INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

I understand instructional design to be a means for ensuring productive, successful, and durable learning. The instructional designer’s role, then, is to identify the materials and methods for learning that are most effective for achieving the institution’s (and students’) learning outcomes. In this role, I seek to foster collaborative relationships with faculty and subject matter experts to make strategic pedagogical decisions and to design inclusive and accessible materials and learning environments with students’ success at the forefront of the design process.

Because I am most interested in the connections between Writing and Composition Studies with Disability Studies, the instructional design model that most guides my work is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This model goes beyond creating accessible means of participation only for users with disabilities – effective use of UDL makes learning more convenient and doable for everyone. In my composition classroom, UDL principles include encouraging collaboration and cooperative learning, diversifying media, fluctuating teaching methods, and allowing students to show their knowledge in a variety of ways. In my own experience teaching, I’ve found that diversifying the ways that I present information as well as how I “allow” students to respond and engage creates more pathways for students to reach a course’s learning objectives. Every learner is different, and there is no single “optimal” way of communicating; therefore, instructors should vary the way they communicate course information to their students and allow their students to communicate their thinking and understanding through various means. My role as an instructional designer is to collaborate with faculty or subject-matter experts to achieve these goals.

To me, UDL is a way of telling people where our end point is (or should be) and helping them take whatever path works best for them to get there. I therefore see the Understanding by Design (UbD) design framework as UDL principles for instructional design in action, and I employ this framework as well when designing learning experiences. UbD’s two key ideas are a focus on teaching for understanding and learning for transfer and then designing “backwards” from that goal, which aligns with how I understand UDL. Using the UbD framework means identifying the desired results, identifying what it means to reach those results, and then planning for activities/experiences/lessons that will help students reach them efficiently. Working “backwards” ensures that the desired results are always at the forefront of the design process, as seen in my Reverse Engineered Blueprint project.

Supporting and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives is central to who I am as an educator and an instructional designer and something I am committed to doing throughout my career. I am therefore also invested in employing the INCLUSIVE ADDIE model in instructional design tasks because I believe that instructional designers should infuse inclusive practices into the design of learning experiences. In other words, I believe that equitable teaching strategies must be established before the start of a course. The INCLUSIVE ADDIE model reflects the belief that the instructional design process should avoid negative stereotypes and unconscious bias; it should encourage respect, representation, access, and communication; and it should recognize students with varying abilities. This model also insists upon constant reflection of course objectives, workload, content, and teaching strategies to ensure that one’s pedagogical practices are responsive, equitable, and evolving over time. I believe that an instructional designer should be constantly assessing and reassessing their methods and asking how to better capitalize their resources and enhance student learning. 

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN TASKS

I completed these four design tasks in Spring 2023 as part of my coursework for WRD 550: Online Instructional Design & Pedagogy at DePaul University. The purpose of these design tasks was to give us experience applying instructional design frameworks and methodologies to design learning experiences that meet a variety of pedagogical needs.