Our Philosophy

Design Theory

ISD (Instructional Systems Design) began as an attempt to standardize the development of training for the US Army. Consequently, the approach was very structured and sequential. This is where the famous ADDIE model was first conceived.

Currently, many practitioners of instructional design see this strictly sequential approach to restrictive to respond to today’s changing workplace. They call for a more “Systems Dynamic” approach to instructional design. There are several implementations to this newer approach, but they all call for the constant interplay between a front-end analysis and the development stages. Robert Tennyson suggests five “Domains” that interact with each other and are useful for instructional development. They are:

Many people will see the above model and immediately assume that it is just ADDIE with different category names. The difference is that the systems dynamic approach is not sequential. Implementation can occur at the same time as design. In order to use rapid prototyping, this becomes a requirement. Additionally, modern instructional systems are by nature dynamic, meaning that they change as the process or people change. This means that design decisions and content must be updatable.

Many of the modern design techniques rely on the concept of rapid prototyping. This is a method where the client can see small samples of the finished product to gain an understanding of how it behaves and could be used in the organization.

Learning Theory

Pedagogy and learning theory has come a long way since behavioral science first attempted a systematic analysis of human learning. Though it was a good beginning, the cognitive approach has proven to be much more useful for instructional design. The concepts of scaffolding, prior knowledge, and effective feedback have greatly improved the design of instructional programs.

But even cognitive approaches are beginning to show their shortcomings. Newer constructionist approaches to human learning are providing the foundation for more effective learning environments where people not only learn facts and concepts, but are able to use this information in realistic and motivating ways. Instructional strategies such as simulations, real life scenarios, and even gaming help people develop problem solving and analytical skills that behavioral and cognitive approaches couldn’t address.

But this is not the end of the story. As our understanding of the human brain and human mind increases, our instructional strategies will get more effective and more efficient.

Production

The production and maintenance of CBT has changed radically in the Internet age. No longer is the content of the training program embedded into the training delivery application. Authorware and Toolbook applications are becoming more and more rare. Training systems now reside on a single server and are delivered page at a time to the learner’s favorite desktop browser. At the same time, information about the learner‘s performance is sent back to the server for storage and analysis by the training organization. This trend towards centralized content repositories and the ability to separate content from the delivery code is becoming more realistic with the advent of efforts such as ADL’s SCORM and XML based systems.