Designing+Materials

**// Designing Materials //**

** Objective: Outline the contents of each component in an instructional package **

** Instructional Packages **

Before an instructor can focus on delivering the content to his students, he must first set up the delivery unit. Planning is the key to any effective teaching unit, and instructional packages offer teachers a plan to accomplish their goals. Instructional packages can be complex units that take a month to present to the students. However, a teacher can use synthesis, or the combination of a complex whole into several ideas, to break down the instructional package into several components. The components of an instructional package are instructor's guides, learners' materials , and instructional activities. ** Instructor's Guides **

Instructor's guides are simply lesson plans. Of course, every instructor creates his or her lesson plans somewhat differently, but most of these plans include the title of a unit, the time alloted to complete the unit, materials needed, goals or objectives, what the teacher will do, any background information needed for the students to complete their tasks, what the students will do, and how the students will be assessed. An instructor should create his or her lesson plan to meet a variety of different learning styles with the end goal in mind. An instructor must ask, "What should the students be able to do by the end of this unit?" This form of backward design has been choice among instructional designers over the past decade. When the instructor's guide is detailed and well thought out, the lesson will have a greater chance of success. After a lesson, a teacher should evaluate his guide and make changes for the following unit or year based on the needs of the learners.



This visual shows a typical lesson plan and its impact on various learning styles.

** Learner Materials **

The learner materials is what the teacher and students need in order to complete the tasks. These could include everything from paper and pencil, to handouts, to computers or a video. An instructor should seek to utalize a variety of materials to meets the needs of a variety of different learning styles. When an instructor has planned everything the class will need for a unit, he or she is better prepared and the lesson will be more efficient. Of course, once the unit is over, the instructor can reflect back on the process and adjust the materials needed for that unit the following year or the upcoming unit based on the learners' needs.

This picture shows a variety of different learning materials.
 * Instructional Activities**

Finally, the instructional activities are what the teacher and students perform. The goals of the lesson as stated in the instructor's guide will dictate what needs to be done in order for the students to learn the content. Instructional activities occur throughout the lesson and range from direct instruction, group work, and projects to tests. The instructional activities should be stated with verbs since they are what will be performed throughout a unit. The lesson plans should reflect a variety of instructional activities to meet the needs of all learning styles. Now that the teacher or instructor has planned the unit, he or she may focus on delivering it.

References Piskurich, G.M. (2000). //Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right//. Jossey-Bass. Ragan, T.J., & Smith, P.L. (1999). //Instructional Design// (2nd edition). Upper Saddle River: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Rogers, P.L. (2002). //Designing instruction for technology-enhanced learning//. Hershey, PA: IRM Press.

Designing Content / Designing Delivery / Designing Modes
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