Instructional Design

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As well as deciding on the format of the course, I have to re-shape its content. In contrast to e-learning, there seems to be a lot of solid material available on instructional design. The most useful guide I've found so far is Wiggins & McTighe's Understanding by Design. I was initially a bit put off by the micro-industry the authors have built around the book, but its step-by-step approach immediately felt right:

What are students supposed to understand at the end of the lesson?
How is that going to be determined, i.e., what questions will they be answer that they couldn't answer before, or what will they be able to do that they couldn't do before?
What lessons and activities are going to help them acquire that knowledge and those skills?

The whole thing is a lot more detailed than that, but you get the gist. And note that the last point says "help them acquire", not "teach them": while the latter focuses on what the instructor says, the former focuses on helping students construct understanding, which is both more accurate and a better fit for the level of students this course targets.

I've already used their ideas in reshaping the course outline. If the right way to deliver the course turns out to be 200 vignettes rather than 25 lectures, I will need to do some chopping and rearranging, but I think that what I have is a good starting point. Once I know what format I'm going to choose, I will rework the outline in accordance with the three-step approach summarized above and ask for feedback.