Michael Dalessandri, MEd, RN is the instructional designer in the Organizational Development Department for HonorHealth in Phoenix, AZ
When I
was a clinical educator in the acute care hospital setting, I always felt a gap
existed between ‘what’ education was delivered to staff and ‘how’ the education
was delivered to staff. I initially
followed the routines and methods that my fellow clinical educators did for
creating and delivering instruction, which included annual mandatories,
orientation, and everything else.
However, these did not fill my gap.
I didn’t really know if my delivery was effective to improve outcomes or
meet strategic initiatives; I didn’t really measure anything beyond staff’s
initial reaction to my content and delivery.
Then one day, I received an email from the Director of the
Organizational Development Department.
She asked all of the Clinical Educators if partnering with an
instructional designer would be helpful to us in our work. We all basically responded with, “What’s an
instructional designer?” She summarized,
“This is usually a Masters of Education level prepared professional whom
creates instruction. You would give
him/her the content and he/she creates the instruction.” The majority of the Clinical Educators
answered, “No. We can do it
ourselves.” However, I was intrigued,
and after researching about instructional designers and instructional design
academic programs, I was excited! This
would fill my gap!
Time has
passed since then, and I filled that gap.
I possess a Masters of Education in Instructional Design, and I have
been the Instructional Designer in Organizational Development for the past
several years. I work with both nursing
and non-nursing areas to design, develop, implement, and evaluate instructional
programs. However, I will never be done
with learning. I am always looking for
new projects and teams to work with to apply instructional design, and I am
always looking for inspiration for new and creative ways to design
instruction. The following are ten
instructional design tips that may help fill gaps within the Nursing
Professional Development (NPD) work that you do.
1.
Apply
the elements of instructional design first, then use design tools second. Design tools include multimedia and print
media. Always do the front-end planning
work first before creating the instruction.
Retrofitting instruction around a plan usually fails to be effective,
efficient, and measureable.
2.
Become
multifaceted. Apply the same vigor you
support using evidence-based practice toward using instructional design. Include the psychology of learning, learning
technology, gamification, eLearning, synchronous and asynchronous learning,
videography, and assessment and evaluation techniques. Explore how other industries use those
techniques and apply them to your work within NPD.
3.
Hone
your writing and storytelling skills.
4.
Develop
your own philosophy of design, your own ‘rhythm and style’. There is no one-way or best way to design instruction. Incorporate best practices, science,
anecdotes, learner preferences, and your previous attempts.
5.
When
presented with the statement, “We need training/education on…” accept it and
spend some time analyzing the problem/situation. Sometimes a problem requires instruction, but
sometimes it’s something else, like the need for a job aid, a process change,
or an accountability issue.
6.
Listen
to the needs/preferences of the ‘client’ and work collaboratively on a
solution. The initial solution or the
one that is ‘given’ to you to expand or develop might not be ideal. Ask a lot of questions to help get to the
root of the issue to focus your efforts.
7.
Learn
how to create sequential, progressive learning that pertains to the
learner. These range from quick, simple
designs to long, complex designs. Use
sound learning and design theories to prevent you from getting lost or off
track during development.
8.
Learn
how to evaluate the learners more than just their reaction to the design and
delivery of instruction. Evaluation
begins with analyzing the learner’s preferences for learning, e.g. eLearning,
lecture, simulation, and their requisite knowledge and experience. Context should be included, which are the
settings where the instruction and performance occurs. Then evaluate if they learned or if
performance improved.
9.
Don’t
spend time developing content that is already known by the learners. This is a waste of time for you and
them. Use only the ‘new knowledge’
within the content and create learning activities that require the learners to combine
their old knowledge with the new knowledge.
10. Begin with the end in mind; how outcomes are
measured. What exactly would learners be doing if they were accomplishing the
goal successfully? Then work
backwards to design the instruction.
A lot of
overlap exists between instructional design and curriculum design, especially
with what instruction is delivered -
the content. The standards are basically
the same between the two; however the chief difference is that instructional
design is mainly utilized in the workplace and focuses on how instruction is delivered, while curriculum design applies more
to the academic setting and focuses on why
instruction is delivered.
Instructional designers use how people learn and retain information in
designs to influence their performance that can be measured as outcomes.
Instructional
design is both an art and a science – an art because of the creativity involved
in designing instruction, and a science because it is based on learning and
design theories. It is also referred to
as Instructional Systems Design, because it takes a systematic approach to
creating effective instruction. Then of
course, there are one’s own experiences that are mixed in. Remember, the ultimate goal of instruction is
really to influence and/or change performance to solve or improve a problem.
How does
your instruction influence and/or change performance to solve or improve a
problem?
*Editor's Note: Michael will be teaching a workshop on instructional design at the 2016 ANPD Annual Convention in Pittsburgh, PA.
