One of the most interesting aspects of teaching is the diversity of models that are appropriate in different classes. This is perhaps most noticeable amongst adults who start working in schools as a second career.
These folks tend to believe “The Standard Model” of education is assumed to be, well, the standard. In reality, the diversity of activities that are appropriately called education is noticeable. I have addressed these in Concepts of School, a chapter book that I released under Creative Commons license in 2026.
I have had similar thoughts about online education but have not reflected on it until I encountered Survey of Instructional Design Models (Branch & Dousay, 2015) on the AECT website recently. (It always amazes me when I find resources that I have never encountered during the prime of my career. That amazement is short-lived, however, when I realize there are so many great ideas from decades ago that I never encountered despite having completed three degrees in education.)
Branch and Dousay suggest there are three orientations that frame online classrooms:
- Classroom-oriented models—These are models grounded in the assumption that students need direct instruction. Teachers decide the curriculum, deliver the instructional plan, identify appropriate media and technology, and evaluate learning. This is the instructional design orientation that is most like the Standard Model.
- Product-oriented models—These models are appropriate for situations in which the students are assigned the work of creating a “thing.” The nature of the thing can be a physical product, a coded product, a conceptual product. I conceptualize the outcome of these models as a product that would be of interest to someone outside of the classroom. When designing courses (or parts of courses) with this orientation, there tends to be instruction “up front” to ensure students have the resources (including cognitive resources) to create the product, then the teacher becomes a facilitator rather than an instructor.
- System-oriented models—These models place an individual course within a longer series of courses. Students who are in a specific program, for example in nursing, are likely to benefit from such an approach. Content in such programs builds upon each other. Instructional designs that use these models begin when curriculum leaders define an extended problem, then craft a blueprint for realizing it.
When designing a specific course, instructional designers will collaborate with subject matter experts and others to decide the specific approach that will be used for any project. The course they are designing may be intended for a system-oriented project, but the specific course may include both classroom-oriented and product-oriented modules.
As we learn more about instruction for in-person, hybrid, and online situations, it becomes clearer that one type of activity is never appropriate for all types of instruction.
Reference
Branch, B., & Dousay, T. (2015). Survey of instructional design models. Association for Educational Communications and Technology.