A Model for Peer Review in Instructional Design

Abstract

Although many professions practice some type of formal peer review, similar support for increasing the quality and efficiency of instructional design products is largely informal. Most designers develop solutions in professional eommunilies-of-practice, but formal design methodologies ordained by many corporations and instructional design schools do not account for the strong influence these communities have on design decisions. This paper describes an instructional design review process that is modeled after a widely accepted practice among software developers in which peers offer feedback through “structured walkthroughs.” The instructional design review helps the practitioner develop stronger designs more quickly. provides a means to scaffold the novice designer in the vagaries of the workplace, and improves organizational memory. An artifact of a design review as well as guidelines and success factors are presented. The paper provides a summary of a formal peer review structure that has been developed and tested over the past three years at a major corporation.