Introduction

            Have people ever realized how the lecturers, teachers and any other instructors achieve there goals?  What is the tool that these teachers, instructors and lectures use to achieve their goals?  Employers in any field of profession will always want qualified students that are well trained and are able to apply what they are taught in the professional field with little more training.  How these students are transformed to be of that quality that they require is not always their concern.  For the assessment of the quality of a student a lecturer or an instructor has produced, it is essential to have a guiding material (Reigeluth, 2003).

Instructional Designs

            This is where the role of an instructional design comes in.  An instructional design is an outline of instructions indicating the processes or the steps an instructor should follow in preparation for a learning session or training.  It describes the activities of an instructor in relation to what the instructor should teach or make the students know, the objectives of the learning process, that is, what the instructor plans to accomplish, the materials the instructor feels will be of importance to the learning session, evaluation processes of determining if really what he/she aimed at as an instructor has been achieved, and other important processes that can be used in the teaching and training process (Reigeluth, 2003).

            Instructional designs are not only used in educational institutions but can as well be used in business organizations.  Human resource managers always have the responsibility of training employees as part of improving the performance of an organization.  It is essential for them to determine the areas of training under the different staff requirements.  When developing the training manual, the materials needed have to be considered, the aim of that training has to be in place and the manager has to determine if the mission of making employees understand or gain certain skills is accomplished (Reigeluth, 2003).

             From this then, conclusions can be made that an instructional design is a teaching guide to an instructor.  Several people have described several orders or frameworks in which an instructional design should be.  The aim of an instructional design though is one, the method of making sure that this aim is attained differs according to the different theories explained by different people.  Gagne describes an instructional design as having nine steps, John Keller describes this process as having four steps, Merill describes it as a “Component Display Theory”, there is also the “Constructivist Theory” and the “Reigeluthís Elaboration Theory” (Instructional Design, 2003).

GagnE’s Instructional Design

            GagnE bases the argument on the instructional design as based on three principles of acquiring knowledge.  These principles according to him are observation, which he says involves collecting of facts, the next principle is reflection, which combines the facts and lastly the verification of the results, which is the experimentation principle of acquiring knowledge.  The experiments he notes, should be exact, the observation diligent and the reflection profound (Instructional Design, 2003).

            Based on these principles the instructional design according to GagnE, involves a first stage of looking for the students attention that entails making use of various demonstrations to gain the attention of the students.  The first step can be achieved by showing the topic on television, doing the opposite of what the instructor should teach then correcting it in the lesson, or demonstration through story telling among others.  After ensuring that the attention of the students are captured, the next step is to tell the learner the objectives of the learning session or the training (Instructional Design, 2003).

             The objectives give the learner an opportunity to think deeply on what he/she is to be taught and prepare for the training under his or her imaginations which also help in understanding.  Step three involves stimulating prior knowledge of the students before introducing the real topic.  The aim of this stimulation is to help the students build on prior knowledge that acts as a base to understanding the new content.  GagnE argues that it is easier to build on what is already in place than starting from the beginning (Instructional Design, 2003).

Everything has an introduction and there is no way one would be successful without starting from the low levels.

            Step four of the instructional design is now the introduction of the content.  The content is presented to the learner after it has been organized in a way that it makes sense to the learner, in which it is explained then demonstrated.  Presentation can be done using a variety of equipments or methods to which the instructor chooses and feels is appropriate for relaying the content.  Step five of the instructional design is using means that can help students keep the message relayed to them for long (Instructional Design, 2003).  This involves the use of examples, case studies, graphical representations and many other guidance strategies that an instructors may use.

            The learners are then expected to practice what they have been taught.  This is now in the sixth step of the instructions and involves making use of skills and knowledge instilled during the training session to practice.  Step seven is provision of immediate feedback during the practice to ensure that they do the right thing.  The instructor is therefore suppose to asses the students to find out if the mission of the design or the training is accomplished (Instructional Design, 2003).

            Step eight requires the assessment of the students without any guidance or coaching to find out if the knowledge is stored in the mind or not.  It involves offering tests on the content that was presented to the students.  If a student passes this test then he/she is awarded the certificate or the relevant qualification material, showing that he/she has undergone a specific kind of training, and is qualified under a certain profession.

            The last step of GagnE’s instructional design is the application of the acquired knowledge into the job which is always a determination only done by the employers, in most cases the managers.  This step requires an instructor to inform the learner about similar situations of the content while bringing in more practice to the learner and reviewing the lesson (Instructional Design, 2003).

Analysis of instructional effectiveness

            Williams’ book the “Non-Designers Design” book gives information in a manner same as an instructor’s way of teaching.  The book offers instructions on the design principles discussing the designing proximity, the alignment that is appropriate and other design principles.  As has been indicated earlier, an instructional design aims at satisfaction to an instructor that the knowledge he/she given the students, has really been understood and can be applied to the relevant place or occupation it should be applied (Williams, 2004).

            The “Non-Designers Design” book as the name suggests, is a book meant to train non-designers on the designing principles.  It is like a training module.  The non-designers do not know what is required in the designing field, so for them to be taught and be able to know, William develops a book with the instructions to ensure that at the end of the reading, the reader has gained the knowledge intended to be passed through and can be able to apply that knowledge (Williams, 2004).  This instructions were not just written on the book without any method or theories that influenced it.

            Williams must have known the steps required in an instructional design that can enable instilling of knowledge to those who do not have it.  The author of “Non-Designers Design” according to the beginning of the instructions written on the principles of designing, started by introducing her topic in a manner that could capture the reader to get involved in what she is about to reveal to the reader about designing (Williams, 2004).

             For an instructor’s or a writer’s instructions to be considered effective, there must be an instructional design to guide the training and in the end, offer evaluation if the instructions are for sure effective.  Williams’ instructions on the “Non-Designers Design” book will be analyzed in relation to GagnE’s instructional design to determine if the instructions offered in the book are effective in their objective.

GagnE’s Instructional Design as Applied by Robin in the Instructional Book

            The first step of GagnE’s instructional design is evident in the introduction of the instructional book that gives the wrong written cards to the learner to capture the attention of the learner (Gagne’s instructions).  She states that for one to control something, he/she must be conscious of it.  The conscience she reveals by giving examples of the wrongly written cards that are difficult to figure out and the “Joshua Tree Epiphany” story.

            The next step of  GagnE’s instructional design which is informing the learners of the objectives is evident in Williams introduction of what her readers are going to learn after being told the story of “Joshua Tree Epiphany”, of being conscience about what is around someone, then the person will learn to take control (Williams, 2004).  Robin Williams writes to her readers that they will learn about the four principles of designing, which she indicates as the proximity, contrast, alignment and repetition.  Very creative in offering her instructions, step three according to GagnE’s design or theory is depicted in the acronym with the ideas she was going to discuss. Robin writes this acronym to give the learners some long term memory Williams, 2004).

            Step four of the instructional design is presentation of the content in a manner that can make sense to the learner (Gagne’s instructions).  The “Non-Designers Design” instructions follow these steps and explains the principles of designing in detail based on the objectives, how to design using the principle and how to prevent mistakes in the designing profession.  These instructions teach a non-designer on how he/she could become a professional designer just by reading and following the instructions in the book.  The author in her introductory part, assures reader too, that after reading the book, they will be professionals.

            Step five-provision of learning guidance (Williams, 2004).  The main learning guidance materials that Robin used are the examples of designs and how to ensure proximity, good contrast, appropriate alignment and instructions on repetition on the designs (Williams, 2004).  Step six is suppose to offer the learners a chance to exercise what they have learn t (Gagne’s instructions).  It is evident in “Non-Designers Design” instructions, after every discussion on each principle, a reader or a learner is given a task to confirm if what was being explained in the topic he/she read, was understood.  An example is in the proximity topic where the reader is told to design an “ad” taken from the newspaper.  The author gives instructions for the reader, who is the learner, to design according to what he/she has learnt about proximity in the previous discussions (Williams, 2004).

            The seventh step of GagnE’s instructional design is the provision of feedback (Gagne’s instructions).  After the students have done the practices, an immediate feedback on how the correct thing should have been done should be provided for the student to realize the mistakes made, and learn from there.  The “ad” from the newspaper reading “Never Before in Glaria History” is an example of the solution or feedback Robin offered to her learners after giving an assignment to design the “ad” (Williams, 2004).

            Step eight involves the final assessment of all that had been taught without giving any guidance to the learner (Gagne’s instructions).  In “Non-Designers Design” book, the author writes to the learners that after gaining all the knowledge, all they need is just to put it in practice, but does not give a final test.  This acts as a final assessment since the learners are instructed to make use of their skills elsewhere in the websites that have information in logical clumps (Williams, 2004).  The author then conducts a review of all that had been explained under each principle.

            The last step of GagnE’s design is made use of when the author offers extra tips on how to design based on her topic on design principles.  She gives the various examples of what can be designed by giving extra tips and tricks on creating a package, business cards, brochures, post cards, newspaper ads and on websites (Williams, 2004).  According to the ninth step of GagnE’s instructional design, an instructor is suppose to “enhance retention and transfer” to the job in which case the instructor is suppose to show the learner the various areas of practice, apart from the one used in the learning session. In this step, the instructor is suppose to give more practice on what was dealt with.  This is exactly what William has done in her book (Williams, 2004).

Conclusion.

            From the above analysis, could it be said then that Williams’ instructions to the non-designers are effective and non designers can use this book to train themselves?  The instructions as indicated have followed GagnE’s instructional design, and as had been indicated before, for learning to be considered effective, there has to be a framework to guide an instructor and the learner too.  Williams’ instructional book on principles of designing can be considered very effective.  It introduces the topics in a manner that captures the attention of the non- designer, she introduces the cards with various mistakes to make the reader recognize the areas of concern in designing.  This is just the introduction, in the paper, the discussion is clear on how William has made the non-designers, who are her students, develop designing skills on proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast in designing.  In all the topics, she states the basic purpose of each topic, how to be able to design with the principles and what the learner should not do in the designing profession.  The last step of making sure that the learners have a variety of what is suppose to be designed is another crucial feature showing the effectiveness of this instructional book.  This is all discussed in the paper.

References

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Retrieved from:

            <<http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_3.htm>>.

Reigeluth, C. M. (2003). Instructional-design Theories and Models: An Overview of Their         Current Status. US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Training. (2000). Instructional Design (ID). A Big Dog, Little Dog and Knowledge Jump          Production. Retrieved on 15th 09, 2008, from:

<<http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/hrd/learning/development.html#Gagne>>.

Williams, R. (2004). The Non-Designers Design Book, Second Edition. Berkeley, California:    Peachpit Press.