Trends and Issues in IDT

According to Monica W. Tracey and Gary R. Morrison in Trends and Issues in Various Settings: Instructional Design in Business and Industry, there has been a steady growth of employee training in most organizations--business, Health Care Education and in the military. It is necessary to produce more than instruction, but also analyze performance, identify root causes and identify appropriate solutions. In these various settings, the processes to training is dependent upon the needs, funding and how the organizations operate as a whole. Keeping in mind that each is still Instructional Design, but each organization uses it differently so that it becomes effective for their needs.

The Corporate design focuses on how to work cross-culturally, complete the training and its development in less time while ensuring profit for the corporation.  It is more than producing instruction, teaching a skill or mind set. It is necessary to analyze a needs assessment to identify the problem and then to identify the cause. It is more than looking for patterns and using deductive reasoning. The Instructional Design is modeled on how can we do this better, faster and cheaper. We've all heard the saying time is money....and if corporate can find a way to become more efficient, then their goals can be met. This is important because clients aren't satisfied unless a solid profit margin is obtained and maintained.

As far as Health Care Education is concerned, according to Craig Locatis in Performance, Instruction, and Technology in Health Care Education, Health care is comprised of varied sub-settings--academic medical centers, government agencies, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and health associations, hospital and other care giving institutions. Each one involved with the education and training of health officials. Because there is so much at stake, the subject matter, skills taught and the techniques and technologies used can be life threatening. It is better funded with a problem based curriculum supported by research and experience. Clients aren't satisfied by profit margin, but by life saving medicines and procedures. Thus it becomes necessary to increase the use of simulations and multimedia to ensure training success that leads to medical or health care successes. This particular Instructional Design model simulates what must occur in Health Care. It is vital that each step is maintained and understood by every person.  The nature of the training is accessible and participants must understand that the nature of clinical problem solving is supported by research and medical expertise.

Instructional Design Opportunities in military Education and Training Environments, Mary F Bratton-Jeffery and Arthur B. Jeffery,  state that the military meets their Instructional Design needs within a specific culture. The military has evolved into a multifaceted integrated organization that is not just responsible for its own citizens, but also of other nations. Funding is generally based on how it is best utilize, delivery environment is a matter of survival and thus includes how it can best be achieved to survive in hostile environments. Good people must be recruited and plans must stretch into the long range future and not short term. There must be a guiding document in order to achieve effectiveness.

Learners in each case must meet the particular challenges placed before them, whether the challenges are life threatening, life saving or money making. In order to achieve success, Instructional Design opportunities must be varied, effective and often and especially geared towards its audience, their goals and their needs.

As the population grows and the earth's capacity to support it diminishes, it becomes necessary for our students to become prepared to address these problems. Students must be taught to see the problems that face them in their futures, if they aren't, there is no reason or nothing to fix it--this is akin to listening or front end analysis as Jan Visser in Developing Learning to meet complex Challenges for an Undivided World discussed. Students must be taught to collect data to discover time, duration and impact on society.  Students must also be taught to work collaboratively--not just within their own countries, but globally in order to rebuild all sides of the world equally. We must educate our students to see beyond themselves and today; but also to others and tomorrow.

Unfortunately, our education system doesn't thrive on complexity and complex problem solving as a whole. It is few students, few classrooms, few teachers and few districts who expects a diverse culture to transform, create, dissect and solve the complex problems society will face. Opportunities are out there, but not every one is opened to those opportunities. The African American child who is placed in the corner or the back of the room because the teacher doesn't understand he/she learns best kinesthetically and needs hands on is not trying to disrupt the learning, but to focus. The English Language Learner who isn't given higher order thinking materials to use those skills because he/she struggles with the language, but not with the concepts. The child who comes to school hungry and can't focus is shutting down because he has to, not because he wants to. We have to learn to see the child instead of our curriculum and how much of it we can get done. We have to learn to grow our students one child at a time if necessary in order to connect with the worldly issues facing us today and in the near future.

According to Phil Green in Instructional Design in Europe, the focus on ADDIE and Instructional Design is waning.  Analysis is misunderstood and credibility gap is widening. If this is the case, we are behind Europe in the IDT endeavor and if the world fluxuates and ripples as it has in time past, then we should expect to experience much in the same. The desire and expectation to walk away from IDT. But if Europe continues to gather information and create a cocktail of solutions, then we should follow suit. There seems to be a mired of facets to the European model. If the struggle to build on the ADDIE and the IDT, then it will help our country stay on course.

Reiser, Robert A., & Dempsey, John V. Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. Boston,
       MA. Pearson. 2012.