Understanding the Distinction: Instructional Design vs. Learning Design

Hello viewers, ??

The term Instructional Design is often used as a catchall to explain a singular role in the process of teaching, content creation, and learning.? In the recent years, the term “learning design” has become more common, but

What do these terms mean??

How are they the same?

How do they differ from each other??

Let’s explore what these two terms mean, how they are similar how they differ, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Let’s dive in! ??♂?

??Understanding Learning Design:

Learning design is an approach to creating educational courses based on student-centered teaching. It involves analyzing learning objectives, developing a system of didactic tools, and testing their effectiveness. Its main task is to set certain educational goals and achieve them while considering user experience in learning and teaching how to apply that knowledge in practice.

In the context of learning content development, this approach includes the following processes:

• ?? Studying the subject and the audience. To create an effective training course, it is necessary to gather a lot of data about the subject matter of the training and who the target audience will be. Thus, the main difference in the design of e-learning vs. instructional design is that the former involves a phase that consists of analyzing, planning, and gathering statistics to lay a solid foundation and clearly understand the desired outcome.
• ?? Establishing learning objectives. Learning design includes defining clear learning objectives that outline the boundaries of what learners should know or be able to do after completing the course. It is important that the objective is measurable, as this will help to judge the success of the course and determine the potential ROI of the money spent on training material design and creation.
• ??Creating a course outline. Based on the data discussed above, designers create an overall course outline. This includes setting the total number of guided/non-guided learning hours, a breakdown of lessons and their brief descriptions, desired learning outcomes, and so on.
• ??Working with SMEs. In the learning design stage, all collected data is sent to subject matter experts (SME). They in turn evaluate the outline and make adjustments using their experience and expertise to create the right foundation for further work on the course.

??Understanding Instructional Design:

Instructional Design is a systematized approach to creating educational solutions that utilizes pedagogical principles and theories. To better understand the difference between instructional design vs. learning design, remember that the former term focuses more on creating a general learning experience and emphasizes analysis and planning while learning design principles focus more on the sequential development of learning materials. This includes developing content, tests, assignments, quizzes, etc.

Overall, instructional design is a more low-level approach. The process of working on instructional design consists of the following stages:

• ?? Lesson creation. The main task of an instructional designer is to create a clear and detailed curriculum along with lesson plans. This includes the design and approval of lessons, working layouts for different sections, and evaluation of each element. The main thing at this stage is to clarify the technical requirements for the future course, as well as to develop practical ways of achieving the goals approved in the previous stages.
• ?? Second stage review with SMEs. Of course, the lesson plans need to be resubmitted to the experts for approval. Only after their approval can the course be ready for production.
• ?? Preparation for production. Once the course structure is ready and detailed, the actual production of the training materials can be prepared. Content creation specialists approve all the necessary assemblies required for the course creation, set deadlines, and discuss methods of realization with videographers, graphic designers, copywriters, etc.

Key Differences Between: Learning Design and Instructional Design.

So now you have an idea of both terms. Let’s compare instructional design vs. learning technology design to clearly understand the difference between these two processes.

??Learning design:

• LD is a higher-level process. It focuses on analyzing data, creating a learning request, researching the issues, learning about the target audience, and working on its immersion. Its ultimate goal is to create an overall plan for future work and define e-learning strategies.
• The LD phase sets the overall metrics which will determine the success of the course. These metrics will serve as a guideline for further work on the course.
• LD takes into account an integrated approach and learning contexts. Based on this information, it focuses on creating a specific learning experience that only needs to be detailed and broken down.

??Instructional design:

• ID stage’s main tasks are the creation of lesson plans and scripts.
• ID deals with more substantive concepts and focuses on instructional content creation. As a rule, this process is rather linear as it is about the consistent presentation of instructional material.
• One of the main differences between learning experience design vs. instructional design is the strong emphasis on matching learning objectives with instructional strategies and assessment methods.
• ID is more rigorous and prescriptive. It operates with clear terms and concepts to provide guidelines for the design and delivery of instruction.

The Interplay and Overlap

While learning design and instructional design are presented as distinct strategies, they often intersect during the content development process. Effective educational courses benefit from both approaches working in harmony. Here’s how they complement each other:

• Learning Design Enhances Instructional Design: By prioritizing learner experience, learning design enriches instructional materials. It ensures that content resonates with learners and promotes active engagement.
• Instructional Design Provides Clarity: ID brings structure and clarity to the learning journey. It guides educators on how to convey information effectively, ensuring consistency and coherence.

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