Instructional design is the systematic and continuous application of learning principles and educational technology to develop the most effective and efficient learning experience for students. Instructional design comes into play in any educational arena -- not just distance education -- when instructors try to identify which areas need to be taught to bring about the desired learning outcome in students.

You may be wondering why you need to know about instructional design. You may be developing Web pages or videos or networking computers and not be involved with the overall finished product. Others of you may be working on a distance education course from beginning to end. So why care?

No matter how much or little you are involved in an educational project, you need to understand the instructional design process. It helps anyone involved with the project to determine what is important – in terms of content – what techniques should be used to teach the content, and what methods will be used to assess if learning is achieved.
In fact, distance education practitioners consider proper instructional design so important that they refer to it in this way:

"Instructional design is considered the intellectual technique of the professional who is responsible for appropriate application of technology to the teaching and learning process. Instructional design is to the instructional technologist as the rule of law is to the lawyer, the prescription of medicine to the medical doctor, and the scientific method is to the chemist – a way of thinking and solving problems" (Thompson, A., Hargrave, C., & Simonson, M., 1996, Educational Technology: Review of the Research, Second Edition).

Just remember: Good instruction is good instruction, regardless of how it is delivered or the technologies that are employed.

Throughout Destination 3: Distance Education Instructional Design, you will hear from University of Florida instructors Rick Rudd and Tracy Irani, who have taught distance education courses, and from UF instructional designers Ron Thomas and Lisa Hightower about how they assist in the development of distance education courses. Here, Rudd and Irani provide you with a brief description of their distance education courses.

Rick Rudd, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication	Tracy Irani, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication	Ron Thomas, instructional designer	Lisa Hightower, instructional designer

Irani and Rudd describe their courses (1:19)

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University of Florida instructional designer Lisa Hightowe may be a lot like you. She was initiated into distance education development and delivery due to her professional background in video production. Lisa learned about distance education instructional design through her experiences. Let's hear Lisa's story.

Lisa Hightower's background (:34)

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You'll learn the following driving skills (objectives) as we travel:

• Define instructional design.
• Identify and implement the components of an instructional design system.
• Identify strategies to "fix" bad instructional design.

At the end of each destination is a Resources Page with a glossary, support materials and references. To access other sections, return to the Table of Contents.

Let's move on to instructional design models and components.

Destination 3: 1 of 11