Stop Choosing the Format. Diagnose the Learning First.

I recently just learnt that different learning outcomes can involve different kinds of knowledge, and therefore require different kinds of practice and support. And Clark ended that section with: “Match the instruction to the learning.”

My framework turns that into a very usable design lens for me:

My Design Chain

1. What must they be able to do?
→ Performance requirement

2. What kind of knowledge will support that?
→ Knowledge requirement

3. What kind of practice does that require?
→ Practice requirement

4. What instructional approach fits it?
→ Design solution

So I would visualize my thinking as:

Performance → Knowledge → Practice → Instruction

And this gives me a powerful guardrail:

Don’t start by choosing the instructional format. Start by diagnosing what the learner needs to know and do.

That means the question isn't whether I should make a video, or make an MCQ, or even build an e-learning module. Instead, what does successful performance require, and what should be at the core of my design that will then define the kind of learning experience that prepares them for that performance?

That is very closely aligned with Clark’s point that the learning outcome should dictate the appropriate form of practice and the knowledge needed to support it.

And my previous-knowledge insight fits here beautifully

I previously identified that our Prior knowledge = shortcut / trap.

And Clark had given me the basis for both sides.

Prior knowledge lets learners chunk and generalize information efficiently. But those same knowledge structures can also produce simplifications and overgeneralizations, meaning learners may need practice that develops appropriate discrimination between concepts.

So my developing design philosophy will be:

My learner's existing knowledge can make learning easier, but it can also make the wrong interpretation feel right to them. Therefore, I need to design not merely for knowledge acquisition, but for the performance and discrimination that the learner actually needs.

And there is another important connection to my framework: Clark says that learning should increasingly resemble the performance environment because the more the learning environment requires what the real performance environment requires, the greater the likelihood of transfer. I spoke more about this when I wrote about our ears in Episode 26.

And so when designing a learning experience for my learners, there are 4 questions I have grouped into 2 design gaps namely:

1. Knowledge Gap &
2. Practice Gap

And now I see it clearly that a Video, MCQ, simulation, scenario, demonstration, discussion, job aid, etc. are no longer the starting point. Rather, they only become answers to a diagnosis.

That's a significant shift in how I’d think when designing learning experiences as an instructional designer.

Day 87 of Instructional Design

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