Instructional Design in E- Learning

E learning is association of technology and education. Instructional design is essential in e learning because it helps people in learning. But, what exactly instructional design means? Well, It’s a process where instructional designer creates an instructional environment of learning a specific course. It’s an iterative process that requires ongoing evaluation and feedback. Instructional design is to serve the learning needs and success of students through effective presentation of content. 

Now, what does an instructional designer do? 

- IDs discuss with subject matter expert (SME) about what students need to learn.
- Then, they develop some objectives and they thoroughly revise and rewrite content for it.
- After that, they create media by using some specific tools/software.
-They make it more interactive by adding assessments.

There are various instructional design models and we use them according to the particular situation or task:

1. ADDIE- It’s a 5-phase model. Steps include- Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate. It is the most frequently used model in e learning process.

•     Analyze- This is the first phase of ADDIE, in which IDs clarifies problems and objectives with subject matter experts (SMEs).
•     Design- They begin to create the project. They design the user interface and user experience.
•     Development- In this phase, developers create graphics, programmers develop or integrate technologies.
•     Implementation

2. Dick and Carey- This model is based on reductionist model of breaking down instructions into smaller components.

3. Rapid prototyping- Creating small prototypes and reviewing them at each step makes it more effective in designing e learning material.

Why ID is essential in e learning?

Without instructional design, you just have information on a screen. It might be pretty, and you might have flashy graphics or high quality video, but you won't get good results. If you want your e-learning to improve skills and change behavior, it needs to be designed by someone who knows instructional design. Otherwise, you might as well just put the content in a PDF and let people read it.