I have a practical consideration to pass on to those of you instructional designers who may care to consider it. When I was working on my Master’s Degree in England, I was asked by my Department Chair, who was also in charge of the American Studies program at the university, to design two classes. He knew I had helped develop and design the two classes on the history of Native Americans and wanted two classes for their university program. One class was to be on Native American history and the other on Native American culture.
I eagerly got into the work, in addition to my studies, and when I had both classes designed I presented them to my Department Chair. He commended me on my efforts and thought the classes would be excellent additions to the American Studies curriculum. Then the kicker…he informed me that, unfortunately, there was no one there currently that could teach the two courses because they were beyond the expertise of all of the American Studies professors.
While I had designed two new classes that were exemplary in covering the history and culture of Native American civilization, sampling both its breath and depth, I had neglected to consider the abilities of those who may be asked to teach the instructional materials. Dick and Carey consider this kind of situation in Chapter 9 of their book, The Systematic Design of Instruction (pp. 243-247) and it is worth a second look. I had designed the materials with the unspoken assumption that I would be the one who also delivered the instruction, whereas in reality the instruction needed to be independent of the designer. In this case there was no Instructor in the department who had the extensive content expertise I had. While I had taken into consideration the needs of future learners and had provided all of the instructional materials necessary for teaching the classes it would more likely be the case that Instructors would have to adapt the materials according to their own abilities and backgrounds for it to be really useful.
This is just a reflection of mine, perhaps a useful one, for those of you who may inadvertently design instruction beyond the capabilities of those who are to teach the newly designed classes. Dick and Carey recommend communication and collaboration and perhaps this would have helped. What do you suggest or do you have a model that would have addressed this kind of situation?
I eagerly got into the work, in addition to my studies, and when I had both classes designed I presented them to my Department Chair. He commended me on my efforts and thought the classes would be excellent additions to the American Studies curriculum. Then the kicker…he informed me that, unfortunately, there was no one there currently that could teach the two courses because they were beyond the expertise of all of the American Studies professors.
While I had designed two new classes that were exemplary in covering the history and culture of Native American civilization, sampling both its breath and depth, I had neglected to consider the abilities of those who may be asked to teach the instructional materials. Dick and Carey consider this kind of situation in Chapter 9 of their book, The Systematic Design of Instruction (pp. 243-247) and it is worth a second look. I had designed the materials with the unspoken assumption that I would be the one who also delivered the instruction, whereas in reality the instruction needed to be independent of the designer. In this case there was no Instructor in the department who had the extensive content expertise I had. While I had taken into consideration the needs of future learners and had provided all of the instructional materials necessary for teaching the classes it would more likely be the case that Instructors would have to adapt the materials according to their own abilities and backgrounds for it to be really useful.
This is just a reflection of mine, perhaps a useful one, for those of you who may inadvertently design instruction beyond the capabilities of those who are to teach the newly designed classes. Dick and Carey recommend communication and collaboration and perhaps this would have helped. What do you suggest or do you have a model that would have addressed this kind of situation?
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