Book Reviews: Instructional Design
Reviewed by Michael Tillmans, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Technical Communications, Illinois Institute of Technology

Patricia L. Smith & Tillman J. Ragan John Wiley Publishing, 2005 Third Edition, 400 pages, softcover ISBN: 0-471-39353-3 Cost: $83.95

How do you balance both sides of your professional life when choosing a new instructional design text? I needed a new text book for the instructional design class I teach to technical communicators, yet as a project manager I also wanted a reference that can be used as a workday guide for the big questions on training projects.

I chose the new edition of Smith and Ragan’s Instructional Design to satisfy both needs as it supports a coherent version of cognitive psychology that can be applied to the design of business and school training materials. The twenty-chapter book is organized around the linchpins of instructional design: 1) Analysis and Assessment, 2) Instructional Strategies, and 3) Implementation and Evaluation

Analysis and Assessment focuses on analysis techniques for:
• The learning context (chapter 3)
• The learner (chapter 4)
• The learning task (chapter 5), and
• The assessment of learning (chapter 6)

Woven throughout these analyses is an introduction to the Information Processing approach to problem analysis, beginning with the cognitive mental model and an initial tour of the types of learning as initially introduced by Robert Gagne and more recently adapted by Ruth Colvin Clark. Of particular value are illustrations of information processing analysis for each type of learning, and an explicit demonstration of the pre-requisite analysis.

Ten chapters on Instructional Strategies are the heart of the book, building an ‘events of instruction’ model for each type of learning, applicable to most any training topic from rote memory needs to intricate problem solving. Separate chapters address:

Declarative Knowledge Problem Solving Psychomotor Skills Concepts

Procedures Principles Cognitive Strategy Attitudes

Many short and extended examples are used to illustrate how the necessary conditions for learning any skill are assembled, sequenced and integrated into an effective lesson or module.

Implementation, Management and Evaluation are addressed in three chapters, and this can be considered the weakest part. This text is NOT:

• A how-to book. This is not a collection of paint-by-numbers implementation techniques which become outdated tomorrow as new software tools come on the market.

• A paean to the development of instructor led or print training materials. The principles discussed are equally applicable to all forms of training and instruction, including web based training in a pure or blended format.

• A workplan for project managers. The contents will help you and staff make intelligent design decisions, thus avoiding rework.

• A handbook for evaluators. The chapter on formative and summative evaluation is very good, but it could easily be extended to make more concrete connections with usability studies, especially for corporate ID practitioners.

Users of prior editions will note important changes to the third edition. New chapters on Implementation and on Management provide useful advice without trying to accomplish too much. Instructors and students will appreciate the online resources which include solutions to exercises and graphics files of all the illustrations in the text.