The Roots of Instructional Design

We were asked in a discussion in my Foundations of Instructional Design class about the "roots" of instructional design. This was what I posted after reading Shrock's (1995) A Brief History of Instructional Development.

Shrock surveys the roots of ID from the 1920s through the 1980s by decade. Each period contributed to forming part of the root system of what ID is today. Before the 1920s the ground was prepared through the emperical knowledge and approach of science, now applied to teaching and learning. The 1920s saw a confluence of ideas, an overlap in concepts and procedures, and a scaffolding of major parts in the process. Task analysis was introduced as was the need for careful design. The 1930s was notable for refining procedures for writing instructional objectives and for formative evaluation. The 1940s saw technology come of age. Innovation, media, and instructional technology arose as did the designers, SMEs, and producers. The 1950s formalized task analysis, programmed instruction, and provided a taxonomy of educational objectives. The 1960s gave us instructional systems development and with it concern for the conditions of learning and instructional delivery. In the 1970s ID was, and continues to be, influenced by the insights of cognitive psychology. New learning theories arose in response to new research and the new technologies adapted with them. And finally, the 1980s brought ID instructional applications from the adoption of microcomputers.