Reflection Paper

EDUC 765: Trends and Issues in Instructional Design

By: Alyssa Haynes

Submitted: 2/25/2016

In completing the course design process for my portfolio project, I have gained a vast
amount of knowledge about instructional design. I realized that I had some misconceptions
about ID. For example, I didnt realize that there was a career solely in instructional design.
While working towards my undergraduate degree in Human Resource Management, I completed
one 500-level training and development course. I retained my final paper from that course, and
read through the document before tackling this reflection. In that course, it was assumed that
training and development was completed by HR staff, such as HR generalists. Not only did I
learn that there are instructional designers and instructional technologists, I also discovered more
about learning theories, gained invaluable goal analysis skills, and learned how to develop clear
performance-based objectives. This reflection will walk through my experience creating my
portfolio project, and reveal other knowledge that I gained along the way.
The first step was to decide on the aim of my project. I held interviews with the three
managers on my team to discuss what type of material or training they felt was needed based on
the recent performance reviews that were held throughout the organization, and a knowledge
check that was completed for two recent new hires. I also spoke with the two new hires about
what they felt was missing, or not clear in their new hire training. I narrowed it down to an
overview of the commercial pharmacy products, because it is essential, entry-level information
that all new employees to the department need to know, and I could create the training and
content to share without having to dive into proprietary information.
The next big decision point for the portfolio project was deciding which learning and
motivational theories to apply to the instruction. I favor cognitive theory, possibly because I
personally learn most effectively when I deeply process information through problem solving,
group interaction and recalling previous information. I chose to apply cognitive learning theory

to my project, as my topic does not teach an action or something observable. I wanted to be

mindful of the idea that a persons working memory is limited to holding 5-9 separate pieces of
information for a short period of time, because it is very easy to overwhelm a new hire with
specific detail on product design (Morrison, Ross, Kalman & Kemp, 2013, p.358). This helped
me decide the level of detail to put into the content I developed. As you will notice, the
presentation and activity are both very simple and direct.
Because the target audiences of my training are all adult professionals, I also chose to
incorporate adult learning theory as well. According to the Rochester Institute of Technology
(n.d.), Adult learners are problem-centered and seek educational solutions that will take them
from where they are to where they want to be in their life or profession. The same article also
states, Adult learners are looking for education that relates or applies directly to perceived
needs Because of this, I decided it would be important for the instructor to demonstrate
throughout the lesson how the entry-level content will be applied in their daily jobs to show how
it relates the learner.
Adult learning theory was also applied as a part of the motivational theory attributed to
this training. As stated above, adults are looking for education that applies directly to their
perceived needs. In an article from Vanderbilt University (2016) it is noted that intrinsic
motivation can be produced by creating interest in the subject, and the subject can be made more
appealing/interesting by showing the utility and applicability of the content. Because of this, I
want to include examples of how the content will be used on the job in the final training module.
The next decision that I made while creating my course design document was which type
of analysis to complete. I decided to perform a goal analysis, as the training does not address a
specific task or performance, but a specific learning outcome. I really feel that this portion of the

course was the most valuable, and provided me with a solid process to develop clear learning
goals. The goal analysis portion provided me with a tool to create strong terminal and enabling
objectives. Although I already knew the importance of learning objectives, I did not realize that
they required so much focus, and needed to be so detailed. Because of this course, I believe I
will be prepared to create specific training objectives for any module created in my department,
and I will be a better instructional designer overall.
I hope to take what I have learned in this course, and apply it while I am creating training
curriculum and materials for my department. I also hope to educate the managers and other
leaders on the team about the importance of assessment and goal analysis, as opposed to creating
training solely on felt needs.
Instructional design as a process is very valuable. If the process is followed, the outcome
is training that will address very specific performance and learning goals. Proving the return on
investment can take some time though, so obviously the evaluation piece is very important. I
hope to create a training program for my team that is proven to shorten the learning curve for
new hires to the team.
Although I learned a great amount about instructional design, I still have more to learn.
For example, I need to learn about the post-implementation evaluation step of instructional
design. This will be addressed in the next course of the ID certificate program. I also would like
experience completing task analysis, as I completed goal analysis for this project. The textbook
for the course provided a very detailed example of task analysis that I could utilize. The last area
that I believe I need experience in is the use of ID software. Fortunately, I have access to selfpaced training programs at work that can teach me how to use software such as Adobe Captivate.

One of the misconceptions that I had coming into this course was that training and
materials were only created by HR professionals. Because of this, the ID competencies & job
research activity was very eye-opening for me. Not only did I learn that there are instructional
designers and instructional technologists, I also discovered more about learning theories, gained
invaluable goal analysis skills, and learned how to develop clear performance-based objectives.
Hopefully I can apply all that I have learned to the training materials that I will be creating in my
current position.

References
Morrison, G.R., Ross, S.M., Kalman, H.K., & Kemp, J.E. (2013). Designing
effective instruction. (7th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Rochester Institute of Technology. (n.d.). Adult learners. Retrieved from
http://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/tls/course-design/instructionaldesign/adult-learners
Vanderbilt University. (2016). Motivating students. Retrieved from
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/