A History of Instructional Design and Technology: Part II: A History of Instructional Design

This is the second of a two-part article that discusses the history of the field of instructional design and technology in the United States. The first part, which focused on the history of instructional media, appeared in the previous issue of this journal (volume 49, number 1). This part of the article focuses on the history of instructional design. Starting with a description of the efforts to develop training programs during World War II, and continuing on through the publication of some of the first instructional design models in the 1960s and 1970s, major events in the development of the instructional design process are described. Factors that have affected the field of instructional design over the last two decades, including increasing interest in cognitive psychology, microcomputers, performance technology, and constructivism, are also described. In Part I of this article, I presented the following definition of the field of instructional design and technology: