A Critical Instructional Design Framework
Challenge: While design justice scholarship calls for critical analysis across all design domains, instructional designers face a unique problem: we rarely have final authority over our designs, and frequently, we inherit others’ work that can be years old! How can practitioners critically evaluate existing learning experiences for the purposes of updating them to create more inclusive, equitable designs when we inherit courses we had no part in making?
My Research & Contribution: I developed and tested a practical framework that guides instructional designers to systematically interrogate existing course designs through three critical lenses:
Power: Who matters? Who decides?
Representation: Who is present? Who is missing?
Identity/Values: Who do learners become in this discipline?
Methodological Innovation: Rather than creating abstract theory, I applied this framework to analyze an actual course in my professional portfolio, demonstrating how practitioners can conduct critical analysis within real workplace constraints. The framework examines four "sites of analysis" where these issues play out:
Organization: Content, syllabi, reference materials, examples
Social Relations: Instructor-learner and peer-to-peer interactions
Tools: LMS features, software, platforms that mediate learning
Practices: Learning objectives, assignments, activities, assessments
Key Findings: My analysis revealed how power concentrates in single decision-makers (typically one instructor), creating cascading effects across all course elements. For example, in the course featured in the chapter, I found that 58 of 59 cited scholars were white Americans/Europeans, and that seemingly "democratic" activities like peer critique could be interpreted as reinforcing instructor authority through prescribed interaction formats.
Practical Impact: This framework provides actionable steps for practitioners to identify blind spots in existing designs and advocate for more inclusive processes. The approach recognizes instructional designers' limited authority while showing how to strategically influence positive change within existing systems.
Published Recognition: This work has reached practitioners across educational contexts, from local colleagues in Pennsylvania to international audiences and professional networks via Hybrid Pedagogy and OLC.
Selected for inclusion in Towards a Critical Instructional Design, an edited collection published by Hybrid Pedagogy, positioning this work among leading voices in critical pedagogy and reaching practitioners across educational contexts.
Shared as a workshop at Penn State’s Learning Design Summer Camp 2021, an annual local professional development conference for instructional design professionals.
Presented at OLC Innovate 2022, a conference “for innovators of all experience levels and backgrounds to share best practices, test new ideas, and collaborate on driving forward online, digital, and blended learning.”
Companion Materials:
My chapter in Towards a Critical Instructional Design
Considering a Framework for Critical Instructional Design at Penn State Learning Design Summer Camp 2021
Critically Evaluating our Learning Designs at Online Learning Consortium’s 2022 OLC Innovate Conference
