The Instructional Designer Role

The first phase of an instructional design project is the Discovery phase. The Discovery phase of the instructional design process defines and documents the needs stated by the parties requesting the instruction. The instructional designer enters and steps back to gain a wider perspective and begin a complex process of analysis. Each need is examined thoroughly and dissected to reveal all the underlying characteristics. The potential learners are scrutinized in relation to the learning needs.

Instructional designers begin by asking:

• Who identified the need? Is it management or the target audience?
• How will the proposed training affect the learners’ performance?
• Has other training taken place to satisfy the need?
• Who are the learners? What do they already know? How do we know they know it?

Learning Needs
The learning needs are first addressed. By asking questions, listening, surveying, and watching, the instructional designer digs deep into each one. Symptoms are separated from true needs. Needs are related to performance objectives. Options other than instruction are considered. A decomposition process of the final learning needs establishes the skills required to meet the objectives and skills needed to support them. The skills are also evaluated to determine if the target learners already have them. Along side the instruction analysis, an analysis of the learner also takes place.

Learners
The more the learners are understood, the more effective the instruction. The instructional designer may begin by evaluating basic demographic information about the target learner group to determine their basic characteristics. More information is often required to complete the evaluation. The designer may request to interview or observe the target group. A lot is revealed by how they interact and perceive their own learning needs. Their job roles and experience contribute to information about their competencies and motivation. Their learning history can reveal learning styles and attitudes. This information fine tunes the learning objectives, drives the development of the instruction, and contributes to decisions concerning learner support and motivational options.

Instructional designers are trained to:

• Lead the group through the obvious to find contributing factors for the need
• Recognize “red flags” of earlier attempts to satisfy a need and analyze the reasons
• Analyze and diagnose symptoms of stated needs to determine the real need
• Determine top priority objectives
• Seek alternative solutions to satisfy the need
• Seek the performance affect as related to original need
• Understand how learner characteristics affect design and make recommendations accordingly
• Evaluate resources and propose suggestions to align development with them
• Evaluate learner knowledge to determine if entry competencies are met
• Evaluate learner knowledge to determine if job experience contributes to knowledge related to proposed need
• Evaluate other learning to determine if proposed new information exists

The instructional designer plays the role of researcher, analyst, coordinator, designer, and manager. The decisions and information gathered take the project into the design and development stages. Proper analysis and planning combine into an effort to develop the most effective learning experience possible.