THE SYTEMATIC DESIGN OF INSTRUCTION

Chapter 1       Introduction to instructional design

The Dick and Carey systems approach model for designing instruction.

The instructional process or teaching traditionally involved instructors, learners, and textbooks. The content to be learned was contained in the text, and it was the instructor's responsibility to "teach" that content to the learners. Teaching interpreted as getting content from the text into the heads of learners in such a way that they could retrieve the information for a test. By using this model, the way to improve instruction is to improve the instructor (i.e., to require the instructor to acquire more knowledge and to learn more methods for conveying it to learners).

A more contemporary view of instruction is that it is a systematic process in which every component (i.e., teacher, learners, materials, and learning environment) is crucial to successful learning. This perspective is usually referred to as the systems point of view, and advocates of this position typically use the systems approach to design instruction.

A system is technically a set of interrelated parts, all of which work together toward a defined goal. The parts of the system depend on each other for input and output, and the entire system uses feedback to determine if its desired goal has been reached. If it has not, then the system is modified until it does reach the goal. The most easily understood systems are those we create rather than those that occur naturally.

The instructional process itself can be viewed as a system. The purpose of the system is to bring about learning. The components of the system are the learners, the instructor, the instructional materials, and the learning environment. These components interact in order to achieve the goal.

The result of using the systems view of instruction is to see the important role of all the components in the process. They must all interact effectively, just as the parts in a heating or cooling system must interact effectively in order to bring about the desired outcomes. There is not an overemphasis of any one component in the system, but a determination of the exact contribution of each one to the desired outcome. And it is clear that there must be both an assessment of the effectiveness of the system in bringing about learning and a mechanism to make changes if learning fails to occur.

Thus far, our discussion of the instructional process has focused on the interactive component of the process-namely, the time instructors and learners come together with the hope that learning will occur.

Instruction is seen as organizing and providing sets of information and activities that guide, support, and augment students' internal mental processes. Learning has occurred when students have incorporated new information into their memories that enables them to master new knowledge and skills. Gagné further develops cognitive views of learning and instruction in later editions of The Conditions of Learning (1970, 1977, 1984).

Components of the Systems Approach Model

-          ASSESS NEEDS TO lDENTIFY GOAL(S)

Determine what it is that you want learners to be able to do when they have completed your instruction.

-          CONDUCT INSTRUCTIONAL ANALYSIS

Determine what people are doing when they perform that goal.

-          ANALYZE LEARNERS AND CONTEXTS

Analyze the instructional goal; there is a parallel analysis of the learners, the context in which they will learn the skills, and the context in which they will use them.

-          WRITE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

Write specific statements of what the learners will be able to do when they complete the instruction.

-          DEVELOP ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS

Develop assessments that are parallel to and measure the learners' ability to perform what you described in the objectives.

-          DEVELOP INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY

The strategy includes sections on pre-instructional activities, presentation of information, practice and feedback, testing, and follow-through activities.

-          DEVELOP AND SELECT INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Such as instructor's guides, student modules, overhead transparencies, videotapes, computer-based multimedia formats, and web pages for distance learning.

-          DESIGN AND CONDUCT TBE FORMATIVE EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTION

Evaluations are conducted to collect data that are used to identify how to improve the instruction.

-          REVISE INSTRUCTION

Revisions of the instruction to make it a more effective instructional tool.

Systematically designed instruction requires learners to interact actively with the instructional materials rather than simply allowing them to read the materials passively. The learners are asked to perform various types of learning tasks and receive feedback on that performance.

The systems approach to the design of instruction includes the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of instruction.

The systems approach is basically a design process, whereas instructors, modules, computers, and televisions are delivery mechanisms. These delivery mechanisms can be used with one or many learners at the same time. A major part of the design process is to determine how the instruction can be delivered most effectively.

WHY USE THE SYSTEMS APPROACH?

The first is the focus, at the outset, on what learners are to know or be able to do when the instruction is concluded. Without this precise statement, subsequent planning and implementation steps can become unclear and ineffective.

A second reason for the success of the systems approach is the careful linkage between each component, especially the relationship between the instructional strategy and the desired learning outcomes. Instruction is specifically targeted on the skills and knowledge to be taught and supplies the appropriate conditions for the learning of these outcomes. Stated another way, instruction does not consist of a range of activities only some of which may be related to what is to be learned.

The third and perhaps most important reason for the success of the systems approach is that it is an empirical and replicable process. Instruction is designed not for one delivery, but for use on as many occasions as possible with as many learners as possible. Because it is reusable, it is worth the time and effort to evaluate and revise it. In the process of systematically designing instruction, data are collected to determine what part of the instruction is not working, and it is revised until it does work.