DESIGN DOCUMENTS

I created these design documents for a leadership learning experience on giving feedback to creative teams. Creating design documents is a foundational instructional design skill as it lays out a specific plan to execute targeted interventions. 

Instructional designers must think through all aspects of the learning experience to strategically tackle instructional goals and learning objectives. This plan needs to be thought out systematically so that designers understand how objectives, instructional strategies, and assessments work together to meet instructional goals. It is also critical to document this process so stakeholders understand the rationale behind design choices. In this specific design document, I use Dick and Carey’s model as a framework for designing my learning experience: a 1-hour instructor-led training on giving feedback to creative teams. The design document includes a detailed breakdown of the project overview, various analyses (gap, goal, learner, context, etc.), and objectives linked with instructional strategies and evaluation tools. This design document encouraged me to think carefully about all angles of the learning experience so that I made sure to make choices that would benefit the desired outcomes. 

As a student-teacher completing my classroom service hours, I had to generate lesson plans that detailed learning objectives and instructional strategies. However, once I was hired as a full-time teacher, I worked in schools that never required me to complete these lesson plans, so I fell out of practice. I did have to create unit plans, but nothing as meticulous as a lesson plan. A design document is even more thorough than the lesson plans I used to complete as a student-teacher. While some of these components may have felt tedious at the moment, the benefits of an intentional design process are undeniable. I would have never landed with specific content that met my learners’ needs had I not gone through all the steps in this design document. I think back to teaching and wonder how teachers could go through the same process in a time-efficient way to better design their curricula. 

This artifact proves that I can generate design documents that break down the key components of an effective design. I learned how important it is for designers to carefully consider the dynamic pieces of the learning experience so that they do not design arbitrarily. Each aspect serves a purpose in getting to the final goal. I originally had one idea, but after conducting many analyses, I realized I should pivot and tailor the learning experience to meet learners’ needs. I look forward to developing this competency by using other design models that are more streamlined.