heather zink. a learner.

Instructional design in the real world

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Heather Zink

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Learning is a complex process involving cognitive and physiological processes as well as social and cultural constructs (Goldstein, 2019). But the design of the instruction can deeply impact the effectiveness of learning experiences. Sparking an emotional reaction, either through joy or fear or curiosity, results in more effective encoding to long-term memory (Goldstein, 2019). But how does the field of instructional design help aid in these emotional experiences?

I enjoy TED Talks. The presentations are well-designed and engaging because of how they are structured through story and real-world application. As a StrengthsFinder Learner, these short snippets of information offer little knowledge nuggets to help improve my personal well-being or how I do my job. What is fascinating to me though is the longevity of the talk and how the information sticks with me when it is usually only 10-12 minutes in length — it’s the design of the talk that helps with the retention. TED Talks are centered around storytelling. Humans are storytellers by nature and we have evolved over time because of the stories we tell ourselves or the stories we’ve been told. This is essentially an instructional design practice, and a highly effective one considering the popularity and impact of TED Talks today.

Think about the last TED Talk you watched or listened to. It started with an engaging introduction to ground the audience in a real-world problem, then shifted quickly into a personal story from the speaker. That quick transition helps to set the stage, then dig into the personal narrative so you can feel as though you are connected to the speaker in some way. Most often the speaker will ask you to “imagine yourself…” somewhere doing something. This is to help place you in the scenario and creates an emotional connection to the message or lesson the speaker is trying to convey. We know from cognitive science researchers that an emotional experience transitions to and holds in long term memory better than one without emotion involved (Goldstein, 2019).

Where joy hides and how to find it

TED Talks usually finish with a call to action asking the viewer/listener to take this information they just received and apply it to their daily life or make an impact on the world somehow. My most favorite TED Talk is by Ingrid Lee (2018). She is a designer who started studying joy – not happiness, but joy. She talked about how happiness seemed like a lofty goal, but moments of joy throughout the day created a sense of happiness and contentment. As I listened to her story, I started to understand why I love sprinkles so much (it’s because of the multiplicity and abundance) or why a space with a round mirror always made me feel good (round objects feel safer than sharp edges). Physical attributes lead to joyful spaces. Her talk led me to purchase her book, The Aesthetics of Joy, which ultimately led me to her website with the same name. The structure of her talk truly helped me see differences between joy & happiness and shift my thoughts to finding my joy in the spaces around me.

One of these lessons, that pops of bright color lead to joy, is most evident in her blog posts. They contain beautiful pops of color that spark emotion when you read the words. One of the posts, 10 Ways to Start the Day on a Joyful Note (Lee, 2021), stands out as one with both high and low quality design elements. Obviously the goal of the post is to share a list of practices to help begin your day on a joyful positive note. As someone who struggles with depression, I am constantly on the look out for opportunities to create a joyful space as it helps me to shift from the internal ramblings of my mind to the physical space around me. As I read through this particular post (mind you this was over a month ago and it has stayed with me), the most impactful items listed were the suggestions with pictures included. It’s amazing how that small act of adding a visual example helps the brain remember what was read over just words. Adding flowers to the bedside and color to the bedroom were the most remembered from the list because of the images she included. Reading a poem or listening to a book didn’t stick with me because there was no visual element in the post.

Mobile-first = Equity in education

Three essential components of effective instruction, as told by Merrill (2008), include a demonstration of what is to be learned, a chance to apply what is being learned, and to do all of this in the context of real world scenarios or problems. TED Talks include these key strategies which is why they are so impactful. Storytelling is an effective way to demonstrate what is to be learned, so I thought I would wrap this up by sharing my own TED Talk of sorts created to help transition our faculty team to a mobile-first learning management system (LMS) in a super quick timeframe (4 months)…in the middle of the pandemic. Students needed to access learning materials from a phone or tablet, and our current system wasn’t designed for mobile. In an effort to build awareness around the need for mobile delivery to improve access, I was asked to share my “Why” based on volunteer work I have done in the Dallas community. A colleague helped me craft the presentation based on similar principles of TED Talks. Last fall I delivered it live to over 500 faculty and staff. The linked presentation is a recording I did to share this work with an EDUCAUSE learning community, but it helps demonstrate the power of storytelling and use of effective visuals to convey an impactful message.

Summary

The goal of this post was to share examples of instructional design in the real world and offer my own use of these strategies as both an individual and a learning technologist. I am finding the reflective nature of blogging is helping me to better understand design principles and force the strategies I’m reading about to sink in a new way. I look forward to comments and ideas on how the design of effective instruction has impacted your world.

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