvement
Introduction
During my graduate career the words Instructional Design I often struck fear into my
heart at the very thought of taking this course. However, after being in this class and actually
experiencing what instructional design really is, I realized that not only is instructional design all
around us all the time, it was something that I have been doing every day of my professional life.
Being a teacher I am constantly doing, on a day to day basis, many of the things that instructional
designer does, but more informally. For example, I am continuously monitoring my learners and
adjusting my instruction based on their individual needs as well as the entire group of learners.
In fact, just in that previous sentence, a needs, task, and learner analysis was performed as well
as an instructional design plan was made and even an informal evaluation of the design plan.
Once I realized this, I started to gain so much from the coursework during this course. I realized
that these skills could not only help me in the classroom, but also as in my future career goal in
becoming a school districts technology integration specialist. In this role I would work with
teachers and design instruction focused on helping them learn new and effective ways to
integrate technology into the classroom. Something I did not realize about this goal before I took
this course is that the instructional design strategies we have learned will help so much in the
preparation for me to reach my goal. In the paragraphs to follow I will explain my journey as a
beginning Instructional Designer and how I have applied the principles and lessons learned
throughout my project documents.
Principles and Lessons Learned
The overarching principle I learned while in this course and working on this document
was that everything we encounter is part of some instructional design. From assessing the needs
of the learner to the overall task and how it will be reached and then assessed causes a shift in
thinking. I now look at various aspects of instruction in a different lens than before. Even in my
seven years being a teacher, where I design instruction for my students every day, I seldom
found myself considering the needs of my learner and asking myself if they actually need a given
set of instruction. Now with my knowledge of how to perform a needs analysis, task analysis
and learner analysis I find myself constantly picking apart my daily instructional activities with
my current students. Numerous times throughout the semester I was in ID 1 I found myself
redesigning portions of my high school chemistry course in regards to learner feedback and
mismatch of instruction and evaluation. For example, I have recently decided to update all of my
instructional vodcasts for my flipped classroom to a new model that focuses on smaller blocks of
content that students can watch in a shorter session. Currently my vodcasts are anywhere from 8
to 10 minutes in length. During the redesign I plan to make them no longer than 4 to 5. This is
in response to my learners and how they have given me feedback on the current vodcasts. This
is something that without the skills outlined in this course, I would have probably never done.
As for the future, I plan to use the skills that I have learned in this course to help me
pursue a career as a district technology integration specialist and design instruction to help

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN RATIONALE

teachers effectively integrate technology into their existing curriculum. This is something that I
have always had a passion for, but lacked the skills as a designer to effectively perform such a
job. With these added skills I feel that I am on my way to being ready for such a job. There are
still some things that I would like to work on.
The instructional design document was and will continue to be a work in progress. It is
by no means a complete document now, but with the feedback from my classmates and
instructor, it has come a long way and is something that I hope one day I will get to implement.
At the start of the document I was not sure how I was going to tie in all of the elements of the
needs, tasks, and learner analyses; but now after looking back I feel as if a good design project
should never be finished. It is always going to be a work in progress that will be constantly
rebuilt and modified, especially in this stage, before the initial implementation. This is one of
the most important things that this document has taught me; how to incorporate feedback and
then make my design better.
Conclusion and Plan for Improvement
From the above document I feel there are many areas that I have room to improve on as a
designer. I feel that some of my strongest areas are the development of the actual instruction that
will take place within a given design. Among those are identifying a need, analyzing the task to
fit that need, and finally designing instruction to address the needs and tasks. However, I have
had trouble with considering the learner and how the learner will be assessed. I feel this is partly
due to the fact that I often get so focused on what I want the learners to be able to do at the end
of a particular instruction that I forget to ask myself if what I am planning is the best thing for the
learner. This is a valuable lesson I learned from my feedback and interaction with my SME
during this course. My SME told me perhaps the most influential question to ask when
approaching an instructional design decision: Is this good for the learner? From that point on
and during all of my revisions I constant caught myself asking that question over and over again.
Although I was able to somewhat refine these skills throughout the project I am still in
need of resources to help with my learner analysis and evaluation skills. In order to improve
these skills I plan on researching how others are assessing and evaluating adult learners when it
comes to teaching teachers how to integrate technology effectively into their classrooms.
Considering my future career path and goals of wanting to become a school district technology
integration specialist, it would be necessary for me to know the best practices.