What is an instructional designer? - Aug. 30, 2008

What is an instructional designer?
By Shawn Atwood
EDPS 6430
Foundations of Instructional Design

I love teaching! I always have and I hopefully always will. I have only been teaching full time as a career now for just over 1 year, and I have student taught for 1 year on top of that as well. I am very excited for this new adventure of working towards obtaining a masters degree. I know that doing this while teaching full-time will require a lot of late nights and early mornings, but in the long run I really feel that it will be worth the time and the effort that I will be putting towards it.
Last class there was a great question that was posed: “What is an instructional designer?” To me, the answer lies within the question. It is someone who is continually designing instruction. I view it as the methods, techniques, ideas, assessments and technologies used to instruct. It is how one teaches in order to bring about the learning that is desired in their students. I do not believe that the sole responsibility of the success of the instructional design is entirely rested upon the shoulders of the instructor either. I believe that the contribution of the student is a large factor.
The objective as to why a teacher teaches is to get the student to learn new skills. Instructional design is the process by which a teacher organizes and provides the necessary concepts, information, and instruction to enable a student to take that information and incorporate it into memory. In order to find the desired success, the instructor’s type of design, or in other words, how they teach must match the students desire to learn.
Furthermore, a teacher’s instructional design should constantly change depending on the learner as well. If a teacher really wants a student to learn, then they will teach the student and not the design. If the instructor will modify their design to meet the needs of the student, then both the instructor and the student will be meeting their objectives and both will experience pleasure in learning.