3. Construction



Once the blueprint has been created, it's time to get down to actually constructing the course. Often this part of the instructional design process involves a "team" approach. Just like building a house where you need a variety of specialists to construct the building (carpenters, electricians, masons, plumbers), instructors often call on media specialists or instructional designers to help with actually building the learning experience.

The construction portion of instructional design involves taking the performance objectives for each unit or lesson and pairing them with appropriate teaching strategies. Throughout this process the instructor has to make decisions related to what type of media to use for delivering the content. A variety of factors help decide what educational tools to use, such as availability of equipment, production expertise available to produce material, cost, delivery method (face-to-face vs. online) and an instructor's concept of learning (see teaching strategies for more guidance).

Generally each unit of instruction will consist of four parts:

1. INTRODUCTION (Motivate the learner)
  Activate learner attention
  Clearly establish the instructional purpose
  Arouse learner interest and motivation
  Preview the lesson

2. BODY OF INSTRUCTION (Content)

  Recall prior knowledge / learning
  Process the information
  Focus attention of the learner on the material
  Employ learning strategies
  Practice
  Evaluate learner feedback

3. CONCLUSION (Review learning)

  Summarize the material and review the lesson
  Transfer knowledge
  Remotivate and close the instruction

4. ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
  Assess learner performance
  Evaluate learner feedback and remediate (if necessary)

An instructor has a number of different teaching tools that can be pulled out of the educational toolbox. Use of some of these tools will depend on the classroom and learner and teacher capabilities.

In addition to selecting the appropriate media to use for facilitating instruction, you also need to address the issue of student motivation — how to grab and hold the attention of learners. John Keller (1987) created the ARCS model for motivation involving four components: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. The model is guided by three basic learner-centered questions:

    1. Is this material relevant to my (learner) personal needs and interests?
    2. Am I (learner) confident that I can do this by expending reasonable effort?
    3. Did this satisfy my (learner) needs and interests?

Once the lesson or unit has been constructed, it's time to deliver the material.