Module 01 Lesson 1

Instructional Design and Development refers to the way instructional materials are produced and presented. Instructional media are the means in which the content is delivered (e.g. television, Blackboard Vista, sound recording). From the looks of things, we will study both in this class as well as throughout the MIT program.

While the field of Instructional Design and Development (ID) has changed a lot over the years, it has maintained the same spirit since at least 1905. Of course the field has changed with the advent of radio and sound recordings, television, personal computers, and the Internet; the purpose of ID has stayed the same: to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of instruction.

We live in exciting times today. Textbooks are going digital, learning is becoming on-demand, and entire college degrees can be completed across continents. One has to wonder, though, was it not equally exciting 100 years ago? In 1923 Thomas Edison erroneously predicted that movies would replace textbooks by 1943. Although he was wrong, that had to be an exciting idea at the time! I like to think that the charter members of the Department of Visual Instruction (DVI) were just as enthusiastic about what they were doing as we are about ID today.

The field of ID started out strong in early 1900s. The three traditional media (the teacher, chalkboard, and textbook) were just starting to be replaced (or enhanced, depending on your perspective) by sound recordings. Filmstrips soon followed. With the onset of World War II came a simultaneous boom and bust in Instructional Design and Development. The boom was the direct result of the Army needing to train mass numbers of soldiers for various tasks. The bust was because virtually all non-military spending was cut. This was bad for schools (at least in the short-term).

After the war, television and movies became popular means of instruction. They quickly fell out of favor with schools mostly due to a lack of quality. This medium usually consisted on a teacher standing in front of a camera, being recorded as s/he lectured. This actually kind of reminds me of iTunes U, without the convenience of taking the lectures with you. At least it was relatively "on-demand" learning.

Although our readings did not mention it, I have to believe that the US Postal Service (and its international counterparts) had to play a role at least in distance education. Instructional materials like audio and visual recordings, textbooks, and even research papers could be sent back and forth from any two locations on the planet. With the Internet, this became even faster.

I learned a lot about the history of Instructional Design and Development! I had no idea when or how the field got its start.