Balancing Instructional Design with Student Engagement

Instruction much like real world tasks is to be approached and built after a series of compromises which determine the right balance of elements in the instructional design. After an initial version instructors can see how their design works iterate and get feedback against desired results and content/design standards.

Good instruction consists of activities exercises and presentations aligned with overarching important questions. Those questions which capture student interest are most likely to be Big Ideas - the sometimes paradoxical and often counterintuitive Truths of the discipline. Capturing student interest can lead to meaning- and sense-making as students themselves iterate on their own knowledge throughout the course via depth and breadth by uncovering and constructing it themselves.