Is it worth spending Billions on instructional design

This was the obvious question I asked myself when I considered what comes to play in designing instructions. The very first instructional design was in the 1960s at an estimated cost of $350,000. This huge investment needed in any form and kind of good instructional designs has not changed even in our days. The cost of audio and video recorders, printers and other printing materials, the enormous energy and time that one needs to put into any form of design and many others are still high, and I shudder anytime I have to think about it.

The fact also remain that, the returns on the many huge investments made on instructional designs have come in multiples of the initial capital. The $350,000 investment made on the first ever documented instructional design resulted in a savings of $37 million over a five-year period between 1968 and 1973 (Morrison et al, 2007). The same authors observed that, we need to do instructional design because; it comes with a lot of financial benefits. Aside this, problems with skills and knowledge deficiency could be improved, leading to improved returns in any form of investment in training.

In Ghana, it is no secret that, problems with instruction are everywhere. Schools, hospitals, businesses, the government and even law enforcing agencies are daily battling with how to get people do the most desired things. The use of instructional design I believe can help us out of this challenges. Why this believe, even though the returns of instructional design are not so immediate, savings from them I have realized after reading the first few chapters in the book on “Designing Effective Instruction” by Morrison et al, is very high. I am more convinced that, it is high time investment into instructional design is made here in Ghana.

For a start, I will want to take advantage of the depth of information in this book to start designing instructions for some aspect of chemistry practical. As a science educationist and a onetime science student, I do know of the difficulties involved in practical work.

Do visit my site regularly for an update on my progress. Feel free to let me know of how you see my work.

Ref:
Morrison et al (2007), Designing Effective Instruction, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA