Instructional design focuses on instruction and maximizing its effectiveness, while learning design shifts the focus to learning. Learning design considers learner attributes, experiences, and activities. It conceptualizes learning within a course by analyzing the pedagogy, context, and what learners do. The learning design process involves identifying intended learner activities, both during contact time and independent work. Effective task design clarifies the intentions of learning activities and ensures infrastructure supports the tasks. Learning tasks should be problem-centered and activate existing knowledge, while demonstrating and applying new skills and integrating learning. Learning design must avoid pitfalls like insufficient analysis and unclear expectations of learner work.

1. Instructional Design &
Learning Design
…what, how and why we might
care

2. Intentions
• What is instructional design? …learning
design? What’s the difference?
• How do we approach either/both of these
activities?
• Why does it matter?

3. Instructional Design
From Wikipedia…
… the practice of maximizing the
effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of
instruction and other learning experiences.

4. What is instruction and why would I design
it?

5. Instruction: Key ideas
• Instruction is a key feature of formal
education
• Instruction implies telling, direction,
authority; information flows from experts to
novices
• Instruction is meant to produce some
response from students…we hope this
leads to ‘learning’ …though we mightn’t be
sure what ‘learning’ is

6. Instructional Design
• A (formal) systematic approach to creating
instructional situations
– Systems imply structure (and control)
– May be limiting/restrictive
• *Intended* to support learning, but may
not always realise that goal
• Considers the needs of a variety of
stakeholders, including institutions

7. ID: Three broad steps
• Identifying the outcomes of the instruction
…and the needs of the stakeholders
• Developing the instruction process
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the
instruction process …and improving the
design

8. ADDIE
• Analysis
• Design
• Development
• Implementation
• Evaluation

10. What about ‘learning design’?
**if instruction represents a form of delivery,
and
**if we are beyond (mere) delivery,
then
we have reached a stage where we are
beyond instruction
(Sims, 2006)

11. Side by side…
Instructional design
• Focus on ‘instruction’,
often as ‘transmission
• Delivering content
• Design centres on
selection and
sequencing of content
• Designs may be
broad, systemic, e.g.
whole courses
Learning Design
• Focus on ‘learning’,
usually as ‘activity’
• Promoting Activity
• Design centres on
what people do
• Designs are often
local, situated, e.g.
units, tasks, projects

12. Shifting the focus to learning
• Instruction and learning are not exclusive
of one another
• Learning design can/does take place
within instructional design
• Designing courses involves trades-
offs…esp. when ‘content is king’…but its
important to keep learning ‘in the frame’

13. Learning Design
• Focus on ‘learning’:
– Learner attributes
– Learner experience
– Learning Situations
– Learner activity
– ‘Teaching’ as something other than
‘transmission’

14. Some key questions
How do people learn?
• What activities are involved in learning?
• How is learning (helped, supported,
facilitated, enhanced)?
• How do we know learning has taken
place?
How do we design ‘for learning’?

15. Conceptualise ‘learning’ within a
course
• The overall system
– Pedagogy, from theory to practice
– Context
– Learners and what they do
• A learning process (course design)
• Breaking down the process
• Focus on task, activity (task design)

17. Process timeline

18. Other representations (conceptual)

19. What are we asking learners to do?

20. Learner activity within the design
• Contact time
Traditionally ‘in class’ time, but also time spent in
contact with teaching/support staff
• Directed activity
The things learners are asked to do (e.g.
‘respond to this question in the online forum’)
• Independent activity
The things learners do on their own in order to
meet the requirements of the course (e.g.
consult a librarian about APA referencing
conventions)

21. Task Design
• What are the intentions of the task?
– What do learners need to do to meet those
intentions?
• What are learners being asked to do as part of
the task? (and why would they?)
• What infrastructure supports the intended
activity:
– Roles?
– Rules, process and procedure?
– Tools?

22. …according to CADeL..
Problem-centered:
… solving real-world problems.
Activation:
… existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for
new knowledge.
Demonstration:
… the instruction demonstrates what is to be learned
and when new knowledge is demonstrated to the learner.
Application:
… learners are required to apply their new knowledge or
skill to solve problems.
Integration:
… learners are encouraged to integrate (transfer) the
new knowledge or skill into their everyday life.

23. What does a learning task look
like?

24. Pitfalls
• Ignoring the front end…do your analysis
• Having no idea what ‘learning’ means to
the students who have to complete the
paper/programme
• Asking learners to take anything but the
shortest route between here and there
• Losing sight of what learners are being
asked to do (and how long it takes to do it)