Unit One: Overview
Many Instructional Design (ID) and learning design theories, models, and frameworks exist. In our rapidly evolving technological world, the abundance of these models and frameworks reflects the field’s complexity and diversity. Instructional Designers must select or adapt models and frameworks that best fit their specific educational contexts, goals, and constraints, making selection or adaptation complex and often challenging. A human-centred design process can help simplify this complexity by clarifying the needs of the learners and the other key parties you are designing learning for. The structured design thinking process is a valuable tool for learning designers to ensure the creation of experiences supporting desired learning outcomes.
In the first unit of this course, you will be exposed to the design thinking process as an innovative approach to learning design. Through this experiential learning, you will consider a real-life problem you are addressing through learning and determine your learners’ needs. You will engage in the first steps of the design thinking process with a partner and document your process and what you discover about the needs of your learners and, if applicable, organizational key partners. You will then consider how design thinking can be applied to design effective and empathetic digital learning environments in an individual assignment. We will revisit design thinking at the end of Unit 2 when you develop your design principles.