Do I know any better?
When asked to define the field of instructional design and technology early in my course of study, I suggested that one needed to look at the functional role of the ID professional as one who helps to uncover unmet needs, translate gaps into learning initiatives, and guide the development and implementation process. I would add to that that the ID professional is also an evaluation expert and troubleshooter when the the evaluation finds that there were some misses or that the training came up entirely too short. I had additionally suggested that IDT is the systematic process of creating learning experiences utilizing various technologies, platforms, and settings. I still feel that this is true but would expand my definition to include that IDT can be a means of facilitating knowledge transfer through these means.
Through my reading since then, I’ve learned that the field of instructional design and technology has a much broader reach than I initially figured. Whether the venue for IDT is within healthcare, K-12 through higher education, corporate and industrial, or military and whether it’s in the US or other countries of the world, processes may change and various factors may influence the outcome, but the systematic approach seems to be a universally accepted tenet of IDT. Furthermore, practitioners may disagree over the level of guidance in the learning milieu as well, but again, there’s the basic agreement over the field as one that uses a system and seeks to optimally match and utilize technology (or not to use it at all) to increase the ability of learners to actually learn and apply their learning within the non-learning environment.
So in all, my definition of instructional design and technology is that it is a field whose focus is on understanding how people learn and then utilizing a systematic and cyclic process of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of authentic opportunities to learn (appropriately utilizing — or not — technological tools), improve performance, or facilitate knowledge transfer such that a behavior or knowledge can be genuinely demonstrated in real-world situations.
That may very well be the longest single sentence I’ve ever written. 🙂
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