Authenticity in the process of learning about Instructional Design

Authentic learning is touted as a powerful learning approach, particularly in the context of problem-based learning (Savery, 2006). Teaching and learning in the area of instructional design appears to offer a strong fit between the tenets of authentic learning and the practice of instructional design. This paper details the efforts to broaden and deepen the understanding of instructional design through a service learning approach to teaching, emphasizing authentic learning and assessment. Students are teamed and assigned to an actual contract with an external client under the supervision of the instructor who acts as project manager for the group. Contracts are negotiated to deliberately offer instructional design services to clients who would not otherwise be able to afford them, such as community-based non-profit groups. The reasons are two fold: first, we want to avoid competing for contracts that would interfere with the business of commercial instructional design groups and contractors; second, we want to impress on our students the idea that instructional design has social importance beyond the profit/loss and cost/effectiveness orientation of many instructional design businesses. In this way, we promote the idea that instructional designers are agents of social change, and their influence crosses interpersonal, professional, institutional and societal dimensions of change (Schwier, Campbell and Kenny, 2007). (Contains 3 figures.)