Learning, or instructional design originates out of WWII, from the need to train millions of people in a short space of time. The military used a systems approach similar to systems engineering, to optimise the learning curve within a large cohort of individuals. We know this as “boot camp” for basic training, a term still very much in use today. As well, audiovisual materials and equipment were used, such as training films, film projectors, and overhead projectors.
We find the same systems engineering approach prior to this at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Complex engineering projects required new modelling languages to assess and manage the elements of the system as a whole. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Bell Labs with around 14,000 employees operated a large formal education program, called the
Communication Development Training Program. At that time “communications engineering” was not a formal area of study at universities.
An American psychologist B.F. Skinner wrote the Theory of Learning: Operant Conditioning. According to this theory, our behaviours are developed or conditioned through reinforcements. You may know his experiment as the one with the hungry rat in a box. Skinner stated that “programmed instruction should include behavioral objectives, present content in small steps, require active learner response to frequent questions, allow for self-pacing, and provide immediate feedback.”
Other scholars, researchers, psychologists, educators had a variety of learning theories to solve instructional problems. They are discussed in this article A history of instructional media, instructional design, and theories, by Yunjo An. Each contributed to the discipline of Learning Design as we know it today.
After availability of the World Wide Web became public in 1991, online courses began to replace correspondence education. Today we use Learning Management Systems, the name reflecting Learning Design’s modern history. A notable American educational theorist and researcher is Charles Reigeluth, who discusses among other theories, the paradigm shift of teacher-centered to learner-centered education.
And what is the future of Learning Design? To quote Charles Reigeluth from Instructional-Design Theories and Models Volume 2; “The learning tool must continuously collect information from an individual learner and/or a small team of learners and use that information to present an array of sound alternatives to the learner(s), about both what to learn next and how to learn it”.
Nowadays a live class is streamed online, but attendance is not always compulsory and the recorded video can be watched later at the students’ convenience. To personalise the learning experience further especially with competency-based learning, there are strides to integrate new technologies, for example with VR and adaptive AI-driven assessment.
As chatGTP tells me; “…one cannot help but wonder: how might the fusion of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and personalized learning reshape the very essence of education? What implications does this hold for the role of educators and the future of lifelong learning?”
An, Y. (2021). A history of instructional media, instructional design, and theories.
International Journal of Technology in Education (IJTE), 4(1), 1-21.
https://doi.org/10.46328/ijte.35
Reigeluth, C.M. (Ed.). (1999). Instructional-design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Volume II (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410603784