Kokila Ravi

Georgia State University

Instructional Design and Technology Program

December 12, 2019

Reflection Assignment #3

Chapter 10 of Cennamo and Kalk’s book Real World Instructional Design (2019) focuses on the Demonstration phase of an instructional design project.  This phase sits right in the middle of the 5 pronged phase of the instructional design process – a) Define, b) Design, c) Demonstrate, and d) Develop, and e) Deliver.  This phase is critical as any issues identified in the design process can be addressed and revised suitably.  Also, at this stage it makes perfect sense to demonstrate the project to all stakeholders for feedback.  This phase, as all other phases, carefully studies the a) Learners, b) Outcomes, c) Activities, d) Assessments, and e) Evaluation in order to make the entire phase meaningful and beneficial to all stakeholders.  I was fascinated by the description of all the components of the Demonstrate phase and what the value of each of those components is – Prototype, Treatment, Scenario, Template, and Screen design.  As an aspiring instructional designer, I find the Demonstrate phase to be central to the instructional design experience.

I had a different understanding of Prototype – as a model product subject to experimentation and subsequent improvement.  However, the idea of developing a prototype to capture the essence of the project, share the specific outline, and also identify the critical next steps was indeed interesting and new to me.  Since resources are scarce and time scarcer, at the demonstrate phase, an all hands on deck approach is critical. A prototype also allows us to test the product on real learners and see how impactful the product is and what changes are needed to increase its effectiveness.  Also, this is where all the design elements created so far begin to see the light of day and take shape as components of the final project.

Cennamo and Kalk (2019) identify Treatment as “a transitional document that communicates the instructional strategy in terms of what the program will look like, how it will work, and what learners will see, hear, and do.  In the treatment you describe your production ideas, types of activities, and plans for assessing learning” (288).  Chunking is integral to this experience and each chunk of content represents a single lesson with separate goals and subskills. While the Treatment primarily helps the designer to develop ideas and see how they will play out, it also serves as a viable means of communication between various stakeholders of the project.

The next step in the demonstrate phase is Scenarios.  “The development of a user scenario gives you an opportunity to continue to refine your ideas and begin to explore how well they might work. A user scenario should describe what it feels like to progress through a lesson from the learner’s perspective” (Cennamo and Kalk, 2019 p. 290).   All aspects of the project including navigation, functionality, specific learner behaviors, images, sounds, animations, interactive sequences, etc. are all included in Scenarios when it is shared with the stakeholders.

Production Documents include pretty much the final course documents and typically at this phase a “slice” of the product which replicates all aspects of the “real” product is developed and presented.  This slice will include, for example, title screen, main menu, glossary, help screens, resources, any assessments included as well instructional goals and objectives.   To round out the lesson at the end a quiz or assessment of some sort will be designed with opportunities for instructor feedback.

Instructional design gains efficiency when there is some level of standardization and established predictable patterns.  Since students tend to feel a bit lost in online courses, it is helpful to create Templates and insert them in modules, so Subject Matter Experts can easily fill in their content and students know exactly what to expect in each module.  Templates are the building blocks of the instructional design program.  For visual understanding and appeal, it is necessary to provide display specifications which can be written out or created as a wireframe or sketch of what you want the computer screen to look like. 

Storyboards display what happens in each screen and serve as the blueprint for the production of the final design document. 

Cennamo, Katherine and Kalk, Debby (2019). Real World Instructional Design. New York. Taylor and Francis.