Design Stages

Planning is crucial to effective course construction. That's what instructional design is all about! Without a clear, concise plan, instructors can simply ramble through material and provide students with a disjointed and ineffective learning experience.

Instructional design is a systematic approach to building a course. Being a "system," the design or construction process is a set of interconnected stages, all working together towards a common goal. There are many instructional design experts and models, including:

While each expert seems to approach the instructional design process in a slightly different manner, certain principles emerge that are common among all the experts. Below, I have identified 5 stages in the instructional process that seem to be universal. By systematically proceeding through each step, an instructor can design and effectively construct a course. Please take the time to explore each step. Remember, this is a simple overview of the instructional design process. Links are available at the end of the website to explore this topic in more depth.