Instructional Materials Are Everywhere

Literally. Everywhere.

There are so many variations of the term instructional materials, which can range from articles/books on a tablet, to Ted Talks on YouTube, and not to mention infographics, written notes, presentations, etc, etc.. How does the Instructional Designer ensure that all the material presented is worthy of being presented? The simple answer is aligning your instruction, the complicated answer is aligning your instruction. Confused yet? Let's see if we can unmuddy those waters.

When we talk about instruction we are really saying, do your learning activities, teaching strategies and assessments that match up to your learning objectives. This may seem like a simple process, but can be the most frustrating part of designing your instruction. Remember way back when, where I covered learning objectives and how crucial they are? If your learning objectives are not actionable, measurable, clear, or concise you have no way of aligning your instruction. The activities may look like they support the objectives, but when you look closer, they really only bring about a different facet to the objective. Let's look at an example. If my learning objective states:

The Learner will be able to define ventriloquism, but the activity teaches you how to pick a dummy then the objective and the activity are not aligned. However, if the learning objective is the same and a video is shown on the definition of ventriloquism and how it relates to the dummy, you are in alignment.

Are the waters getting clearer? If not, never fear, there is a video just for this. Now that we have a clear idea of the four components of alignment; Learning Objectives, Teaching Strategies, Learning Activities and Assessments, we can now focus on ensuring the items we include in a design not only support, but bring to life the learning objectives.

In Backward Design the idea of creating our course starting with the Learning Objectives allows the designer to incorporate only those materials and activities that satisfy the objectives. For someone like myself, who designs using vast topics associated with the Humanities, this can keep me on track and not running off on a tangent or from overstepping the objectives and including irrelevant material that will only confuse or overload a learner. Remember, the clearer the objective, the clearer the material used to support that objective. Learners can walk away from the design meeting objectives and utilizing the material that supports said objective.

So, how do we choose the best materials with so many options available? Review the materials to make sure they support that objective. If it is unclear to you, the designer, it will definitely be unclear to the learner. After you have ensured the appropriate materials are there, review it after assessments to see if the objective or the material needs to be updated. The assessments allow a designer to glimpse the effectiveness of the course. Without the assessment a designer has no way of knowing if the objectives have been met. Providing the proper teaching tools, activities and materials is the critical portion of the design. Without the proper tools the objective will not be met.

So about that everywhere component. If you are having trouble finding learning materials, take a look at Youtube, Pinterest, Open Yale Courses, EDUCAUSE, Merlot, Creative Commons, and Open Stax. I told you, everywhere.