This document discusses developing instructional materials. It describes the designer's role in materials development and instructional delivery. When the designer is also the instructor, they design, develop and deliver the materials themselves. When they are not the instructor, the designer works with a team that may include managers, subject matter experts, materials developers and evaluators. The document also discusses factors that influence media selection, the components of an instructional package including materials, assessments and course information, and strategies for materials development like rough drafts, rapid prototyping and using tools and resources.

1. DEVELOPING INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS

2. Describe the designer’s role in materials development and instructional
delivery. .
Describe factors that may cause revisions in media selections and delivery
systems for a given instruction. .
Name and describe the components of an instructional package. .
List four categories of criteria for judging the appropriateness of existing
instructional materials.
OBJECTIVES

3. When the Designer Is Also the Materials Developer and the Instructor
When the Designer Is Not the Instructor
THE DESIGNER’S ROLE IN MATERIALS
DEVELOPMENT AND
INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY

4. In many instructional settings, the person who designs the instruction also
develops materi-als and teaches students.
WHEN THE DESIGNER IS ALSO THE MATERIALS DEVELOPER AND
THE INSTRUCTOR

5. a human resources generalist in a small com-pany may design, develop, and
deliver all new employee orientation, benefits training, and “ soft skills”
training. Teachers and professors do their own lesson plans and syllabi,
materials, and instruction, and professionals in all fields routinely design,
develop, and present their own workshops and in- service training.
EXAMPLE

6. In large companies with a significant training and development function, an
instructional designer may work with a team responsible for design,
development, and implementation of training. Similar teams also exist in
instructional design ( ID) consulting firms, personnel training and
development companies, and many universities. The functions represented on
such a team are usually manager, instructional designer, subject- matter expert,
materials developer ( or coordinator), and evaluator.
WHEN THE DESIGNER IS NOT THE INSTRUCTOR

7. In a smaller ID setting, one individual may be responsible for more than one
func-tion, while in a larger setting, multiple individuals may be assigned to
each function. The team would also interact regularly with a representative of
the internal or exter-nal client and sometimes with an instructor or
instructional program manager. In ID teams it is common for the manager to
be a senior- level instructional designer and for the instructional designer also
to be a materials developer or at least have working-level knowledge of a
variety of media formats.
CONT..

8. Availability of Existing Instructional Materials
Production and Implementation Constraints
Amount of Instructor Facilitation
THE DELIVERY SYSTEM AND
MEDIA SELECTIONS

9. Sometimes existing materials are an attractive alternative to going through the
development and production process.
AVAILABILITY OF EXISTING
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

10. Media formats and delivery systems that look expensive are expensive. Cutting
production corners to save money will usually not impact student learning, but
it will impact attention and perceptions of relevance and authority.
PRODUCTION AND
IMPLEMENTATION CONSTRAINTS

11. The first steps in adoption of a new technol-ogy are usually attempts to
replicate the features of the old technology; thus, as we began using
instructional television, computer software, or web- based instruction, we
tried to replicate features of the classroom experience for our students.
Instructor facilitation is a particular feature of classroom instruction that has
implications for how we develop instructional materials.
AMOUNT OF INSTRUCTOR
FACILITATION

12. Instructional Materials
Assessments
Course Management Information
COMPONENTS OF AN
INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE

13. The instructional materials contain the content— either writ-ten, mediated, or
facilitated by an instructor— that a student will use to achieve the objectives.
This includes materials for the major objectives and the terminal objective and
any materials for enhancing memory and transfer. Instructional materials refer
to any preexisting materials that are being incorporated, as well as to those
materials that will be specifically developed for the objectives.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

14. All instructional materials should be accompanied by objective tests or by
product or performance assessments. These may include both a pretest and a
posttest. You may decide that you do not wish to have the tests as a separate
component in the materials, pre-fering to have them appear as part of the
instructor’s materials so they are not available to students.
ASSESSMENTS

15. There often is a general description of the total package, typically called an
instructor’s manual, that provides an overview of the materials and shows how
they might be incorporated into an overall learning sequence for students.
COURSE MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION

16. Rough Draft Materials
Rapid Prototyping
Materials Development Tools and Resources
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
AND FORMATIVE EVALUATION

17. We all know what the term rough draft means, because we have all written
rough drafts of papers that have subsequently been revised into a final form.
Rough draft means about the same thing when applied to instructional
materials, but it carries the additional meaning that the product is developed in
alternate, simpler, less- expensive media formats.
ROUGH DRAFT MATERIALS

18. The first strategy used in rapid prototyping is to go light on the early analysis
steps of an instructional design model, then develop prototype instructional
materials rapidly, and use quick iterative cycles of formative evaluation and
revision to shape the final form of the materials. Rapid prototyping can be
thought of as a series of informed, successive approximations, emphasizing
the word informed because this developmental approach relies absolutely on
information gathered during tryouts to ensure the success of the final
product.
RAPID PROTOTYPING

19. The second strategy used in rapid prototyping is concurrent design and
development; that is, much of the front- end analysis work is conducted while
the first rough draft materials are being developed. This might seem like
getting the cart before the horse, but recall that rapid prototyping occurs
primarily in high- tech, quickly changing learning contexts.
RAPID PROTOTYPING

20. Production of mediated materials re-quires a whole set of skills, both artistic
and technical, that can range from simple word processing to converting
materials for web- based delivery.
MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
TOOLS AND RESOURCES

21. Some of your resources should be kept close at hand while writing materials.
critical resources include the learner analysis, the context analysis, and the
instructional strategy documents. Constant reference to these documents
while you work will keep your efforts targeted and help avoid introducing
interesting— but extraneous— information. Focus carefully on the conditions
specified in the objectives as well as the characteristics and special needs of
the learners.
SUMMARY