About Instructional Design
& Brandy Rhodes
About Instructional Design
What is instructional design?
One of the most common questions people ask me is “what is instructional design?”
This can be hard to answer because instructional design is a field of study and a way of going about things - especially the design of learning.
The best way I know to answer this question is to say that instructional design, often referred to simply as ‘ID’, is a field of study whose practitioners are constantly considering the following:
How do we design learning experiences that reflect what is known about:
HOW people learn?
WHY people learn?
WHAT proves learning?
Each one of these questions then opens up an entire world of its own. Therefore, instructional designers are those professionals who have chosen to immerse and create in one (or often multiple) areas in this field of study.
Instructional designers use systematic processes, supportive theories, organizing frameworks, and personal creativity to design and develop learning experiences that help facilitate and support learning and/or desired performance.
Instructional designers go by a variety of names, such as instructional systems specialists, learning architects, learning engineers, learning designers, instructional specialists, education specialists, learning professionals, learning strategists, performance improvement specialists, and more.
Although some may mistake words like strategic, systematic, quality, depth, or intention as overly academic, too structured, idealistic, or pretentious, I see it differently.
I see these words and approaches as “being considerate.”
Being considerate means putting time, attention, thoughtfulness, and heart into your work - so that those on the receiving end can feel it. In course design work (and teaching), when it’s done with this considerate approach - both the educator and the student walk away feeling the difference.
Make sure that everything you design and build adheres to your highest standards. Push back on people who try to dilute this mission - and partner with the people who support it.
~ Frank Gehry
About Brandy Rhodes: My Story
Two truths:
1. I love instructional design.
2. Instructional design changed my life.
Backstory
My first professional role and identity started in healthcare, nearly 20 years ago. I spent years working as a nurse and then as a nurse practitioner, primarily in the emergency department. I’ve also spent brief periods of time in women’s health and medical dermatology.
However, for many years, something always felt like it was missing. While I enjoyed the one-on-one with patients and the challenge of trying to properly diagnose and treat them - I always felt like there was this whole other part of me that I couldn’t quite articulate or access.
In 2016, after 12 years in the clinical setting, I found an opportunity to teach at a local university.
I loved it immediately.
I loved the environment. I loved teaching. I loved trying to figure out how to break things down into more understandable pieces. I loved trying to figure out what students needed. I loved being in an environment of constant learning. I loved being around other people who cared about similar things and were constantly pushing themselves to improve. I was hooked. So, I decided to start trying to figure out how to stay in this world.
The following year, after searching the university’s page for graduate programs. I decided that I didn’t want to pursue a doctorate degree in nursing. While healthcare had played a huge role in my life, I wanted something different. So I made a bold decision.
I decided to start over.
I decided to pursue an entirely different field called instructional design.
When I found the program page and read the description, it was as if everything I’d ever been interested in, all the words I wanted to talk about, and all the things I wanted to know how to do - were all there, packaged up in a formal degree.
The first course I took was Psychological Principles of Learning. I knew instantly that I had found my home. That decision and the journey that has followed has been one of the best and most transformative decisions in my personal and professional life.
These last several years of studying and using instructional design have been a gift. They have been more than just checking boxes, achieving milestones, and gaining pieces of paper. They have been deeply personal.
Call it timing, motivation, interest, or fate. I just know that the moment I took that first class in instructional design, I knew I was where I belonged. The moment I stepped into that boardroom during that initial meeting, I knew I belonged.
Through every reading, every assignment, every topic, and every project - I have learned so much about this field, about others, and about myself. I have devoted myself with the utmost intensity. All the early mornings of getting to toil in this world have felt like gifts to me. I am finally able to articulate and access that passion and meaning I had so deeply needed - after years of feeling disconnected from who I was and what I was doing.
This field helped me find that missing piece.
This quote from Chase Jarvis, in Creative Calling, pretty much sums it up for me:
“I finally discovered an outlet for everything that was trapped inside of me.”
This field has changed me.
I feel so fortunate to have found instructional design. Or that it found me.
My purpose on this site is to share, through my projects and my writings (blog), the thoughts, depth, passion, and creativity behind learning design and all that it entails.
My personal and professional research interests and focus areas are:
The link between pursuing one's unique potential and mental health
The intersection of personal and professional development
The personal and professional impacts of learning experiences for the workplace
The components of a learning experience that most impact learning
The development of talent, mastery, and/or expertise
How unique needs of faculty (subject matter experts) impact collaboration and course design