UA Grantham Leverages Emerging Trends in Instructional Design

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting surge in remote work and online learning fundamentally reshaped instructional design, accelerating the adoption of cutting-edge practices, according to Dr. Jessica Parker, Director of Faculty at University of Arkansas Grantham.

“When millions of students and professionals shifted to remote learning and remote work during the shutdowns, universities, businesses, and public school districts were forced to rethink how they deliver content and engage learners.” says Dr. Parker. “What’s really interesting about this is that it accelerated the cross-fertilization between academic and corporate instructional design.”

This was an unprecedented shift. “It highlighted the need for more flexible learning experience,” Dr. Parker noted, “it allowed our Instructional Design team to start driving real innovation in how we build courses. Now, our instructional designers are empowered to use new strategies that make learning more engaging and much more effective”.

According to Dr. Parker, six mega-trends are impacting the field of instructional design:

1. Microlearning

Microlearning focuses on delivering short, impactful “nuggets” – those are useful, condensed content segments that can be quickly consumed and processed. This makes them ideal for busy learners. This approach is gaining popularity in corporate training but also in academia. In both settings, learners are ever more pressed for time, so it becomes crucial to learn new material without consuming large blocks of time.  At UA Grantham, for example, the Instructional Design team completely rebuilt the online orientation course taken by new students, chopping up content to short, digestible chunks.  The result: a significantly higher level of learner engagement and completion rate.

2. Personalized Learning Experiences

Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, ID professionals are beginning to create learning paths tailored to individual learners. Newer personalized learning platforms adapt to each student’s progress, preferences, and learning style, ensuring content is delivered at the right level and pace for each learner. One example is Duolingo, a popular language-learning app, which uses AI to create personalized lesson paths for each user. Based on learners' strengths and weaknesses, it adjusts the difficulty and pace of lessons to ensure continuous improvement, making the learning process more engaging and effective.

3. Gamification

Gamification is the incorporation of game mechanics into learning to make it more fun, engaging, and motivating. By using points, badges, leaderboards, and challenges, learners are encouraged to progress through content with a sense of achievement. Khan Academy, for example, uses gamification in its platform - which motivates younger learners to stay engaged and feel a sense of accomplishment as they complete educational milestones.

4. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)

VR and AR technologies offer immersive learning experiences, allowing learners to interact with complex scenarios or environments in a realistic and engaging way. These tools are particularly useful in fields requiring hands-on practice or simulations. Two examples are from law enforcement, where homeland security professionals use simulations to practice responses for crises, and medicine, where new capabilities in AR and VR can support and enhance practitioners’ understanding of internal organs.

5. Team Collaboration and Social Learning

Team collaboration, enabled by platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, is beginning to evolve towards the direction of social learning, which taps into the power of peer-to-peer interaction. On these platforms, learners can collaborate, discuss, and share knowledge. With digital platforms, learners can engage with others, work on group projects, and solve problems collectively.

6. Data-Driven Instructional Design

Instructional design is becoming increasingly data-driven, with analytics playing a key role in improving learning experiences. By tracking learner behavior and performance, designers can continuously refine content to better meet learner needs. For example, Blackboard, the learning platform used by UA Grantham, provides our teaching teams learning analytics to track how students engage with content. Information and data on everything from quiz attempts, and time spent on lessons are used to improve course materials and guide instructors in enhancing their teaching methods.

In conclusion, Dr. Parker says, “instructional design is moving towards more flexible and personalized learning experiences; these are not just trends—they’re shaping how learners interact with content in both education and professional settings. With real-world examples proving their effectiveness, these innovations are poised to continue transforming how we learn.”