The Basic Design Cycle

Over the next 12 weeks in this course, you will be guided through an instructional design process to solve the need for instructional resources to support adult basic education. Entire degree programs are offered on the theory, research, and practice of instructional design, and thousands of journal articles and books have been published about instructional design processes and models. Our challenge here is to focus on the most fundamental design processes required to create effective and efficient instructional solutions to meet the instructional need.

To that end, we will be following the basic design processes that underlie most instructional design models and frameworks. As conceptualized in The Delft Design Guide, this basic design cycle includes five primary processes (see figure below). These same processes are also utilized in other design disciplines, such as architecture or product development.

The Design Process Applied in this Course

We will be presenting these five design processes within this course as follows:

• Analyze: Within Modules 1 and 2, you will analyze key aspects of the design need. In Module 1, you will consider the learners and the the learning context. In Module 2, you will dive into the requirements of the project, including a close examination of the College and Career Readiness Standards. You will also explore and analyze available free and openly licensed open educational resources (OER) that you can adapt to meet the requirements of this project.
• Synthesize: Within Modules 2 and 3, you will make your first attempts at generating possible solutions to meet the instructional design need. You will contemplate established instructional principles to design instructional strategies to support learning.
• Simulate: Within Modules 4 and 5, you will take the ideas swirling in your head and develop draft representations of your design conception. In Module 4, you will offer a representation of your ideas within a written design proposal. This will be followed in Module 5 with your development of a second design iteration, a prototype of your instructional materials based on your written design proposal.
• Evaluate: Within Module 6, you will assess whether your draft design representation (i.e. prototype) is meeting the needs and constraints of this project through self, peer, and expert evaluation activities. Evaluation forces a designer to critically examine the efficacy and efficiency of the instruction in light of the design need.
• Decide: Within Module 7, you will make your final design decisions as you prepare your final deliverable based on the feedback you have received through self, peer, and expert evaluation of your design prototype. As your final assignment in this course, you will submit the instructional materials you have designed and developed. Those who submit final deliverables that meet the design criteria will be invited to include their instructional materials on the Designers for Learning Adult Learning Zone group in OER Commons.

While we are introducing these design processes in what may appear to be a prescribed order, it is important to note that these design processes are not practiced in a lockstep linear fashion. As you progress through the course, you are encouraged to constantly revisit prior processes to re-analyze, re-synthesize, re-simulate, re-evaluate, and amend your decisions.