Design of Learning

There has been some talk lately in the blogosphere about the value of instructional designers. People are saying that DIY (Do It Yourself) learning is the only way to go and that instructional designers are no longer needed. I have to disagree, while there is a tremendous amount of DIY learning opportunities...I am a Google fanatic...I think that many times learning can be facilitated or enhanced with a well designed presentation of information.

Good instructional design looks at the potential audience, examines the content and develops an effective solution. Sometimes this is necessary...not always and not in every situation but it is sometimes required.

It reminds me of when word processors first arrived on the scene, you no longer needed "graphic designers" anyone could design their own newsletter....and they did...and they were horrible, every imaginable font...all in the same sentence.

Same thing with photography, almost anyone can have the tools of a professional photographer but the results are not always top quality. It is often hit or miss.

DIY learning is the same way. Yes, some non-instructional designers will create some awesome stuff. However, some will create materials that are less than awesome. I see it everyday in large and small corporations. Training is developed with no real understanding of how people learn and the result is that people struggle longer than necessary to learn the material.

So DIY is important but, it is like anything, we need DIY AND we need designed instruction, it is not an either or.

Karl Kapp is the Assistant Director of Bloomsburg University’s Institute for Interactive Technologies and a professor of instructional technology. See his own blog, Kapp Notes for information on the convergence of learning and technology.

Comments

[Stephen Downes]

I think that instructional design is very different when it is intended for a DIY learner than when it is intended for an online course (whether accompanied by an instructor or not).

Typically, when people talk about *instructional* design, they mean someone who specializes in the latter. Someone who would create a program of study - a set of training manuals, perhaps, an online course, something like that.

Whe people talk about the design needed for DIY learners, it becomes something quite different. Instead of elading a learner through a sequence of steps the intent is to present the information needed, all at one. That's why people use the term 'information design', not instructional design.

Your comment would have us thinking of all designing - newsletters, magazines, help sheets, exploding diagrams, etc., as instructional design. But this is not a typical use of the term 'instructional design'.

I will add, finally, that people who believe that DIY learning is the wave of the future do not say that there would be no need for instructional designers, but rather, that the role is not as all-encompassing as it has been in the past and really applies only to that 20 percent or so of learning that occurs in a formal setting.

[Saru]

Hi Karl, reading your post and after reading the comment, I am in a fix. Pardon me if I have interpreted it incorrectly.

When you talked about instructional design and DIY (Do-It-Yourself), you have tried to emphasize the fact that nowadays people are undermining the importance of IDs and trying to venture into the DIY learning. This might be using a mix of presentation tools, rapid e-learning tools, off-the shelf tools and their own understanding and knowledge. Whereas the underlined fact is that ID cannot be just forgotten. In today’s scenario wherein we need to deliver good things in less time, with less iterations and lower cost, IDs are building online and blended instructional material, using a mix of tools,their domain expertise, skills and rapid e-learning tools like Raptivity etc.and Infact these rapid e-learning tools are also built on best of the instructional design principles and the end result is an apt and an effective solution for the targeted audience. And I agree with your views.

But from the comment the focal point in DIY is ‘being the learning where all the information needed, is presented all at one’ & instructional design being ‘a formal kind of learning intended for an online course!’

I am not clear what exactly would be/ should be our interpretation of DIY learning…

[Karl Kapp]

Stephen,

I agree that ID is very different when designed for consumption in a DIY environment. And I think that is the point, information design doesn't deal with retention of knowledge or changes in behavior, ID does and should so, I agree instructional designers need to morph to designing learning pieces that are easily consumed by other but that are not pre-sequenced.

Saru,
I view a lot of DIY learning as "discovery learning" people discover some new information or even something about themselves through exploring. But in most organizations, time is not available to let someone explore a new piece of software or explore the parameters of the ethics policy. These things require some type of designed instruction. And while much is made of the 80% informal learning, I am not sure of the overall accuracy of that number or, more accurately, to what types of positions does that number apply? Order entry clerks, sales reps?

So, I think there is room for designing DIY learning chunks, free range DIY learning and designed instruction all within the same organization.

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