Additional Resources

1. Glossary of Instructional Design Terms

ABCD Model: A framework for crafting detailed and actionable learning objectives by addressing four components:

• Audience: Who is learning?
• Behavior: What action will the learner take?
• Condition: Under what circumstances will the action occur?
• Degree: What is the acceptable level of performance?

Backward Planning: An instructional design approach that begins with the desired learning outcomes (goals) and works backward to design objectives, assessments, and activities.

Behavioral Compliance: Training focused on ensuring learners adhere to specific policies, rules, or standards.

Bloom’s Taxonomy: A hierarchical classification of cognitive skills used to structure learning objectives, including six levels:

1. Remembering: Recall facts or basic concepts.
2. Understanding: Explain ideas or concepts.
3. Applying: Use information in new situations.
4. Analyzing: Draw connections among ideas.
5. Evaluating: Justify decisions or solutions.
6. Creating: Produce new or original work.

"Be" Objectives: Objectives that focus on the professional identity, values, and attitudes learners should embody upon completing a learning experience. Often assessed in real-world or simulated scenarios.

Condition: A component of objectives that specifies the tools, resources, or environment in which the learner will perform the behavior.

Criterion: The measurable standard for acceptable performance within an objective, often expressed as a level of accuracy, speed, or quality.

Instructional Design: The systematic process of designing, developing, and delivering learning experiences that are effective, efficient, and engaging.

Learn-Do-Be Model: A framework dividing learning objectives into three categories:

• Learn: Knowledge acquisition.
• Do: Skill application.
• Be: Embodiment of professional behaviors and values.

Learning Activities: Structured tasks or exercises designed to help learners practice and achieve the objectives of a course or training program.

Learning Objectives: Clear, measurable statements that define what learners should know or be able to do by the end of a course or training.

Learning Outcomes: The broader results or impacts achieved after completing a course or program, often aligned with the goals.

Mager’s Performance-Based Objectives Framework: A method for creating precise and measurable objectives by defining three elements:

1. Performance: What learners will do.
2. Condition: The circumstances under which the performance will occur.
3. Criterion: The standard for acceptable performance.

Performance Goals: Objectives based on achieving specific standards or benchmarks, often partially controllable by the learner.

Performance Objectives: Objectives focusing on the skills and actions learners must demonstrate, often measured through real-world tasks or simulations.

Process Goals: Objectives centered on actions or routines, such as daily practice, that are fully within the learner’s control.

Reflection Activity: A task encouraging learners to think critically about their experiences, apply concepts, and identify areas for improvement.

Short-Term Goals: Objectives achievable within a brief period, often serving as milestones toward long-term goals.

Simulated Environment: A controlled and realistic setting where learners can practice skills without real-world risks.

SMART Goals: A goal-setting framework ensuring objectives are:

• Specific: Clear and detailed.
• Measurable: Observable and assessable.
• Attainable: Realistically achievable.
• Relevant: Aligned with broader goals.
• Time-based: Bound by a timeline.

Task-Based Learning: An instructional approach focused on teaching learners specific tasks they need to perform in real-world situations.

"Do" Objectives: Objectives that describe the actions learners will take to apply their knowledge, often using the ABCD Model for clarity and precision.

Vision: The overarching purpose or mission guiding the design of a course or training, ensuring alignment with organizational or educational goals.

2. Resources and tools

Frameworks and taxonomies

• Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge: Lesson 5 of Instructional Design Foundations, section 5.1, and the three domains in section 5.6.
• The ABCD model and Mager’s three-part objective: Lesson 5, section 5.3, and Chapter 3 of this handbook. The primary source is Robert F. Mager, Preparing Instructional Objectives, 3rd edition (Center for Effective Performance, 1997); check the edition details against the book itself before citing.
• The Learn-Do-Be frame and the learning model, side by side: Lesson 3 of Instructional Design Foundations, section 3.4, and Chapters 4 and 5 of this handbook.
• The learning model itself (three axes, the project cycle, the four criteria, the Work Rubric): Lesson 2 of Instructional Design Foundations.

3. Practical templates and worksheets

a. Steps to writing your objectives (Learn-Do-Be, for younger learners)

1. Write your “Be” objective first. Performance (including the mindset and ways of thinking that produce success), condition, criterion.
2. Write your “Learn” objective second, then your “Do” objective last. Learn: what they must know. Do: what they must be able to do with it.
3. Outline the assessment method for each.

b. Writing the objective for an adult program (the learning model)

An adult program at 24/7 Teach starts from the project, not from the content, so the objective is written as the project’s success criteria. One line per criterion, each one checkable at Demo:

1. The brief. Given [the real or realistic problem, the audience, the constraints]...
2. The product. ...the learner will [analyze, design, build, evaluate or revise a named artifact]...
3. The standard. ...such that [the criterion the sponsor can check], judged on the Work Rubric’s four criteria (Analysis, Alignment, Evaluation, Iteration) at the level the rung requires.
4. The check. Name where and when the criterion is observed (Demo, Feedback, the pilot) and what evidence counts.

The “Be” objective of the youth frame has no separate line here. Identity is read from the work across rounds, which is what the Iteration criterion scores.

c. Alignment matrix template

4. Checklist for instructional designers

1. Analyze needs. Conduct a needs analysis to identify learning gaps (Lesson 8).
2. Set clear goals. Develop broad, overarching goals aligned with the organizational mission (Chapter 1).
3. Write objectives. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy, ABCD, and Mager’s Framework to craft measurable objectives (Chapters 2 and 3, Lesson 5).
4. Align activities. Ensure all learning activities support the objectives (Lesson 5, section 5.5).
5. Design assessments. Match assessments to objectives and cognitive levels (Chapter 7, Lesson 9).
6. Pilot and refine. Test your design and refine based on feedback.
7. Evaluate outcomes. Measure success through both qualitative and quantitative methods (Lesson 9, section 9.5).

5. Feedback and contact

Questions or corrections about this handbook go to admissions@247teach.org, or to your mentor.

6. Acknowledgments

Thank you to the 24/7 Teach Instructional Design team, community, and learners who inspired the creation of this book. Your insights and challenges shaped its direction and purpose.