Instructional Design Tips

• Instructional Design is more than only about technology. Technology is a tool that aids in teaching. It should be used as is appropriate to the pedagogical principles.
  
  
• Bloom's Taxonomy was developed many years ago and is still appropriate today for teaching development. It is categorized into six main areas: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The principles are reviewed in the Overview link below. The Bloom's Taxonomy system uses outcome exhibiting verbs with specific types of activities for each outcome advised. The links below provide more information on these concepts.
  • Overview of Bloom's Taxonomy from University of Victoria
  • Outcome Illustrating Verbs for Bloom's Taxonomy
    [Washington State University]
  • Course Activities corresponding to Bloom's Taxonomy
    [Dalhouse University, Halifax, Nova Scotia]
    
    
• Use of rubrics provides a useful way to communicate to students what is expected and at what level of performance. A teacher's role is to facilitate instruction, not to try to make learning more challenging that needed for students. Rubrics aid faculty in grading fairly across their student population and aid students in being more successful in their learning experience.
  • Rubistar is a web-based tool for creating clear and concise rubrics. It is recommended that you share the rubrics you create with your student population. By creating your account there, you can store and share your rubrics with other professionals.
    
    
• Learning Styles are important to take into consideration as you design course content. Since you will naturally design for your own learning preference, it is important to provide learning experiences for all types of learners. In the Presentations section of this site I have provided information about the VARK Assessment as well as background on other learning styles theorists.