Instructional Design Degrees Blog

10 Main Goals of an Instructional Designer

by on May 16, 2012

Instructional design goals are all about bringing learning goals, objectives, standards, learning theory, needs of the learner, instructional methods, visual design, and assessment together in an organized manner to meet learners’ needs. Models are available to help bring meaning and organization to complex systems. These models may or may not incorporate instructional technology, but most instructional designers use what is available to help develop goals for a systematic development of instruction. This list of instructional design goals can be reversed, interchanged or even mingled to bring results for any given learning situation:

  1. Define Learners: Instructional designers often develop goals for a course with little consideration for entry level skills required by new learners. Or, goals may be written in such a way that students cannot possibly reach them. When the instructional designer begins to know students’ levels of sophistication, ages, physical abilities, and any other appropriate skill levels for all learners, this information can help to determine learning goals, instructional materials, teaching methods, and appropriate goals and outcomes. The goal in this step is to be able to reach all learners. Some identification marks might include:
    • Age
    • Educational background
    • Cultural factors
    • Learning styles
    • Physical capabilities
    • Motivation, including job performances
  2. Identify Desired Results: Beyond understanding the learners involved in any instructional module, the instructional designer needs to assess what learners expect to gain from teaching. The ability to identify desired results can help the instructional designer to plan strategies and learning experiences that are appropriate for the learners involved in the instruction. Additionally, this goal allows the instructional designer to develop instruction that endures beyond the classroom. One example of desired results specific to children includes DRDP, or the Desired Results Developmental Profile.
  3. Set Goals: Only after you define your learners and needs, can the instructional designer set goals. Goal-setting is related to the needs of all learners, and they are stated in terms of student learning. Goals usually are appropriate for the intended learners, related to the needs of all learners, and stated in terms of student learning. Consideration to the amount of discipline-specific and task-specific knowledge and skills needed by the learners to be successful is required for creating learner outcomes. Include goals focused on communication and thinking as well as discipline-specific topics, concepts, and processes.
  4. Standards and Benchmarks: When setting goals, make every attempt to align with state and district standards and benchmarks for teaching and learning. Standards form the core curriculum can provide both equity and excellence for all students as they learn. Standards abound in the world of education and training, and some standards focus on content while other standards focus on delivery of content. Some of these standards include:
  5. Create Learner Outcomes: Learning outcomes are based on the goals, standards, and needs of the learners and are considered measures of learning. Sample evidence that the learner has successfully demonstrated all performance outcomes indicates that goals have been achieved. Select and target worthy outcomes for student learning and focus on the important concepts and meaningful knowledge at the heart of essential understandings that students need to develop. Avoid overwhelming the learners with unconnected “factoids” and instead focus on the big ideas linked through higher level thinking/processing.
  6. Develop Instructional Strategies: Instructional strategies define both teaching and learning techniques and include pre-instructional activities, presentation of information, practice and feedback, assessments, and application activities. Strategies should be based on stated goals and outcomes as well as current learning research, knowledge of the learning process, content to be taught, and the characteristics of the learners. Strategies include designing more than one path to the same goal, as different pathways allow students with different learning styles to achieve the same goals. Be sure to consider how best to incorporate technology into the teaching and learning in the unit, as these tools can help all learners gain their own goals.
  7. Gather or Develop Instructional Materials: Well-developed instructional designs draw information from multiple resources. However, it is not necessary to invent the wheel. Instead, instructional designers can gather material already created to use and modify to fit current goals and strategies. Use technology to convert prior materials into current formats, including primary source materials and Web resources. Determine how the same idea can be explained in a variety of forms (graphics, text, charts, and graphs) to meet an equal variety of learning styles. If the instructional designer can include learners in gathering resources for any given module, their ability to understand goals and objectives might be enhanced. Evaluate all resources for accuracy and appropriateness and teach learners how to assess reliability and validity in primary and secondary resources. This activity allows an excellent opportunity to coach learners on how to discriminate among various perspectives and to detect bias.

  8. Implement Instruction: The instructional designer’s goal in this step is to value and respect all students as learners. Provide learners with opportunities to apply relevant understandings to new knowledge to create personal meaning for that learner and fellow learners. Instructional feedback and support to each learner and to the group as a whole allows learners to gauge their ability to absorb new material. Develop date and time goals to help learners develop a sense of when they can learn for themselves, and when they can rely on instruction.
  9. Assess Learner Performance: Each instructional goal is assessed in some way to measure success. Assessment of student performance often is balanced among teacher-generated assessments, standardized measures, and learner-developed artifacts. Assessments reflect authentic, real-world applications of knowledge and understanding, as well as measuring feedback. The ability to understand learner performance can help to assess whether the previous goals were attained, as well as assessing if the learners gained growth and achievements.
  10. Reflective Practice: This final goal is based upon shortfalls and successes. Often this step is reserved for test runs or the developmental phase of a course. However, this goal can be used at any given time to reassess the learning process, and to redefine the learning goals depending upon the definition of learners for each repetitive course.


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