Instructional Methods

Course Delivery

All instructional design certificate program courses are offered fully online via Canvas, utilizing asynchronous and synchronous elements. Most courses in the program are taught by full-time Seminole State professors and instructional designers. Across the program, students also experience a range of third-party vendor and Web 2.0 applications through the development of various project assignments.

Learning Theories and Assessment

While some knowledge dissemination in this certificate program uses behaviorist and cognitivist measures such as quizzes to ensure content engagement and mastery, most of the instructional design implemented across the program’s courses focuses on constructivist projects.   Learners can adapt these projects to their proposed professional circumstances alongside their class engagement in social-constructivist discussions and collaborations, to assist learners in deepening reflective habits of mind and cultivate learning communities. While final evaluation of projects uses summative assessment, formative assessment through individualized instructor feedback and peer exchange occurs across the development of larger assignments. In this way, our program differentiates itself from professional development, which offers information and guidance for application, without the level of one-on-one instructor feedback.

Since the majority of Seminole’s instructional design certificate’s courses are taught by scholar practitioners in education who already work full-time in online education environments, an emphasis has been placed on learners’ creation of useful, application-based materials that they can begin using in their current or future work environments. The guiding principle in designing the program and each course that comprises it has been theory-grounded applications of instructional technology that work with current users in today’s learning environments.

Program Length and Completion

To receive the instructional design program certificate, students must pass all five courses. Our program has only been in operation since 2014 and our first program completers finished in 2016. We counsel students to complete the certificate within three years, mindful that many of our learners study part-time while working full-time. Should a future student seek the certificate with credits completed outside of a three-year time span, a one-on-one evaluation of the course of study will be conducted by the program director to ensure content relevance integrity has been maintained.