A New Idea in Instructional Design

I’m taking a course in Instructional Design (Design in the Open) and I love the inspiration. Instead of thinking, “what can I do that would land me a job”, I ask, “what could I contribute that aligns with my growing passion in ID but also continues to serve public education students?”

Public education is changing. It’s moving towards privatization. If not that then it is at least moving into silosof learning and innovation. We serve students who are doing some really great stuff. What about other schools? How we can create an equitable system for all students to truly develop independent learning opportunities? How can we utilize those opportunities and the work that comes from them to award students credit? What is credit anyways? What does credit and proficiency look like in a non-classroom, decentalized setting?

These are all questions I’m grappling with. Questions that are leading me to think about a new way to offer learning opportunities to students, for free. Yea, there’s tons of publishing companies that offer all the best online courses, proprietary information. They still holdthe key to earning a credit. But what if the student herself wants to earn credit and explore her passions and interests? Hear me out...

There’s a TON, and I mean a ton, of free lesson plans on the internet, in just about every subject area you can imagine. Teachers around the world are using these lesson plans in their classroom. What about the students NOT in a classroom? Solution: put those lessons in an online format students can use, create, and demonstrate proficiency. Obviously you’d have an expert, or teacher review the output for proficiency, but thisidea further decentralizes the learning process. 

Bear with me as I work through this idea. I’m reading Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, so think of this as my first dispatch. I welcome any feedback or questions. For all I know this may already exist, who knows!