Rapid Instructional Design: Learning ID Fast and Right, 3rd Edition

Introduction

PURPOSE

The purpose of this book is to consider how to make both the learning and doing of instructional design faster. Proper instructional design is an absolutely critical, but very time-consuming, aspect of any training process, so finding techniques to do it right—but rapidly—is important, and the benefits of employing these techniques are pretty obvious.

This book covers all the basics of instructional design, from analysis to evaluation, and perhaps just a little more, but does so without the theory, with plenty of practical checklists, and with many hints on how to design better and more quickly in this age of technology-based training.

Some might say that in dealing with basic instructional design this book is treading on much furrowed ground. Although this might be the case, we will be using a somewhat different type of plow; and perhaps it is time to revisit that ground, particularly from a new perspective.

At a recent international training conference exposition, I took a tour of the various publishers’ booths and asked for books on instructional design. There weren't many to choose from, and most of the ones I did find were based on this or that new theory of learning. It seems that the most utilized and recommended basic instructional design book is still Dick and Carey's (1990) The Systematic Design of Instruction, which, even in its third edition, is ten years old.

By no means am I suggesting that this book should or will replace Dick and Carey; the ...