Course Description
EDUC 439/639: Instructional Design
Instructional design is the art and the practice of creating learning materials according to the principles of how people learn. As an art, the field benefits from the creativity of instructional designers who keep trying new things to improve how they work. As a practice, instructional design has a continually improving knowledge base created by practitioners who document their findings in order to advance the field and promote what works. In this course you learn about the instructional design models evolved thus far. By studying their theoretical underpinnings you develop an instinct for how you will decide to work in your chosen field and employ educational technologies for bringing your designs to life.
Course Modules
This course is organized into a series of modules that are presented to you via the Web. The modules are attached to a collabsible menu that organizes the modules in roughly the same order in which they will be discussed in class. You need not complete these modules in this prescribed order, however. Rather, you can work through the course at your own pace, skipping modules that do not interest you, and spending more time on those that do.
Assignments
Your grade in this course will be based on your performance on a series of assignments that appear on this online syllabus. At any time, you can view the assignments. This list of assignments provides you with a snapshot of what you need to do in this course. All the rest is optional. It is totally up to you how much of the other material you will want to complete. Your instructor will help guide you, depending on the topics you choose to pursue.
Grading
You will receive grades on three kinds of activities. First, there are communication assignments designed to create a proactively supportive relationship between you and your professor. Second, there are three graded discussions that involve you in cooperative learning with your fellow classmates. Third, you will create a final presentation project that you make on a topic of your choice. These three parts of the course each constitute a third of your final grade.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify and compare the strengths and weaknesses of available instructional design models.
- Explain the principles of how people learn.
- Reflect on the extent to which your own instructional design practices follow the principles of how people learn (or not).
- Renew your commitment to Web accessibility and the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
- Access books and articles comprising the instructional design knowledge base.
